July Holidays Ahead

July marks the official "halfway through the calendar" time of year. In some ways, the 4th of July marks that "halfway through summer" place (especially for students and teachers, where the summer goes too fast to begin with!)

Here at the cusp of the 4th of July weekend, while you are celebrating your patriotic pride and the lazy, hazy days of summertime, here are a few other holidays on the horizon this month. I found the fun facts and dates on NationalToday.com--a festive website with serious and silly holidays and it can definitely take you down the rabbit hole of marking your calendar with some good ones! Each holiday has a detailed timeline graphic to give you the history of how it came to be (along with some important milestones per holiday)  : 

American Independence Day is July 4th annually. But, did you know that July 2nd is Made in the USA Day. Makes sense given the theme of the holiday weekend and putting our shopping dollars into purchasing American-made items. The day was created by Joel Joseph of the Made in the USA Foundation and first celebrated in 1989. That's also when the "Made in the USA" label started to appear on products.

National Clean Beaches Week falls during the first week of July on the 1st through the 7th. Since beaches are often are the place where folks land for the 4th of July, it makes sense. Sadly too, it makes sense that a lot of people often come with a lot of litter. So definitely a time to spruce up our shorelines, especially to keep that waste from becoming polluting marine debris. This annual event started in 2003 and has the support of many coastal communities to keep beaches, shores, and marine animals healthy!

July 11th is World Population Day. Overpopulation is the cause of many of our environmental issues. The more people we have, the more resources we use. That impacts gender equality, human rights concern, poverty, food, energy, and more. It was named Five Billion Day in 1987 (when the global population hit that number). From there, the United Nations Development Program established world Population Day in 1989, and it was officially voted as a UNDP day December 1990. Here in 2022 at this writing, we are very near 8 million, a number that changes literally by the second. You can discover the exact count by checking out World Population Clock, which shows you that second-by-second count.

World Nature Conservation Day falls annually on July 28. The emphasis on the day is making sure to maintain and preserve healthy environments and take care of our planetary natural resources. Not only does this take care of the flora and fauna, but all of that impacts clean soil, water, and air--and human health! Industrialization, deforestation, and other human impacts diminish our natural resources and biodiversity and impact the effects of climate change. 

July 29th marks International Tiger Day. Our largest of the "big cats," tigers also are faced with habitat loss, hunting, and poaching, and invading human impact, numbers are on a high decline. This day was created in 2010 when numbers revealed that 97% of all wild tigers population had depleted over the previous 100 years, leaving approximately 3000 tigers in the wild and tigers at the risk of extinction.

By noting these dates on our calendar, we can help raise awareness, funds, and potential solutions to these "environmental" holidays.

All banner icons created at www.canva.com.