Memorial Day: Americans commemorate fallen soldiers, honor history and break travel records

Flags and gathering for Memorial Day

Flagged crosses for Memorial Day civic ceremony in Waverly, Minnesota. Photo by Ben Franske, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

MONDAY, MAY 26: Hometown parades, ceremonies for fallen soldiers and the smell of barbecues firing up across the country: It’s Memorial Day!

The unofficial start of summer in America began, less than two centuries ago, as a solemn observance for the war that had consumed more lives than any other U.S. conflict. While memorial services still abound, the national holiday also means picnics, beaches, fireworks and, of course, travel, as Americans enjoy a three-day weekend.

2025 travel update: AAA’s travel forecast for 2025 says that 45.1 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home over the Memorial Day holiday period (Thursday, May 22 to Monday, May 26), setting a new record.

Scroll down in this story to read our best holiday tips. However, before we list those links, let’s celebrate a tireless historian who helped Americans recover our history of this more-than-150-year-old observance.

A PULITZER FOR THE HOLIDAY’S HISTORIAN

Memorial Day began as an annual, grassroots practice of sprucing up the gravesites of the countless Americans who died during the Civil War. That’s why, for many years, the observance was called Decoration Day, describing the flowers and colorful flags that seemed to sprout across cemeteries each spring.

For much of the 20th Century, however, the painful early roots of this observance were forgotten as proud civic boosters across the country tried to claim their own unique slices of this history. Then, Yale historian David W. Blight researched and corrected the record, finally honoring the fact that the courageous pioneers in observing this holiday were former slaves in the South who dared to decorate Yankee graves. In his book Race and ReconciliationBlight writes, “Decoration Day, and the many ways in which it is observed, shaped Civl War memory as much as any other cultural ritual.”

MEMORIAL DAY and CIVIL RELIGION

The famed sociologist of American religion, Robert Bellah, also shaped the evolution of Memorial Day’s meaning in a landmark article he published in a 1967 issue of Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He called his long article “Civil Religion in America,” taking the centuries-old concept of “civil religion” and kicked off decades of fresh research into how our civil religion defines our American culture. You can read Bellah’s entire original article online.

A few lines from Bellah’s article about Memorial Day:
Until the Civil War, the American civil religion focused above all on the event of the Revolution, which was seen as the final act of the Exodus from the old lands across the waters. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were the sacred scriptures and Washington the divinely appointed Moses who led his people out of the hands of tyranny.

Then—The Civil War raised the deepest questions of national meaning. The man who not only formulated but in his own person embodied its meaning for Americans was Abraham Lincoln. For him the issue was not in the first instance slavery but “whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure.” … With the Civil War, a new theme of death, sacrifice, and rebirth enters the new civil religion. It is symbolized in the life and death of Lincoln. Nowhere is it stated more vividly than in the Gettysburg Address, itself part of the Lincolnian “New Testament” among the civil scriptures.

WANT SOME CELEBRATION IDEAS?

Over at Taste of Home magazine, associate editor Lesley Balla upped the ante with “70 Best Memorial Day Recipes.”

Parade has “35+ Patriotic Activities to Celebrate Memorial Day with Kids.”

Better Homes & Gardens describes “12 Things to Do for Memorial Day Weekend with Family and Friends

Good Housekeeping has “21 Special Memorial Day Activities Your Family Can Do Together

Country Living lists “33 Best Things to Do on Memorial Day for Kids and Adults.”

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Another reflection on Memorial Day 2025: Hmong-American veterans caught between 2 worlds and 2 Memorial Days

By JOE GRIMM
Founder of the MSU School of Journalism Bias Busters series

Click on this image from the cover of the MSU Bias Busters book, “100 Questions and Answers about Hmong Americans,” to visit Amazon.

When flags were lowered to half staff on May 14 to honor Hmong-American veterans, was the action 12 days early, or 50 years late?

The lowered flags recognized Hmong-Lao Veterans Memorial Day. The national Memorial Day is May 26 this year.

In the 1970s, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency recruited Hmong and Lao soldiers to wage a “secret war” against the  North Vietnamese in Laos. Hmong fighters as young as 11 years old spied, defended supply lines, guarded bases and fought. An estimated 35,000 to 40,000 Hmong soldiers died. So did a similar number of Hmong civilians. 

