Celebrate Mother's Day

A cup of tea to say thank you

For all the things you've done,

And wishes that the day will bring

You happiness and fun.

Happy Mother's Day!

©birdiekity May - 1998


TeaCup: CC0 Public Domain
Updated 5/10/17

Going Green on St Patrick's Day

The world goes green on 
St. Patrick's Day!

Go fullscreen, sit back and enjoy 

In Ireland every day is green!
- wish you were there!

~Irish Blessing~
May your troubles be less
and your blessings be more
and nothing but happiness
Come through your door

Check out St. Patrick's Day Selfies at 
We All Love Ireland

Visit my other posts:

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day Cookies

 

#GoGreen4PatricksDay

edited 3/17/17

Celebrate Pi Day 3/14/15

Pi Day Cake
by Endlessly777

"ONCE IN A LIFETIME MATH MOMENT ON SATURDAY'S PI DAY, 3/14/15 AT 9:26 AM"

Enjoy the instant of Pi!

Want to know why Pi matters? Read more

Read my previous Celebrate Pi Day Post Click Here

Image Pi Day Cake by Endlessly777
Creative Commons

National Watermelon Day

August 3 is National Watermelon Day, 
one of the days we celebrate this month. 

Watermelon is a staple at family picnics and cookouts during the summer. But given the health benefits of watermelon, you might consider adding this yummy fruit to your diet year round if you can get it.

Watermelon is yummy and healthy

Did you know that watermelon is one of the high-lycopene foods. Lycopene is a carotenoid phytonutrient that's especially important for our cardiovascular health. 

In recent research studies show watermelon to be high in lycopene. An increasing number of scientists now believe that lycopene is important for bone health as well.

Watermelon is also a good choice for anti-inflammatory and antioxidant health benefits that can provide us with great fiber benefits at a low calorie cost.

How to Eat a Watermelon

Are you going to need a good knife to cut you watermelon? Try this one made especially for cutting watermelon, cantaloupe, or honeydew melon with ease!



  Read more Watermelon Recipes, Stories, History & More

National Scotland Day

Tartan

We're celebrating National Tartan Day again, a time for celebrating the full, rich culture of Scotland! Tartan Day commemorates the Scottish Declaration of Independence, signed on April 6, 1320. In Canada and the US it’s a huge celebration, particularly for more than eleven million Americans who claim Scottish and Scotch-Irish roots and are proud of their ancestors.

The Declaration Of Arbroath

In 1320 51 Scottish nobles and magnates sealed the Declaration Of Arbroath, "a statement of intent sent to Pope John XXII confirming Scotland as a sovereign state."

This document was the inspiration for The 1776 US Declaration Of Independence. Hence Senate Resolution 155 and the Presidential Proclamation that decreed April 6 National Tartan Day. This proclamation refers to the predominance of Scots among our founding fathers and it recognizes the huge contribution they have made to the building of this nation.

"So today America celebrates all things Scottish with marches, Saltires, food fairs, gigs, fashion shows, tattoos, bagpipes, drums, dancing, speeches and parties — even miniature Falkirk Kelpies will be unveiled." ~Donald MaCleod

It’s Tartan Day — let’s party like it’s 1320

How will you celebrate? If you are not of Scottish heritage, I bet you know someone who is.....you know me! Take me to TEA!

Brodies Tea, Scottish Breakfast

You might know a few Celtic Women, some of them might have some Scottish blood!

If you are of Scottish heritage, reply to this message. Let's have some fun!!

To order your Tartan, click this link to start your search:
Light Beige Tartan Lambswool Scarf Gift

Here are some links you might want to check out:
Celebrating Tartan Day 2013

St. Patrick's Day Cookies

St. Patrick's Day Cookies

St. Patrick's Day Cookies 

They may not be traditional but they are fun! Whether you are planning a party or just for family, these cookies will be a big hit.

For centuries, these symbols held incredible power for the ancient Celts in every way of life. These Irish-inspired cookies are shamrocks, Celtic crosses and the Claddagh.

Ancient Celts revered the shamrock because of the trinity of its leaves. 

The Celtic cross is a symbol representing the meeting place of the Divine energies.

The heart of the Claddagh represents love, the crown is symbolic of loyalty, and the hands represent friendship.

