All - Leep Calendar

Toad Hollow Day of Encouragement is a day for people to reach out and make a sincere, heartfelt connection with someone else. The holiday's name comes from 'Toad Hollow Country School,' a story written by a girl named Eunice in the early 19th century. The story was later picked up by her college professor Ralph C. Morrison. Mister Morrison read and liked the story so much that he incorporated it into his storytelling, and thus a legend was born. Toad Hollow Day of Encouragement inspired the story's message of openness and connectedness with people.

Africa

Jan

Vasant Panchami (H): January 26

06:20 AM | -

Vasant Panchami, Saraswati Puja, or the Basant Festival of Kites, marks the beginning of Holi, the holy season for both Sikh and Hindu faiths. The signature color of this event is yellow, and it is one of two spring festivals in the Hindu faith. This festival pays tribute to Maa Saraswati, the goddess of learning, wisdom, knowledge, fine arts, refinement, science, and technology, and occurs 40 days before Holi. Vasant Panchami is a popular celebration for tourists with its animated display of children flying kites. PLEASE NOTE: We use the Indian civil calendar, the official holiday calendar in India, the largest Hindu nation. The Hindu faith has many calendars, each specific to different regions and tribes, with dates and celebrations marked by differing positions of the sun, moon, and stars. Names of months and holidays and the corresponding dates in the Gregorian Calendar may vary widely from one calendar to the next. Determine the proper calendar before attending local events.

Africa

Jan

Big Wig Day, Ntl.: January 27

06:20 AM | -

The term 'big wig' originated in 1730s Europe. The wealthier you were, the larger the wig you wore. Large or big wigs were an outward sign of a rich, important person. Centuries later, the term would designate the boss, a VIP, or someone in authority. National Big Wig Day doesn't aspire to such august ambitions. It started as silliness in 2016 and as a way to brighten up a lackluster mid-winter day. It became a fundraiser for people struggling with cancer and enduring chemotherapy, as hair loss is a symptom. The best way to celebrate, sport your favorite wig today and go to the website for the event and choose a charity to donate to. Each year more charities join. Check the site for the most updated list.

Africa

Jan

Black Hills Stock Show & Rodeo (US-SD): January 27 - February 4

06:20 AM | -

Riding competitions, livestock, and entertainment, the annual Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo is a bright spot in the otherwise harsh and cold Dakota winters. Initiated in 1958 to bring together the rural and urban communities of Rapid City, South Dakota, it continues to grow in popularity and importance. PLEASE NOTE: Treat all televised and venue-specific events (sporting, concerts, trade shows, etc.) as estimated. Several factors can cause an event to move dates at the last minute, including weather, strikes, natural disasters, political upheaval, conflicting programming, pandemics, and current events. Because of this, always verify the event with the promotor before committing resources. LEEP often estimates dates based on the previous year's schedules, as the final dates are only a few months, weeks, or days before the event. If the date is known to be estimated, you will see an (est) following the date in the title.

Africa

Jan

Chocolate Cake Day: January 27

06:20 AM | -

Love chocolate cake? Then you have James Baker to thank. Baker invented chocolate as we know it today in a form that could be cooked. In 1764 Mr. Baker placed beans between millstones and ground them to dust. As a powder, it could be mixed with liquids or solids to change the flavor, the same way you add salt or other seasonings. However, this process was quite expensive, so only the wealthiest could afford it. By the early nineteenth century (1828), Conrad Van Houten developed a method for extracting cacao liquor from the fat in the cocoa bean making chocolate an affordable ingredient, and its popularity took off. Devil’s Food cake by the Pittsburgh-based Duff Company was the first chocolate cake mix. However, WWII got in the way, and at the end of the war, Duncan Hines and General Mills burst on the scene with their cake mixes and took nearly half the market between them. By the millennium, artisan chocolate cakes, those without flour and closer to the consistency of fudge brownies with less sugar, became the rage. However you like your chocolate cake, today is the day to enjoy it. Indulge!