In 1975, the United States withdrew from Vietnam and the CIA’s secret army faced the threat of death squads and executions. During that May 50 years ago, the United States began flying Hmong fighters out of southeast Asia. About 25,000 were  evacuated in 1975. Thousands of Hmong people also fled to refugee camps in Thailand. And thousands died trying to get there.

May 14 marks the date in 1975 when the last U.S. military and CIA personnel were evacuated from Long Tieng, the secret base in Laos.

Hmong people who made it to the United States were primarily resettled in California, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and other states. They became U.S. citizens and established homes in these new lands, having lost their homeland.

In 2018, the Hmong Veterans’ Service Recognition Act extended some U.S. benefits to Hmong and Laotian veterans of the “secret war.” The act allows burial in national cemeteries for veterans who became U.S. citizens on or after the act was adopted. Arlington National Cemetery is excluded. Although Hmong and U.S. soldiers died together, they may not be buried together at Arlington because the Hmong guerrillas were not members of the regular U.S. Army.

On May 15, 2025, Wisconsin formally recognized the fighters as Wisconsin veterans. The bill’s author, Wisconsin State Sen. André Jacque, said, “These brave fighters provided vital intelligence, air rescue for downed American pilots and direct engagement in combat operations in service to our country, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives.” 


Other states, including California, Minnesota, Michigan and Alaska, annually recognize Hmong veterans. You can, too. One way is to be informed. Michigan State University’s Bias Busters series has 100-question basic guides about many groups. There are guides about East Asian cultures, Hmong Americans, U.S. Sikhs and Indian Americans. All are on Amazon


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Care to read more?

Here are our own “Top 10 Books” about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Books 1-5: MSU Bias Busters books

Click on these covers to visit the Amazon page displaying all of the Bias Busters books.

For many years, students at Michigan State University’s School of Journalism have produced books that answer questions about our friends and neighbors who represent what might seem like “different” backgrounds, races, cultures and ways of life. The two dozen Bias Busters books cover everything from racial groupings to major world faiths to the lives of veterans and police officers and their families.

Five MSU Bias Busters guides relate to Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month: All of these guides are especially useful for people in community leadership, media, business, schools, places of worship, government, medicine, law enforcement, human resources and journalism—anywhere it is important to know more about our neighbors in our communities, schools and workplaces. These books are designed both for individual reading and for group discussions.

100 Questions and Answers About East Asian Cultures This book has sections on East Asian cultures, languages, religions, social norms, politics, history, families and food.

100 Questions and Answers About Indian Americans This guide to Indians in America has sections on India’s history, population, religion, language, culture, food, gender, family, education, work and politics. It includes information on Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism.

100 Questions and Answers about Hmong Americans: Secret No More In fewer than 50 years, Hmong Americans are filling seats in college classrooms and state legislatures, serving in health care, owning businesses, teaching, competing on the U.S. Olympic team—and creating art. Citizenship and voting rates are higher than they are for most other immigrants, even though Hmong people come from places where they were discouraged from having any civic involvement.

100 Questions and Answers About Sikh Americans: The Beliefs Behind the Articles of Faith Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world. It is a young religion, having been founded in 1469. It has been in the United States for almost 150 years, but is still relatively unknown. Perhaps you have seen someone wearing a turban in public or seen Sikhs mentioned in the news and wondered who they were. Maybe your neighbor, coworker or friend is Sikh, and you want to learn more.

And: 100 Questions and Answers About Immigrants to the U.S. This simple, introductory guide answers 100 of the basic questions people ask about U.S. immigrants and immigration in everyday conversation. It has answers about identity, language, religion, culture, customs, social norms, economics, politics, education, work, families and food.

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Book 6—’Our Muslim Neighbors’

The American Dream is alive and well in Our Muslim Neighborsthe memoir of a Muslim immigrant from India who arrived planning to start a business, working so hard toward his personal goals that he even pumped gas and sold vacuum cleaners door to door. Victor Begg successfully built a thriving, regional chain of furniture stores. Along the way, he discovered that America’s greatest promise lies in building healthy communities with our neighbors.

