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Stillpoint Meditation, Flagstaff, AZ (2026)

05/31/2026

Happy Orthodox Pentecost! Pentecost Orthodox is celebrated on the seventh Sunday after Easter and takes place on May 31 this year. For hundreds of years, Orthodox Pentecost has been celebrated with tremendous zeal as an important Christian holiday. Because Easter is calculated differently in the Orthodox and Western churches, the Orthodox church will have a different date than the Western church. On Pentecost Sunday in the Orthodox Church, it is customary to refrain from kneeling during church services from Easter Sunday through Pentecost Sunday. Celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

History of Pentecost Orthodox

Pentecost Orthodox is the final day of the Easter cycle, which began 92 days earlier on the Orthodox holiday known as Shrove Monday. Pentecost Sunday is the day on which Christians remember the day on which the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in the shape of fire, as described in ‘ Acts, chapter 2’ of the ‘New Testament.’

The origins of Pentecost can be traced back to a Jewish harvest festival known as Shavuot. The apostles were enjoying this celebration when they experienced the coming of the Holy Spirit. It sounded like an extremely powerful wind, and it looked like flames protruding from the ground. The Holy Spirit granted the apostles the ability to communicate in other tongues, and they immediately began preaching the word of Jesus to the Jews who had traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of Pentecost. At first, people who were passing by thought that the apostles must have been drunk. However, the Apostle Peter told the crowd that the apostles were filled to the brim with the Holy Spirit. Many Christians consider this day as the day the Church was established.

The following day, Monday, is known as Pentecost Monday, and it is a holiday in a number of the countries located in Eastern Europe. In the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition, the term ‘Pentecost’ can refer to both the day itself and the time beginning fifty days before Easter and ending on the day of Pentecost.

Information by Nationaltoday.com
Photo by Serge Taeymans on Unsplash

05/29/2026

Happy Snail Day! National Snail Day is celebrated on May 29 every year in the United States. The day is an opportunity to appreciate snails and the benefits these diminutive creatures have to offer us. Snails are small slow animals that cause very little harm. They are an important part of the ecosystem. They are known to be one of the earliest animals to roam the earth. Fossil discoveries have been used to date primitive gastropods back to the late Cambrian period. This evidence means that snails have been around for about 500 million years.

History of National Snail Day

National Snail Day takes place every year in the United States. Snails are small shelled animals well-known for moving slowly; their speed depends on their particular species. On average, they move between 0.5 and 0.7 inches per second. Many places in the U.K. appreciate the creature where people organize snail races. They enjoy the irony and the fun of watching and waiting for the famously slow animals to reach the finish line. Snails create silvery mucus that leaves a trail behind them while they move. Land snails do not have the ability to hear and use their eyes and olfactory organs to navigate their environment. Their sense of smell helps them find food, making it their most important sensory tool.

Snails are gastropod mollusks distinguished by their most striking physical feature, a spiral shell. Situated on their backs, this hard structure composed of calcium carbonate protects their soft bodies and internal organs and keeps growing as they mature.

Snails are most active at night and usually come out very early in the morning. They tend to avoid moving too much on the ground when the sun is out. Snails have interesting biological features. Though some species have s*x differentiation, most are hermaphrodites, which means that each snail has male and female reproductive organs, however, they mate like other animals with a partner. After mating, the snails lay eggs. The baby snails hatch from the eggs, and this is when they are most vulnerable. At this time, they are basically defenseless against predators like birds, turtles, and beetles.

Information by Nationaltoday.com
Photo by Krzysztof Niewolny on Unsplash

05/28/2026

World Hunger Day is observed every May 28 to raise awareness about the more than 820 million people living in chronic hunger and to encourage action to bring this to an end. Can you imagine that a significant portion of the human population has suffered from hunger since the world began? Hunger is a condition in which an individual lacks the physical or financial capability to meet their nutritional needs. It leads to malnutrition, wasting, stunted growth, and death. According to The Hunger Project, hunger kills more than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined, and it’s primarily prevalent in Africa and South America.

