Tag: history

March 11th Genealogy Day

March Holidays

Curious about where you came from? Maybe you should start a family tree and try and track down who and where your relatives came from. You can have DNA tests done to try and get information but you have to be careful, sometimes the info you pay for isn’t exactly accurate. They say there is a 50% chance someone in your family had blue eyes and there may, or may not, be members of your family that have had red hair. Well duh! Family records are the best way to trace where you come from, you may not find out all you want to know but at least you know what you find is true. Today was created by the Christ Church United Presbyterian and Methodist church in Limerick, Ireland in 2013.

How to celebrate – Find out where you come from. Find out who yo are related to. Check with other family members if they have ever done a family tree.

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March 5th Namesake Day

March Holidays

I was named after my two grandfathers. Many of us are named after our grandparents or parents. Sometime our names date back to some ancestor that strongly influenced the family or maybe was famous for some reason, good or bad. My grandmother’s name was Effie Katherine Amelia… needless to say, no one in the family was named after her even though she was a really cool lady… some names like Effie fit a cow better than a human. (No offense to anyone named Effie) When giving your child a namesake name, be careful of what it is… and what it says about you!

How to celebrate – See if you were named after anyone. Research your family to see if there is anyone you should name a child after. Make sure you look at the initials your child will be settled with.

December 23rd Roots Day

December holidays

We all have a heritage, no one’s is better than another just different. Whether you come from Asia or Africa, Europe or Mars… you are entitled to your genealogy and none can be said to be wrong today because none of us were there to change it when it may have needed to be changed. I am amazed at how little people know about who thy actual come from and why they got where they are. I guess ignorance is bliss because lies are more often believed than truth. If you don;t know, learn, if you don;t like what you have, then make up a new one because that’s what you are going to believe anyway.

How to celebrate – Learn where your family came from. Learn how your family got where it is. Be proud of who you are, you can’t change it anyway. (By the way. Alex Haley’s “Roots” was totally fictional… don’t believe me, look it up!)

November 3rd Cliche` Day

November holidays

If you like the cliche today is the day to use it. No one knows who created the cliche, maybe it sort of created itself! After all, a cliche is a saying, that makes sense, that keeps getting used over and over again until we either understand what it means or learn where we went wrong. "Haste makes waste", "In the Nick of Time" and "Better Safe than Sorry" are all important sayings we should pay attention to but often don’t because they are too cliche`.

How to celebrate – Write down as many cliches as you can think of. Learn the history of your favorite cliche. Make up your own cliche`.

September 17th Constitution Day

September Holidays

Of course we all know about the Declaration of Independence and we all talk about the Constitution we kind of mush the two things together. They are not the same documents. Constitutional Congress last met on September 17th, 1787 to sign the Constitution, a work long labored over that guides and protects citizens of the United States. It is not perfect, but strives to be as comprehensive as possible, including all as best as the forefathers could imagine at the time. The document went into effect on March 4th, 1789.

How to celebrate – Read the Constitution. Appreciate the efforts of those men far beyond their time. Try to come up with a better Constitution yourself.

May 18th International Museum Day

May Holidays

The largest museum in the world is the Louvre in Paris. Built in 1792 it is 782,910 square feet and the home to the Mona Lisa. Most of us think of museums as places to visit fine art but frankly, there are more that don’t contain any art than those that do. There are museums for practically every interest including, trains, toys, war, furniture, fashion, buttons, aprons… well, the list goes on and on. Today was created back in 1977 by the International Council of Museums. I wonder if they included the lint museum in their collection?

How to celebrate – Visit a museum. Create your own museum. Make a list of museums where you live.

December 21st Fore Father’s Day

Unboxing the Bizarre

When we think of the Pilgrim’s we always think of the Mayflower, Plymouth Rock and Thanksgiving. Well today is the actual day they landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620 and they started out in two ships instead of one, the Mayflower and Speedwell. The Speedwell leaked so badly that it was forced to return to port and the Pilgrims all loaded on to the Mayflower and set out again. Must have been pretty crowded but they made it and the rest is history. Some may say it’s not great history but I beg to differ. History is what we make it, how we improve it and will never end until we all perish. So make of it what you will, thank your fore fathers for getting you at least one more small step forward to the perfection we will hopefully one day achieve.

How to celebrate – Read about the Pilgrims. Visit Plymouth Rock, Mass. Accept history for that it is, hind sight is wonderful except it never changes what was.

September 17th Citizenship Day

September Holidays

To be a citizen of any country means holding both the benefits as well as the responsibilities of being a part of that country. Here in the US we hold these truths to be self evident on today, US Constitution Day. The day was created in 1952 by President Harry S. Truman and it was played around with over the years by Congress but wound back up on the day Truman set it because it falls on US Constitution Day. Good plan to start with, as most things seem to be until Congress gets a chance to mess with them.

How to celebrate – Take time to think about what being a citizen and the US Constitution means. Read the Constitution. Be proud of being an American.

May 31st Memorial Day

May Holidays

Originally called Decoration Day, Memorial Day began right after the Civil War in 1865 as families went out to decorate the graves of those lost during the tragic war. In 1882 Decoration Day turned into Memorial Day celebrated on May 30th and then changed again in 1971 to the last Monday in May to give federal employees a three day weekend. That seems a little insensitive to me but I guess holidays like this one are meant for the living to remember the dead by having that extra day off. And, of course, we are trying desperately to forget there is any history to America, except for that we choose to invent now… so sad, guess we are doomed to repeat it.

How to celebrate – If you choose, remember the fallen that gave their lives for you. (Or forget them, your choice) Live with the good traditions and learn from the bad ones. Make up your own history that suites you since the real stuff doesn’t seem to matter anymore. (Hey, did you know I was once a King!)

December 8th Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day

December holidays, Unboxing the Bizarre

Today you can pretend to be a time traveler. Well you have to pretend because time travel isn’t possible… at least yet. The idea of time travel isn’t anything new. It first appears in Hindu mythology followed up by a mention in the Talmud in Japan. Even Charles Dickens used the idea of time travel in “A Christmas Carol”. The spirits of Christmas past, present and future involved the idea of traveling back, and forward, in time to see where Scrooge had been and where he would wind up if he did not change his ways. It did not win a day of its own until 2007 via the Koala Wallop Online Community.

Perhaps you could travel back in time and become a Knight, fighting dragons and rescuing fair maidens all over the land. Or maybe you could be one of the fair maidens!

Or maybe you could be at the birth of our nation, rowing George Washington to his victory at Trenton. Of course, you’d have to be careful not to change anything around you because it could change history itself! Maybe you could be one of Washington’s female spies, but you’d have to be careful not to divulge anything that might actually alter time with information you found out.

And then there is the Civil War era where you could be a General in charge of an army. You could fight only those battles that you knew your side won because you read the history of the conflict. Of course, that might change the past as well.

And if you are going to travel in time you can go forward as well and back. With the way we are treating the earth we may need to find another planet to live on. If you travel forward in time you could find a planet that could house us all and the savior of mankind. But you’ll have to wait until we figure out how to travel in time. To bad you can’t go forward in time to see if we ever figure it out!

How to celebrate – Imagine living in your favorite era. Imagine the good, and the bad, because not everything will be perfect. Read a book about traveling in time. The odd thing about that is that a lot of the books written in the past about time travel have actually seen a lot of what they envisioned come true. Watch one of the many movies or television shows about time travel.