Earth Day is an observance dedicated to environmental awareness. On Earth Day, community groups may organize earth friendly activities such as holding a recycling drive, removing debris from vacant lots, cleaning up a river or streambed, picking up litter along highways, or planting trees. Sometimes Earth Day Fairs are held to educate the public on environmental issues, pollution control, recycling programs, and conservation.

Earth Day started as two separate events. In 1969, John McConnell, President of the Earth Society proposed to the City of San Francisco that they host a celebration of global unity, and stewardship. The day chosen for the first Earth Day celebration was the vernal equinox, March 21, 1970. Simultaneously in 1969, Dennis Hayes, and Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed a national one-day teach-in to educate the US public on environmental issues. This Earth Day celebration was held on April 22, 1970. Twenty million people participated. Today, April 22 is the officially accepted date for Earth Day celebrations.

The Earth Day observance quickly spread from the US into Canada. Some of Canada's better-known Earth Day events include Victoria's Earth Walk, Edmonton's Earth Day Festival, and Oakville, Ontario's Waterways Clean up.

In Mexico, Earth Day activities include tree plantings in many cities including Mexico City, and Monterrey. An underwater coral reef dive and clean up is held in Cozumel. An Earth Day gathering of Zapotec Indians takes place in Santo Tomas Mazaltepec. And Tampico hosts a festival dedicated to the preservation of the Huasteca Rain Forest.

In 1990 the first International Earth Day observance was held. Over 200 million people from over 140 countries participated in this event, making Earth Day a truly global holiday.

Note: This holiday is one of Calendar Mine's over 500 built-in observances.

See Also

Holiday Catalogue

American (USA) Observances