September 15 Holidays

Dot Day is observed on September 15, the publication date of Peter H. Reynolds’s children’s book The Dot, in which a teacher tells a frustrated student to “just make a mark and see where it takes you” — the story inspired an international creativity movement observed in schools, libraries, and studios across 170 countries. Ganesh Chaturthi is the ten-day Hindu festival celebrating the birth of Lord Ganesha — the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, remover of obstacles and patron of new beginnings — beginning on the fourth day of the waxing moon of Bhadrapada. Costa Rica Independence Day marks September 15, 1821, when Costa Rica, along with Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, declared independence from Spain — all five nations share the same independence date. Greenpeace Day marks September 15, 1971, when a small group of activists sailed from Vancouver, Canada, toward Amchitka Island, Alaska, to protest U.S. nuclear weapons testing — the voyage that became the founding act of Greenpeace.