Austin Lodge No.12

Passover
2024-04-22 00:00 - 23:59 (America/Chicago)
In the Bible, Passover marks the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egyptian slavery, when God “passed over” the houses of the Israelites during the last of the ten plagues. When the Temple in Jerusalem stood, the paschal lamb was offered and eaten on Passover eve, while the wave offering of barley was offered on the second day of the festival. Nowadays, in addition to the biblical prohibition of owning leavened foods for the duration of the holiday, the Passover seder is one of the most widely observed rituals in Judaism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover

Eeyore's Birthday Party
2024-05-04 00:00 - 23:59
Eeyore’s Birthday Party certainly attracts a varied crowd. You’ve got hippies, weirdos, furries, responsible parents, dogs, and all other manners of folk attending this adored annual tradition. All-day drum circles, face painting, copious amounts of bubbles, and exotic animals are all yearly occurrences at Eeyore’s Birthday. Essentially, it’s an opportunity to hang out in the sun, (sort of) celebrate a character from Winnie the Pooh, and let your freak flag fly at full mast. To summarize, Eeyore’s Birthday is a wonderfully weird harmony of the varied people whose creative and eclectic spirits make up Austin, Texas.

Cinco De Mayo
2024-05-05 00:00 - 23:59
Cinco de Mayo is a yearly celebration held on May 5, which commemorates the anniversary of Mexico’s victory over the Second French Empire at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. More popular in the United States than Mexico, Cinco de Mayo has become associated with the celebration of Mexican-American culture.

Mother`s Day
2024-05-12 00:00 - 23:59
Mother`s Day is a holiday honoring motherhood that is observed in different forms throughout the world. The American incarnation of Mother`s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and became an official U.S. holiday in 1914. Jarvis would later denounce the holiday`s commercialization and spent the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the calendar. While dates and celebrations vary, Mother`s Day traditionally involves presenting moms with flowers, cards and other gifts.
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/mothers-day

Memorial Day (Lodge is Dark)
2024-05-27 00:00 - 23:59
Lodge is dark. No dinner will be served, and no meeting held afterwards.Masonry 101 class will still be held.
Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.
Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season. https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history

Pride Month
2024-06-01 00:00 - 23:59
To quote the Scottish Rite:
“Human progress is our cause,liberty of thought our supreme wish,freedom of conscience our mission,and the guarantee of equal rights to all people everywhere our ultimate goal.”

Father`s Day
2024-06-16 00:00 - 23:59
Father`s Day, in the United States, holiday (third Sunday in June) to honour fathers. Credit for originating the holiday is generally given to Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, whose father, a Civil Warveteran, raised her and her five siblings after their mother died in childbirth. She is said to have had the idea in 1909 while listening to a sermon on Mother`s Day, which at the time was becoming established as a holiday.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fathers-Day

St John the Baptist Day
2024-06-24 00:00 - 23:59
The first Grand Lodge was formed on 24 June the feast day of John the Baptist in 1717. This may arise from a very old tradition, since the Baptist appears to have been regarded as the patron of stonemasons in continental Europe during the Middle Ages. The guild of masons and carpenters attached to Cologne Cathedral was known as the Fraternity of St. John the Baptist. The earliest surviving record of Grand Lodge of Ireland installing a Grand Master is dated to 24 June 1725. As records of individual lodges appear in Ireland and in the Antients in England, it seems many of them met to install a new master twice a year, on the feast days of both the Baptist and the Evangelist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John%27s_Day,_Masonic_feast

Independence Day
2024-07-04 00:00 - 23:59
Independence Day, also called Fourth of July or July 4th, in the United States, the annual celebration of nationhood. It commemorates the passage of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Independence-Day-United-States-holiday

Labor Day
2024-09-02 00:00 - 23:59
Lodge is dark. No dinner will be served, and no meeting held afterwards. Masonry 101 class will still be held. Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers and is traditionally observed on the first Monday in September. It was created by the labor movement in the late 19th century and became a federal holiday in 1894. Labor Day weekend also symbolizes the end of summer for many Americans, and is celebrated with parties, street parades and athletic events. https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/labor-day-1

Yom Kippur
2024-10-11 00:00 - 23:59
Yom Kippur is the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei. Primarily centered on atonement and repentance, the day’s observances consist of full fasting and ascetic behavior accompanied by intensive prayer as well as sin confessions.

Halloween
2024-10-31 00:00 - 23:59
All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Eve is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints’ Day.

Veterans Day
2024-11-11 00:00 - 23:59
Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans of the United States Armed Forces (who were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable). It coincides with other holidays including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day which are commemorated in other countries that mark the anniversary of the end of World War I. Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the Armistice with Germany went into effect. At the urging of major U.S. veteran organizations, Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_Day#cite_note-VAhistory-5

Diwali
2024-11-12 00:00 - 23:59
Diwali, or Dipawali, is India’s biggest and most important holiday of the year. The festival gets its name from the row(avali) of clay lamps (deepa) that Indians light outside their homes to symbolize the inner light that protects from spiritual darkness. This festival is as important to Hindus as the Christmas holiday is to Christians.
Over the centuries, Diwali has become a national festival that’s also enjoyed by non-Hindu communities. For instance, in Jainism, Diwali marks the nirvana, or spiritual awakening, of Lord Mahavira on October 15, 527 B.C.; in Sikhism, it honors the day that Guru Hargobind Ji, the Sixth Sikh Guru, was freed from imprisonment. Buddhists in India celebrate Diwali as well.
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/pages/article/diwali

Thanksgiving Family Dinner & Movie
2024-11-18 18:00 - 19:30
The Stewards of Austin Lodge No. 12 will serve a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner with sides in This Monday. Following the dinner a family friendly movie will be played in the Theater. Friends, family, and significant others are welcome to join us for the dinner. A movie will be screened for the guests in the theater after dinner. Dinner will be served at 6:30, and and the movie will start at 7:30.

