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Today is a part of the Naadam Festival in Mongolia. The Naadam Festival is a celebrated in Mongolia with public holidays from July 11th – 15th each year. This is the largest and most popular holiday in Mongolia. The first day of the festival takes place on Revolution Day, Mongolia’s National Day, which commemorates independence from China on July 11th 1921.

The festival originated in the 12th century as a way for Mongolians to demonstrate their military prowess. From the 17th century, Naadam contests were held during religious holidays. Since 1922, they have been held on Revolution Day, the anniversary of the People’s Revolution.

The main Naadam festival takes place in the country’s capital Ulaanbaatar and opens with a cultural performance with ethnic dancing and music before the games get underway. Everyone, young and old are encouraged to participate in the games.

Wrestling is usually the first sport. The main wrestling event is a knockout competition involving 512 or 1,024 participants. The participants are all men and have to enter the ring bare-chested as legend has it that a woman once infiltrated the games beating the men, so now all the wrestlers have to show they are male before the grappling begins.

Unlike international wrestling events, there are no weight classes and the rules are also simpler – if a wrestler touches the ground with any part of their body apart from their feet and arms, they lose.

The second sport is Archery. From the time of Ghengis Khan, Mongolian archers were famed for their skill and precision with a bow. At its time, the recurved Mongol bow was a weapon without compare on the Eurasian battlefields of the steppe and deep into Western Europe. The games consist of three categories of archery – Buriat, Khakh and Uriankhai – which have differing bows, arrows and distances.

The third sport is horseback riding. Mastery of horse-riding was key to the Mongol domination of the steppe. The nomadic life of the Mongols developed their skills as expert hunters with the horse and bow, which made them formidable opponents. They developed stirrups, which enabled Mongol horsemen to ride without reins, leaving the hands free for combat.

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Olympics starting soon, with new events…

Today is the birthday, in 1943, of Christine McVie, keyboards, vocals, Chicken Shack, and then Fleetwood Mac, who scored the US No.1 single ‘Dreams’ taken from their worldwide No.1 album Rumours which spent 31 weeks on the US chart. Eight of her songs appeared on Fleetwood Mac’s 1988 Greatest Hits album. McVie died at 79, following a brief illness, on November 30, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3ywicffOj4

Today is the anniversary of the First Sermon of the Lord Buddha (Formally known as Drukpa Tshe Zhi), a public holiday in Bhutan. After achieving enlightenment, Buddha gave his first sermon in the Deer Park in Isipatana, India and founded the Buddhist sangha (monkhood) about 2,500 years ago.

In the sermon, which is known as ‘Setting the Wheel of Dharma in Motion’, the Buddha first spelt out the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.

In His First Sermon, the Buddha said, “I teach one thing and one thing only: suffering and the end of suffering,” which is the ultimate goal of Buddhism. The Buddha presented and explained this very doctrine in his major discourses. In this First Sermon at Deer Park, He taught the Four Noble Truths: the existence of suffering, the cause of suffering, that the cause of suffering can end, and the path to the end of suffering.

“Avoiding extremes, the Buddha has realized the Middle Path: It gives vision, it gives knowledge, and it leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment, to Nirvana. And what is that Middle Path? It is simply the Noble Eightfold Path, namely, right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is the Middle Path realized by the Buddha, which gives vision, which gives knowledge, and which leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment, and to Nirvana.”

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Weddings…

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SIGNZ

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Found this fun video – apparently a remake of an old Pepsi commercial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD3wHHXTsOQ&list=PLzSz6NxvKpJAiHk1LKjz27By8GnLrLtsD&index=28

Today is Independence Day in Belarus, a public holiday. It is the National Day of Belarus and marks the liberation of Minsk on 3 July 1944.

When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Belarus was the first to bear the brunt of the attack. On 24 June, Minsk came under massive artillery shelling and air strikes from nearly 150 bombers.

Despite resistance from local fighters, the Germans seized Minsk on 28 June 1941. Not accepting the occupation, the residents began a resistance movement that lasted 1,100 days. The efforts of the citizens helped the armies of the 1st and 3rd Belarusian Fronts with the support of the partisans liberate the Belarusian capital from the invaders on 3 July 1944.

