Every year since 1977 International Museum Day is organized worldwide around May 18.

This day is an occasion to raise awareness on how important museums are in the development of society.

ICOM Advisory Committee organizes the theme of this event that, given the high number of countries involved, lasts a day, a weekend, a week or even a month.

From America to Oceania including Africa, Europe and Asia, this international event has confirmed its popularity. 

These recent years, International Museum Day has been experiencing its highest involvement with almost 30,000 museums that organized activities in more than 120 countries.

World Migratory Bird Day is a two-day event annually held on the second weekend of May to highlight the need to protect migratory birds and their habitats. The United Nations is one of the many organizations that support this global awareness campaign.

In 1983 UNESCO established 18th of April as the International Day for Monuments and Sites. The designation of this day aims to raise public awareness about the diversity and vulnerability of the world’s built monuments and heritage sites and the efforts required to protect and conserve them. In addition, each year has a different theme. The 2016 theme for the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) International Day on Monuments and Sites celebrated is: The Heritage of Sport, looking ahead to the Olympics in Brazil, is The Heritage of Sport.
This day is also commonly known as World Heritage Day. However, whilst UNESCO is the organization that lists World Heritage Sites, this day is not just about the listed sites, but brings attention to all cultural heritage places and landscapes of international, national and local significance.
The World Heritage Day is also a good day to create educational and informative projects for students and educators. For example The UNESCO site gives details of success stories and successful restorations as well as world heritage sites in danger.
In addition, ICOMOS also gives a list of ways for the public to celebrate the day or the week:

• Visits to monuments and sites, and restoration works, possibly with free admission
• Articles in newspapers and magazines, as well as television and radio broadcasts
• Hanging banners in town squares or principal traffic arteries calling attention to the day and the preservation of cultural heritage
• Inviting local and foreign experts and personalities for conferences and interviews
  Organizing discussions in cultural-centers, city halls, and other public spaces
• Exhibitions (photos, paintings, etc)
• Publication of books, post-cards, stamps, posters
• Awarding prizes to organizations or persons who have made an outstanding contribution to the conservation and promotion of cultural heritage or produced an excellent publication on the subject.
• Inaugurate a recently restored monument
• Special awareness raising activities amongst school children and youth
• Promotion of collaborative opportunities between organizations, defining areas for co-operation’ exchange of speakers; organization of meetings and seminars, or editing of joint publications.

Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Mechtild Rössler, in a recent call, acknowledges the great efforts of those engaged for World Heritage protection, and calls for civil society as a whole to increase its commitment to protecting World Heritage sites, stating that World Heritage is humankind’s common heritage, and the responsibility for its conservation is shared by everyone.

In the call, UNESCO acknowledged the support of NGOs such as World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and referred to its latest report, stating that 2015 saw an unprecedented level of action from governments and the private sector around the world. “In January last year, the government of Kiribati declared its entire World Heritage site – the largest site on UNESCO’s World Heritage List – off limits for fisheries; in May Shell decided to renounce drilling in the Chukchi Sea which threatened Wrangel Island Reserve System in Russia; and in December the government of Belize announced a permanent ban on oil extraction in its World Heritage area.”

In addition, The Director of the World Heritage Center welcomes cooperation with NGOs, including WWF, on the protection of World Heritage sites worldwide as partners in the identification, nomination and protection of World Heritage properties. UNESCO also stated that, thanks to NGOs and civil society, many States Parties have been alerted to potential threats to their irreplaceable heritage and to sites of Outstanding Universal Value. The World Heritage Committee is taking increasingly strong action to prevent deterioration of World Heritage sites and mitigate threats to them.

-Written by Shokooh Mirzadegi-

What is “civil disobedience?” It is defined as a non-violent struggle or protest against a method, policy or issue that the power apparatus imposes on its people.
As an admirer and practitioner of the non-religious culture of Iran, I claim that, based upon the above definition, and during the last 38 years, the movement to observe the ancient ceremonies related to Nowruz (the new day of the New Year in Iranian calendar, beginning on the first day of spring) which is observed by millions of Iranians, has turned into the largest and most magnificent case of civil disobedience of our time.
This movement took shape immediately after the advent of Islamic Revolution in Iran (1978) and it has been alive and active, contrary to all the Islamic government’s efforts to stop it through security-manipulations and/or religious pretext. The movement has grown rapidly and has expanded to other rituals related to Nowruz such as Charshanbeh-Suri (The fire festival) and Sizdah-bedar (celebration for the end of two-week long Nowruzi festivities).
A few weeks before the beginning of spring, Iranian people, very similar to an organized, nicely trained and proud army, begin their preparation for the ceremony of welcoming their New Year, a heritage of their pre-Islamic civilization. The Islamic government calls the ceremony a fire worshiping practice of pagans but people observe their Charshanbeh-Suri festival. The government calls them unbelievers and they jump over burning bonfires. They forbid it restrictly and they continue their fire ceremony. it threatens them with prosecution and arrest and they carry on their joyful festivities.
The Islamic government does not approve of dancing and happy gatherings and bans such activities during the Nowruz period. People do not pay attention. The government issues military ultimatums and religious decrees while people ignore them all. The Islamic government puts them in jail but they continue the ceremony as soon as they are released.
The Islamic government spends huge sums of money for its many religious festivities, aiming to stop Nowruzi rituals (that are registered by UNESCO as a part of mankind’s intangible heritage), and looks for some occasion related to the death of religious personalities coinciding with Nowruz in order to stop the ceremonies.
Nevertheless, Iranian people, with the ascending fragrance of Spring in their chests, observe the Nowruzi ceremonies every year and on an ever expanding dimension. The government puts them under severe economic hardships but the people, just like dutiful soldiers, bear the hardship and continue their civil disobedience, fighting to keep their traditions, and continue flying the victorious flag of Nowruz.
I have arrived at this conclusion: Our people, some of them even without being aware of the fact, are going through the process of “survival of the fittest” and based on the Darwinian “natural selection”, endeavor to weather the hardships and remain alive through clinging to their ancient culture which is filled with essence and elements of happiness, beauty, kindness and productivity; a culture that can act as the best antitoxin for their government’s atrocities.
This year too, the 38th anniversary of our people’s civil disobedience begins by the arrival of the Spring and the admirers of Iran’s culture continue their struggle against an anti-culture force just to keep their natural rights of being free and happy. The result would inevitably be the defeat of the stern army of freedom haters and happiness killers.