Puerto Rico

It's already been 111 years since this date was first observed worldwide in due tribute to the longstanding battle of the working people for their demands.The commemoration was first held in Paris to honor the memory of the Chicago Martyrs, a bunch of workers that was dragged to the gallows, charged with demanding an 8-hour working day.In the mid 19th Century, retellers of that moment say, both in Europe and in America, in the emerging industrial factories, workers were forced to accept 12-to-14-hour working days, six days a week, even for children and women in toilsome jobs amid a poisoning and unhealthy environment. European immigrants coming to America in search of a better life, only managed to shake the dregs of the old feudal system off their backs in return for the ferocious appetite of a fledgling Capitalism that was dramatically profiting from the increase of the day’s working hours. Poor British immigrants were the first ever to spread social unrest among their brethren, and they brought to America the struggle they had started back in England for the 8-hour working day.

As in almost all of the Americas, Columbus Day is observed in the region every October 12. The Bahamas archipelago was one of the Caribbean's few areas where the Arawacks were not displaced by the Caribe people. These American indians were probably the very first ever to “discover” the European sailors on October 12, 1492. In fact, it was maybe on the former island of Watling –now the Bahamas- where Christopher Columbus first set foot on American land, though he thought he'd come to Asia.

Barbados became a self-ruled country in 1961 and its independence was proclaimed on November 30, 1966 within the British Commonwealth. Errol W. Barrow, known as the Father of Political Independence, was elected as the island's first governor. Unlike the rest of the West Indies, Barbados never broke away from its metropolis.

February 14 was marked as a festivity back in 1969, when the Roman Catholic calendar devoted this date to commemorate two Christian saints, one of them St. Valentine, martyred by Roman Emperor Claudius II.As the story goes, St. Valentine was sacrificed because he engaged in the labor of marrying couples after the emperor had already forbidden such practice. Seemingly, the Roman emperor believed married soldiers were not that good for fighting as single troopers were. Moreover, in ancient Rome, every February 15 for devoted to honor Lupercus, God of Fertility. Through the years, a range of legends and traditions have been bound together, and currently St. Valentine's Day is a celebration of love and lovers; a day to exchange messages and presents and gifts to show love and friendship to our loved ones.

On May's second Sunday

On June's third Sunday

On September 23, 1868, the anti-colonial struggle began. Five years after slavery had been absolutely abolished, a bunch of patriots led by Ramón Emeterio Betances, took rebellion a lot further by proclaiming Puerto Rico's independence in the city of Lares. He also started an armed struggle to free that island. Patriots were defeated, but the Grito de Lares notched the birth of the Puerto Rican nation.

Slavery was abolished in 1873.