Feste delle Donne (Women's Day)

Women's Day is celebrated in Italy on March 8th. They celebrate it to commemorate the women who were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaiste fire that happened in 1911 in New York. During this time, recent immigrants from Europe who had come to have better lives were struggling when they arrived to the U.S. They worked in factories that had unreasonable demands such as working harsh hours and not being allowed to use the rest room. In this particular factory, the women were woking on the ninth floor and the owner would lock them in the room if he left. The day the fire happened, March 25th, a fire broke out and because they were locked in they had no way of getting to safety. Some of the women chose to jump out the windows to their deaths. 146 people died. Many Americans have no idea what this even is. They celebrate it by giving all the women yellow flowers. All day long you see yellow flowers, men hand them out in the streets.www.italiadonna.it/societa/soc12.htm http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/narrative3.html