* American holidays Arbor Day








American Holidays: Arbor Day


Figure 1.--Here Leon Berman who was the class orator at a New York City school gives an oration on Arbor Day. The girls seem to all be earing white dresses for the occassion. A source dates the image to 1908, although it is not written on the print.

Arbor Day ('arbor' is the Latin word for tree) is a holiday in which individuals and groups plant and care for trees. The first arnor day was organized by a Spnish priest (1805). The event is now celebrted in countries ll over the world, usually in the Spring because tht is the best time to plant trees. In America, Julius Sterling Morton in Nebraska City, Nebraska founded the first American Arbor Day (1872). And Nebraska was a state that needed trees. Iy was one of the Great Planes state that was flat and sorely lacking in trees. (This would become a factor in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s). The event became popular and by the 1920s, every state had passed public laws that stipulated a certain day to be Arbor Day or Arbor and Bird Day observance. It was only a public holiday in Nebraska, but there were important events all over the country. The dates vary. National Arbor Day is celebrated every year on the last Friday in April. The central event is tree planting. Often there were orations, both at civic events and at schools. This was something that was once promoted at school far more than today. On the first Arbor Day in Nebraska, some 1 million trees were planted. Arbor Day is no longer quite the event it once was, perhaps sidelined to an extent by Earth Day.






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Created: 5:49 PM 12/20/2014
Last updated: 5:49 PM 12/20/2014