Monthly Archives: March 2014
HISTORIC CELEBRATION: MOTHERING SUNDAY
In the UK, Mothering Sunday is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, three weeks before Easter Sunday. As with the North American Mother’s Day (held in May), it is a day for honouring mothers with cards, presents, and/or a special meal (the most special aspect being that she doesn’t have to prepare it.) Originally […]
HISTORIC HARVEST: MAPLE SYRUP
Though delayed by an exceptionally harsh winter, sap will soon be flowing from certain types of maple trees in Eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States, sap that can be harvested and turned into maple syrup. Sugar maples have the highest sugar content (2%), but the sap from black, red, silver, and ash leafed maple […]
HISTORIC SMALL STEPS: BRITISH ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
People who help make history don’t always do it as quickly as they’d like. It took British MP, William Wilberforce (1759-1833), eighteen years to get a bill through Parliament that abolished the slave trade and made it illegal for slaves to be bought or sold in Britain’s colonies. It was also illegal for them to […]
HISTORIC RECOGNITION: WORLD WATER DAY
Though water is essential to life, over a billion people do not have access to safe sources of this vital resource. In 1993, the United Nations declared March 22nd to be World Water Day in an attempt to draw attention to the importance of sustaining the Earth’s water and ensuring that it be available to […]
ANOTHER DOUBLE CELEBRATION DAY
HAPPY SPRING EQUINOX A difference between a calendar year and a solar year causes the spring equinox to come between March 19th and March 21st for those who live in the northern hemisphere. And this year, that’s today, March 20th. HAPPY NOWRUZ The spring tradition of cleaning houses originated in countries like Iran, which starts […]
TRIVIA TRAIL: SAN JUAN MISSION, CAPISTRANO
Question: Why do people from all over the world gather in Capistrano, California on St. Joseph’s Day (March 19th)? Answer: They gather to witness the return of the cliff swallows. The swallows leave Capistrano around October 23rd (San Juan Day), and travel six thousand miles to Goya, Corrientes in Argentina to spend the winter there. […]
DOUBLE CELEBRATION DAY
Originally just the feast day of Ireland’s patron saint, St. Patrick’s Day is now a day for celebrating Irish culture in many parts of the world with dances, parades, feasting, and of course, ‘the wearing of the green’. Holi is the Hindu Festival of Colours and takes place on the last full moon of the […]
HISTORIC CELEBRATION: PURIM
Purim commemorates the time Jewish people living in Persia were saved from extermination at the hands of Haman, a corrupt advisor to Ahasuerus, King of Persia, an event recounted in the Bible (Book of Esther). Purim, means ‘lots’, as in a lottery, which is how Haman chose a date for the extermination, and Esther saved […]
HISTORIC CELEBRATION: ASH WEDNESDAY
Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent. On Ash Wednesday, Christians of various denominations go to church to have a cross put on their foreheads out of ashes that have come from the burning of Palm Sunday crosses from the year before. The crosses serve to remind the faithful of their mortality as the priests […]
Time Travelling With Kids 