World Down Syndrome Day
2023-03-21 00:00 - 23:59 (Australia/Sydney)

World Poetry Day
2023-03-21 00:00 - 23:59

Week of Solidarity with the Peoples Struggling against Racism and Racial Discrimination
2023-03-21 08:00 - 2023-03-22 17:00

World Water Day
2023-03-22 00:00 - 23:59
“The earth’s biodiversity, the functioning of the various biomes and of the atmosphere, the cycles of water and climate remind us of how versatile and fundamental this precious creature of God is.” Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, Acqua Fons Vitae, p 13.

World Water Day has been celebrated since 1993. Now a core focus of the day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030. The theme of World Water Day in 2021 is valuing water.

In Aqua Fons Vitae, the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development point out that as well as an economic value, water has a religious value, socio-cultural and aesthetic value, and even an institutional value and a value for peace. You can access a collection of Church statements, tools and initiatives related Aqua fons vitae here.

For Reflection

How do you value water?

Which of the proposals in Aqua Fons Vitae are the most important for your community?

World Meteorological Day
2023-03-23 00:00 - 23:59

International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims
2023-03-24 00:00 - 23:59

International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing UN Staff Members
2023-03-25 00:00 - 23:59

1975: Biological Weapons Convention
2023-03-26 00:00 - 23:59

Earth Hour
2023-03-28 20:30 - 21:30

World Autism Awareness Day
2023-04-02 00:00 - 23:59

International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action
2023-04-04 00:00 - 23:59
The United Nations established this day in 2005 through this resolution.

The annual message for the day, together with other resources, are available here.

International Day of Sport for Development and Peace
2023-04-06 00:00 - 23:59
Find out more about why the United Nations declared this day here.

A Crown for Australia: Striving for the Best in Our Sporting Nation

Today is a great day to revisit the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Social Justice Statement 2014–2015. It challenges us to look at the place of sport in our lives. Where are its strengths and how can we ensure that sport can thrive and in return can nourish our society? Equally, what are the influences that are undermining and distorting sport’s ideals? Most importantly, how can we work to realise sport’s potential to unite communities, overcome differences and be a force for social justice and reconciliation?

Prayer for Good Sports

God of all sports (and none);from our small minds,how amused you must bewhen our prayers about sportare about our own success or our team's.Whose side are you on?How do you choosewhen supporters from both sidesimplore your divine intervention?Remind us that in prayerour hearts are opened to youand our minds lifted beyond ourselves.Just as prayer changes us,not you, O God,so sport too, can lift us beyond ourselves.So we pray:We give thanks for the gift of our bodies,for the ability to run, walk, jump,swim, catch and throw.We pray for patience and discipline,that we may learn the joy of mastering new skills:achieving success, and cheerfully bearing failurein the company of others.We pray that our relationships be enrichedthrough the friendships we form.May we learn to include others across bordersof language, colour, gender and religion.We pray that we care for others.May we especially look out for thosewho are differently abled,and those often left on the boundaries.Through our vigilancemay we always play fair,and ensure that no one is abused or exploited.We ask this through Jesus your son. Amen.

International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda
2023-04-07 00:00 - 23:59

World Health Day
2023-04-07 00:00 - 23:59

International Mother Earth Day
2023-04-22 00:00 - 23:59
Tree of Life – Mieke Boynton

Mother Earth is a common expression for the planet earth in a number of countries and regions, which reflects the interdependence that exists among human beings, other living species and the planet we all inhabit. Resolution establishing Mother Earth Day adopted by the General Assembly on 22 April 2009

The United Nations designated this day in 2009. It was already celebrated in a number of different countries prior to this. You can find a range of related resources for the celebration of this day here.

Artwork:

Tree of Life – Mieke Boynton

Music:

Tend the Ground – Curtis Stephan

Tend the Ground – Curtis Stephan

World Book and Copyright Day
2023-04-23 00:00 - 23:59
Did you know that this date was chosen by the United Nations because it was on this date in 1616 that Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare and Inc Garcilaso de la Vega died?

Read the UNESCO resolution proclaiming the day here.

Access resources for celebrating the day here.

1945: First united Nations Conference opens
2023-04-25 00:00 - 23:59

1986: Nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine
2023-04-26 00:00 - 23:59

World Day for Health and Safety at Work
2023-04-28 00:00 - 23:59
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) began to celebrate this day in 2003 however the trade union movement internationally has marked this day as the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers since 1996. This celebration is an integral part of the Global Strategy on Occupational Safety and Health of the ILO.

