Humor

Dec

2023

THRSDY

Today is Incwala Day in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). The date is based on ancestral astrology. The Eswatini National Trust Commission gives the date as the fourth day after the full moon nearest the longest day, December 21st. This unique date rule means the festival can take place in December or January.

Incwala is Eswatini’s most important cultural event and celebrates the start of the harvest season. In the run-up to the festival, men journey to the coast of Mozambique to gather water.

It is only after the king eats the first fruit that the people can partake of the harvest. This is why the festival is sometimes called the ‘First Fruits Festival’, but that event takes place on the fourth day and the festival extends over six days, full of rituals and traditions developed over many centuries:

Day 1: Fetching the Lusekwane (sickle bush)

Unmarried male youths set off from the Queen Mother’s village and march 50 kilometres to cut branches of the “lusekwane” under the light of the full moon.

Day 2: Dropping the Lusekwane

The boys place their “lusekwane” branches in the national cattle byre/kraal. The elders weave these branches in between the poles of the “inhlambelo” – the king’s private sanctuary.

Day 3

In the morning, young boys cut branches of the “black imbondvo” (red bushwillow) and these are added to the “inhlambelo”. In the afternoon, the king is receives traditional medicines in his sanctuary.

Day 4: Eating the First Fruits and Throwing the Gourd

The main day and the public holiday: all the key players perform in a spectacular pageant inside the cattle byre; the king and regiments appear in full war-dress.

Day 5: Day of Abstinence

After the spectacle, excitement and noise of the main day, today is set aside to gather breath and reflect upon the year. During the daylight hours, there is no sexual contact, touching water, wearing decorations, sitting on chairs/mats, shaking hands, scratching, singing or dancing.

Day 6: Day of the Log

The regiments march to a forest and return with firewood. The elders prepare a great fire in the center of the cattle byre. On it, certain ritual objects are burnt, signifying the end of the old year, while the key players dance and sing inside the byre. The king remains in seclusion until the next full moon, when the “lusekwane” branches are removed and burnt.

Door Mat

Supersymmetry

Today is the birthday, in 1875, of composer Maurice Ravel, best know for this piece…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILNDWCLVnpw

Dec

2023

WED-NES-DAY, The day of syllables

Today is the National Day of the Victorious Greater Poland Uprising. It commemorates the 1918-19 Greater Poland Uprising.

The uprising took place in the wake of World War One, as Poland sought to re-establish itself as an independent state following over a century of partition between Germany, Russia and Austria.

The Greater Poland Uprising, which was one of the two successful Polish uprisings, ended in the triumph of Polish insurgents over the Germans. The uprising broke out on December 27, 1918, in Poznań (western Poland) after a patriotic speech by Ignacy Paderewski, the famous pianist and diplomat, who became the Polish prime minister in 1919. The city was liberated on January 6, 1919. Almost the entire province was liberated by mid-January.

Under the Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919, almost the entire Wielkopolskie province returned to Poland.

BADA BING!!

Dear Texas, If you’re really obsessed with going backward in time, return your state to Mexico.

Of all the poop in the world, who decided that bat shit was the craziest?

I’m looking for either buttons or a zipper. I guess I’m really just looking for some closure.

When the FBI is searching your phone for evidence but has to go through 60,000 memes.

Does anyone else feel the urge to walk out of a business the moment they see Fox News on?

Instead of a condom, I carry a moist towelette in my wallet. I run into chicken wings more often than sex.

I used to be against organ donation. Then I had a change of heart.

Not bragging, but, I do live in a gated community with 24-hour guards at the gates. Ok. it’s a prison, I said I wasn’t bragging.

Walmart is giving free turkeys to anyone who can outrun security.

I have a pet termite named Clint. Clint eats wood.

Today is the birthday, in 1952, of British singer-songwriter, guitarist, David Knopfler, (the younger brother of guitarist Mark Knopfler). He is a co-founder of the rock band Dire Straits, with whom he spent three years. After quitting the band, Knopfler embarked upon a solo career. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd9TlGDZGkI

Dec

2023

The TUESDAY of recovery…

Today is Independence and Unity Day in Slovenia. In Slovenian, it is known as ‘Dan samostojnosti in enotnosti’. This holiday commemorates the official proclamation of results of the Slovenian independence referendum (known as the ‘independence plebiscite’) on December 26th 1990. An overwhelming 94.8% of voters (88% turnout) favored the establishment of an independent and sovereign nation.

Slovenia was one of the six republics that formed Yugoslavia from 1944 until 1990. Until 2005, the holiday was simply called Independence Day (dan samostojnosti). ‘Unity’ was added in 2005 to emphasize the national consensus at the time of the 1990 referendum – DEMOS, a coalition of several parties won the first free multi-party elections in Slovenia in 1990, hastening the act of independence.

Cityscape of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana.

This took some planning…

Nice option…

There were a lot of birthdays yesterday – Christmas Day, Shane MacGowan from the Pogues, who died earlier this month, Jimmy Buffett who also passed away this year, Barbara Mandrell, Henry Vestine of Canned Heat and Annie Lennox in 1954 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeMFqkcPYcg

Dec

2023

FRIDAY…excitement grows!!

Today is Sambisa Memorial Day in Nigeria. Every 22nd December, Nigeria mourns victims of Boko Haram insurgents and celebrates the victory of Nigeria’s military. The day is commemorated as Sambisa Memorial Day.

The Sambisa Forest is a forest in Borno State, northeast Nigeria. It is in the southwestern part of Chad Basin National Park, about 60 kilometers southeast of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. The name of the forest comes from the village of Sambisa which is on the border with Gwoza in the East. The forest had a large population of Leopards, Lions, Elephants, and Hyenas before its occupation in 2013 by the Boko Haram terrorists.

December 22 was chosen for the annual public holiday because it was on December 22, 2016, that the Nigerian Armed Forces took over the Sambisa Forest from Boko Haram. Boko Haram, officially known as Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād (Arabic: جماعة أهل السنة للدعوة والجهاد, lit. ‘Group of the People of Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad’), is an Islamist militant organization based in northeastern Nigeria, which is also active in Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon, and Mali. Boko Haram was the world’s deadliest terror group during part of the mid-2010s according to the Global Terrorism Index.

Boko Haram has killed tens of thousands of people, in frequent attacks against the police, armed forces and civilians. It has resulted in the deaths of more than 300,000 children and has 2.3 million from their homes. Boko Haram has contributed to regional food crises and famines.

Inspirational…

Another fun Christmas song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsvOrtcrA5c

Dec

2023

I dreamed it was THURSDAY

São Tomé Day is a public holiday in the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe on December 21st each year. This holiday commemorates the arrival of the first Europeans to the island of São Tomé on this day in 1471. The traditional dates for the arrival of the Portuguese are December 21st 1471 for São Tomé and January 17th 1472 for Príncipe.

Both islands were uninhabited when the Portuguese arrived. It was decided that the islands would make good bases from which to trade with the African mainland and the first successful settlement of São Tomé was established in 1493 with Príncipe being settled 7 years later.

However, this wasn’t some idyllic new colony. The islands were stocked with African slaves and degredados (“undesirables” sent from Portugal), all of whom were forced to work on sugar plantations.

São Tomé and Príncipe achieved independence on 12 July 1975. Interestingly, Principe is where an experiment by Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington during a solar eclipse on May 29, 1919 proved Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.