“In one book, I have come to understand much more about Islam, its followers and its teachings,” Rabbi Bruce Benson writes in the book’s Foreword. “I’ve come to realize that the challenges Muslim immigrants have faced are similar to what Jews and many other immigrant groups have experienced as they tried to settle in America. By the end of this book, I hurt with Victor and I laugh with him, because—as Americans—we share so much. We are him. His journey is our journey. This is our story.”

Ultimately, Victor invites readers to pray with him: “God bless America.” As you follow him along this remarkable journey, as you catch his vision of a vibrant America—you are likely to find your own family and your own values mirrored in his story. You’re also likely to want to share this book with friends and join in building a better world.

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Book 7—’Friendship and Faith’

Friendship & Faith is a book about making friends, which may be the most important thing you can do to make the world a better place, and transform your own life in the process. Making a new friend often is tricky, as you’ll discover in these dozens of real-life stories by women from a wide variety of religious and ethnic backgrounds. But, crossing lines of religion, race and culture is worth the effort, often forming some of life’s deepest friendships, these women have found. In Friendship and Faith, you’ll discover how we really can change the world one friend at a time.

You’ll find yourself drawn into these page-turning true stories as soon as you open the book and begin reading the first one—about two little girls in Iran whose families warn them not to make friends. Instead, they find a clever way to form a lasting bond. Soon, you’ll meet a young Indian Hindu woman who discovered that daring to make diverse friendships really can make the world a much more hopeful place.  You’ll also meet a courageous Japanese migrant who actually traveled between both countries during World War II as a little girl and learned about global peacemaking as a result.

“The stories are so genuine and come from the heart!” writes a reviewer. “You can tell that every woman who shared their stories were passionate about their experiences and self-discoveries. Each story is like a mirror for the reader and allows the reader to self contemplate and self-reflect.”

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Book 8—’We Are the Socks’

We Are the Socks is a collection of true stories about people who are transforming conflict into peace.

This wonderfully engaging memoir of global travels by international peace trainer Daniel Buttry includes stories from Hong Kong, India, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar (Burma) and the Philippines. The book’s title phrase comes from one of Buttry’s most moving stories about faith and compassionate service. If you read this book—you won’t forget The Socks.

Some days, the idea of peacemaking seems impossible—unless you’re Daniel Buttry. An ordained minister and seasoned peacemaker, he has traveled to some of the most dangerous places in the world to conduct conflict resolution, train clergy and elders, and transform conflict into peace.

Buttry describes himself as a “Peace Warrior.” Raised in a military family he has become a global peace activist. For many years, he worked as the Global Consultant for Peace and Justice with International Ministries of the American Baptist Churches. He works primarily with church groups as his own passion for peacemaking comes from his deep Christian faith. But with so many conflicts having religious lines of division as a part of them Buttry engages in peacemaking across those faith lines.

Buttry’s personal and community life feeds his global work. He and his wife Sharon are both ordained American Baptist clergy, and both committed to urban ministry. They live in Hamtramck, Michigan, an urban municipality surrounded by Detroit. They have been involved in interfaith work as well as local community and school nonviolence work.

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Book 9—’Blessed Are the Peacemakers’

Blessed Are the Peacemakers is Daniel Buttry’s “magnum opus” of men, women and children around the world who have risked their lives as peacemakers.

In the pages of this book, you will meet more than 100 heroes, but most of them are not the kind of heroes our culture celebrates for muscle, beauty and wealth. These heroes are “peacemakers” and they circle the planet. A few are famous like Gandhi and Bono of U2. But most of them you will discover for the first time in these stories. Watch out! Reading about their lives may inspire you to step up into their courageous circle.

From Asia and the Pacific, readers will find some famous names profiled, including Gandhi and the Dalai Lama. But the real value of this unique collection is the discovery of people whose stories most readers have never heard.

Here are just a few examples: Likely for the first time, readers will learn about Teresita “Ging” Quintos-Deles from the Philippines who helped to move grassroots communities in remote areas into the national process of creating safe spaces for vulnerable people. Also, readers will discover the amazing story of Wati Aier, a relentlessly hopeful and pragmatic peacemaker in Thailand. And, from Cambodia, there’s the story of Maha Ghosananda, who risked his life many times to lead peacemaking walks across his native land to inspire combatants to put down their arms.

