Celebrating Cultures across the University of Birmingham
The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 was one of the most severe incidents of racial violence in U.S. history. The massacre began during the Memorial Day weekend after 19-year-old Dick Rowland, a Black shoeshiner, was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a 17-year-old White elevator operator of the nearby Drexel Building. The police were called, and … Continue reading “Tulsa Race Massacre 1921”
This most important Buddhist festival is known as either Wesak, Vesak or Buddha Day, and is celebrated annually on the full moon of the ancient lunar month of Vesakha, which usually falls in May, or in early June. It commemorates the birth, enlightenment and the death of Buddha. The day is observed as a public … Continue reading “Wesak (Buddha Day)”
Radio 4 marks the 80th birthday of Bob Dylan with a series of essays, an original audio drama and a documentary, each celebrating the musician widely regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time. https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2021/radio4-celebrates-bob-dylan Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on 24 May 1941, Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, author and visual artist. … Continue reading “Bob Dylan @ 80”
Shavuot (16-18 May) Shavuot is one of the Jewish harvest festivals, also known as the festival or feast of ‘Weeks’, taking place seven weeks (fifty days) after the first day of the spring festival of Passover. It was originally an agricultural festival, marking the beginning of the wheat harvest. The first fruits of the harvest … Continue reading “Shavuot”
Eid-al-Fitr (Ramadan ends) From the evening of 12 May to the evening of 13 May Eid al-Fitr, also called the “Festival of Breaking the Fast”, is a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan, as well being as a time for spiritual reflection and prayer. … Continue reading “Eid-al-Fitr”
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the UK in the summer of 1951. Six years after the end of the Second World War, and exactly one hundred years since the famous Great Exhibition of 1851 – the first international exhibition of manufactured products – the … Continue reading “Festival of Britain 70th anniversary”
The theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is ‘Connect with Nature’. During lockdown, websites which showed footage from webcams of wildlife saw hits increase by over 2000%. Wider studies also found that during lockdowns, people not only spent more time in nature but were noticing it more and re-discovering our need to connect … Continue reading “Mental Health Awareness Week 10-16 May”
Mass Observation Day One day a year, there’s a call for people in Britain to send their anonymous diary accounts of their day http://www.massobs.org.uk/write-for-us/12th-may. After over a year of living through a global pandemic, this year’s contributions will be very telling. If people also send them to today@bbc.co.uk, extracts may get read out on Thursday … Continue reading “Mass Observation Day 12 May”
Tchin Tchin! OBRIGADA to Gisele Tyba Mayrink Redondo Orgado, Research Fellow in Portuguese Studies from Brazil, currently at the UoB, also galloping gourmet and cocktail maker extraordinaire! At an event to mark World Portuguese Language Day (5 May), Gisele entertained a Zoom group of students and staff (lusophones and non lusophones) in the ways of … Continue reading “World Portuguese Language Day cocktail celebrations”
Deaf Awareness Week (3-9 May) aims to raise awareness and challenge perceptions of hearing loss and deafness across the UK. Deaf awareness week is all about promoting the positive aspects of living with deafness and raising awareness of the isolation that deaf people can sometimes experience, and promote the importance of social inclusion. This year’s … Continue reading “Deaf Awareness Week (3-9 May)”