Tips to make Perfect Cookies / Top 10 Cookie-Baking Tips / Tips for Decorating Cookies

Love this photo of St. Patrick's Day Cookies
used with permission from Oh Sugar Events Claddagh

Celtic Symbols and Signs

edited 3/17/2017

Happy St. Brigid's Day to one and all

Our Lady and Saint Non's chapel

Today is the festival of St. Brigid, the beginning of the old Celtic season of Imbolc, or Imbolg (pronounced i-MOLK or i-MOLG ), also called (Saint) Brigid's Day, a Gaelic festival marking the beginning of spring.

Christians, especially in Ireland, observe February 1 as the feast day of Saint Brigid (of Kildare), one of the patron saints of Ireland.

St. Brigid's Blessing
"Go down on your knees, do homage, and let blessed Brigid enter the house"

May Brigid bless the house wherein you dwell.
Bless every fireside, every wall and door.
Bless every heart that beats beneath its roof.
Bless every hand that toils to bring it joy.
Bless every foot that walks its portals through.
May Brigid bless the house that shelters you.

Brigid is also referred to as the "triple goddess of Smithcraft (with Celtic warriors invoking her protection before battle), Healing, and Poetry and the Arts. In folklore St. Brigid became the principal focus of the feast of Imbolc.

 Imbolc - the coming of Spring - the great wheel of the year turns again on February 1st, with the ancient sacred day of the Celtic goddess Brigid - Mother Goddess of Ireland - also called Brigit, Bride, Brighid, and Brigantia. The root of her name means 'bright' or 'exalted', and possibly 'firebrand'." ~Hamish Burgess Celtic Artist

Reference to this holiday is found in some of the earliest Old Irish literature, from the 10th century. It was a festival of the hearth and home, and a celebration of the lengthening days and the early signs of spring. Celebrations often involved hearthfires, special foods, candles or a bonfire if the weather permitted. Fire and purification were an important part of the festival. The lighting of candles and fires represented the return of warmth and the increasing power of the Sun over the coming months.

St.Brigit's Cross

The wickerwork cross,  known as St.Brigit's Cross, has been a popular talisman of St. Brigid since the 17th century and it is widely believed to be a Christian symbol. But its origins lie in much older traditions and folklore. It is thought to have origins in the ancient symbol for the sun.

Many rituals are associated with the making of the crosses. It was traditionally believed that a Brigid's Cross protects the house from fire and evil. It is hung in many Irish kitchens for this purpose.

The cross is usually woven out of rushes and sometimes straw. It consists of a central square surrounded by four arms at right angles and adorns the doors and rafters of Irish homes, usually in the kitchen, warding off fire and evil. Traditionally, before being placed the crosses "would sometimes be blessed with holy water, a ritual with connotations simultaneously Christian and Pagan."

This video will show you how to make your own St. Brigit's Cross:

How will you celebrate?

Happy Saint David's Day For My Welsh Friends
Celtic Calendar Gifts

Celtic Women The Genetic Code 
Irish Celtic Snow Globes Gifts
Celebrating Scotland


Images:
*Our Lady and Saint Non's chapel ( St Davids, Wales ). Stained glass window ( 1934 ) showing Saint Bride ( Brigid of Kildare )
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
*Saint Brigid's cross, made from rushes from County Down by Culnacreann
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Edited 2/1/16

Today is National Go Barefoot Day!

Why can't every day be a barefoot day? I love to go barefooted as often as possible. I love to feel dirt, grass or sand between my toes! Today is a good day to go barefooted and a good day to show your support for charities like Soles4Souls, a global not-for-profit institution that collects new or used shoes and clothes for people in need.  They also help to create jobs in poor and disadvantaged communities.

Let's Celebrate today with dancing to BAREFOOTIN! Who doesn't love to dance to this music by Robert Parker (Video by Ardman Animation)

Want to make every day Go Barefoot Day?

National Go Barefoot Day shares this day with  National Running Day. Do you run?

And here's another special day that deserves attention today! National Trails Day is the first Saturday in June. 

 

Everyday is a great day to celebrate.

Click here to find more days to Celebrate in June! 

