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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1984)
SUs'zSl^osSzvS: v-z §'$.% % a %-- / j think they ESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY T lays mark time Day continues to keep everyone on their toes, awaiting that practical joker lurking around the corner. The certain childlike and nostalgic quality keeps the day alive. While most people don't think of Arbor Day as being a major holiday, it may be one of the most important holidays re quiring attention. It's a cele bration of the future and the im portance of protecting nature. The word "arbor" is Latin for tree. Arbor day is a day ded icated to trees, to their beauty, and to their preservation. J. Sterling Morton was the first voice to speak on behalf on the trees. He migrated to the Nebraska Territory in 1854 and found only open prairies where the wind swept through the plains unhindered. Morton realized trees were needed for windbreaks, fuel, lumber and shade. Backed by several prominent men in the state, he advocated planting trees to honor visiting notables or to mark events like new buildings being built. In 1872, his idea for Arbor Day was approved by the State Board of Agriculture. In 1882, a unique tree-planting program was started in Ohio. Almost 20,000 school children assisted in planting a grove of trees. Since then, Arbor Day festivi ties have been carried out mainly by children. Even the president joins in the act. Elm, scarlet, oak, Japa nese maple, white birch and magnolia trees have been plan ted at the White House. The event is not a national holiday and is celebrated on dif ferent days throughout the country. Mother's Day was started by Anna Jarvis, a spinster who never strayed far from home or her mother. Jarvis thought it was shameful the way children treated their parents. A few years after her mother's death, Jarvis started the campaign to get children to remember and honor their mothers. The first Mother's Day obser vance was a church service held on May 10,1908. The carnations which have become a familiar art of the day were introduced y Jarvis. She chose them be cause they were her mother's I favorite flower. White carna tions became the sign that one's mother had died; red ones were for those whose mothers were still alive. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. Father's Day is another holi day started in the United States. Mrs. John Bruce Dodd was the most influential promoter of the celebration. The idea came to her while listening to a sermon on Mother's Day in 1909. Her own father had raised six chil dren after her mother died at an early age. With the help of her minister, the Spokane Ministerial Asso ciation and the YMCA, she publicized the idea. The date originally chosen was her father's birthday, June 5. This date did not allow enough time for ministers to prepare sermons, so the first Father's Day actually took place on June 19, or the third Sunday in June. Though President Calvin Coolidge supported Father's Day in 1924, it wasn't until 1972 that President Richard Nixon signed a Congressional resolu tion to permanently remember Father's Day. This act elimi nated the need to annually des ignate the day. About 50 years ago, a Cleve land, Ohio, man, who believed the city's orphans and shut-ins were forgotten and often ne glected, started the idea of re membering them. He enlisted the help of friends and neighbors, and on the third Saturday of the follow ing October they distributed gifts. The act caught on with other Clevelanders and the day became known as the Sweetest Day. What started as a day to spread cheer to the unprivi leged has grown into a national event to include everyone and to remember them with an act of kindness. Several patriotic holidays are celebrated throughtout the year in America: Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Veter an's Day, United Nation's Day and Veteran's Day. see holidays page 11