What's Happening in February?

from The Blackbirch Kid's Almanac of Geography, available online in Kids InfoBits

1. National Freedom Day. United States. Slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865 with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
2. Candlemas Day. A Christian feast at which candles are blessed.
   Heroes Day. Mozambique.
3. Independence Day. Sri Lanka.
4. Constitution Day. Mexico.
5. President's Day. Congo.
   Meteorologists Day. United States. The first U.S. weatherperson, John Jeffries, was born in Boston in 1774.
6. Great Sami (Lapp) Winter Fair. The people of Jokkmokk, Sweden, celebrate a 400-year-old reindeer festival.
   Waitangi Day. New Zealand commemorates the treaty signed by the Maoris and Great Britain.
7. Independence Day. Grenada.
8. Culture Day. Slovenia.
   Revolution Anniversary. Iraq.
   Youth Day. Congo.
9. Feast of St. Maron. Lebanon. Apples, cherries, grapes, lemons, oranges, and peaches are the fruits of Lebanon and are eaten on feast days.
10. Feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck. Malta.
    Pero Palo Festival. In Caceres, Spain, a dummy of the devil is beaten by dancing villagers.
11. National Foundation Day. Japan.
    Youth Day. Cameroon.
12. Lost Penny Day. United States. in honor of the birth in 1809 of Abraham Lincoln (who appears on a penny), people collect pennies for worthy causes.
13. White Turf. This annual horse race is held on snow in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
14. Valentine's Day. Celebrated in various European and North American countries by exchanging love tokens.
15. Chinese Spring Festival. Mauritius.
    Folklore Day. South Korea.
    Revolution Day. Iran.
16. Lantern Festival. In Taiwan, this festival occurs on the full moon of the first lunar month when celestial spirits are about and easily seen by lantern light.
17. Geronimo Day. Geronimo, an Apache leader who fought to prevent his people from being put on reservations, was born in 1829 in the United States.
18. Independence Day. Gambia. Gambia is one of Africa's smallest countries. It exports peanuts to the world. Rice, grown only by Gambian women, is an important family food.
    National Day. Nepal.
19. Nicholas Copernicus's Birthday. Celebrates the astronomer, born in 1473, who stated that Earth revolved around the sun.
20. Celtic Flame Festival. A national festival of music and song is celebrated in Cork and Kilkenny, Ireland.
21. Shaheed Day (Martyrs' Day). Bangladesh. (Martyrs' Day).
    Presidents' Day. Third Monday of the month honors U.S. presidents Washington and Lincoln.
22. Independence Day. St. Lucia.
    Union Day. Egypt.
23. National Day. Brunei.
    Republic Day. Guyana.
24. Buergsonndeg. On this day in Luxembourg, young people build bonfires in the countryside to celebrate the sun.
25. People Power Day. Philippines. Filipinos celebrate the overthrow of President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986
26. Grand Canyon National Day. Commemorates the first national park established in the United States, in 1919.
27. Independence Day. Dominican Republic. Located on the eastern part of the island of Hispaniola, it shares the island with the country of Haiti.
28. Kalevala Day. A Finnish national holiday that honors the Kalevala, the epic poem of Finland.
29. Leap Year. February has 29 days once every four years