On 15 May (known as “Día del Maestro“) schools in Mexico are supposed to stop normal activities and organize cultural events that promote the importance and dignity of the teachers’ role in society. Before the pandemic, some schools used to operate as usual, and others just used to take the day off.
Just as moms, doctors, nurses, and other professions have a day to celebrate and recognize their work, teachers have one too: May 15. Mexico Daily Post tells you why Teacher’s Day is celebrated and what its origin is in Mexico.
Teacher’s Day is celebrated on May 15 in our country; and this celebration dates back to 1950, in Europe, but in Mexico, it has a Catholic bias.
The Catholic calendar indicates that on May 15, Saint John Baptist de La Salle is celebrated, who was born in France and who was a priest and pedagogue who dedicated his life to the training of teachers who were prepared to instructing the children of artisans and low-income people in that European country.
Thus, this character created the Congregation of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, which, although of religious roots, focused on the teaching and training of children with limited resources and without families.
In Mexico, Teacher’s Day is celebrated, by decree on May 15th, because in 1917, when Venustiano Carranza was president, two representatives sent an initiative to Congress to institute that date to celebrate and recognize the hard work of teachers and professors in Mexico.
This way, the first Teacher’s Day was celebrated the following year, in 1918. Furthermore, the celebration coincided with the anniversary of the taking of Querétaro, a historical event that occurred in 1867.
Like diverse celebrations of this type, the Day of the Teacher is commemorated in several countries, but in other dates; and Unesco declared October 5th as World Teachers’ Day.
Source: Excelsior
