Reflect on HERITAGE

• What story told by (or about) your ancestors has shaped you the most?
• What is your favorite family memento? And why does it have such a hold on you?
• What’s the legacy of your first embarrassment? And of your first award/triumph?
• We usually think of heritage as tied to people, but places shape us as much as our family trees. What “inheritance” was passed on to you by your childhood hometown or childhood house?

Quotes about HERITAGE

• “When we lie about the past, we steal from the future.” – Abigail Bengson
• “Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body — it is heritage.”  Ta-Nehisi Coates

• “My father used to say that stories are part of the most precious heritage of humankind.” -Tahir Shah
• “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” – William Faulkner

Books that relate to the theme of Heritage – These are great reads to complement our focus on HERITAGE this month.

• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents byIsabel Wilkerson
• Kindred by Octavia Butler
• The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity  by David Graeber & David Wengrow
• Lamarck’s Revenge: How Epigenetics Is Revolutionizing Our Understanding of Evolution’s Past and Present by Peter Ward

HERITAGE at the Movies!

• Coco (family friendly)
• Blinded by the Light
• Fences
• Lion

Other Things about HERITAGE on the Internet

• Can Trauma Be Inherited? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuIM39dcUs4&t=74s
• Reflecting On The Past To Understand The Present https://www.npr.org/2018/06/14/607757718/looking-back-reflecting-on-the-past-to-understand-the-present
• “Reflections on the 1980s Article II Revision—and Why it’s Time to Revise Again” https://www.uuworld.org/articles/80sarticleii
• Remembering The Black Empowerment Tragedy – UU World Magazine https://www.uuworld.org/articles/empowerment-tragedy

HERITAGE  SONGS

On Spotify & YouTube

• Spotify playlist here
• YouTube playlist here

CALENDAR CONNECTIONS FOR OCTOBER

Interfaith:

• Feast of St Francis of Assisi (Christian) – Oct. 4
• World Communion Sunday (Christian) – Oct. 1, 2023
• Sukkot: Feast of Tabernacles (Jewish) – Sept. 29 – Oct. 6, 2023
• Reformation Day (Christian) – Oct. 31   (more here)
• Samhain (Wiccan) –  Oct. 31 – Nov. 1 [more and more]

Unitarian Universalist:

• Michael Servetus burned at the stake in Geneva – Oct. 27 (1553) (more here)
• UU Merger Vote: Unitarians and Universalists, meeting separately in Syracuse, NY, voted to proceed with consolidation – Oct. 31, 1959.  (The official consolidation, UUA Founding Day, happened in 1961 on May 12. – more here)

National & Cultural Holidays:

• LGBTQ History Month
• Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15)
• Breast Cancer Awareness Month
• Bullying Prevention Month
• ADHD Awareness Month
• Birthday of Mohandas Gandhi – Oct. 2 (1869)
• Thurgood Marshall sworn in – first African American associate justice – U.S. Supreme Court – Oct. 2, 1967 
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg joins the U.S. Supreme Court as its second woman Justice – Oct. 4, 1993
• Sisters in Spirit Vigils (Canada) – October 4, 2018: Honoring the lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG)
• NASA launches first peopled mission, Apollo 7 – Oct. 11 (1968)
• Indigenous Peoples Day / Columbus Day (U.S.) – Oct. 9, 2023 (second Monday of October) – more here
• National Coming Out Day – Oct. 11 (more here)
• Thanksgiving Day (Canada) – Oct. 9, 2023 (second Monday in October)
• John Brown’s Raid – Oct. 16 (1859)
• United Nations Day – Oct. 24
• Intersex Awareness Day – Oct. 26
• Halloween, All Soul’s Eve – Oct. 31
• Dia de los Muertos – Nov. 1-2

For Fun and On the Fringe:

• Country Music Month (designated Oct. 1970 by Richard Nixon) more here and here
• World Vegetarian Day – Oct. 1
• World Smile Day – Oct. 6 
• Apple introduce new iPod – Oct. 13 (2005)
• Clergy Appreciation Day – Oct. 8, 2023 (second Sunday of October)