As part of the 2020 World Day for safety and health at work campaign, the ILO will produce a global report, highlighting how a comprehensive OSH [occupational safety and health] framework at both national and workplace level could address violence and harassment in the world of work. This includes for example incorporating provisions related to violence and harassment into OSH laws, regulations and collective agreements and developing specific standards, code of practices and guidelines to support the implementation of programmes and preventive measures in the workplaces. At the workplace level, sound OSH management systems can include the assessment and control of psychosocial risks including the interplay with violence and harassment. ILO, World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2020 – Violence and Harassment in the World of Work

International Workers Day
2023-05-01 00:00 - 23:59

World Press Freedom Day
2023-05-03 00:00 - 23:59

World Password Day
2023-05-04 00:00 - 23:59
In his 2005 book Perfect Passwords, security researcher Mark Burnett encourages people to have a ‘password day’ when thy would update important passwords. Intel Security took up the idea in May 2013 and promoted World Password Day. The day is intended to create awareness of the need for good password security and it is observed on the first Thursday of May.

Here are some activities for marking World Password Day:

change your passwords – tips for creating strong passwords can be found herelayer up and implement multi-factor authentication for your important accounts – learn about layered security herelearn about using password managersmake sure your family and friends understand what makes a strong password.

World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day
2023-05-08 00:00 - 23:59

World Fair Trade Day
2023-05-09 00:00 - 23:59

International Day of Families
2023-05-15 00:00 - 23:59
The following reflection is from Andy Hamilton SJ. Andy is an Australian Jesuit, Consulting Editor of Eureka Street, Editorial Consultant to Australian Catholics, and a member of the communications team at Jesuit Social Services.

The coronavirus has put enormous pressures on all of us as persons, and on the groups and institutions to which we belong. It has been an affliction. The response to the measures taken to address it has been mixed. Sometimes it has been narrow and divisive, but more generally it has been extraordinarily good-willed, generous and patient. It has opened out to a far broader and balanced conversation about other areas of life that have been affected by the virus. One of these is the family. World Family Day invites us to reflect inclusively and with broad sympathy on the family.

Reflection on the family is often conducted along narrow lines in which we are tempted to focus on one set of relationships and so neglect other relationships that are equally important for healthy family life. The family, for example, may be seen as a stable relationship, recognised as a marriage by state and church, between mother and father and the children they have borne together. Many people will rightly celebrate this as the Catholic ideal of a good marriage.

Others will appeal to dysfunctional families in dismissing this as a primitive and coercive form of association that inhibits individual growth. They might emphasise the freedom of the individuals involved as central to the family. Discussions about the family will then turn to which forms of relationship justify the name of family, and which are better. These are important questions, but they are not the questions asked first by people living with the daily challenges and opportunities of family life.

The consequences of coronavirus have made us attentive to the complexity and breadth of the relationships involved in families which struggle under its burdens. The economic and social changes brought by the virus have shown, for example, the consequences for the family of relationships involved in losing casual work, in working from home, in the expectation that all adult members of a family will work, in schooling, in recreation, staying in touch with extended family and friends, and educational institutions, of relationships with sport, television and social media, and in a house design that offers both common and personal space.

After coronavirus the way in which these relationships have been shaped can no longer be taken for granted. We shall have experience of the disadvantages and advantages of other shapes we may not have considered. The merits of working from home and of home schooling will be considered as real possibilities of which we have experience and not simply as abstract ideas.

We shall see more clearly, too, how tightly the internal relationships within our families are connected to broader relationships with society. We shall have noticed how pressures of living together in a narrow space can be reflected in family violence and in mental illness. We shall find it difficult to reflect on the inner life of families without setting them against the social conditions in which they live. We shall know that if we wish to address antisocial behaviour we shall have to take account of the social problems that give birth to it.

At Jesuit Social Services we work with young people from families which have been disadvantaged. This has often reflected lacks in the way our society cares for families.

World family day is a time to celebrate the generosity and goodness displayed in families, and the resilience that finds life in the most unfavourable circumstances. It is also a day to ask how as a society we can best to accompany families as they prepare children for a full and generous life.

International Day of Living Together in Peace
2023-05-16 00:00 - 23:59

World telecommunications and Information Society Day
2023-05-17 00:00 - 23:59

World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
2023-05-21 00:00 - 23:59

International Day for Biological Diversity
2023-05-22 00:00 - 23:59

International Day to End Obstetric Fistula
2023-05-23 00:00 - 23:59
