Some Secular December Holidays Quiz

Answer: red

James W. Burn and Thomas Netter, public information officers at the World Health Organization (WHO), conceived the idea for Worlds AIDS Day back in 1987. They chose December 1 because they believed it would maximize coverage in Western news media, as that is almost midway between US Election Day and Christmas Day. Popes John Paul II, Benedict XIV, and Francis have annually released a message for patients and doctors, and since 1993 the U.S. President has made a proclamation for World AIDS Day. World AIDS Day is one of eleven global public health days marked by the WHO.

Red ribbons are also symbols for the prevention of drunken driving and drug abuse. The pink ribbon is the worldwide symbol for support in the fight against breast cancer, the green for mental-health awareness, and the blue for various causes including remembering the poor.

Answer: There were over 1 billion disabled persons in 2021

Lip-reading skills vary among individuals and ironically are usually strongest among hearing people. Blind people don't develop a "sixth" sense; they develop their remaining senses more fully. According to the World Health Organization, in 2021 over 1 billion people on Earth were living with one form of disability or another -- more than triple the population of the USA.

FDR led the United States as 32nd President from a wheelchair. Ralph Braun, who lived with muscular dystrophy, created the Braun Corporation which became on of the leading manufacturers of electrical wheelchairs and accessible vehicles. Blind musicians Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles and deaf actress Marlee Martin made spectacular careers in entertainment. It's also been speculated that Einstein, Newton, Mozart, and Michelangelo were on the autism spectrum.

In 2017, Valencian dancer Eros Recio designed a flag for the disability community, a tricolor flag with bands of gold, silver, and bronze.

International Day of Disabled Persons grew out of the UN's Decade of for the Disabled Person (1983-1993). Earlier, there was also an International Year of Disabled Persons in 1981.

Answer: Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

Sunday, December 7, 1941, was meant to be a day of rest for the military at the Pearl Harbor naval base on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. But at 7:55 a.m., Japanese fighter planes attacked the U.S. Pacific fleet moored in the harbor. Thousands of lives would be lost that day, which was truly as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would call it, "a date which will live in infamy". The United States ended its policy of isolation and entered World War II.

In 1994 the U.S. Congress passed the a law, signed by President Bill Clinton, which made December 7 officially Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. (Government offices, schools, and banks remain open, however.) Protocol requires the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff until sunset to honor those who died at Pearl Harbor. A marble memorial sits over the sunken battleship USS Arizona on which more than 1100 crew members died. The memorial is part of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, which is a unit of the National Park System and includes other memorials for sunken ships and a visitors' center within its 21.3 acres.

Answer: King Kong

Peter Jackson's "King Kong" was intentionally released worldwide on Monkey Day 2005. True, the character King Kong is a giant ape, not a monkey, but Eric Millikin and Casey Sorrow, the creators of the holiday, intended for Monkey Day to celebrate not only monkeys but "all things simian" in the broadest sense, to include all non-human primates (apes, monkeys, lemurs, tarsiers, etc.).

As Casey Sorrow explained to Hour News Canada in 2005, Monkey Day's purpose "is to celebrate these noble creatures who embody the best of human characteristics, such as intelligence, family values, kindness, humour and compassion, while also promoting education and recognition of these simian species and their fragile habitat." Then he added, "It's also a day to go ape."

It started out as just a joke, a scribble on a calendar among Minnesota art students, but it grew to be an international phenomenon in which even a notable like Jackson would participate. Celebrations take place in zoos and sanctuaries around the world, as well as art exhibits and fundraisers. Jane Goodall, National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution, and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art are among the annual celebrants.

Answer: Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) enumerates a wide range of fundamental rights and freedoms to which all human beings are entitled -- regardless of nationality, place of residence, national or ethnic origin, religion, gender, language, or any other status or means by which people have contrived to divide the human race. It is historic not only for its sweeping scope but also for its multicultural synthesis.

Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, chaired the committee that drafted the UDHR beginning in 1947. There was input from Charles Malik of Lebanon (a Christian theologian), from René Cassin of France (influenced by the Christian Democracy movement), and from P.C. Chang of China, who used Confucianism to settle conflicts within the committee. Educator and magistrate Hernán Santa Cruz of Chile insisted on the inclusion of socioeconomic rights.

While the UHDR is not a binding treaty, it inspired over five dozen human rights treaties and other legal instruments. In 2015, the BBC's "Horrible Histories" TV series for children released a video making the UHDR the culmination of events going all the way back to the Magna Carta. (It also featured a very amusing King John).

On Human Rights Day in 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken announced that the State Department was "determined to put human rights at the center of our foreign policy". He denounced human-rights violations committed by 12 leaders from various countries, including Mario Torres for detaining outspoken journalist Lydia Cacho while he was governor of Puebla, Mexico. Also on the list were several officials in Xinjiang, China for their arbitrary detention of Uyghurs, mostly Muslim minority ethnic group.