Edited 6/1/19

Memorial Day in Hawaii

Originally created after the Civil War to honor the fallen Union soldiers, Memorial Day has now evolved to commemorate every American soldier and service member. FoxNews.com recently listed the top 10 destinations to celebrate and honor America’s heroes in the "Top 10 moving Memorial Day Getaways."  The article listed Honolulu and Waikiki as #1 for a deeply memorable Memorial Day Weekend with a trip over to Waikiki to check out Oahu's most visually breathtaking annual event The Lantern Floating Hawaii ceremony at Ala Moana Beach Park that honors ancestors and those who have sacrificed their lives in war.

Lantern floating is an Asian spiritual tradition, part of a traditional Buddhist rite which originated in Japan, that beautifully symbolizes the wish for all beings to live in peaceful coexistence...in remembrance of loved ones, or as symbolic prayer for a harmonious future. Those who cast afloat lanterns hope that Lantern Floating Hawai`i brings you a sense of peace and warm remembrance of your departed loved ones. The ceremony also features live music and speeches.

Live streaming of the ceremony will be available here on May 27, 2013, 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Hawai‘i-Aleutian Standard Time.

Lantern Floating Hawaii in 2010
at Ala Moana Beach Park, Honolulu, HI

Watch this video for a brief history of the journey of lantern floating ceremony to Hawaii.

Visit Lantern Floating Hawaii on Facebook
More Info Lantern Floating Hawaii
See the photos from last year Here

Celebrating Scotland With Tartan Day

Scottish Board of Highland Dancing

Everyone knows about St. Patrick's Day when people all over the world celebrate their Irish Heritage. But do you know about Tartan Day when people all over the world celebrate their Scottish Heritage?

Every year people with Scottish heritage celebrate Tartan Week during March and April with Tartan Day falling on April 6, Throughout this week festivals are dedicated to celebrating the full, rich culture of Scotland.

In the United States there are more than 20 million people who can claim descent from Scotland, most of whom take immense pride in their Scottish heritage.

Woodrow Wilson said: "Every line of strength in American history is a line colored with Scottish blood."

Learn more about Tartan Day at Celebrating Scotland With Tartan Week

Facebook Page Celebration Everyday

Image by Jim.Henderson used under Creative Commons 
CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

International Children's Book Day

My grandson eating his first book!

Today we are celebrating International Children's Book Day, a yearly event sponsored by the International Board on Books for Young People. This day is celebrated to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children's books.

Instilling a love of reading promotes a lifetime of learning and enjoyment. I have created a page Best Children's Books For The Early Years that promotes the books that I enjoyed reading to my children and my grandchildren.
 
 "There is a whole host of fabulous children's books out there waiting to be discovered - not just by children but by adults who are young at heart too!"

To find out more about the day and events happening near you, visit International Childrens Book Day website.

What is your favorite children's book? (or 2 or 3)

Click here for More April Holidays and Celebrations

Happy Saint David's Day For My Welsh Friends

St David. Late 19th Century.

Happy Saint David's Day 

(Welsh: Dydd Gŵyl Dewi) to all of the Welsh people who celebrate.

March 1 is the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, in remembrance of the death of Saint David in 569. The date was declared a national day of celebration within Wales in the 18th century, and a public holiday in 2000.

Public celebrations of Saint David's Day are held in Wales with an annual parade, concerts are held in pubs, clubs, and other venues, and food festivals.

The Los Angeles St. David's Day Festival - National Day of Wales is the largest annual event of its kind in the United States. 

For more celebrations see:

March Holidays and Celebrations
Celebrate Everyday

Update 3/3/15
I found a lovely site that I want to share with you here. 
Tuesday Cuppa Tea, St. David's Day, 
Shelley Daffodil Time Teacup, Things Welsh


Image: Stained glass window in Jesus College Chapel, Oxford, showing St David. Late 19th century.
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

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

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

July is National Ice Cream Month

photo credit ruffin_ready (CC BY 2.0)

July is National Ice Cream Month (USA)
National Ice Cream Day is 3rd Sunday in July

“We dare not trust our wit for making our house pleasant to our friend, so we buy ice cream.” ~~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Vanilla continues to be America's flavor of choice in ice cream probably because it is the most versatile, mixing well with toppings, drinks and bakery desserts. According to the International Dairy Foods Association, America's top five favorite individual flavors are vanilla, chocolate, cookie 'n cream, strawberry and chocolate chip mint.

