Holidays, Festivals and Celebrations Free
Holidays, Festivals and Celebrations
What Moravian Holiday celebrating New Year’s Eve, morphed into an important celebration for enslaved Black people in the U.S. on the eve of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation?
1. Covenant Renewal
2. Emancipation Eve
3. Watch Night
4. Freedom Renewal
Watch Night
Watch Night was started by the Moravians in Czechoslovakia in the 16th century and brought to the U.S. in the 1700s in the establishment of the Methodist Church. Many Christians took on the celebration of this New Year’s tradition, but on December 31, 1862 as enslaved Black people waited for President Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, the watching took on a totally new meaning. They were watching and waiting for freedom.
What event does June 12, Loving Day, celebrate?
1. Black Love and Marriage Day
2. The date the Supreme Court struck down laws banning interracial marriage.
3. The date marriage between enslaved men and women was first recognized.
4. Remembrance of Charles Loving, the creator of line of Valentine’s Day Cards.
The date the Supreme Court struck down laws banning interracial marriage.
The case of an interracial couple, Richard and Virginia Loving, reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where on this day in 1967 miscegenation laws, those that banned interracial marriage, were struck down in the United States
What holiday, initiated in 1993 by Ayo Handy-Kendi, is celebrated on February 13?
1. Frederick Douglass’ birthday
2. Black History Day
3. Carter G. Woodson Day
4. Black Love Day
Black Love Day
This holiday is Black Love Day and is observed as a day of atonement, reconciliation, celebration and 24 hour demonstration of Black love. It is an alternative to Valentine’s Day for African Americans
Which was the first state to observe Rosa Parks Day?
1. Georgia
2. Michigan
3. California
4. Oregon
California
California was the first state to observe Rosa Parks day in 2000 and every year thereafter. The holiday is presently celebrated in Oregon, Ohio, Missouri as well as California.
These words were created for whose birthday: "You know it doesn't make much sense/ There ought to be a law against/ Anyone who takes offense/ At a day in your celebration"?
1. Malcolm X
2. Barack Obama
3. Marcus Garvey
4. Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Released in 1980, Stevie Wonder created the Happy Birthday song for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as part of a campaign to have Dr. King’s birthday become a national holiday. It did and the first official holiday was held January 20, 1986 and on the third Monday of January every year, thereafter.
The week-long holiday of Kwanza was created by Maulana Ron Karenga in what year?
1. 1956
2. 1972
3. 1966
4. 1962
1966
Kwanzaa, observed from December 26-January 1, honors African heritage in African-American culture and was first celebrated in 1966.
The Maafa, that period called the Middle Passage or Transatlantic Slave Trade, has been commemorated since 2000 in what city?
1. Atlanta, GA
2. Brooklyn, NY
3. Charleston, SC
4. New Orleans, LA
New Orleans, LA
In New Orleans, hundreds of people attired in white clothing come together annually in June to pay tribute to African ancestors who died in the slave trade crossing the Middle Passage. The ceremony includes drummers, dancers, words of healing, ancestral songs, a tribute to indigenous people of Louisiana, and the releasing of white peace doves.
What holiday is celebrated on the third Monday of January?
1. The last day of Kwanzaa
2. The Buffalo Soldier Commemoration Day
3. Malcolm X’s birthday
4. Martin Luther King’s Birthday
Malcolm X’s birthday
While Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday is January 15, the federal holiday is celebrated annually on the third Monday of January
Since 1974, which borough of New York City has hosted a full week of celebration of its history and culture?
1. Manhattan
2. Harlem
3. Queens
4. Bronx
Harlem
What originally started in 1974 as a one-day tribute to the rich history and culture of Harlem, has now expanded to “the longest week in the world,” a month-long celebration of Harlem’s culture, music, dance, history, and food, held throughout the month of August.
Where and in what year was the first Marcus Garvey Day celebrated?
1. Harlem, NY, 1972
2. Kingston Jamaica, 2012
3. Atlanta, GA, 1966
4. Brooklyn NY, 1944
Harlem, NY, 1972
Harlem residents publicly celebrated the birthday of the Black nationalist leader, Marcus Garvey, in 1972. Thereafter, Marcus Garvey Day was celebrated in many cities across the country. Although Garvey was designated as a National Hero in Jamaica in 1969, not until 2012 was Marcus Garvey Day designated in his birth country.
What holiday is celebrated on the fourth Sunday in November?
1. Festival of Souls
2. Pre-Kwanzaa
3. Unity Festival
4. Umoja Karamu
Umoja Karamu
Umoja Karamu means “unity feast” in Swahli and is an African-American celebration began in 1971 by Dr. Edward Sims with the purpose of instilling solidarity, black values, and appreciation of black heritage. It includes prayers, libations to honor ancestors, historical readings, and a large feast, similar to thanksgiving.
In what city is the annual Black Cowboy Parade and Festival?
1. Oakland, CA
2. Dallas, TX
3. Tulsa, OK
4. Houston, TX
Oakland, CA
The Black Cowboy Parade and Festival is held in Oakland, California to celebrate the legacy of African American cowboys and cowgirls. It is the only event of its kind in the United and is held on the first Saturday of every October.