In this book, Buttry challenges readers to go and do likewise—whatever your age, race, culture, gender or background may be.

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Finally, Book 10 (and more)—True ‘Interfaith Heroes’

Interfaith Heroes, volume 1, is the first book our publishing house produced nearly two decades ago.

This book was designed as one of our first month-long, day-by-day “readers,” showcasing short biographies of men and women throughout history who have crossed traditional boundaries of religious groups to build stronger communities. Once again, Volume 1 includes some famous figures, such as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and St. Francis. But readers also will travel to Asia to learn about the Sufi poet best known simply as Rumi—as well as Hindu writer Rabindranath Tagore. The book includes questions for daily reflection that are designed to spark creative thinking by people of all faiths. The sketches and daily questions could be used by discussion groups or students in classrooms studying history, global culture or the sociology of religion. Also included is a Study Guide for individuals, groups and classrooms.

Then, if you like the day-by-day format of this book, another inspiring month-long “reader” with significant Asian content is Thirty Days with E. Stanley Jones. In his day, E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973) was described as the “greatest missionary since Saint Paul.” More than an evangelist, he was the author of 27 books that sold millions of copies. He also was a statesman, the founder of Christian ashrams, an interfaith leader as well as a spokesman for peace, racial inclusion and social justice. Twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, his ministry in India brought him into close contact with that country’s leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore, and Mahatma Gandhi. His writings from India influenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s own nonviolent approach to injustice.

Finally, Daniel Buttry followed up on his first volume of “Interfaith Heroes” with Interfaith Heroes 2, which also explores a significant number of Asian peacemakers. The inspiring Asian profiles in this second book in the series include: Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Pakistan/India), known as “Frontier Gandhi,” nonviolent Muslim leader; Chinmayananda Saraswati (India), Hindu spiritual leader and teacher; Fr. Joseph Maier (Thailand) – Catholic priest working in Bangkok slums; Sakena Yacoobi (Afghanistan), Muslim educator, Afghan Institute of Learning; Tissa Balasuriya (Sri Lanka), Catholic priest, liberation theologian; and Toyohiko Kagawa (Japan), Christian social reformer and peacemaker.

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Mother’s Day: Celebrating Mothers, millions of American families gather in church


“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.”

Excerpted and adapted by Ken Sehested, from Julia Ward Howe’s “Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World,” September 1870. (The first American attempts for a “Mother’s Day for Peace” arose in the 1870s, when Julia Ward Howe called on mothers to support disarmament in the Civil War and Franco-Prussian War)


SUNDAY, MAY 11: Happy Mother’s Day!

Express gratitude to Mom, Grandma or any maternal figure in your life on this, the second Sunday of May—celebrated in many of the world’s countries as Mother’s Day.

Did you know? Mother’s Day yields the highest U.S. church attendance after Christmas Eve and Easter. Most churches honor their congregation’s mothers in some way—with a special prayer, perhaps, or (in many congregations) with a flower.

mother's day gift with flowers

Photo by Zenspa1, courtesy of Flickr

A DAY FOR MOM: ANNA JARVIS

Although motherhood has been celebrated for millennia, the modern American version of Mother’s Day—the one we all know today—began in 1908 with Anna Jarvis. Determined to bring awareness to the vital role of each mother in her family, Jarvis began campaigning for a “Mother’s Day,” and finally was successful in reaching the whole country in 1914. Jarvis’s concept differed considerably from corporate interests in the holiday, however, and the over-commercialization of Mother’s Day was irritating to Jarvis as early as the 1920s. This year, in honor of the Mother’s Day centennial, honor Mom the way Jarvis intended: with a hand-written letter, a visit, a homemade gift or a meal, cooked from scratch.

Cooking Mom brunch? Look to Martha Stewart (for gift ideas, too!) and AllRecipes.