Africa

Jan

Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Nazism (DE)(1945): January 27

06:20 AM | -

On January 27, 1945, the Soviet Army liberated Poland's infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. Each year since 1996, the nation of Germany has marked this anniversary as a day to remember all victims of National Socialism (Nazi), regardless of race, gender, sexual preference, political beliefs, or religion.

Africa

Jan

Family Literacy Day (CA): January 27

06:20 AM | -

Family Literacy Day in Canada focuses on parents and their role in improving reading and writing skills within their families. Parents keep their skills sharp by reading to children and engaging in fun literary activities, strengthening family ties and encouraging lifelong learning.

Africa

Jan

Holocaust Victims' Day, World (1945): January 27

06:20 AM | -

Holocaust Victims' Day remembers the horrific events of the 1930s through the mid-1940s in Europe, including summary killings, imprisonment, discrimination, and other state-supported acts of terror that began as early as 1933. Holocaust Victims' Day marks the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by Russian soldiers on January 27, 1945, and is observed in memory of the over 12 million victims who perished. The Holocaust is one of the most significant manmade tragedies in recent history in scale and brutality. Victims were targeted based on their faith, physical or mental challenges, political views, color, and sexual orientation. Many were imprisoned and used as slave labor, and others were murdered, died of disease, or starved in purpose-built concentration camps. People targeted by the Nazi regime for imprisonment and extermination included those of the Jewish faith, Catholic faith, Romani (Gypsies), the mentally ill, disabled, communists, persons of color, and homosexuals. Political prisoners were generally communists or thought leaders and intellectuals, irrespective of faith, including teachers, artists, writers, journalists, clergy, lawyers, politicians, and business owners. For example, when Nazi Germany conquered Poland six weeks after invading in 1939, only three percent of the intellectual class remained alive. Anyone who could lead or form resistance was murdered. The largest demographic targeted and murdered were those of the Jewish faith; in totality, 25% of the world's Jewish population perished under Nazism. Though a smaller population, 25% of the world's Romani population was exterminated during the Holocaust as well. Using a network of concentration camps connected by trains to imprison and enslave people by demographic was not a Nazi invention. The tactic was first deployed during the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1917, resulting in over one million deaths. Officers of the German army were allies of the Ottomans in WWI and participated in the slaughter. Sixteen years later, they perfected the system during WWII. Holocaust Victims' Day honors all the victims, regardless of faith, race, health, or sexual orientation, and urges society to learn from the circumstances leading up to and causing this international tragedy.

Africa

Jan

Multicultural Children's Book Day: January 27

06:20 AM | -

Multicultural Children's Book Day seeks to raise awareness of the diversity in children's literature, allowing all kids to see themselves in books. The Multicultural Children's Book Day mission is to put diverse children's books on shelves and into the hands of children and families across the country. As of 2020, an ideological war rages regarding children's books in the United States. Part of that war silences voices that do not fit a specific racial or theological narrative. The three books in the header, LEEP highly recommends. Doris Pilkington Garimara's "Follow the Rabbit-proof Fence" focuses on the Aboriginal experience of three orphans in 20th-century Australia. There is also a film, "Rabbit-proof Fence," an Australian film from 2002. Erika L. Sánchez's delightful comedic take on growing up as a Mexican-American girl, "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter," takes on the stereotypes within her community and outside of it. And finally, Golbarg Bashi's "P is for Palestine" is a fantastic book that shares the experience of Christian and Muslim children growing up under occupation through the alphabet. Did we mention that "P is for Palestine" continues to be banned by groups interested in maintaining the political status quo? These political interests are TERRIFIED of this book because it humanizes and teaches culture. Who knew children's stories and the alphabet were so powerful? This event first ran in 2014.

Africa

Jan

Preschool Fitness Day, Ntl.: January 27

06:20 AM | -

National Preschool Fitness Day occurs on the last Friday of January. It's a day that promotes physical fitness, education, and healthy eating among children. The early childhood years of three to five are critical in the development of the human body. Poor fitness and eating habits during this period contribute to most illnesses we develop later in our lives. On National Preschool Fitness Day, we are encouraged to spread the word about the importance of sound fitness and eating habits with their children and communities.

