December 3 Holidays

International Day of Persons with Disabilities was established by the UN General Assembly in 1992 to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities — approximately 1.3 billion people, or 16 percent of the global population, live with a significant disability. Celebrate Shelter Pets Day was established on the first Thursday of December to encourage adoption from shelters and to celebrate the companion animals people have already adopted. Feast of St. Francis Xavier marks the December 3, 1552 death of Francis Xavier, the Spanish Jesuit who co-founded the Society of Jesus with Ignatius Loyola in 1534 and spent a decade evangelizing in India, Japan, and Southeast Asia — the patron saint of missionaries. National Green Bean Casserole Day celebrates the dish created by Dorcas Reilly of the Campbell Soup Company in 1955 — green beans, condensed mushroom soup, and French’s fried onions — a Thanksgiving staple estimated to account for 40 percent of all Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup sales.