Though American observances honoring mothers began popping up in the 1870s and 1880s, Jarvis’s campaigns were the first to make it beyond the local level. The first “official” Mother’s Day service was actually a memorial ceremony, held at Jarvis’s church, in 1908; the 500 carnations given out at that first celebration have given way to the widespread custom of distributing carnations to mothers on this day. For Anna, the floral choice was easy: Carnations were her mother’s favorite flowers.

CYBELE, MOTHERING SUNDAY AND MOTHER’S DAY

While the modern observance of Mother’s Day began just a century ago, celebrations for women and mothers have been common throughout history. Greeks worshipped the mother goddess Cybele, while the Romans held the festival of Hilaria; Christians have observed Mothering Sunday for centuries, while Hindus have honored “Mata Tirtha Aunshi,” or “Mother Pilgrimage Fortnight.” The first American attempts for a “Mother’s Day for Peace” arose in the 1870s, when Julia Ward Howe called on mothers to support disarmament in the Civil War and Franco-Prussian War. Several decades later, Anna Jarvis created a holiday that became the Mother’s Day we know today.

Despite Jarvis’s best efforts, though, the commercialization of Mother’s Day was inevitable: Mother’s Day is now one of the most financially successful holidays on the American calendar.

Today, Mother’s Day is the most popular day of the year to eat out and to make phone calls. Yet it is with Mom in mind that Americans spend $2.6 billion on flowers annually for Mother’s Day; $1.53 billion on gifts; and $68 million on greeting cards.

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April 30, 2025—Marking the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War’s end

Memories of the Vietnam War’s end spark sorrow—and also hope for the future

While a tragic era ended, vibrant new Hmong communities also were born among hard-working refugees in the U.S.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2025—Marking the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War’s end, news media around the world are sharing stories of the trauma. Here’s CBS News’ overview of that final day.

In sharing this video clip with other online publications, CBS News describes it this way:

As the North Vietnamese army closed in on Saigon fifty years ago, U.S. forces, personnel and South Vietnamese civilians struggled to evacuate to American ships offshore. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports on what became the largest helicopter evacuation in history, and talks with former service members who were on the ground and in the air during one of the most perilous operations of the Vietnam War.

But the Vietnam War’s end also was the bitter-sweet birth of vibrant American Hmong communities

THIS MONTH ALSO is an auspicious anniversary for the now-vibrant Hmong-American communities in the U.S.—since these allies of our U.S. armed forces also fled the war-torn region in 1975.

Our publishing house has been actively supportive of this community’s efforts to tell their story nationwide. So, this week, we invited MSU Bias Busters founder Joe Grimm to report on some of the MSU School of Journalism’s latest efforts to help raise awareness of Hmong Americans’ culture and distinctive story. In Joe’s story in our Front Edge Publishing website, he shares a short video of a Hmong-American woman describing their migration—plus links to get a helpful Bias Busters book about Hmong communities.

 

 

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US Postal Service invites all of us to celebrate Native American heritage with launch at annual Gathering of Nations Powwow

But, there’s an overall mixed message in 2025—

While celebrating powwows—U.S. officials cancel efforts to show boarding school atrocities

By JOE GRIMM
Founder of the MSU School of Journalism Bias Busters series

THURSDAY, APRIL 24-26There’s no question about this: The Gathering of Nations Powwow in New Mexico is the largest powwow in North America, bringing together over 3,000 dancers and singers from more than 750 tribes across the United States, Canada, and beyond.

But the federal government’s message in late April 2025 is more mixed.

On April 25, it released four new stamps commemorating Indian powwows.

However—about a week earlier, the Associated Press reported that the National Endowment for the Humanities had canceled $1.6 million in grants to capture and digitize records of the abuse and deaths of children in Indian boarding schools. The boarding school grants, just a few of many NEH cuts by the Trump administration, follow a federal investigation and apology by former President Joe Biden in October 2024.

For 150 years, the federal government sent Indigenous children away to the schools. They were made to stop using their native languages and faiths, were stripped of their cultures and beaten. Many were abused and died. An Interior Department investigation found that at least 973 Native American children died at the boarding schools. The report and outside researchers say there were more. 

