Earth Day
On the 22 of April, thousands of people get together to celebrate Earth Day. Throughout the world, millions of people are celebrating, learning, helping and hoping for the earth and her environment.
Every year, Ceduam, 11 Tlaxcalan communities and one community in Hidalgo - about 6,000 people altogether - participate in a wide range of activities commemorating Mother Earth.
Through this initiative, Ceduam is hoping to build a human consciousness and encourage local environmental action. This is a symbolic celebration to express our gratitude to the Mother Earth for all that she has blessed us with: water, air, nutrients, flowers, trees, mountains, the early morning song of the birds, and life itself.
We can all get together and celebrate this day in many ways. Some earth celebrators clean the streets, buildings, public parks, beaches and walkways. Others plant trees, organize ceremonies and cultural events - all dedicated to the earth and the environment.
During church, we can put aside time during Sunday Mass to reflect on the human-nature relation. Furthermore, we can motivate our fellow parishioners to start campaigns to clean up the area around the parish and other public areas in the community.
Through these acts, in the name of "cleaning up the earth", we must pull together our personal energies, regardless of race, custom, language, political and religious preferences, to look for solutions to our environmental problems. We need to work together inthis effort because although we have separate beliefs, customs and roots - we all share the same earth and breathe the same air.
Earth Day World-wide
Earth Day began in the US in 1970 through the colaboration of 22 million people. Several years later, this trend started to grow to international proportions. By 1990, we witnessed the participation of 134 countries - an unprecedented event! The Earth Day of 1990 demonstrated to the world that world-wide collective action to improve the environment can be possible.
Since 1970, Earth Day has fostered a diverse range of ecological activities. The world has witnessed everything from cleaning streets, planting tress, doing letter-writing campaigns to organizing cultural events with music, theater, and dance about the environment.
In Mexico City, Earth Day activities have grown to successful, massive proportions. One of the grandest of the Earth Day events was the cleaning of the forest and highway in the area of Ajusco - in the Federal District.
Throughout Mexico, we are coming forth to care about our environment; we are answering to the color green.