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Presidents’
Day, February 18
  Presidents’ Day celebrates the birthdays of
two great American Presidents, George Washington
(on the left) and Abraham Lincoln (on the
right). Washington led the 13 American colonies during
the Revolutionary War in their fight for independence from Britain [England]. He refused to accept the
title of King from the grateful former American colonies. Elected the first American President in
1789 and again in 1792, he refused a third term, saying that a longer rule
would give one man too much power.
Washington
helped shape a form of government new in human history through the writing of
the US Constitution and the idea of an elected president. The Constitution provides for a representative
government characterized by checks and balances among three
branches of government—the Executive branch
(President), the Legislative
branch (Congress), and the Judicial
branch (judges and courts).
Lincoln, the 16th
President, served from 1861-1864. He
was re-elected but assassinated in 1865.
Lincoln led the United States
through the Civil War, often called the War Between the States. The more agricultural Southern states
wanted to keep slavery. The more
industrial Northern states and Lincoln
wanted to abolish [do away with] slavery. The Civil War started
when the Southern states seceded [left the Union, left the United States
to establish their own government].
In 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves. On the bloody battlefield of Gettysburg that year,
he gave the following short but powerful Gettysburg Address.
Lincoln’s Gettysburg
Address
Fourscore and seven [87] years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent,
a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all
men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can
long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here,
that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety [correct behavior] do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we
cannot consecrate [to
set aside as holy or sacred], we cannot
hallow [to
make sacred], this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far
above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long
remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us the living, we here
be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored
dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the
last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead
shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of
freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people
shall not perish from the earth.
Valentine’s Day,
February 14
 US Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day by giving flowers, candy, and cards to those they
love. No one really knows the origins
of Valentine’s Day. It is often associated
with Cupid. In Roman myth, Cupid is
the son of Venus, the goddess of love.
In Greek legend, he is a naughty boy who shoots both gods and humans through
the heart with arrows, making them fall in love (usually against their
will).
Leap Year: Why February 2008 Ends on the 29th
Every four years, February ends on the 29th
instead of the 28th. The month has an extra day and the
year has 366 instead of 365 days. American
children often recite the following old English nursery rhyme to help them remember
the number of days in a month:
Thirty days hath [old form of “has”] September,
April, June and November;
February has twenty-eight alone
All the rest have thirty-one
Except in Leap Year, that's the time
When February's Days are twenty-nine
Gentlemen, beware! An old Scottish and English tradition says
that women may ask men to marry them on Feb. 29 during a leap year.
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February is Black History Month
 In February, the nation pays tribute
to the contributions made by
African-Americans to this country’s history, culture, and development.
February in New
York—For Free Check out
the Spanish-American Institute Student Club Bulletin Boards in the Student
Room and Special Events Center (room 13) for more information about free or
low-cost events and activities like museums, concerts, flu shots, gyms, etc.
Museum at
FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology).
Like fashion?
Visit the free Museum at FIT to view formal exhibits of famous
designers. Tues-Fri. noon-5 pm, Sat. 10-5pm.
7th Ave.
@27th St. Walk from the
Spanish-American Institute or take 1,C,E,F,V,N,R trains to 23rd or
28th St.
stops.
Brooklyn
Museum Target First Saturdays, Sat. Feb. 2, Mar. 1, Apr. 5, etc., 5-11pm. Free art, music,
dancing, entertainment, etc. First
Saturday of every month. More info.@ www.brooklynmuseum.org/visit/first_saturdays.php. 2,3 trains to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum at Museum entrance.
Jazz
of Duke Ellington at Harlem School of the Arts (HSA), Tuesdays Feb. 5, 12, & 19, 7-8:30pm.
HSA is near 141st St.
next to the St. James Presbyterian Church.
A,B,C,D to 145th
St. and St. Nicholas Ave,; walk south towards
141st. St.
Where is Home? Chinese in America
. . ., Museum
of Chinese in the Americas. Tues. to Sun.,
12-6pm. $1 students, free Fridays. Corner of Mulberry and Bayard St. across from Columbus Park (see
map below).
 Art of William Steig, to
March 16, Jewish Museum. View the work of the “King of Cartoons” and author
of Shrek. Free Saturdays
11am-5:45pm. 5th
Ave. @92nd
St. 6 train to 103rd
St.
Chinese Lunar New Year Market, Sat. Feb. 2
& Sun. Feb.3, 12-5pm. Arts, crafts, and
performances in celebration of the Chinese  New Year. Columbus Park, 70 Mulberry St. between Bayard and
Worth (see lower middle of map below) (N/R/Q/W/J/M/Z/6 trains to Canal St.)
Chinese New
Year Parade, Fireworks, and Festival, Sun. Feb. 10, 1-5 pm. Parade starts at Mott and
Hester Streets and winds its way through every Chinatown street. View the famous Lion and Dragon dancers,
acrobats, martial artists, and other entertainers. (See Chinatown map below.)
Sword Dancers at Museum of the City of New York, Sat. Feb. 16, 1&3 pm. Pay what you wish admissions. 5th
Ave. @103rd
St., 6 train to 103rd and walk west.
Pathmark Gospel
Choir (National) Competition, Sat. Feb. 16, 10am-5pm., Winter Garden at World Financial Center
(WFC) on Battery Park Side at the Hudson River. Gospel
music to help celebrate Black History Month.
See
map for WFC on school bulletin boards.
Any
train to lower Manhattan: A, C, J, M, Z, 2, 3, 4 or 5 to Fulton
Street/Broadway-Nassau: Exit onto Fulton Street and walk west to Church St.;
turn right and walk to Vesey St.; turn left and continue across West St. to
the WFC. E to World
Trade Center: Exit onto Church Street and walk north to Vesey St.; turn
left and continue across West
St. to the WFC. R or W to City Hall: Exit onto Broadway and walk south to Vesey St.; turn
right and continue to the WFC. 1 to Rector Street: Exit onto Greenwich Street and walk north to Liberty St.; turn
left and continue to the WFC.
Chinatown: A Bit of the Far East on Manhattan’s Far
East Side 
Explore Chinatown, located in one of
the oldest and most unique and lively NYC neighborhoods. Manhattan’s Chinatown
is the largest in the Western Hemisphere,
home to thousands of Chinese-Americans and recently arrived Chinese
immigrants.
A good place to start is south of Canal St. (runs east to west on map, below) at Mott Street and
Canal (about lower middle of the map). You will pass Chinese shops,
restaurants, and the Eastern States Buddhist Temple of America pictured above.
N,R,Q,W,J,M,Z,6 trains to Canal Street.
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