Past Events

May Day is a public holiday usually celebrated on 1 May. It is an ancient festival of Spring and a current traditional spring holiday in many European cultures. Dances, singing, and cake are usually part of the festivities. Maypole dancing is a tradition on May Day. It is believed to have started in Roman Britain around 2,000 years ago, when soldiers celebrated the arrival of spring by dancing around decorated trees thanking their goddess Flora. These days dancers weave ribbons around a pole rather than a tree. In the late 19th…

May 4 is Star Wars Day, which has become more like a real holiday in recent years. (Get it? It's a play on "may the Force be with you.") The event's become even bigger since Disney purchased Lucasfilm and the Star Wars movie franchise in 2012. Since then, May 4 has been a major platform for Star Wars merchandise sales and fan events, with states like California enshrining May 4 as an official Star Wars Day holiday. The actual origins of Star Wars Day and "May the fourth be with you,"…

National Nursing Week 2021 is May 10-16. It always occurs from the Monday to the Sunday of Florence Nightingale’s birthday, May 12. The week draws attention to nurses, increasing the awareness of the public, policy-makers and governments of the many contributions of nursing to the well-being of Canadians. Each year a theme is developed by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) to showcase how nurses are central to addressing a wide range of health challenges.    

The International Day Against Homophobia (or IDAHO, as it is sometimes known) is celebrated around the world on May 17. This annual day to mark the fight to make our society inclusive of all sexualities was founded in Montreal in 2003 by the human rights group Fondation Émergence. It was quickly embraced across Canada, and then internationally. The day is particularly strong in Europe and Latin America, where it is commemorated with public events in almost all countries. May 17…

Sponsored by American Tortoise Rescue, World Turtle Day brings attention to, and respect for, turtles and tortoises... encouraging human action to help them survive and thrive. World Turtle Day is celebrated around the globe in a variety of ways, from dressing up as turtles or wearing green summer dresses, to saving turtles caught on highways, to research activities. Turtle Day lesson plans and craft projects encourage teaching about turtles in classrooms.  

The Full Moon in May is known as the Flower Moon. Other names include the Corn Planting Moon, and the Milk Moon, while some named it the Hare Moon. In ancient times, it was common to track the changing seasons by following the lunar month rather than the solar year, which the 12 months in our modern calendar are based on. For millennia, people across Europe, as well as Native American tribes, named the months after features they associated with…