About: Fraternal Day

Fraternal Day is a legal holiday in the state of Alabama in the United States. It is celebrated annually on the second Monday in October on the same day as Columbus Day and American Indian Heritage Day. Fraternal Day was originally celebrated in Alabama on the second Thursday of October beginning in 1915. In 1915, The Fraternal Monitor, published by the National Fraternal Congress of America, included notes regarding a Fraternal Day celebration to be held April 22 in San Francisco. Fraternal Day Chairman Dempster personally invited President Woodrow Wilson and the Monitor promoted it as "the greatest fraternal gathering, and likewise the greatest peace gathering, ever held in this country." In 1915, Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas introduced to the United States Senate the National Fraternal Day bill to adopt October 27 as a federal holiday celebrating Fraternal Day. The bill did not pass.