 Nestled with Black History Month, check out our standalone video for that. National Freedom Day is celebrated annually on February 1st to commemorate the signing of the 13th Amendment which abolished the institution and practice of slavery in the United States. Major Richard Robert Wright Sr. was born into slavery and emancipated in 1865 through this amendment. Major Wright became an American military officer, educator and college president, politician, civil rights advocate, and bank entrepreneur and advocated for the establishment of National Freedom Day in honor of all freed, formerly enslaved people. Today we observe National Freedom Day as a reminder of our fundamental principles of freedom, liberty and human rights. This day offers an opportunity to reflect on the progress this country has made since 1865 and reaffirm our collective commitment to continuing to examine and disrupt all going barriers to true freedom for generations of African Americans. On this National Freedom Day, we encourage you to learn something new about the history of slavery and abolition to consider this importance and meaning of freedom in the ongoing struggle for civil rights and equity. To engage in discussion about social and legal justice or to support civil rights organizations. Happy National Freedom Day. Happy Lunar New Year Arlington Community. The Lunar New Year is widely celebrated in Chinese, South Korean, Vietnamese and other East Asian communities with festivities that extend for many days. Since the lunar calendar is based on the cycles of the moon, the dates of this holiday shift slightly from year to year. According to Western calendars, they tend to fall between January 21st and February 20th. This year Lunar New Year falls on February 10th. In the 10 days leading up to the New Year, families engage in a custom called sweeping the grounds, where they deep clean their houses to remove any bad luck that might be lingering inside. New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are then home to family traditions that span generations, such as religious ceremonies that honor ancestors and the giving of coveted red envelopes called Lai Si that contains small amounts of money to symbolize good luck and prosperity. Throughout these festivals, communities celebrate with traditional dances and fireworks that culminate in the lantern festival on the final day of celebrations. On this night, colorful lanterns light up indoor and outdoor spaces, while families share meaningful foods such as sticky rice balls, yun xiao, that symbolize family unity, fagal, a caked symbolized prosperity, and yuxiang, a raw fish and vegetable salad that symbolizes the abundance of wealth and a long life ahead. We wish a happy Lunar New Year and joyous festivities to all who celebrate. International Day of Women and Girls in Science was born fairly recently in 2015 out of a recognition by the United Nations of the persistent underrepresentation of women in all levels of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines all over the world. This day serves to recognize the critical role that women and girls play in STEM fields, and to acknowledge the barriers we must continue to overcome as we pave new pathways for women's full and equal access to success and leadership in scientific communities. As the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez reminds us, we can all do our part to unleash our world's enormous untapped talent, starting with filling classrooms, laboratories, and boardrooms with women scientists. As we continue to build this vision, we celebrate trailblazers in their fields, such as astronaut Mae Jemison, GPS mathematician Gladys West, chemist and educator Tu Yu Yu, biopharmacist Maria DePena, and many more. We also pause in gratitude for our dedicated science and mathematics educators in Arlington Public Schools, who, under the leadership of our Science Curriculum Director Dr. Sam Hoyo and our Math and Computer Science Curriculum Director Octavia Bronner, encourage inclusive engagement and participation practices every day. Please join us in their celebration and encouragement of all young learners in science and happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Arlington. Ash Wednesday begins the season of length, a time when Catholics and other Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of moderation and spiritual discipline. Ash Wednesday takes place 46 days before Easter Sunday and occurs this year on February 14th. Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting. Ashes also retain ancient symbolism. The Bible expresses that human beings are born out of dust and the Hebrew word for dust is often used interchangeably with that for ashes. In many churches, the ashes used during Ash Wednesday ceremonies are made by burning palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday. On Ash Wednesday, Christians engage in fasting and travel to their local churches for prayer and worship. They take turns standing in repentance in front of the priest who uses their thumb to draw ashes in the shape of a cross on the person's forehead. The priest may speak the words, remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Many people choose to keep the ashes on their foreheads for the remainder of the day as a reminder into the evening. While the ashes symbolize sacrifice and penance, many Christians also take solace in their reminder of God's mercy. We wish a reflective Ash Wednesday to all who observe. Vasant Panchami is an annual festival that celebrates the beginning of spring and the birthday of Goddess Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and wisdom. Hindus and Sikhs across the world observe Vasant Panchami on the fifth day of the lunar month of Magha, which typically falls between January and February on the Western calendar. This year, it occurs on February 14th. In India, spring is often referred to as the king of all seasons, not only because it welcomes in warmth after long cold winters, but also because mustard crops begin to bloom. The yellow of mustard crops symbolize knowledge, light, energy, prosperity and peace, and the vast bright fields of yellow offer a reminder of a time to begin new adventures. Vasant Panchami is celebrated in Indian religions in different ways depending on the region. During the festivals, though, yellow is central to the celebrations that occur throughout each culture. Many people wear yellow clothing, wills to dancing to joyful music, and enjoy yellow foods and sweets. Goddess Saraswati, alongside the Sun God Surya and the God of Love, Karma Deva, are worshipped and honored with offerings of mango, mustard and marigold flowers. As we all begin to welcome in the spring season, we wish a happy Vasant Panchami to all who celebrate. Parinirvana Day, also known as Nirvana Day, is observed annually on February 15th to commemorate the death of the Buddha and his entry into final or complete Nirvana. Though many mistakenly believe he was a god, the Buddha was an ordinary human named Siddhartha Gautama. As legend has it, he meditated beneath a ficus tree until he realized enlightenment. From that time on, he became known as the Buddha, which means a person who is awake. The Buddha spent the rest of his life until he passed at age 80, teaching others how to realize enlightenment for themselves through the four noble truths. The Buddha taught that when enlightenment is realized, people experience partial Nirvana. The word Nirvana means to extinguish, as one might extinguish the flame of a candle. Complete or final Nirvana is achieved only in death when all want and suffering is gone. Parinirvana Day is traditionally a solemn time for reflection on the Buddha's teachings. Many Mahayana Buddhists participate in meditation retreats at their local temples or monasteries. Others offer gifts of money and goods to support the nuns and monks who keep those sacred spaces running. Others still read the sutra or honor the Buddha with lowered lighting, chanting, or lantern festivals to celebrate his enduring light. To all who observe, we wish a reflective Nirvana Day. Each year on February 19th, we pause the remembrance of how racism, prejudice, and discrimination impacted the Japanese American community during World War II. The date for the Day of Remembrance holds significance because on February 19th, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Executive Order of 9066 an action that gave permission to the United States Army to displace civilians from newly designated military areas. These areas were strategically zoned in communities where many Japanese Americans lived, worked, and raised families. Thus, Roosevelt's order led to the physical removal of 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes who were then forced under military supervision into concentrated relocation centers or internment camps in the United States of Oregon, California, and Washington. After the war, this decision and the acts that followed were ultimately recognized as being based in racial discrimination and war hysteria and had a lasting impact on Japanese and Asian American communities. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act with a bipartisan approval offering reparation payments to all those who were affected in a grant program to increase education efforts of this history. In 2022, Congresswoman Doris Masui shared that on the Day of Remembrance, the Japanese American community comes together to not only reflect, but to tell our story, teach others, and lift up the voices of our community. She noted that all Americans share the charge to ensure that our country not only learns from, but never forgets its past. On this Day of Remembrance, we encourage you to learn something new about the history of Japanese Americans and in the context of Black History Month to consider our collective responsibility to protecting freedom, dignity, and respect for all marginalized groups of people in the ongoing fight for social and legal justice. Thanks for watching this month's observance video. We hope it inspired a piece of learning, connection, action, or wondering for you. As we continue to curate, don't forget to reach out if we missed a detail you'd like to see included next year. See you next month, Arlington.