Africa

Jan

Punch-the-Clock Day: January 27

06:20 AM | -

Punch the Clock Day can be celebrated in one of two ways, by supervisors who love the Workman's Time Recorder, patent number 452,894, granted on May 26, 1891, to Willard Le Grand Bundy. Or by employees ruled by this early form of Big Brother, who are encouraged to punch the time clock tyrant with a well-placed left hook. However you choose to celebrate today, one thing is sure. For better or worse, the Workman's Time Recorder did revolutionize the workplace.

Africa

Jan

Ratha Saptami (H): January 27

06:20 AM | -

Ratha Saptami is a Hindu observance celebrating the sun god's birth that falls on the sunami or seventh day in the Shukla Paksha (bright half) in the Hindu month Magha. The day is symbolic of the change of season. For Indian farmers, it is a promising start to the next growing season. PLEASE NOTE: We use the Indian civil calendar, the official holiday calendar in India. The Hindu faith has many calendars, each specific to different regions and tribes, with dates and celebrations marked by differing positions of the sun, moon, and stars. Names of months and holidays and the corresponding dates in the Gregorian Calendar may vary widely from one calendar to the next. Determine the proper calendar before attending local events.

Africa

Jan

Thomas Crapper Day (1910): January 27

06:20 AM | -

Thomas Crapper Day honors Thomas Crapper, an English plumber born in Yorkshire in 1837, who died on January 27, 1910. Crapper is errantly credited with inventing the modern flushing toilet; he did not—but he is the key reason outhouses fell out of favor and homes have WCs. The first flush toilet was created in 1596 by Sir John Harington, the godson of Queen Elizabeth I, for the palace. The first patent for a version that contained the water went to Alexander Cumming of England in 1775. In the 1880s, Crapper expanded on Cumming's "S-shaped" plumbing patent with the ballcock, the float inside the tank that allows water to regulate its level. Once Prince Albert took him on as royal plumber, he began mass-producing the commode under his company "Thomas Crapper & Co." His invention remained largely a European convenience until American soldiers returned via England in 1918 after WWI experienced it. Referred to as the "porcelain throne," models often bore the brand name "Crapper," thus Thomas' association with the privy. Crapper spent his life advocating for sanitation and increasing accessibility to it for the general public. He is the first to support toilets in the homes of every man, not just the aristocracy. Over his life, he received nine patents, with three related to the humble toilet. Unless you've traveled through rural Asia or Africa, where the western toilet is often non-existent (or replaced with in-the-floor squat pots—as a woman, do not get me started), you've probably never appreciated it. Or what a messy and uncomfortable process doing one's business once was and can still be in some parts of the world.

Africa

Jan

X Games, Winter (US-CO): January 27-29

06:20 AM | -

Inaugurated in 1995 as a summer sporting event, the X or Extreme Sports Games expanded to include winter sports in 1997 and feature events including freestyle skiing and snowboarding as well as a focus on environment and eco-friendly initiatives.

Africa

Jan

Bhishma Ashtami (H): January 28

06:20 AM | -

Bhishma Ashtami occurs on the eighth day of Shukla Paksha during the month of Magha. It marks the day Bhishma of Mahabharata (Ganga Putr Bhism), the supreme commander of Hindu forces, was killed. Mahabharata is one of the Hindu faith's foundational historical books/stories. The other is the Rāmāyaṇa Fasting and various rituals are performed on this day to safeguard the soul of Bhishma. PLEASE NOTE: We use the Indian civil calendar, the official holiday calendar in India. The Hindu faith has many calendars, each specific to different regions and tribes, with dates and celebrations marked by differing positions of the sun, moon, and stars. Names of months and holidays and the corresponding dates in the Gregorian Calendar may vary widely from one calendar to the next. Determine the proper calendar before attending local events.

Africa