Haiti : public and bank holidays, closure of banks, stock exchanges, school vacations

Secular holiday : Chicago, Saturday May 1st, 1886: 350,000 workers go on strike to call for an 8-hour working day. Industries are paralyzed nationwide. On Monday, as demonstrations go on, the police open fire. On Tuesday, Chicago is again on strike. Following a bomb launched against them, the police shoot again. 12 dead, of which 7 policemen. 8 anarchists will be condemned and executed. In 1889, the Socialist International Movement met in Paris and declared this day international workers' day . The Soviets will follow suit, just as the Nazis. In France, under the Vichy regime (1940-1944), the celebration is renamed Labour Day .

Secular holiday : Originally, the university flag was blue and red. On June 21, 1964, the Duvalier regime changed the colours to black and red. The decision was reverted in 1987.

cards/flowers : not a public holiday

cards/flowers : Mother’s day has evolved in many countries in different ways. This is because mother’s day has different origins in different countries and therefore occurs on different days in the year. One school of thought claims that this day emerged from the custom of mother worship in ancient Greece. Mother worship which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of gods, and Rhea, the wife of Cronus, was held on March 15 to March 18 around Asia Minor. They insist that this custom spread around the world. Mothering Sunday is the celebration of motherhood in the United Kingdom. It is also known as Mid-lent Sunday, Rose Sunday and Laetare Sunday. It originally comes from the Victorian practice of allowing servants to return home to visit their mothers on this day. In the United States, Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819 - October 17, 1910) was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, and poet. Howe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862 and quickly became one of the most popular songs for the Union during the American Civil War. After the war she focused her activities on the causes of Pacifism and women’s suffrage. In 1870 she was the first to proclaim Mother’s Day, with her Mother’s Day Proclamation.

Catholic : Commemorates the Last supper. Pope Urban IV ordered the observance of such a feast in 1264, and in the following century it became universal in the Western Church. For six hundred years that feast was observed on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, but in 1970 the new Roman Missal, while retaining that day for some countries, provided that in others the feast be observed on the Sunday after Trinity.

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cards/flowers : Remembrance of the 2010 earthquake

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Catholic : Dogma defined by the Catholic Church on November 1, 1950, when Pope Pius XII declared that at the end of her life, Mary's body and soul were assumed into Heaven.

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Secular holiday : Originally said to be born in West Africa, Jean-Jacques Dessalines would have been born around 1758 in Guinea Conakry, however to locate him in the bowels of Haiti which had welcomed him as a slave, some historians claim that he was born on the Vye Kay dwelling of the commune of Grande Rivère du Nord on September 20, 1758 from 2021

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Secular holiday : 1758-1806, emperor of Haiti (1804-6), born a slave. A clever general, he served under Toussaint L'Ouverture in the wars that liberated Haiti. His barbaric cruelty against the mulattoes whom Toussaint was unable to control led to a bitter struggle with mulatto leaders.

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Culture : Marks the anniversary of the U.N. Charter ratified in 1945.

Catholic : The day now honors all saints of the church, even those not known by name. The first All Saints' Day occurred on May 13, 609 (C.E.) when Pope Boniface IV accepted the Pantheon as a gift from the Emperor Phocas. Boniface dedicated it as the Church of Santa Maria Rotonda in honor of the Blessed Virgin and all martyrs. During Pope Gregory III's reign (731-741), the festival was expanded to include all saints and a chapel in St. Peter's church was dedicated accordingly. Pope Gregory IV officially designated the day in 837. (World Book Encyclopedia)

Catholic or protestant : This is an ancient festivity that has been much transformed through the years,but which was intended in prehispanic Mexico to celebrate children and the dead. This holiday is a time when Mexican families remember their dead and the continuity of life. The original celebration can be traced to the Aztec civilization, in the month of Miccailhuitontli, presided by the Lady of the Dead , goddess Mictecacihuatl and dedicated to children and the dead. This celebration is also observed in other countries in Latin América. Families visit the graves and engage in sprucing up the gravesite, decorating it with flowers, setting out and eating a festive picnic.

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Secular holiday : Celebrates the victory over the French in the Battle of Vertieres in 1803 Paid holiday when falling on Saturday or Sunday