History of World Hunger Day

Hunger is a condition affecting humanity since the beginning of history, but so is the collective fight against it. According to the philosopher Simone Weil, people have always worked together to ensure that the hungry are fed. In ancient Egypt, people helped the hungry to justify their deeds in the afterlife. Also, before the introduction of markets, Weil says human societies shared their food to avoid hunger or chose to starve together. Before the 19th century, religious organizations and philanthropic individuals usually led hunger relief efforts. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, people began calling for government involvement in hunger relief, especially the global action against hunger. One of the initiatives the U.S. government embarked on during that period was shipping millions of tons of food to European countries during and in the years immediately after WWI

After WWII, the newly-formed United Nations began leading the fight against hunger. Following its establishment, the U.N. created FAO, W.F.P., and IFAD to promote food security and agricultural development. In the late 1970s, international organizations such as the I.M.F. and the World Bank began focusing on developing countries as starvation in countries like Ethiopia came into the global limelight. In the 20th century, the prevailing view was that hunger was a problem of demand surpassing supply. However, this view was brought to an end by the research of economist Amartya Sen, who successfully demonstrated that hunger in modern times was a distribution problem or caused by government policies in developed and developing economies. In 1998, Sen won a Nobel Prize for this research.

In 2011, the Hunger Project created World Hunger Day. The day is an initiative to highlight the plight of disadvantaged people around the world and take action to end world hunger.

Information by Nationaltoday.com
Photo by Streets of Food on Unsplash

05/26/2026

Did you know? Every May 26 in Australia, National Sorry Day reminds the colonist-descended people of the nation to remember the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Why? During the 20th century, Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families to be “assimilated” into white Australian culture. They are known as the “Stolen Generations.” It took several Australian government administrations coming and going before an apology was officially offered to the Indigenous Australians, but it finally was made official, and actions are still being undertaken to this day to repair the damage caused by tearing native families apart.

History of National Sorry Day

The first National Sorry Day was observed in 1998, a year after the first “Bringing Them Home” report — the result of a government inquiry into the child-stealing of the 20th century — was brought before the Australian Parliament. Among that report’s recommendations was the idea of an unreserved apology and the proposition that a portion of the national budget should be put towards reparations.

The formal apology came in 2008 when Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister. The best former Prime Minister John Howard had done, in 1999, was to put forth a “Motion of Reconciliation” that expressed regret and sympathy, but no admission of culpability. In the meantime, there was a motion to rename the day “The National Day of Healing,” which passed in 2005.

It was really Prime Minister Rudd’s unreserved apology that really struck a chord in the hearts of Australians. It was his Parliament that adopted the goals of the “Closing the Gap” movement, which focused on the health and equality of indigenous peoples of all generations. Closing the Gap was run by Oxfam Australia between 2009 and 2019, and then was handed over to Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR), who still produce an annual report.

National Sorry Day is a day to acknowledge the strength of Stolen Generations Survivors and reflect on how Australians can all play a part in the healing process for the people and nation. While this date carries great significance for the Stolen Generations and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, it is also commemorated by Australians right around the country.

Information by Nationaltoday.com
Photo by Johan Mouchet on Unsplash

05/24/2026

World Schizophrenia Day is commemorated every May 24. It is a day dedicated to raising awareness of the mental illness that affects over 20 million people worldwide. Schizophrenia is highly stigmatized since it’s not talked about and lacks accurate representation in the media. World Schizophrenia Awareness Day was created to fight against stigma and to make it easier for people to seek different resources to get help. It lifts the lid on the challenges that thousands of people with Schizophrenia — from all over the world — have to contend with every day of their lives.

History of World Schizophrenia Day

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by persistent psychotic symptoms such as auditory and/or visual hallucinations, delusional thinking, dissociation from reality, and disorganized thoughts and behavior. It usually begins to manifest when the patient is in their early twenties, although, in rare cases, symptoms can show in early childhood. This disorder affects about 24 million people in the world.

Cases with descriptions associated with schizophrenics began to be recorded in the 1700s; this disease has been around since early civilization. It was only registered and recognized in the early 1900s when psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler coined the name schizophrenia. However, proper treatment following legitimate humane medical procedures was only adopted around 1980, when appropriate antipsychotic medication was introduced and there had already been a revolution in psychiatric treatment in general.

Schizophrenia is a treatable disorder and, in some cases, even curable. With the proper medication and psychotherapy, patients have shown improvement. Many people still don’t reach out for help. Some who do reach out tend to suffer stigma due to their condition rather than receive care. That’s why World Schizophrenia Awareness Day was started so that patients and their families and friends, plus everyone around the world can learn more about the disorder and know how to help if necessary.