What is the event held annually since 1998 in Southern California that attracts people related to the film industry to celebrate Black cinema?
1. The Annual Black Film Festival
2. The National Black Arts and Cinema Festival
3. The African Diaspora Film Festival
4. The Hollywood Black Film Festival
The Hollywood Black Film Festival
The Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF), often called “The Black Sundance,” draws together established and rising filmmakers, popular film and television celebrities, writers, executives, and diverse audiences from around the world to celebrate various aspects of Black film.
May 31/June 1 commemorates what tragic racial event that occurred in 1921?
1. Murder of Emmitt Till
2. Tulsa Race Massacre
3. Rosewood Race Massacre
4. Atlanta Race Riots
Tulsa Race Massacre
The Tulsa race massacre took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents attacked black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Malcolm X Day is celebrated during what month?
1. August
2. June
3. February
4. May
May
While not an official U.S. holiday, the birthday of Malcolm X is celebrated in many Black communities across the nation on May 19, his actual birthday, or on the third Friday in May.
When was the first Buffalo Soldiers Commemoration Day held?
1. 1900
2. 1898
3. 2000
4. 1992
1992
In 1992, the United States Congress passed a law designating July 28th as Buffalo Soldiers Day. Since then, commemorations honoring the Buffalo Soldiers have been held throughout the United States.
In what month is Black Poetry Day celebrated?
1. October
2. April
3. February
4. June
October
Black Poetry Day is observed annually on October 17. This is a day to honor past and present black poets and to celebrate the importance of black heritage and literacy. The date was selected because Jupiter Hammon, the first African American to publish poetry in the United States, was born in Long Island, New York on this date in 1711
What Jazz musician had a residential block in NYC named after him and the following year the inaugural annual festival in his name took place?
1. Billy Strayhorn
2. Duke Ellington
3. Charlie Parker
4. Cab Calloway
Charlie Parker
In the early 1950s, Charlie Parker made his home in Alphabet City, a community in NYC. The block Parker lived on was renamed Charlie Parker Place in 1992, and the next year the inaugural Charlie Parker Jazz Festival was held across the street in Tompkins Square Park. Presently the festival also takes place in other venues throughout the city.
Junteenth is celebrated for what reason?
1. President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
2. The news about emancipation of enslaved people reached Texas two years after they were free.
3. The Governor of Texas declared all enslaved people were free.
4. Enslaved people received their freedom.
The news about emancipation of enslaved people reached Texas two years after they were free.
Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States, dates back to 1865, 2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, when news of the Proclamation first reached the people of Galveston TX.
What event held in November in “Low-Country,” South Carolina, celebrates the rich cultural history of the Gullah-Geechee people?
1. The Parris Island Festival
2. Penn Center Heritage Days
3. The Beaufort Heritage Days
4. The Sea Island Festival
Penn Center Heritage Days
The Penn Center Heritage Days commemorates the Penn Center (formerly Penn School), which was founded in 1862 as the first school for freed slaves. Today, the Center is a cultural center committed to the preservation of the Gullah-Geechee culture, especially each November during this event with attendees from around the world.
Which U.S. President designated June as Black Music Month?
1. President Bill Clinton
2. President Jimmy Carter
3. President Franklin D Roosevelt
4. President Barack Obama
President Jimmy Carter
President Jimmy Carter decreed June to be Black Music Month on June 7, 1979.
Who was the founder of the month long celebration of African American History?
1. W.E.B Dubois
2. Carter G. Woodson
3. Alaine Locke
4. Nathan Hare
Carter G. Woodson
In 1926 Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (former of Negro Life and History) initiated “Negro History Week” to bring attention to the achievements of Black people. In 1976 President Gerald Ford decreed Black History Month a national observance.
Black Pride Weekend, held in Atlanta during the first weekend in September, appeals particularly to what group?
1. Black Nationalists
2. Black Youth
3. Black Natural Hair Stylists
4. Black Gays
Black Gays
The Atlanta Black Pride Weekend, started in 1996 and generally held over Labor Day weekend, is reported to be the largest officially recognized festival for the African-American LGBT or Gay community in the world.
Black abolitionists in what city started Crispus Attucks Day?
1. New York City, NY
2. Dallas, TX
3. Oakland, CA
4. Boston, MA
Boston, MA
In 1858 black abolitionists in Boston set aside March 5 as Crispus Attucks Day. They believed that Crispus Attucks' deserved recognition as the first person to be killed in the American Revolution.
What celebration by Major League Baseball is held annually on April 15?
1. Barry Bond Day
2. Hank Aaron Day
3. Negro Baseball Leagues Day
4. Jackie Robinson Day
Jackie Robinson Day
Jackie Robinson Day is a traditional event which occurs annually on April 15 in Major League Baseball (MLB), commemorating and honoring the day Jackie Robinson made his major league debut, in 2020 it occurred on August 28 because of the COVID quarantine.
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Do you know the significant dates and events which hold a place in the history and hearts of African Americans? Learn many of them here.