Thanksgiving
2024-11-28 00:00 - 23:59
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Liberia. It began as a day of giving thanks and sacrifice for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Similarly named festival holidays occur in Germany and Japan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

Christmas Family Dinner & Movie
2024-12-16 18:00 - 19:30
The Stewards of Austin Lodge No. 12 will serve a traditional Chirstmas Dinner with sides in This Monday. Following the dinner a family friendly movie will be played in the Theater. Friends, family, and significant others are welcome to join us for the dinner. A movie will be screened for the guests in the theater after dinner. Dinner will be served at 6:30, and and the movie will start at 7:30.

Happy Holidays! (Lodge is Dark)
2024-12-23 00:00 - 23:59, 2024-12-25 00:00, 2024-12-30 00:00 - 23:59
May the blessings of heaven rest upon all of us during this holiday season. The officers and members of Austin Lodge No. 12, A.F. & A.M. under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Texas hope that we may all find peace, harmony, and charity in the world.

Christmas Day
2024-12-25 00:00 - 23:59
Merry Christmas, Frohe Weihnachten, Joyeux No‘l, Buon Natale, Vrolijk Kerstfeest, Feliz Navidad, God Jul, Mutlu Noeller.

Hanukkah
2024-12-25 00:00 - 23:59
Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar. The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabrum with nine branches, called a menorah (or hanukkiah). One branch is typically placed above or below the others and its candle is used to light the other eight candles. This unique candle is called the shamash (Hebrew: _________, “attendant”). Each night, one additional candle is lit by the shamash until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the festival.ÊOther Hanukkah festivities include singing Hanukkah songs, playing the game of dreidel and eating oil-based foods, such as latkes and sufganiyot, and dairy foods. Since the 1970s, the worldwide Chabad Hasidic movement has initiated public menorah lightings in open public places in many countries.
Although a relatively minor holiday in strictly religious terms, Hanukkah has attained major cultural significance in North America and elsewhere, especially among secular Jews, due to its occurring around the same time as Christmas.

St John the Evangelist Day
2024-12-27 00:00 - 23:59
The Evangelist is particularly associated with Scottish lodges. The Lodge of Edinburgh was associated with the aisle of St. John the Evangelist in St. Giles Cathedral from the 15th century.ÊThe Grand Lodge of All England, and its predecessor, the Ancient Society of Freemasons in the City of York, elected and installed their President, then from 1725 their Grand Master on the day of the Evangelist, and in London the Antient Grand Lodge of England elected their new Grand Masters on the same day. When the Antients and the Moderns (the Premier Grand Lodge) eventually came together in the United Grand Lodge of England, it was on the Feast of the Evangelist in 1813.

New Year's Eve
2024-12-31 00:00 - 23:59
Austin Lodge No. 12 wishes you and your family a very Happy New Year.

Martin Luther King's Day
2025-01-20 00:00 - 23:59
King was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. The campaign for a federal holiday in King’s honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed three years later on January 20, 1986.

Robert Burns Day
2025-01-25 00:00 - 23:59
Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns (25 January 1759 Ð 21 July 1796), the author of many Scots poems. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet’s birthday, 25 January, known as Burns Night.

Black History Month
2025-02-01 00:00 - 23:59

Sangha Day
2025-02-12 00:00 - 23:59
Sangha Day is a traditional time for exchange of gifts; it has become a prominent festival among Western Buddhists even though it is less well known in the East. Celebrations vary, but can include chanting, meditation, the lighting of oil lamps, and the reaffirmation of people’s commitment to Buddhist practice.

Valentine's Day
2025-02-14 00:00 - 23:59
Valentine’s Day, also called St. Valentine’s Day, holiday (February 14) when lovers express their affection with greetings and gifts. Given their similarities, it has been suggested that the holiday has origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, held in mid-February. The festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery. At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I forbid the celebration of Lupercalia and is sometimes attributed with replacing it with St. Valentine’s Day, but the true origin of the holiday is vague at best. Valentine’s Day did not come to be celebrated as a day of romance until about the 14th century. Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Valentines-Day

Ramadan
2025-02-28 00:00 - 23:59
Ramadan is a holy month of worship, study of the Quran, prayer, and fasting. Ramadan occurs during the month in which Muslims believe the Quran began to be revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. It is a joyous celebration for Muslims. Fasting is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Healthy adults are expected to observe the fast. During Ramadan, the fast helps believers purify their hearts, renew their faith, seek forgiveness, and increase self-discipline. It is also a time to focus on what is most important and positive in a believer’s life.
The Ramadan fast is absolute. Each day, from the time of Suhoor (the final meal before sunrise) until Iftar (the meal to break the fast), Muslims abstain from all food and water. Nothing may be consumed during these hours. Believers are also encouraged to abstain from anger and to show compassion. Fasting can be a way to increase awareness of Allah and to be more aware of the plight of those who are poor and suffering. Acts of charity are encouraged.
https://www.hfcc.edu/news/2020/what-ramadan-means