Enactment of the Indian Child Welfare Act officially ended the forced assimilation policy in 1978. However,  the U.S. government did not fully investigate boarding schools until the Biden administration. Then, in April 2024, the NEH announced it was awarding $411,000 to more than a dozen tribal nations and organizations working to illustrate the impact of boarding schools. Most of those awards are now terminated. 

One project, by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, was to  digitize more than 100,000 pages of boarding school records for its database. People use the site to find loved ones who were sent to boarding schools. Now, the National Endowment for the Humanities has issued a statement that the “grant no longer effectuates the agency’s needs and priorities.”

However, on April 25, the United States Postal Service dedicated its “Powwows: Celebrating Native American Culture” stamps in Albuquerque. The occasion is an auspicious one each year. The Gathering of Nations draws more than 100,000 attendees.

According to a Postal Service press release, chief customer and marketing officer and executive vice president Steven W. Monteith, said  it “takes great pride in our stamps and the unique opportunity they offer to tell the story of America. … We hope they inspire a deeper appreciation of Native American culture and influence all who see them.” 

The four stamps are from paintings by Cochiti Pueblo artist Mateo Romero

Care to learn more?

To learn more, see “100 Questions, 500 Nations: A Guide to Native America: Covering tribes, treaties, sovereignty, casinos, reservations, Indian health, education, religion, … and tribal membership.” It is part of the Bias Busters series, which includes guides about the religiously unaffiliated, Muslims, Jews, Latter-day Saints, Chaldeans, Sikhs and the Black Church with more on the way. All are on Amazon.

Click the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

 

 

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Ridván: Baha’is observe ‘most great festival,’ starting with first day

Baha'i Haifa

The Baha’i gardens in Haifa, Israel. Photo by Boris G, courtesy of Flickr

SUNSET SUNDAY, APRIL 20 through SUNSET FRIDAY, MAY 2: The most holy Baha’i festival worldwide is the 12-day period known as Ridván—and tonight, Baha’is begin celebration of the first day of Ridvan.

Named “Ridván” for “paradise,” this sacred festival commemorates Baha’u’llah’s time in the Najibiyyih Garden—after he was exiled by the Ottoman Empire—and the first announcement of his prophethood. For Baha’is, Ridvan is the “King of Festivals,” and the first, ninth and 12th days are occasions for work and school to be suspended.

IN THE NEWS: In Mumbai, India, Baha’is will be celebrating Ridván and commemorating Baha’u’llah’s message “of unity and peace,” according to the Free Press Journal. (Read the story here.)

Ridván: BAHA’U’LLAH IN THE GARDEN

The story of Ridván actually begins years before Baha’u’llah revealed his identity and took up temporary residence in the Najibiyyih Garden, with a man who called himself “the Bab” (translated, the Gate). The year was 1844 CE when Siyyid Ali-Muhammad, of Shiraz, made the proclamation that he was the Bab—and that a Messianic figure was coming. Nine years later, the man known as Baha’u’llah experienced a revelation while imprisoned in Tehran, Iran: he was the Promised One foretold of by the Bab.

After release from prison, Baha’u’llah settled in Baghdad, which was becoming the center of the Babi (followers of the Bab) movement. Though he made no open claims related to his revelation, Baha’u’llah slowly began attracting more and more Babi followers. The growing Babi community, along with Baha’u’llah’s increasing popularity, caused the government to exile Baha’u’llah from Baghdad to Constantinople. (Learn more from the Baha’i Library Online.) After having packed his things, Baha’u’llah stayed in the Najibiyyih garden to both receive visitors and allow his family sufficient time to pack for the journey.

Precisely 31 days after Naw-Ruz, on April 22, 1863, Baha’u’llah moved to a garden across the Tigris River from Baghdad with his sons, secretary and a few others. In the Najibiyyih Garden, Baha’u’llah announced his prophetic mission to a small group of close friends and family. In addition, Baha’ullah made three announcements: that religious war was not permissible; that there would not be another Manifestation of God for 1,000 years; and that all the names of God are fully manifest in all things. For 11 days, Baha’u’llah stayed in the Najibiyyih Garden. On the ninth day, the rest of his family joined him; on the 12th day, the entire group departed for Constantinople.

