Category: Themes, Displays, and Library Events

Celebrate Vaisakhi!

Tomorrow at our school we celebrate Vaisakhi. Be sure to join in on the festivities at lunch and throughout the day. The official date for Vaisakhi in 2025 is April 14.

Vaisakhi is a major festival on the Sikh calendar, and one of the most important days of the year. Sikhs in Canada, India, and around the world will celebrate the founding of the Khalsa, or the worldwide body of Sikhs, as established by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. Sometimes Vaisakhi is referred to as Khalsa Day.

source: KaurArt.com, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Vaisakhi, or Baisakhi, was traditionally a spring harvest festival, and for some, a New Year’s Day. All across northern India, particularly in the Punjab, many different groups will celebrate Vaisakhi for these various reasons, including Hindus and other non-Sikhs. Vaisakhi is traditionally observed on April 13 or 14, but may be celebrated on different days in different places. Vancouver will hold its Vaisakhi Parade on April 12, while Surrey will hold its parade, one of the largest in the world, on April 19.

The overwhelming majority of Indo-Canadians (people of South Asian origin) in our school and in our neighbourhoods are Sikhs. As such, Vaisakhi is a major holiday here in Surrey and other cities in British Columbia with concentrated populations of Sikhs, such as Vancouver and Abbotsford.

source: cbc.ca

Join with us in your School Library as we celebrate Sikh Heritage Month by learning more about Vaisakhi and other aspects of Sikh culture and history.

Find out more:

March is Irish Heritage Month

March is Irish Heritage Month in Canada. Join with us in Your School Library as we learn more about Ireland, the Irish people, Irish culture, and Irish-Canadians.

Find out more:

2022: The Government of Canada marks the first official Irish Heritage Month in Canada

Irish Heritage Month: The legacies of the Irish in Canada

Celtic Canada Irish Heritage Month

The Canadian Encyclopedia: Irish Canadians

Freedom to Read Week: Do You Know Your Banned Books?

Play a “Sporcle” that asks you to show off your knowledge of some of the most challenged books of the past few years.

Freedom to Read Week in Canada is February 23 to March 1

Get Caught Reading Banned Books

In the past few years, the number of challenges to books in both Canada and the United States has exploded. And while sanity prevails in many cases, in more and more places the censors have been successful. In some jurisdictions, hundreds and hundreds of different titles have been pulled from libraries, schools, government offices and other public institutions. In the private sector, bookstores and publishers have reported the increasing pressures of censorship. Writers have commented on the chilling effect this has on intellectual freedom.

Stand up for your rights and freedoms. Democracy is built on upon your right to information. You have the right to choose for yourself.

Adults have the right to choose for themselves what they want to read. Adults don’t have the right to choose what other people get to read. Parents have the right– and the responsibility– to teach and guide and discuss with their children about what types of library materials are right or wrong for them. Parents are free to have their opinions on what materials are good or bad for children in general They even have the right to express their opinions about why they think certain materials are good or bad for children. Parents do not have the right to decide for other people’s children what they can or can’t read.

February 23 to March 1 is Freedom to Read Week in Canada

Freedom to Read Week

February 23 to March 1, 2025, is Freedom to Read Week in Canada

From freedomtoread.ca: “Freedom to Read Week provides an opportunity for Canadians to focus on issues of intellectual freedom as they affect your community, your province or territory, our country, and countries around the world. Whether you are a librarian, bookseller, educator, student, or member of the community, there are lots of ways you can help mark this annual event.”

Visit your school library in person, or online here at tweedsmuirlibrary.ca, all week long to find out more about Freedom to Read in Canada, how you can celebrate, and how you can join in the ongoing struggle to protect your rights and freedoms.