“My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy the ice cream while it’s on your plate.” ~~Thornton Wilder

Want to know how to healthy up your favorite frozen treat:  Just because it's dessert doesn't mean it has to be unhealthy - check out these nutritious additions perfect for summer.  Healthy Ice Cream Tips

What are your favorite ice cream flavors?

Memorial Day Lantern Floating in Hawaii

Lantern floating is an Asian spiritual tradition that beautifully symbolizes the wish for all beings to live in peaceful coexistence....in remembrance of loved ones, or as symbolic prayer for a harmonious future...40,000+ residents and visitors who cast afloat lanterns...hope that Lantern Floating Hawai`i brings you a sense of peace and warm remembrance of your departed loved ones.

The following video is part of the 2010 ceremony featuring Keola Beamer and R. Carlos Nakai.

Lantern Floating Hawaii in 2010 

at Ala Moana Beach Park, Honolulu, HI

 

The following video is a brief history of the journey of lantern floating ceremony to Hawaii.

Break Out The Bagpipes And Drums!

It's National Tartan Day! How do you celebrate? It's important to celebrate one's cultural heritage. In the United States and Canada, people with Scottish heritage celebrate the legacy of our shared heritage every year during March and April--Tartan Week! Tartan Day Read More...

And for some great Scottish Music check out Arvel Bird, Celtic Fusion Recording  Artist

How will you celebrate Pi Day?

For most of the world, today is March 14th, or 3/14. To most, that date doesn't have any special meaning. But to math nerds, it means today is Pi Day!

There are a large variety of ways of celebrating Pi Day and most of them include eating pie and discussing the relevance of π.

Jim Stingl writes:
"Math geeks and calendar freaks collide today. Pi is 3.14, and the date is 3/14."

By the way, today is also Albert Einstein's birthday.

I'll get you started on pi: 3.141592653589793. The mathematical constant goes on without any repeating patterns right into infinity...

Read more of Stingl's article Geometry fans rejoice - it's Pi Day

Check out EducationalRap.com’s Pi Day Rap page, including quite a few Pi rap songs you can listen to. Lines like “If I’m buyin’ rims for a car – circumference – hey, yo, 2 Pi r…”

Also, TeachPi.org has a Pi music page with downloadable lyrics to several songs.

Leave a comment and tell me what is your favorite thing about Pi?

Learn more about Pi Day from Wikipedia.

Image Pi Pie at Delft University 
Public Domain

updated 3/122/17

Square Root Day

Exciting Day For Math Geeks

Steven Musil says "Count on Tuesday's alignment of the calendar to add some excitement to the lives of at least a few math geeks.

Square Root Day is a rare holiday that occurs when the day and the month are both the square root of the last two digits of the current year. Numerically, March 3, 2009, can be expressed as 3/3/09, or mathematically as √9 = 3, or 3² = 3 × 3 = 9."

*****
From Associated Press--The math-buffs' holiday, which only occurs nine times each century, falls on Tuesday — 3/3/09 (for the mathematically challenged, three is the square root of nine). The last such day was five years ago, Feb. 2, 2004, which coincided with Groundhog Day. The next is seven years away, on April 4, 2016.

"These days are like calendar comets, you wait and wait and wait for them, then they brighten up your day — and poof — they're gone," said Ron Gordon, a Redwood City teacher who started a contest meant to get people excited about the event.

The winner gets, of course, $339 for having the biggest Square Root Day event.

Gordon's daughter even set up a Facebook page — one of a half-dozen or so dedicated to the holiday — and hundreds of people had signed up with plans to celebrate in some way. Celebrations are as varied: Some cut root vegetables into squares, others make food in the shape of a square root symbol.

*****

More Math Celebrations

Square Root Day isn't the only humorous holiday celebrated in the math world.

Pi Day is observed each March 14 (3.14), while Pi Approximation Day falls on July 22 (roughly equal to 22/7). The first Pi Day was observed in 1988 by staff at the San Francisco Exploratorium, who walked around in circles.

How will you celebrate?