Fabulous February
Curious events in February 2023
It's fabulous February, the shortest month of the year.
Saint Valentine's Day, the celebration of love and marriage, is the most notable holiday in February on the 14th. If you're in a committed couplehood, the celebration is a delight. It is a tricky holiday for those in new relationships, less than three months old, and if you're single or in a bad relationship, shut your eyes. This, too, shall pass.
Of course, with hearts everywhere, multiple events highlighting heart health, sexual health (for people and animals), empathy events for cancers, and relationships with their related issues also inform the month's themes.
Black History Month is another major theme. Though central to the United States, other nations have picked up the awareness month to focus on the history and contributions of their citizens of African ancestry.
National Independence Day celebrations this month include Dominican Republic (February 27, 1844); Estonia (February 24, 1918); Granada (February 7, 1974); Saint Lucia (February 22, 1979); Lithuania (February 16, 1918); and Sri Lanka (February 4, 1948). Gambia (February 18, 1965); Guyana (February 23, 1970).
Kuwait (February 25, 1950) and Viet Nam (February 3, 1930) celebrate National Day. Mexico celebrates the anniversary of its constitution, El Día de la Constitución (February 6, 1917). Iran (February 11, 1979) celebrates Victory Day, and New Zealand (February 8, 1840) celebrates Waitangi Day.
Let's kick off the month with a role reversal for parents and children, including a Viking twist, Bun Day in Iceland.
BUN DAY
Date: February 20, 2023
Location: Iceland
Champion: Icelandic Tradition
I need something to highlight the days leading up to and the commencement of the 40-day fast in the Christian faith of Lent, which begins February 22, 2023.
Most of the world is familiar with Carnaval in Brazil or Venice and Mardi Gras in New Orleans. These massive three to five-day parties occur in many Christian-majority cities and nations. Of course, leading up to a long fast, people like to let loose. In addition to the parties, different cultures have varying customs of preparation. Bun Day is Iceland's.
Bun Day in Iceland is tied to the Christian observance of Lent and occurs on Shrove Monday before Ash Wednesday. Children wake up in the morning and get their parents out of bed. Over the previous few days, the children prepare paddles (usually made of cardboard and paper), which they decorate. Icelandic legend says that each spank of the paddle delivered to a parent earns a cream-filled bun. Chasing parents with paddles in a role reversal is sweet fun and a rather amusing Viking translation of hide and seek!
CAR INSURANCE DAY
Date: February 1, 2023
Location: Worldwide
Champion: Historical Anniversary—sort of.
Traveler's Insurance issued the first auto insurance policy in 1897 to Gilbert J. Loomis, who built a one-cylinder car.
Unfortunately, most online sources list the year as 1898. A phone call clears up the lack of fact-checking in the internet echo chamber. February 1 is when the second policy went into effect.
Who was first?
According to the historian at Traveler's Insurance, the company believed that the policy issued to Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo, New York, on February 1, 1898, was its first auto policy for over sixty years.
Then one day in 1956, eighty-plus-year-old Gilbert J. Loomis notified Traveler's that the date of the first policy needed to be revised. Rather than New York and Dr. Martin, the state of Ohio granted the first auto coverage to him. His policy with Travelers was dated 1897. Mr. Loomis brought the document to Traveler's headquarters, proving he was the first person in the world to have auto insurance.
The actual date is likely in October or November, not February, as once believed. Unfortunately, the date Travelers enacted his policy in 1897 is still being determined. Nobody made a copy of the historical document when the record was amended in 1956.
When did mandatory car insurance begin?
That started across the pond. The United Kingdom is responsible for compulsory car insurance for licensed drivers and owners of vehicles. The British Parliament passed the Road Traffic Act in 1930 after a heated debate in the House of Lords held in January of that year.
Now you know where that annoying monthly bill comes from and the misclassification of its origin. The moral of the story? Always double-check what an insurance company tells you!
