Month: September 2023

Sep

2023

Back to school TUESDAY

Today is St. Teresa Canonization Day, a public holiday in Albania. The holiday (Albanian: Dita e Nënë Terezës) marks the canonization of Saint Teresa by Pope Francis in 2016.

Mother Teresa was born on August 26th 1910, in Skopje (now the capital of North Macedonia) in the Ottoman Empire. Born to a family of Albanian ancestry, she was named Anjezë (Agnes) Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. From an early Agnes had been inspired by tales of missionaries and when she was 18, she moved to Ireland to join a nunnery to learn English. Having arrived India in 1929, she became a nun in 1931, adopting the name Teresa, after Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries.

In 1950, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation. Today, expanding beyond the original location of Calcutta, the 4000 sisters of the congregation run orphanages, AIDS hospices, soup kitchens and mobile clinics in 123 countries; caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, the poor and homeless, and victims of floods, epidemics, and famine. Members of the congregation must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience as well as a fourth vow, to give ‘wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor’.

Mother Teresa gained worldwide recognition for her charitable works and was the recipient of numerous honors including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She became famous as ‘Teresa of Calcutta’.

Today is the birthday, in 1946, of Freddie Mercury British singer, songwriter, record producer with Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of rock music, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and four-octave vocal range. Queen had had the 1975 UK No.1 single ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, plus over 40 other UK Top 40 singles. And the 1980 US No.1 single ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’. As a solo artist he scored the 1987 UK No. 4 single ‘The Great Pretender’. Mercury died of bronchio-pneumonia on November 24th 1991 aged 45, just one day after he publicly announced he was HIV positive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO6D_BAuYCI

Sep

2023

FRY-FRY-FRYDAI!!

Today is Independence Day in Uzbekistan. Known locally as ‘Mustaqillik Kuni’, this is Uzbekistan’s National Day and marks independence from the Soviet Union on September 1st 1991.

Uzbekistan is a land-locked Central Asian nation that has a diverse and rich heritage due to its strategic position on the so-called Silk Road, an ancient trade route between Europe and China.

Following the Russian Revolution, the area become part of the Soviet Union, with the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic being created on October 27th 1924.

In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. As a result Uzbekistan declared its state sovereignty in June 1991 and on September 1st 1991, the independence of the Republic of Uzbekistan, was declared after a special session of the Supreme Council of the Republic.