March Calendar Of Events 2024

The following lists cultural, special and community events that are taking place in March 2024. This should help you to plan and organise upcoming events and celebrations for March 2024.

1st March

• World Compliment Day - The holiday is meant to bring attention to the limitless, powerful and free resource we all have as humans: Kindness. Give someone a genuine compliment today!

• Schools Clean Up Day - Since 1992, school communities across Australia have demonstrated their support for caring for the environment through participating in Schools Clean Up Day.

• Australian Women's History Month - Women's History Month (WHM) is held annually in many parts of the world to acknowledge and document the role women play in making and shaping history.

• The March Charge - The March Charge is a fun personal fitness challenge that has an enormous impact on how cancer is researched and treated. Just by walking or running for Cancer Council this March, and by raising funds, you can help Charge ahead with cancer research, prevention, advocacy and support services.

• Bandaged Bear Appeal - The Bandaged Bear Appeal is The Children's Hospital at Westmead's largest annual fundraising appeal. Treating 100,000 patients every year, The Children's Hospital at Westmead relies on community generosity to raise essential funds for purchasing the most technologically advanced medical equipment, conducting vital research and maintaining the total healing environment that the Hospital is renowned for.

• Polite Pets Month - March is Polite Pets Month, a month dedicated to raising awareness about behavioural issues in pets, and addressing solutions to these issues.

• Hearing Awareness Week 1 to 7 March - One in six Australians is Deaf, Deafblind, hearing impaired or has a chronic ear disorder. Hearing Awareness Week provides an opportunity to explain that hearing health is an important issue for every Australian.

2nd March

• Dr Seuss Day - Dr Seuss's birthday is celebrated on March 2 and it celebrates both the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel and the National Education Association to endorse the importance of reading. 

2nd - 10th March

• National Sea Week - SeaWeek is Australia's major national public awareness campaign to focus community awareness, provide information and encourage an appreciation of the sea. SeaWeek gives us a fantastic opportunity to promote educational issues of relevance to the marine environment.
  
  
• Parks Week - Parks Week is an annual celebration of the important role that our parks play in contributing to the health of our communities. A range of formal and informal events take place across Australia and New Zealand during Parks Week - there is something for everyone.

3rd March

• World Wildlife Day - On 20 December 2013, the Sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly decided to proclaim 3 March, the day of the adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as World Wildlife Day, to celebrate and raise awareness of the world's wild fauna and flora.

• Clean Up Australia Day - Clean Up Australia Day encourages all Australians to take to their local park, beach, bushland or streets and help collect rubbish. Individuals and local groups can either organise a Clean Up Site or volunteer to join an existing Site.

 6th March

• Magha Puja Day (Buddhism) - Many Buddhists around the world celebrate Magha Puja Day with gift exchanges, lighting of oil lamps, chanting, meditation, attending the temple for special observances and participating in Buddhist activities. The spiritual aims of the day are to do only good things and to purify one's mind.

8th March 

• International Women's Day - A day to celebrate the contribution and achievements of all women. It is an opportunity to remember the barriers that women have broken through and the accomplishments they have made despite barriers

17 March

• St Patrick's Day - Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig, "the Day of the Festival of Patrick"), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. AD 385-461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland.

18th March 

• Global Recycling Day - Global Recycling Day, celebrated on March 18 every year, is a recycling initiative that encourages us to look at our trash in a new light. There are several ways to recycle that allow some materials to be reused multiple times.

18th - 24th March

• Harmony Week - Celebrate our cultural diversity by living the Harmony Week message everyone belongs in your workplace, community, school, sporting group, local councils and state governments. - from the traditional owners of this land to those who have come from many countries around the world. By participating in Harmony Week activities, we can learn and understand how all Australians from diverse backgrounds equally belong to this nation and enrich it.

20th March

• International Day of Happiness - Do something, big or small, to take part on 20 March and bring happiness to others. Everyone wants to be happy - and life is happier when we're together. So let's celebrate our common humanity. Join the community and be part of this special day.

• Very Hungry Caterpillar Day - Celebrate the treasured classic by Eric Carle of the caterpillar who taught us about counting while eating its favourite foods. The Very Hungry Caterpillar also teaches readers about the days of the week, counting, nutrition, and the life cycle of a butterfly.

20th - 26th March 

• National Playgroup Week - An opportunity to come together and celebrate our many wonderful and diverse playgroups- and the many benefits we reap from play.

21st March

• World Poetry Day - The United Nations describes poetry as another facet of the dialogue among cultures. World Poetry Day is a celebration of the contribution made to society by poetry.
  
  
• World Down Syndrome Day - Down syndrome is a naturally occurring chromosomal arrangement that has always been a part of the human condition, exists in all regions across the globe and commonly results in variable effects on learning styles, physical characteristics or health. Adequate access to health care, early intervention programmes and to inclusive education, as well as appropriate research, are vital to the growth and development of the individual.
  
  
• International Day of Forests - Despite all of the priceless ecological, economic, social and health benefits, we are destroying the very forests we need to survive. Global deforestation continues at an alarming rate - 13 million hectares of forest are destroyed annually. Deforestation accounts for 12 to 20 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.
  
  
• Naw Ruz (New Year) - Baha'i -It occurs on the date of the vernal equinox, and symbolises the new life of spring.
  International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination - In 1979, the General Assembly adopted a Programme of activities to be undertaken during the second half of the Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (A/RES/34/24). On this occasion, the General Assembly decided that a week of solidarity with the people struggling against racism and racial discrimination, beginning on 21 March would be organized annually in all States.
  
  
• Harmony Day - We come together to celebrate Harmony Day on 21 March. Created in 1999 to celebrate unity and diversity, Harmony Day was originally an Australian celebration but is now marked worldwide by conscientious citizens. Whether you want to be better friends with your neighbours or stand in the shoes of another, we’ve got some harmonious habits and unifying ideas to make your Harmony Day a picture of peace.
  
  
• National Close the Gap Day - A day that advocates for health equity of Australia’s indigenous people and educates the public about the health issues and barriers to well-being faced by them. 

22nd March

• The Water Challenge - 1 in 10 people worldwide don't have access to clean water. This March, join thousands of Australians by making water your only beverage to help give safe water to others. Take the fizz out of your drink, give your coffee a wake-up call and raise a glass to the one drink the world can't live without Join in drinking just water for March to help make clean water a reality for everyone.

• World Water Day - World Water Day is held to focus attention on the need for freshwater, and the importance of the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

23rd March

• World Meteorological Day - is a commemoration of the day the World Meteorological Organisation was formed in 1950.

24th March 

• Ride2School Day - A day that encourages children to become more active and healthy in and out of school. Children participate by walking, riding or scooting to school.

25th March

• Earth Hour 8.30 pm - Earth Hour is an international sustainability movement, where individuals and businesses are encouraged to turn off all lights for an hour. Earth Hour aims to increase awareness of the impact we have on our world through the use of fossil fuels and electricity.
  
  
• Holi (India) - Holi is an ancient Hindu tradition and is also one of the most popular festivals in Hinduism. It celebrates the eternal and divine love of the god Radha Krishna. The day also signifies the triumph of good over evil, as it commemorates the victory of the god Vishnu as Narasimha Narayana over Hiranyakashipu. 

Please make sure to like/follow our Aussie Childcare Network Facebook page to receive events and celebration activity ideas, resources and documentation templates for child portfolios.

Note: This is to be used as a general guideline only. These dates may be subject to change.