GLOBAL MOVIE DAY
Date: February 11, 2023
Location: Worldwide
Champion: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
It is weeks before the annual Academy Awards (Oscars®) are given out for the previous year's best films, actors, and behind-the-scenes people. However, it is only exciting if you have skin in the game and have seen the movies. To this end, in 2020, the governing body of the Academy Awards created Global Movie Day. It's your opportunity to kick back, catch up on this year's nominees and pick your favorites. It's also a rare opportunity to engage with Academy members and filmmakers across social media. Use the hashtag #GlobalMovieDay to find them and participate in Global Movie Day.
WOMEN'S RIGHT TO VOTE DAY
Date: February 12, 2023
Location: United States, Utah
Champion: Historical Anniversary
Who said religious societies and conservatives aren't progressive? Islam was educating women for centuries before Christianity emerged from the dark ages.
And then there are the Mormon women of the territory of Utah.
Wyoming and Utah granted women the right to vote 50 years before the United States government on December 10, 1869, and February 12, 1870, respectively. In Wyoming, the women almost lost their rights two years later but squeaked by in a territorial congressional vote. Attacks against their right ceased after 1873. The women of Utah had it a little rougher.
The US Congress wasn't too happy about women's suffrage or plural marriage and passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1887, stripping Utah women of their voting rights by hiding it in this anti-polygamy bill. Utah was a territory at the time, hoping for statehood. Polygamy was a big part of the new Mormon faith (created in the 1820s), and it was the reason given as to why Utah, unlike Wyoming, was not invited into the union.
Not to be deterred, the women of Utah, Mormon and not, would have none of that—they had been voting for 17 years. It wouldn't happen overnight, but once the LDS Church (the predominant authority in the faith) ended its support of polygamy in 1890, the path to statehood was revived. Upon Utah achieving statehood in 1896, part of the deal was that women retained the right to vote—and hold office. To ensure the US government didn't stage another pull-back, Utah's women ensured their voting rights were enshrined in the state constitution, something they learned from their counterparts in Wyoming when it became a state in 1890.
Though the Wyoming Territory had granted the right to vote to its female citizens eight weeks before Utah, the first actual vote cast by a woman in the US or its territories occurred in Utah on February 14, 1870, Valentine's Day.
PUPPY BOWL
Location: United States
Date: February 12, 2023
Champion: Animal Planet; The Discovery Channel
The Puppy Bowl is Animal Planet's answer to the Super Bowl.
It is a football game played by real puppies with kitten cheerleaders and other animal announcers. It typically airs during the half-time show for the Super Bowl and is one of the cutest things you'll ever see. Available on Animal Planet and YouTube internationally.
LA FERIA DE JEREZ (THE FAIR OF JEREZ—FLAMENCO FESTIVAL)
Date: February 24 - March 11, 2023
Location: Jerez, Cadiz, Andalusia, Spain
Champion: City of Jerez
Since 1996, Jerez de la Frontera in Cadiz, Andalusia, Spain, has held a two-week festival, La Feria de Jerez, highlighting traditional and contemporary Flamenco dancing. The entire city participates in live theater, pubs, and Flamenco classes for anyone attending. Annually in late winter.
GREGORIAN CALENDAR DAY
Date: February 24, 2023
Location: Worldwide
Champion: Historical Anniversary
On February 24, 1582, Pope Gregory XIII established the Gregorian calendar via a Pappel Bull, the primary calendar used today and underlying international commerce.
The new calendar went into effect on October 4, 1582. In 1752 it became the official calendar throughout most of Europe and the empire colonies. Russia, a holdout, started using it in the 20th century.
The Julian calendar, which the world was using, was created by Emporer Julius Cesar of Rome in 46 BC, two years prior to his assassination. His calendar had a problem, though. It wasn't accurate. Every year it was off by 11.5 minutes. Over centuries, 11 minutes per year adds up. When Pope Gregory established the new calendar, Cesar’s was ten days off.
The Julian calendar added an extra day every four years to account for the extra quarter day it takes the sun to rotate around the earth. We call this a "leap year." This idea may have come from the Hebrew calendar, which adds a thirteenth month, Adar II, to account for the difference between the moon and sun rotations in its leap years and keep religious observances within their seasons.