THE ‘MOST GREAT FESTIVAL’

During Ridván, those of the Baha’i community gather, pray and hold celebrations.

Local Spiritual Assemblies—that is, the governing bodies of Baha’i communities worldwide—are elected on the first day of Ridván.

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Easter, Pascha: Western and Eastern Christians worldwide celebrate the Resurrection

Easter mass, Vatican

An Easter service at the Vatican. Photo by Laura Paone, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

SUNDAY, APRIL 20: Easter (Pascha) is the most important celebration of the year in both Western and Eastern (Orthodox) Christian churches, and this year, the observances will converge: while the holidays are moveable, both branches of Christianity will mark this holiday on Sunday, April 20.

Hot cross buns, chocolate bunnies and brunch soufflé fill tables and baskets of plenty on this joyous holiday, as families and friends gather to mark this, the focal point of the Christian calendar. Lilies adorn altar spaces and remind churchgoers both of resurrection (blossoms from dormant spring bulbs)—and that Jesus enjoyed a form of lily himself as is evidenced in the Gospel of Luke. The 50 days following Easter are called Eastertide.

(Note: Though termed Pascha in the Eastern Christian Church, the themes are similar across East and West.)

plate with cooked lamb

Cooked lamb, a traditional meat served for Easter dinner. Photo by Valeria Boltneva, courtesy of Pexels

EGG HUNTS AND HAM TO BELLS AND LAMB

Easter in America may be characterized as much by the Easter Bunny and pastel-hued candies as it is by Christian joy in Christ’s Resurrection. Egg hunts, treat-filled baskets and festive brunches mark Easter for many American families, although for Christians, shared meals most often involve white-and-gold settings, fresh lilies on the table and, in many homes, a sacred Paschal Candle. A traditional Easter menu also often features lamb—a symbol of Christ at this time of year as the Paschal Lamb. However, these days, Easter hams far outpace cuts of lamb. Whether at church or at a post-service feast, Christians dress in their best apparel on Easter day.

2025 NEWS: Though egg prices have risen in the United States, news sources report that most families with egg-dyeing traditions will continue the ritual this year. (USA Today has the story.) In fact, the CEO of Signature Brands (which makes PAAS egg dyeing kits) reports shipping 20 percent more kits to retail stores this year than last year, making it their “strongest year yet.”

In France and Belgium, the bells that “went to Rome on Maundy Thursday” return home for the evening Easter Vigil, only to bring Easter eggs to boys and girls—or so, the story has it.

In most countries with a substantial Christian population, Easter is a public holiday.

THE NEW TESTAMENT: WITNESS OF AN EMPTY TOMB

The New Testament describes the events of the resurrection of Jesus, which Christians believe verify him as the Son of God. There is no recorded “moment of resurrection,” but rather, the discovery by Mary Magdalene (and possibly others) early on Sunday morning—that the tomb was empty.

Did you know? First evidence of the Easter festival appears in the mid-2nd century.

In his crucifixion, Jesus died on a Roman cross. That evening, according to Christian tradition, Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body, wrapped it in linen cloth and laid it in a tomb. Saturday passed, and early on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene (and, some Gospels attest, other women in attendance) visited the tomb of Jesus. Much to their surprise, the tomb’s stone was moved, and a messenger announced that Jesus had risen from the dead. Gospel accounts vary regarding the messenger’s specific message and the women’s response, but all emphasize that the empty tomb was witnessed. To this day, sunrise services are popular in some regions on Easter Sunday, echoing the traditional stories of the empty tomb.

In the church, Easter is followed by the 50 days of Eastertide, which comes to an end on Pentecost Sunday.

EASTER RECIPES, DIY & MORE

  • Feeding a crowd—or a few? Flavorful recipes for pastries, elaborate egg dishes and even a bunny house are at Food Network.
  • Marbleized, glittering and chalkboard eggs are a snap to create, thanks to tips from Martha Stewart.
  • Glow-in-the-dark eggs for a nighttime hunt are more feasible than they might sound: Wiki How offers instructions.
  • Set your Easter table a little more creatively this year, with help from HGTV.
  • Homemade chocolate Easter eggs are made easy, thanks to directions from the BBC.
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