Name for various local and national holidays
Mountain Day
refers to three different and unrelated events: (1) Mountain Day, a student celebration in some colleges in the United States in which classes are cancelled without prior notice, and the student body heads to the mountains or a park, (2) International Mountain Day, held each year on 11 December, which was established by the UN General Assembly in 2003 to encourage
sustainable development
in mountains, and (3) Mountain Day, a national holiday in Japan as of 2016.
United States
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Mountain Day dates back to at least 1838, when the students of
Mount Holyoke College
headed off to
Mount Holyoke
.
[1]
Smith College
declared its Mountain Day in 1877.
[2]
Juniata College
established its Mountain Day in 1896,
[3]
and
Williams College
students have been climbing
Mount Greylock
, the highest mountain in Massachusetts, to celebrate Mountain Day since the 1800s.
[4]
Colby-Sawyer College
's Mountain Day is stated to have started in the 1850s, although the first account of it in the student newspaper is not listed until June 1893.
[5]
Elmira College
instituted Mountain Day in 1918.
[6]
Hollins University
has a similar tradition called Tinker Day on which people don costumes and hike Tinker Mountain.
[7]
International (UN)
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December 11
, "International Mountain Day", was
designated
by the
United Nations General Assembly
in 2003. The General Assembly "encouraged the international community to organize events at all levels on that day to highlight the importance of sustainable mountain development."
[8]
International Mountain Day is observed every year with a different theme relevant to
sustainable
mountain development.
FAO
is the U.N. organization mandated to lead observance of International Mountain Day.
The theme for International Mountain Day 2010 was "Mountain minorities and
indigenous peoples
." It aims to
raise awareness
about indigenous peoples and
minorities
who live in mountain environments and the relevance of their
cultural heritage
, traditions and customs.
[9]
On International Mountain Day 2018, Josue Lorca, president of
Venezuela’s National Parks Institute
, traveled to the mountains of the
Sierra Nevada de Merida
, to announce measures intended to lengthen the life of
Venezuela's last remaining glacier
.
[10]
Japan
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In May 2014, it was announced that Mountain Day will be celebrated as a public holiday every August 11, beginning in 2016. Supporters of the holiday included legislator
Seishiro Eto
and the Japanese Alpine Club.
[11]
The legislation states that the holiday is to provide "opportunities to get familiar with mountains and appreciate blessings from mountains."
[12]
[13]
As special arrangement for the
2020 Summer Olympics
, the 2020 date for Mountain Day was moved to August 10. With the Olympics and Paralympics
postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic
, the government left this change in place for 2020 and passed an amendment to the Olympic and Paralympic Special Measures Act to make a corresponding change to the holiday in 2021, moving it to August 9.
[14]
[15]
Other
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In connection with the UN's International Mountain Day,
Armenia
has dedicated 9 October as "Day of the Mountains."
[16]
See also
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References
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External links
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