Answer: Beethoven

Nobody actually knows for certain when Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, but we do know that he was baptized on December 17, 1770, so we assume he was born the previous day. No one also is certain exactly how he came to be deaf. We do know that over a period of 45 years he composed over 700 pieces, that he became deaf at around age 45 or 46, and that he died during a thunderstorm when he was only 56. One of the most beloved of Western composers, Beethoven was the embodiment of the transition from the Classical to the Romantic periods.

It was a running joke in the "Peanuts" comic strips, which began in 1950, that only Schroeder the pianist really cared about Beethoven's birthday, which illustrator Charles Schulz first had the young lad celebrate in 1953. Schroeder would hold up signs like "10 more days until Beethoven's birthday". Once, when Lucy van Pelt reminded him that Beethoven's birthday is not really known, he changed the sign to "10 more days until Beethoven's birthday (more or less)".

Answer: To conflict with neither the Solstice nor Christmas

The New Jersey Humanist Network selected Dec. 23 because it is halfway between the Solstice (winter in the Northern Hemisphere, summer in the Southern) and Christmas. The intention is that it would encroach on neither, nor prevent humanists from participating in those holidays if they so desire.

Patrick Collucci, one of the founders of HumanLight, has called it a celebration of "a Humanist's vision of the future". The official HumanLight website describes it as "a festive holiday that is humanity-based and entirely secular - not based on any supernatural, religious or theistic beliefs". It explicitly states that HumanLight "is not an attempt to change or 'secularize' any existing religious holiday".

The HumanLight Committee, which maintains the website, outlines three central principles in HumanLight events: to promote the positive values of humanism, to avoid negative messages related to religions, and to keep it family- and children-friendly.

The American Humanist Association (AHA) recognized the holiday in 2004, and many more organizations and entities have done likewise since then. The AHA has stated that HumanLight "inspires humanists, non-theists, the nonreligious, freethinkers, and atheists to create their own meaningful traditions around the ideals that we share". To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the secular holiday, the AHA cosponsored an online HumanLight celebration on Saturday, December 18th. The Master of Ceremonies was Rogiérs, artist and director of Black Nonbelievers DC, who supplied a jazzy rendition of John Lennon's song "Imagine" -- an anthem at HumanLight celebrations.

Answer: Festivus

The holiday Festivus (for the rest of us) became widely known after it was featured "The Strike", the 166th episode of "Seinfeld", broadcast on December 18, 1997. It was not, however, invented on "Seinfeld". Daniel O'Keefe, author and editor of "Reader's Digest" for over three decades, conceived of the idea of an alternative to the materialism of the Christmas season. His son, Dan O'Keefe, wrote the episode that featured his dad's creation.

Customs of Festivus include the Airing of Grievances during the Festivus dinner, followed by the Feats of Strength, a contest between the head of the household and the opponent of his (or her) choice. And there's no tree, but a Festivus Pole.

Several U.S. cities, like Pittsburgh, have annual public Festivus celebrations. In 2016, the "Tampa Bay Times" became the first newspaper to allow readers to submit online Festivus grievances.

Answer: Isaac Newton

In the Old Style calendar (the Julian calendar), the scientist Sir Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642. (That would be January 6, 1643, in the Gregorian calendar). Many skeptics, atheists, and freethinkers looking for an alternative to religious holidays feel it is fitting to honor the mathematician and natural philosopher on "Newtonmas" (a name used in jest). Newton himself was, however, not an atheist but a very devout if somewhat unorthodox Christian.

Newton has long been admired for accomplishments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, and optics. The English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was moved to write Netwon's epitaph: "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night; God said 'Let Newton be' and all was light."

Answer: Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa begins on December 26 and ends on New Year's Day (January 1). On the evening of the sixth day is a special a feast called Karamu.

Each day a candle in a 'kinara' (candelabra) is lit to represent a different principle, or Nguzo Saba, of African communitarianism. These are:
- Umoja (unity),
- Kujichagulia (self-determination),
- Ujima (collective work/responsibility),
- Ujamaa (co-operative economics),
- Nia (purpose),
- Kuumba (creativity), and
- Imani (faith).

The name Kwanzaa comes from the Swahili 'matunda ya kwanza' ("fruits of the harvest"). When Prof. Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga (born Ronald McKinley Everett) created the holiday, he sought to help African Americans connect with their roots. But of course, people of any ethnic or national origin are welcome to celebrate Kwanzaa as well!

Bill Clinton was the first U.S. President to recognize Kwanzaa in a proclamation, a tradition followed by subsequent Presidents. Holiday greetings include "Heri za Kwanzaa" or "Habari gani?", meaning "What is the news?" (both in Swahili). Another preferred greeting in English is simply "Joyous Kwanzaa".