Welcome! Below is a list of the planned activities sponsored by Multicultural Activities for March. We hope that you’ll participate in as many as you can. Also, below is a list of the cultural holidays and celebrations for this month. Enjoy!
For further information, contact Karen Roth, Director of Multicultural Activities at COCC, 541-383-7412 or kroth1@cocc.edu.
March is Women's History Month
March 1: Blanche Bruce, an ex-slave, became the first African American to serve a full term in the
U. S. Senate, 1841.
March 3: Shivratri. On Shiva’s night, the Hindu deity Lord Shiva performs the cosmic dance of creation and destruction. A day long fast is kept and devotees make pilgrimages to major shrines for worship.
March 4: Birth of Tecumseh, Shawnee leader, 1768
March 4: Losar. The Tibetan New Year is celebrated for three days by visiting, feasting and the relaxation of the monastic discipline.
March 4: Garrett Morgan, African American inventor of the “gas mask” and first traffic signal, died in 1877.
March 5: World Day of Prayer, a worldwide movement of Christian women of many traditions who came together in 1927 to observe a common day of prayer.
March 8: International Women’s Day was proclaimed in 1908, to remember women’s struggles for equal rights and better lives.
March 8: Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent. Taken from the old word “shrive,” it means forgiveness, and traditionally it was a time to give up meat and dairy foods. In England, this day is celebrated by making pancakes to use up the supplies of eggs, milk, butter and other fats before Lent. In French, this day is known as Mardi Gras, which means Fat Tuesday.
March 8: Carnaval Parade in Brazil, a two-day celebration before Ash Wednesday.
March 8: Great Prayer Festival. In Tibet, monks from the Three Great monasteries of Tibet assemble to pray.
March 9: Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. Ash symbolizes sorrow for wrong doings and the foreheads of churchgoers are marked with the shape of the cross with ashes as a sign of penitence.
March 11: U.S. Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, created the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the War Department, 1824.
March 14: Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin based on the ideas and plans of a slave, 1794. African slaves, because they were not citizens, could not register any invention with the patent office. Their owners could not register a slave's invention either, since the law required that the patent be issued to the actual inventor. Consequently, any free person wanting to patent something could not acknowledge any contribution from a slave. Thus, it was easy to steal a slave's ideas and patent them.
http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/cotton-gin-patented
March 14: Random Acts of Kindness Week. An international movment to inspire people to share kindness with another.
March 15: Congress passed immigration laws denying admission to aliens “ineligible for citizenship” (Asians), 1924.
March 17: St. Patrick’s Day. The person who was to become St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Wales about AD 385. His given name was Maewyn, and he almost didn't get the job of bishop of Ireland because he lacked the required scholarship. Far from being a saint, until he was 16, he considered himself a pagan. At that age, he was sold into slavery by a group of Irish marauders that raided his village. During his captivity, he became closer to God. He escaped from slavery after six years and went to Gaul where he studied in the monastery under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre for a period of twelve years. During his training he became aware that his calling was to convert the pagans to Christianity. His wishes were to return to Ireland, to convert the native pagans to Christianity. But his superiors instead appointed St. Palladius. But two years later, Palladius transferred to Scotland. Patrick, having adopted that Christian name earlier, was then appointed as second bishop to Ireland. http://wilstar.com/holidays/patrick.htm
March 19: Holi, Hindu Spring Festival. The festival of Holi is celebrated on the day after the full moon in early March every year. Originally a festival to celebrate good harvests and fertility of the land, Holi is now a symbolic commemoration of a legend from Hindu mythology. This exuberant festival is also associated with the immortal love of Krishna and Radha. http://www.indiaexpress.com/rangoli/holi.html
March 19: Frederick Douglass escaped slavery under the disguise of a sailor, 1838.
March 20: Holocaust Remembrance Day.
March 20: Purim is one of the most joyous and fun holidays on the Jewish calendar. It commemorates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from extermination. http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday9.htm
March 20: Spring Equinox, a pagan festival celebrating fertility and the balance of light and darkness. Celebrations include lighting fires at sunrise, ringing bells, and decorating hard-boiled eggs.
March 20: Shunki-Sorei-Sai. This Shinto observance shows reverence to ancestors at home altars. Gravesites are cleaned and purified.
March 20: Shunbun no hi. In Japan during the time of the Spring Equinox, Buddhists meditate on the harmony in the universe.
March 20: Poutuerangi has Aboriginal roots of the Maori in New Zealand. This is the fall season and autumn equinox when they harvest their crops.
March 21: As its first act as a new territory, Alaska passed a bill granting women the right to vote, 1913.
March 21: Now Ruz, Baha’i New Year in conjunction with the ancient Persian New Year. People start preparing for the holiday with a major spring-cleaning of their houses and the purchase of new clothes to wear. They visit the elders of their family, then the rest of their family and finally their friends.
March 22: Freedom March at Selma AL, 1965.
March 26: Birth of Prophet Zarathrustra, the founder of the Zoroastrian religion dating back to 1500 – 1000 BCE. He lived in Persia, modern day Iran.
March 31: Birth of Cesar Chavez, labor organizer for migrant farm workers, 1927.
Much of the information above is available on the Multicultural Calendar: www.multiculturalcalendar.com