The Gregorian calendar addressed the missing 11.5 minutes and split time into two eras: before the birth of Jesus Christ (BC) and after the nativity, and anno Domini (AD), "the [first] year of our Lord" in Latin. Of course, non-Christian religions and secularists didn't like this, so they changed it to "Before the Common Era" (BCE) and "Common Era" (CE). No matter what you call it, the demarcation point is still the same: the birth of Jesus Christ.
Orthodox Christians still use the Julian calendar (off by 11 days when the Gregorian calendar was adopted globally in 1752) as their religious calendar, which is why you'll find two different celebrations of Easter and Christmas each year. Other religions use their calendars, most of which follow the movements of the sun, moon, and-or stars. These calendars are shorter than the Gregorian, now the international standard.
The oldest calendar in the world is the Byzantine calendar, which began marking time over 7,500 years ago.
THE GREAT GLOBAL BACKYARD BIRD COUNT
Date: February 17-23, 2023
Location: Worldwide
Champion: Multiple
The Audubon Society and Cornell University Lab of Ornithology created the Great Backyard Bird Count in 1998, with Bird Studies Canada joining in 2009. In 2013 it became a global event, with people in all 220 nations and territories taking part and sending images (and counts) from their backyards.
In 2022, Spain, India, the United States, and Canada have the most active participation. That's a direct challenge to the rest of you to make your country proud! The heatmap of locations on the event's website is updated throughout the event.
TEACHERS & PARENTS
The Great Global Backyard Bird Count is an excellent activity for kids and teens. Think of it as a bird census and an opportunity to learn about local wildlife. By participating, you are helping identify species in danger by contributing count observations from your backyard. Learn more at
https://www.birdcount.org
GRAIN BIN SAFETY AWARENESS WEEK
Date: February 19-25, 2023
Location: United States
Champion: Nationwide Insurance
If you live in a city, the dangers inherent to grain bins probably never occurred to you. You may know this danger if you work on a farm or in an industry with sand, sawdust, or other granular mediums.
Nationwide Insurance created Grain Bin Safety Awareness Week in 2014 to highlight the dangers to farmers entering grain bins when machinery is active. Several dozen farm workers die yearly or are injured when caught in the quicksand of grain bins, which can cover a person in seconds. This awareness campaign supports the training of first responders and the supply of rescue tubes to their departments.
Grain Bin Safety Awareness Week is one of two events focusing on bin safety. Stand Up for Grain Safety Week is the second, in late March.
MUFFIN DAY
Date: February 19, 2023
Location: Worldwide
Champion: Jacob Kaufman & Julia Levy
Muffin Day raises awareness about hunger and homelessness. Originally, Muffin Day was another superfluous food holiday created on the internet without sponsors, purpose, or reason.
Enter attorney Jacob Kaufman, the "muffin man of San Francisco." Kaufman regularly distributed fresh muffins to the city's homeless on his way to work each morning. In 2015 he saw a chance to take a useless day, Muffin Day, and make it mean something. Reaching out to his colleague, Julia Levy of Atlanta, the two created a community-focused initiative centering on muffins in their cities.
Volunteers, or muffineers, purchase muffins to raise money for homelessness and then give these muffins to the homeless to address hunger—two objectives accomplished with one muffin? Now that is an impressive quick bread!
Kaufman's muffineering inspired others worldwide to do the same in their cities. The event moved from its fixed date of February 20 to a weekend nearest that date, thus allowing muffineers to take part in "spreading the muffin" over a weekend globally.
Are you interested in becoming a muffineer or creating a Muffin Day drive in your city? Try donuts, croissants, or breakfast strudels if muffins aren't your culture's thing. The principle is the same with something to sell that becomes something to eat. See
https://nationalmuffinday.org for information.
FEBRUARY'S KEY SPORTING EVENTS
Major sporting events include the Super Bowl (American football championship game) on February 12 and Six Nations Rugby which runs from the beginning of February into March.