Belarus paid a high price for the freedom; a third of the population was killed during the war. Independence Day is a tribute to the heroism and endurance of Minskers in their struggle to bring freedom to Belarus.

Liberation of Minsk, 1944 Image by Valentin Volkov

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Signs…

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Here’s some music to get you ready for Independence Day tomorrow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSIy0wq_-8A

Today is Jāņi, a public holiday in Latvia. The previous day, Midsummer Eve (Ligo) is also a public holiday. Depending on what day of the week, these holidays fall on, then additional bridge holidays may also be declared (Latvians know how to live).

Jāņi marks the summer solstice and the shortest night of the year and it has become one of the most important holidays in Latvia. Since ancient times, this midsummer day has been observed and celebrated by many cultures. In the agricultural calendar, it was a time to celebrate the sowing of the crops and enjoy the short break before harvest began. In Northern Europe, its effects are more pronounced with very long days, which of course is contrasted six months later when the winter solstice (Ziemassvētki) results in very long nights in that part of the world.

With the Christianisation of Latvia, Jāņi was moved to St. John’s Day.

During the Soviet era, the celebration of ethnic holidays such as Jāņi were suppressed by the authorities as they were seen as nationalistic when the focus should be on the Soviet Union as a collective.

Since independence in 1990, the holiday has been reinstated and the (at least) two-day break for Ligo and St. John’s Day has proved a popular holiday period for Latvians to take some time off and enjoy the weather at this time of year.

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Cat Math

TRIANGLE

SQUARE

RECTANGLE

CIRCLE

HORIZONTAL

VERTICAL

OBLIQUE

EVEN NUMBER

ODD NUMBER

PRIME NUMBER

CONCENTRIC CIRCLES

EQUATION

MULTIPLICATION

DIVISION

PERPENDICULAR

RIGHT ANGLE

OBTUSE ANGLE

SPHERE

BELL CURVE

FIBONACCI SERIES

INFINITY

(all according to Bluebird of Bitterness)

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Today is the birthday, in 1947, of Mick Fleetwood, drummer and co-founder of the rock band Fleetwood Mac who had the 1968 UK No.1 hit ‘Albatross’ and the hits ‘Man of the World’ and ‘Oh Well. In 1977 they scored the US No.1 single ‘Dreams’ taken from their worldwide No.1 album Rumours which spent 31 weeks on the US chart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3ywicffOj4

Today is Midsummer’s Day, a public holiday in Sweden and some other Nordic countries. Midsummer is one of the oldest and most important holidays in Sweden. Festivities start on the Friday before – Midsummer’s Eve (Midsommarafton).

Similar to New Year, the main celebrations take place on the eve of the day. Traditional events include raising and dancing around a huge maypole, in Swedish called the Midsommarstången.

Some believe it originated as a symbol of fertility.  Even though the major fertility rites in ancient times, center around the beginning of spring, Midsummer was linked to an ancient fertility festival, as conception at this time would lead to a birth in March, which was traditionally seen as a good time for children to be born. Others think the shape of the pole has its roots in Norse mythology, and that it represents an axis linking the underworld, earth, and heavens. Many people will wear traditional folk costumes and listen to traditional music. It is also a holiday on which the Swedish will consume a large amount of alcohol and raucous drinking songs are a common sound during the celebrations.

Midsummer was considered to be one of the key times in the year when the power of magic was strongest and at it was thought to be a good time to perform rituals, particularly those which related to predicting the future. A tradition of this is one in which young people pick bouquets of seven or nine different flowers and put them under their pillow in the hope of dreaming about their future spouse.

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BOOKS!!!

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On this day in 1962, The “James Bond Theme”, first heard in the 1962 film Dr. No. The Bond Theme was recorded using five saxophones, nine brass instruments, a solo guitar and a rhythm section. The original recording of the theme was played by Vic Flick on a 1939 English Clifford Essex Paragon Deluxe guitar plugged into a Fender Vibrolux amplifier. Flick was paid a one-off fee of £6 for recording the famous James Bond Theme motif. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9-cDa4JCwM