Tag: West

April 25th East Meets West Day

April Holidays

Today could be taken in many ways. The facts that the Eastern United States is far enough away from the Western Untied States that the two could be thought of as two different countries. We have football games where it’s the East verses the West and then , of course, we have the recent “Balloons” that show the East trying to get a better view of what the West is all about. So take it however you want but today is East meets West, for good or for bad.

How to celebrate – Contact a friend or relative who lives on a different coast from you. Fly your own weather balloons. Live in the mid-west so you can have the best of both worlds.

Advertisement

July 23rd National Day of the Cowboy

July Holidays

Cowboys made up a lot of what settled the west and expanded the United States to California. The day was created by the NDOC in 2005 and made a resolution by the Senate #138, so it is official! Cowboys were sometimes good, other times bad but they were supposed to live by a “Code of Conduct”, or a “Code of Ethics”. Among those codes are to be honest and courageous, take pride in their work, stay curious at all times, do and finish what they started, be tough but fair, keep their promises, be of clean thought, word, deed and dress, to fight for what’s right and be stewards of the land and animals.

How to celebrate – Can you meet the Cowboy’s “Code of Ethics”? (And did many of them keep to the code?) Go to a dude ranch and be a cowboy for a day. Visit Dodge City.

September 24th Native American Day

September Holidays

There is no doubt that the Native American was abused in this country. Though nearly every native in any country anywhere in the world at one time or another was abused by those who conquered them. What maybe makes it worse in the United States is that for the most part they were a peaceful people that bothered no one, with exception of course, that were pushed aside and pushed aside until there was no place left to go. This celebration falls on the 4th Friday of September and was begun in 1939 by then Governor of California Culbert Olsen. It was made Official in 1968 by then California Governor Ronald Reagan.

How to celebrate – Learn more about the over 574 tribes that populated North America. Visit a Native American Pow-Wow. See if you have any Native American in your heritage.

June 25th Log Cabin Day

June Holidays

Early American settlers found building log cabins the best way of providing housing for them selves, and their families, was to cut down trees and assemble them into a log cabin. Nothing fancy, the wood did not need to be turned into planks, just use the whole tree trunk. It provided warmth in the winter and for the most part kept rain and snow out. Today log cabins actually represent the wealthy, people who can afford to put up log cabins to vacation in, often reaching several stories tall with central heat and air. A far cry from the original one room cabins meant to provide shelter until something more permanent could be built. This day was created by Virginia Handy in 1986 as a part of the Bad Axed Historical Society/Log Cabin Society.

How to celebrate – Build your own log cabin. Get some Lincoln Logs. Become a pioneer!

September 5th National Cowgirl Day

September Holidays

September 5th National Cowgirl Day

Well if the internet is correct this year celebrates the first ever year of the Cowgirl (seems like I’ve heard about this one before though). Anyway, we often forget that women drove cattle during the old west as well. Maybe not as much as men, but still they could ride horses just as well – the main requirement for being a Cowboy. In the world today more women are Cowgirls than ever before, of course, more women ride horses today than ever before too. Mommas don’t let your babies grow up to be Cowgirls!

How to celebrate – Read about all the Cowgirls that help tame the west. If you are female, go horseback riding. Go to a dude ranch.

November 6th Marooned without a Compass Day

November holidays

So imagine you are marooned on an island and you don’t have a compass. The horrors! Which is worse, being marooned or not having a compass? You will need to practice your orienteering skills… of course you may need to figure out what orienteering means! A few things you can do is look up at the sky when you wake in the morning. The sun will rise in the east and set in the west. You should be able to figure out what direction is what by that. If you are still confused you can look for a tree and find the moss growing on it. Generally, the moss will grow on the shady side of the tree, the north. I think my biggest question wouldn’t be what direction was what…You are on a island, no one is around so what difference does knowing what north is? Well, at least finding north would give you something to do.

How to celebrate – Find your directions without a compass. Buy an extra compass in case you lose one. Avoid wearing red in any shade.

July 27th National Day of the Cowboy

July Holidays

The cowboy is one of the most misunderstood characters out of history. This man, or woman, settled the western US. They are tough and loyal and work hard, with pride, at what they do. A large number of the original cowboys came out of the American Civil War, people trained to ride horses aggressively during the war that found themselves without work in the east. The day was created in 2005, the fourth Saturday of July, though there is no record of who created it. The cowboy is much more than just a man, or woman, who drives cattle to a destination, they are the soul of the working class, doing what they love, in the only way they know how… straight forward never looking behind.