Information by Nationaltoday.com
Photo by Ryunosuke Kikuno on Unsplash

05/22/2026

Did you know? Erev Shavuot is a Jewish holiday celebrated on the night before the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan and generally falls between May 15 and June 14 on the Gregorian calendar and directly translates to “Eve of the Feast of Weeks.” This year it falls on May 22 . The holiday has both an agricultural significance and a biblical one. Agriculturally, it marks the wheat harvest, and biblically, it marks the giving of the “Torah” (a compilation of the first five books of the bible) to the Israelites on Mount Sinai. Erev Shavuot also marks the end of the counting of the Omer, a 49-day, or seven-week, count between Passover and Shavuot.

History of Erev Shavuot

Erev Shavuot is as old as the time of Moses in the bible. It marks the revelation of the Torah to Moses and the Israelites on Mount Sinai and occurred 50 days after Passover when the people of Israel were freed from their enslavement to Pharoah in Egypt. Shavuot happened in 1314 B.C. Shavuot allows believers to renew their faith and acceptance of the gift of the Torah, which God blessed them with

It is one of the biblically ordained three Pilgrimage festivals traditionally celebrated in Israel for one day, where it is a public holiday, and for two days abroad. It is sometimes referred to as Pentecost by the Jewish due to its timing after Passover. Pentecost, meaning ‘fifty’ in Greek, occurs 50 days after the first day of Passover. However, it is not the same as the Christian Pentecost, which signifies the descent of the holy spirit on Jesus’ disciples.

Over the years, the celebration has had many names, namely, “The Festival of Weeks,” “The Festival of Reaping,” and “The Day of First Fruits.” Shavuot and Passover share many customs. “Matza,” which is unleavened bread made out of the first barley crop, is used to celebrate Passover. This bread plays a significant role in Shavuot. With the agricultural significance of the celebration, Jews often “bring the outdoors indoors” by decorating their houses with flowers and other green plants. It is also celebrated by staying up all night to study and prepare for the revelation of the Torah. It is commonly referred to as the Shavuot night watch.

Information by Nationaltoday.com
Photo by Cole Keister on Unsplash

05/21/2026

Happy Tea Day! International Tea Day is celebrated every year on May 21. On this day, tea lovers unite in celebration of their favorite beverage. International Tea Day also promotes ways to sustain the production and consumption of tea. On this day, we can also learn of the importance of tea in combating hunger and poverty. You might be surprised to know that tea is the most loved beverage for millions worldwide. Every second, people consume 25,000 cups of tea, meaning more than two billion cups of tea are consumed per day. If you want to celebrate in style, check out our guide to gifts for tea lovers.

History of International Tea Day

In 2005, tea-producing countries came together to celebrate International Tea Day. These countries were Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, and Uganda. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Group on Tea decided to celebrate International Tea Day on May 21. The U.N. said yes to the celebrations on December 21, 2019. The first official U.N. International Tea Day was celebrated on May 21, 2020.

Projections show that as the world population increases, so will the number of tea drinkers. Tea enjoys great popularity in India and China. These two countries alone account for 37% of the world’s total population, meaning a substantial number of tea lovers reside in India and China. According to legend, Emperor Shen Hung of China discovered tea when leaves from a tree blew into his pot of boiling water. He loved the hot liquid and humanity has not looked back ever since.

Besides drinking it for taste, there are quite a few health benefits of tea drinking. Tea contains antioxidants that reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, aid with weight loss, protect the bones, prevent tooth loss, boost the immune system, help battle cancer, soothe the digestive system, and relax the body. Habitual tea drinkers are also less likely to die prematurely. Habitual tea drinkers drink the beverage at least three times a week. Green tea seems to have more health benefits than black tea.

Information by Nationaltoday.com
Photo by Manki Kim on Unsplash

05/19/2026

Did you know? Plant Something Day is a holiday that is celebrated in the United States every year on May 19. It encourages people to take a few minutes to plant something around them. It could be a flower, a tree, or an indoor plant. Any plant that grows would suffice. During the holiday, local businesses like nurseries and landscapers usually host community events to plant in public spaces together. People can plant at home, in schools, in parks, and in other community gardens. The planting initiates help to protect the environment and enhance the beauty of public spaces.