Alpine World Ski Championships: February 6-19, France
Daytona 500 (Auto Racing): February 19, United States
FIS Nordic World Ski Championships: February 21 - March 5, Slovenia
Georgia State Rodeo: February 23-25, United States
ICC Women's World T20 (Cricket): February 9-26, India
La Fiesta de Los Vaqueros (Rodeo): February 18-26, United States
NBA All-Star Game (Basketball): February 19, United States
NFL Pro Bowl (American Football): February 5, United States
Six Nations (Rugby): February 4 - March 18, United Kingdom, Ireland, France & Italy
Super Bowl (American Football): February 12, United States
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show: February 7-8, United States
World Cup (Cricket): February 9 - March 26, India
FEATURED EVENT
LOUIS RIEL DAY
Date: February 20, 2023
Location: Canada
Champion: Government of Canada
In Canada, Louis Riel Day commemorates the man and the events of February 17, 1870, which led to the founding of the Canadian province of Manitoba.
How do you describe Louis Riel to someone from the United States? It can be challenging. Riel was a little like Davy Crocket, with a dollop of William Penn, a pinch of Jesse James, and a smattering of Nathanael Greene infused with the spirit of Sitting Bull, and all of this is wrapped around the heart and persuasiveness of Fredrick Douglas.
Outside of the US, combine people from your country's history who interacted well with the native populations (or other nations). Add in a statesman who knew the law and understood justice, a criminal, a rebel, a great warrior, communicator, then toss them together with a deeply committed social and environmental activist. Now you have your Riel. He's rather unique.
Louis Riel was born in 1844 and led two resistance movements against the Canadian government to preserve the human rights, culture, and lands of the native Métis people, for whom he advocated and protected. Like its neighbor to the south, the United States, Canada was experiencing a rapid expansion of settlers west coupled with industrialization and the stresses these events placed on people, nature, and resources. By the late 1860s, something had to give. That "give" became the Red River Rebellion.
The Red River Rebellion of fall/winter 1869-1870 sought to safeguard First Nations rights in the region known as Rupert's Land for two centuries. Its administration was to transfer from the Hudson Bay Company into the hands of the Canadian confederation government. Riel was elected the provisional governor of the Métis people and negotiated on their behalf. Most French and Anglo settlers agreed to work with the First Nation peoples through the negotiations. However, the Canadian Party, a small independent militia, objected to considerations. The party took up arms against Reil, the talks, and the provisional government. It sought to remove each in a series of skirmishes and avoid a settlement with the First Nations.
On February 17, 1870, the rebellion ended as forty-eight Canadian Party militants were arrested near Fort Garry. Among those detained was Thomas Scott, whom Riel directed the Métis to execute by the firing squad on March 4. Scott's execution prompted the talks creating the Manitoba Act, which went into force on May 12, 1870. However, his execution caused the Protestant Canadians to band together against the provisional government and its leader, forcing Riel to seek asylum in the United States. He spent the next decade bouncing back and forth over the border. Riel served in the Canadian Parliament for four months during his bouncing days, from October 1873 to January 1874.
Ultimately, like the US government's dealings with Native Americans, the Canadian government didn't uphold its bargain with the Métis and First Nation people, leading to another rebellion, the North-West Rebellion. The loss of wild bison hunted to near extinction in the US and Canadian territories contributed to the urgency. Riel led this uprising against the Canadian confederation government, was captured in the Battle of Batoche, and was executed on November 16, 1885, at age 41 for treason.
History and shifting social attitudes eventually exonerated Riel. In 2008 the Canadian government made Louis Riel Day an official holiday. Currently, it falls on the same day as Family Day, a national holiday in Canada, except in British Columbia, which celebrates Family Day a week earlier. There Riel gets his day, and BCers get two Mondays off.
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That completes this issue of LEEP Happenings. I hope you enjoyed it and as always, thank you for subscribing and sharing with your colleagues. The next issue, in early February, focuses on events highlighting endangered species.