As we approach the holiday season, we are reminded through retail and advertisements that this is the time to get your Christmas gifts. Sales here, sales there. From personal experience, being born in November, it is disheartening to jump from Halloween, a hallmark holiday for candy companies, into Christmas, another hallmark holiday for retail.
What does this have to do with diversity?
How many holidays do you know in November?
Even Thanksgiving has become quite a controversial topic as of late. You have the American tradition of family gatherings around a feast, which we are taught in primary school to honor the time the Pilgrims came to the Americas and were graced with a feast from the “Native Americans.” However, today many are angered by the celebration of a time when the British arrived in the Americas, seizing land and forcing Indigenous peoples into reservations without any government support for preserving their traditions or trade.
November is now honored as of 1990 as National Native American Heritage Month. Let me ask you a question: Have you ever visited an Indigenous reservation? If not, you should check one out. Your perspective may change for the better if you do.
Aside from Thanksgiving, November has many other significant diverse holidays. As I stated in my introductory article, this country is truly the melting pot of culture. Many countries lack the technology and resources that Americans are privileged to access from birth, drawing people from abroad to immigrate to our ‘Great Nation’ in hopes of new opportunities, whether to support family back home or to build a better life. With that in mind, let’s explore just how diverse November truly is if one were to be aware of others around them. This list isn’t all-inclusive, but as you see, more than cultural holidays are represented throughout November:
November 1-6 – DÃa de (los) Muertos (Day of the Dead) (dates range for locality)
November 12 – Birth of Baha’u’llah (Baha’i)
November 13 – World Kindness Day
November 16 – International Day for Tolerance
November 20 – Transgender Day of Remembrance
November 25 – Day of the Covenant (Baha’i)
November 27 – Ascension of Abdu’l-Baha (Baha’i)
World Kindness Day, started in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement, is a day to be kind to one another worldwide. The International Day for Tolerance was established in 1996 when the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to observe the day. Tolerance plays a vital role in both personal and professional life. Finally, one close to my heart: Transgender Day of Remembrance, established in 1999 in San Francisco and Boston to honor transgender individuals who were killed simply for expressing their true gender identity.
It goes without saying that, regardless of cultural or individual differences, we should treat one another with kindness. We are all human. The adage still stands: Treat others as you wish to be treated.