History of Plant Something Day

Plant Something Day falls on May 19 every year in the United States. It is an opportunity to encourage more people to add to the vegetation in our environment. It has been established that about 80% of the original forests on Earth have been cleared or destroyed. About 8,000 years ago, forests dominated the land before human activities affected them. These days, crops are mass-produced by farmers who farm certain crops because more of them can be grown quickly. Being able to produce crops that are easier and inexpensive allows them to turn a bigger profit. This means that people have to rely on the plants that are more easily available. A majority of the most healthy plants are not available to consumers because they may not be as profitable for farmers to produce on a large scale.

There are more than 80,000 edible plant species. However, about 90% of the food we eat comes from only about 30 plants. This makes the human diet more limited than it has to be. There are many plants that are used for medicine in different parts of the world. Both traditional and modern medicine make use of about 70,000 plant species to treat various ailments. Despite that, there is not enough protection for plants. Only about 10% of the world’s plant-rich areas are protected to make sure that more plant species can survive.

Plant Something Day was established to encourage more people to grow plants around them. This helps to boost the number of plants in the environment. It also gives people the opportunity to grow some plant species that they may not have been able to access easily.

Information by Nationaltoday.com
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

05/18/2026

Happy Museum Day! The world observes International Museum Day on May 18 each year. Since 1977, the International Council of Museums (I.C.O.M.) has celebrated this day annually to pay tribute to the international museum community. Museums are vital venues for cultural exchange and enrichment, as well as for the development of peaceful coexistence and cooperation among nations and communities. This day encourages people to visit museums dedicated to many fields of human endeavor such as agriculture, fashion, astronomy, archaeology, art, and natural history. Together, let us embark on a journey to museums and learn about our historic past.

History of International Museum Day

In 1951, the International Council of Museums (I.C.O.M.) held a meeting named “Crusade for Museums” during which the international museum community debated the theme “Museums and Education.” The strategy for museum accessibility was established at this meeting and served as inspiration for the creation of International Museum Day.

International Museum Day was first observed in 1977 in Moscow when the I.C.O.M. General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of an annual event to further integrate creative objectives and museum efforts aimed at directing the world’s attention to the contributions of museums to humankind. It also pushes for the idea that museums are channels by which to promote mutual understanding, interaction, and world peace.

Every year, the organization decides on a new theme. Since 1977, all museums across the world have been asked to organize and take part in activities to raise awareness about the importance of museums to society.

Since its inception, International Museum Day has progressively grown in popularity. The number of participants has risen steadily over the last 15 years — a testament to the fact that the study of history allows us to understand how societies behaved.

Today, more people than ever before visit museums all over the world. There are also more people studying history at universities now than at any other time.

Information by Nationaltoday.com
Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

05/16/2026

National Do Something Good for Your Neighbor Day is celebrated on May 16 to express gratitude to those who are closest to us. In fact, a neighbor is not merely the person who lives closest to you but can be anyone with whom you share a kinship. Therefore, your colleagues, friends, or fellow commuters also qualify as your neighbors! When we get too caught up in our busy lives, we forget how much fun it is to hang out with our neighbors and have a good chat with them.

History of National Do Something Good for Your Neighbor Day

National Do Something Good for Your Neighbor Day was first celebrated in 2009 by Starr Valentino. He believed that good things happen only when people come together as a community and help each other during good times and bad. Valentino has worked selflessly for years and today he has over 500 proclamations for Do Something Good For Your Neighbor Day. These proclamations have poured in from villages, towns, and cities across the U.S. and Canada.

Starr Valentino founded this day of care and consideration 12 years ago. What started as an altruistic effort gathered a lot of recognition from local politicians and, today, over 100 cities in the United States recognize this day! Valentino says that the day is dedicated to helping and kindness and a day for Americans to express love and gratitude toward each other. The day is celebrated in neighborhoods by acts of compassion, sharing, and caring.

12 years since the day was first celebrated, Valentino continues to spread joy through every channel available to him. He asks people to open up their hearts to those in need as well as to those who make our lives happier. So get together with your neighbors to celebrate this day by spreading love and happiness in your neighborhood!

Information by Nationaltoday.com
Photo by Beth Macdonald on Unsplash

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