Five Things You Need to Know Today: April 18

Today is Monday, April 18. Here are five things you need to know:

1. Patriot’s Day: Monday is Patriots’ Day, a Massachusetts and Maine-only holiday that commemorate the first battle of the Revolutionary War. It means that states and local offices are closed, including and and the .

2. Marathon Monday: The 115th annual Boston Marathon gets started from Hopkinton on Monday morning with six runners from Hamilton and Wenham. Over the past few weeks, we have been telling you the stories of some of the local runners in today’s race. It concludes today with a story of Katie Perry of Hamilton. Previously, we told you about , and . Navine Nasser-Ghodsi of Hamilton and Diane McClintock of Hamilton will also be running.

3. School Vacation: Monday marks the start of public school vacation week. There will be plenty of activities at the library, and other places across the region oriented towards keeping students busy during the vacation week.

4. Crane Beach party: Ok, so it’s not beach season yet, but there’s a happening on Monday at Crane Beach in Ipswich. This is a great alternative for people that, for example, are not interested in the marathon. The forecast is fro temperatures in the mid-50s under cloudy skied with gusty winds.

5. Passover: Monday night is the first night of the Jewish holiday Passover, which marks the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt about 3,000 years ago.

To find out what is going on today in Hamilton and Wenham, check out our events listings.