A Busy Week For Celebrating

This week is a busy week for celebrating. As this is the midpoint between Winter and Spring, and some of us are suffering from not enough sunlight, spending too much time indoors and sometimes unfriendly weather, the holidays this week come at a good time to lift spirits and help us remember that life is to be celebrated.

Today is the new moon which means that in addition to being the dark time of the year, it's also a dark night. Chinese New Year officially falls on the second new moon after the Winter Solstice.

Holidays we will be observing this week.

Chinese New Year
Celebrated around the world 2013 is the Year of the Yin Black Water Snake - The year of feminine wisdom & renewal. This holiday is also called the Spring Festival  and the the Lunar New Year.

Mardi Gras
Observed by various locales usually historically associated with Catholic populations, Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday," the day before Ash Wednesday/ It's also called "Shrove Tuesday," or "Pancake Day".


Lincoln's Birthday
Abraham Lincoln's Birthday is a legal holiday in some U.S. states including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, and Indiana.

It is observed on the anniversary of the slain president's birth on February 12, 1809. The day is marked by traditional wreath-laying ceremonies at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

Celebrate Lincoln's birthday by seeing the award winning film Lincoln.

Will you be celebrating one of these Holidays? How will you celebrate?

Paper Cut-Out Art - Chinese Zodiac - Year of the Snake
Mardi Gras Image cc by DoctorWho
Lincoln Image cc by  Jeff Kubina

edited 2/9/16

Celebrate National Pie Day

billy.bebop CC BY 2.0

The American Pie Council promotes January 23 as Celebrate National Pie Day. They say the pie-sibilities are endless! According to them the apple pie is America's favorite (of 231 varieties, not sure where they get these numbers), followed by pumpkin pie which seems to me is a seasonal favorite and coming in third is the pecan pie, which my family only ever ate during the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays.

I grew up with sweet potato pie as my favorite until I went to Miami and ate real key lime pie....  mmmm!! Sweet potato pie is probably the healthier choice! 

What is your favorite pie? Leave me a comment!


Image billy.bebop CC BY 2.0)

edited 1/23/17

World War II Memorial Day or V-J Day.

Celebrate the 67th anniversary of the end of World War II when we recognized the World War II generation, both veterans and those on the home front and honor the sacrifices of veterans who fought and were lost in World War II.

Originally known as World War II Memorial Day, the day is now known as Victory over Japan Day or V-J Day.  It was a nationally recognized holiday, but it has since been removed because of the nature of the war's ending, following the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945.  Due to the devastating ending of the war, critics argue the name is insensitive to the Japanese.

WWII officially ended Aug. 15, 1945 when Japan surrendered, but because of the time zone difference, the United States was informed of the victory on Aug. 14. There was quite a celebration all over the country as you can see on this Archive Newsreel August 14, 1945 Newsreel V-J Day 

Photo: 
Each of the 4,048 gold stars represents 100 Americans who died during the war
used with permission by flickr user dbking

To read more click the following links:

Dad's Story August 6th, 1945  60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima

Dad Was In World War 2 US Navy 

Dad Was On The USS PCE 884

Dad And The USS Missouri

National Day of the Cowboy

Do you celebrate National Day of the Cowboy? Are you a Cowboy or do you know someone who is? What do you know about Cowboys and Cowgirls?

National Day of the American Cowboy was founded in 2004 by American Cowboy Magazine. This event was created as a day meant to celebrate the cowboy's and cowgirl's contribution to American heritage, to preserve, protect and promote the cowboy and Western heritage.

Click this link to read more about the National Day of the Cowboy

Read more about our western heritage, click this link:
The Best of the West: Anthology of Classic Writing From the American West  This book is a treasure of stories, a "collection of classic and contemporary fiction and nonfiction evoking the unique spirit of the West and its people, selected and introduced by one of today's premier chroniclers of the Western landscape." (Amazon)

Cowboy photo Creative Commons Copyright by Moyan Brenn

National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day

Korean War Memorial Washington, D.C.
Connecticut Bloggers'

National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, marks the anniversary of the Korean War Armistice, which honors the sacrifices made by members of the armed forces on the Korean Peninsula from June 1950 to July 1953.

This is also the anniversary of the Presidential Proclamation of July 27, 2010 as National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day by President Barack Obama.

At the Arlington National Cemetery, Navy Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr. spoke during the wreath laying and remembrance ceremony held at the cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Memorial Amphitheater.

This day, he said, is a time to honor and remember “those whom we lost, those who are still missing, and those who came home and are here today, whose efforts along the 38th Parallel, and along the Korean Peninsula six decades ago, helped prevent the spread of tyranny.”

Winnefeld pointed out the impact of the Korea War on Americans, as he said many “with no personal connection to this struggle” have walked around the “spine-tingling” Korean War Memorial and felt the presence of the 50,000 Americans who died in the conflict.


“For every warrior who served, there is a precious set of memories...inspiring us all to recommit ourselves and to ensure that those who served in this so-called ‘forgotten war’ are never forgotten,” he said.

If you or someone in your family served in the Korean War, tell me about them in the comments below.

Source American Forces Press Service
Photo Creative Commons by Connecticut Bloggers
More Photos

Read More
Chosin - The Korean War 
Battleship U.S.S. Missouri  

1953 This day in history Armistice ends the Korean War

edited  7/27/2017