How to celebrate – Visit the west. Learn the ethics involved with being a cowboy. Love what you do for a living.

April 25th National East Meets West Day

April Holidays

So today we celebrate any two cultures that meet in the middle basically. We often think of the west and the United States, England, France… and the eat as Japan, China and Korea but you don;t really have to travel that far to meet different cultures and styles. Just use the United States as an example. Our East coast and our West Coast are markedly different from each other. These types of cultures often meet in a clash of competition in some way as well, whether it’s in a football game, food cook-off or even something as harsh as war. In the long run though we often find that people are the same everywhere. Even though there may be differences in what they eat, the way they talk or the clothes they wear, people all over the world have the same types of drive and desires as anywhere else. The only difference truly comes to be the method chosen on how to achieve what you want to end up with, which more often that not is the same thing.

How to celebrate – Compare the difference in the Western culture and Eastern culture. Think of all the countries that take the best of the East and the best of the West and combine them. Go to an East/West football game.

April 25th National East Meets West Day

April Holidays, Unboxing the Bizarre

There has always been a difference in culture between the East and the West. Look at Japan and Canada, Russia and America, Indian and Mexico. It doesn’t mean one is better than the other or that one is right and one is wrong, it just means… well… there is the east and there is the west!

JESS3_Mindjet_BtwMnd_WCvEC_FNL

If you go far enough east you will eventually end up in the west and vise-versa. There are football games and other sporting events that tries to prove which is better but in the end, it really doesn’t matter. Take a football game many of the players that play for a western team came from the east, and many playing in the east came from the west.

l2139669375

During World War 2 a big drive was for the Americans to meet up with the Russian to end the war. the Russians were considered the Eastern troops, the Americans the Western. In fact when the two sides decided they could not get along they separated Germany into East Germany and West Germany.

Philly7

Even in America the life styles were different. The above photo is of an 1800’s street in Philadelphia. Well established by the mid 1800’s, Philadelphia became a point of culture and refinement. It had been around longer, gone through more was a permanent fixture.

Old West Town.jpg-13385

An old west town of the same era was a little cruder and contained a not so refined culture and citizens. The buildings were smaller and less secure because frankly, the owners didn’t know if they were going to stay there or not. One was not better than the other, they just served different needs and purposes.

How to celebrate – Try and determine where east meets west where you live. If you live in the East take a trip West. If you live in the West take a trip East. (Note what difference you see, and don;t see, on your trip)

April 25th East Meets West Day

April Holidays, Unboxing the Bizarre

For centuries, the East and West stayed to themselves, neither wanting to know the other or share in their worlds.  It doesn’t matter if it was the East Coast verse the West Coast or the Orient verse Europeans, neither trusted each other or wanted much to do with the others culture.

hybrid-east-meets-west-plates-seletti-930x930

In fact in Japan, until 1860, sailing to a western port was a capital offense. It doesn’t mean that the cultures did not meet because they did. Many Japanese sailors ended up on the California coast because of shipwrecks and storms at sea. Unable to return to their native land, they settled where they were. I assume the same happened with Europeans in Japan and China.

perry_commissioners

The times began to change when Commodore Perry visited Japan in 1852. The Japanese were not all that thrilled to see him but looking at the guns on his ship they were persuaded not to argue too much.

l2139669375

During World War 2 the west meeting the east meant the end of the war in Europe. When Russian and American troops collided with each other thee was joy, but also mistrust. In fact there was a concerted effort to find all the artwork the Germans had hidden before the Russians could claim it. While things have changed over the years, there is still a great deal of mistrust between the East and the West. They are entirely different cultures with different values. It will stay that way until we all realize that we are people with the same basic needs and desires.

six-man-2

It’s sort of like a football game if you think about it. We have the East verses West compete to see who has the better players. The difference is, at the end of the game everyone shakes hands and goes back home hopefully with a better impression of the other side. Now if we could only apply the same thing to governments.

How to celebrate – Determine whether you are an Easterner or a Westerner. Look as see the differences between the East and West (No matter where you are). Determine where you think the world splits to East and West.