My Science School

Anniversary of the EDSA Revolution

Do you know what a revolution is? It’s a big change in government. Many countries have had revolutions. Some countries celebrate the anniversary of revolutions. In the Philippines, people celebrate the anniversary of the EDSA Revolution on February 25.

On this day in 1986, many Filipinos (Philippine citizens) and leaders of the Roman Catholic Church gathered to demand a change in government. They felt that the government had cheated the people for years. They wanted a new president.

Some soldiers also wanted a different president. They helped the Filipinos and the Catholic leaders block a main street in Manila called Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA). The people’s protest helped show President Ferdinand Marcos that the people did not want him. So he left the country. This protest became known as the EDSA Revolution.

Every year on the anniversary of the revolution, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church walk together to the street where the revolution took place. There, they hold a religious ceremony called a Mass to pray for the people of the Philippines and to celebrate the day.

Picture Credit : Google

Valentine’s Day

How do you tell your friends and family that you love them? Do you ever send them a valentine?

Many people around the world send valentines on February 14. That’s Valentine’s Day. On this day, children in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada often exchange valentine cards with friends. In Italy, people hold a Valentine’s Day feast. Wherever Valentine’s Day is celebrated, the day gives people a chance to show their love or affection for others.

While Valentine’s Day is celebrated in most countries, different cultures have developed their own traditions for this festival. In some parts of the world Valentine's Day is observed as a day for expressing love between family members and friends, rather than that of romantic couples. Some traditions include leaving lollies and gifts for children and others include acts of appreciation between friends.

Valentine's Day is most commonly associated with romantic love, with millions of Valentine's Day cards being exchanged each year. Gifts of flowers or a single red rose are sent with romantic messages to loved ones and couples spend special time together. 

Many couples choose to celebrate Valentine's Day with dinner, a picnic or special home-cooked meal. Many restaurants offer Valentine’s Day dinner promotions and food is often presented with symbols of love like hearts and flowers. Another popular Valentine's Day activity is to indulge in a luxury hotel stay in a beautiful location, allowing a couple to get away from it all and enjoy some quality time together. Marriage proposals are also popular on Valentine's Day, and it is often chosen as the perfect day to express their love and commitment. Some marriage proposals are delivered very creatively, such as after climbing to the top of a mountain, or posting a message on a billboard. Whatever the method, marriage proposals made on Valentine's Day are generally romantic and memorable.

Picture Credit : Google

Waitangi Day

Hundreds of years ago, people called Maori sailed their long canoes to what is now New Zealand. The Maori came from islands in the Pacific.

In the 1700’s, Europeans came to New Zealand. They brought guns, which increased warfare among the Maori. They also brought diseases that killed thousands of Maori.

The British settlers and the Maori finally got together at a place named Waitangi to resolve their problems. On February 6, 1840, they signed the Treaty of Waitangi. This agreement made New Zealand a British colony. New Zealand now is an independent nation. It celebrates February 6 as Waitangi Day, its birthday and most important national holiday.

Every year on 6 February – Waitangi Day – people of all communities and backgrounds gather at Waitangi to commemorate the first signing of New Zealand’s founding document: Te Tiriti o Waitangi, The Treaty of Waitangi, on 6 February 1840. Waitangi Day is recognised as New Zealand’s national day and is the most important marker in the country’s history.

Ongoing recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi as the nation’s founding document will continue to keep this celebration alive, as the Treaty continues to live as part of New Zealand’s past, present and future.

On the 6 February the Treaty Grounds closes its buildings for the day and the grounds become the location for the Waitangi Day Festival.

The free festival at the Treaty Grounds starts at 5am with a Dawn Service in Te Whare R?nanga (Carved Meeting House). All-day entertainment creates a fun, festival atmosphere, with performance stages on the Upper Treaty Grounds, at the Waka Shelter and on the sports field opposite the Treaty Grounds.

More than 150 market stalls offer an amazing array of art and crafts, clothing and a wide variety of food options. Children’s activities include bouncy castles, kids racing cars and sports games.

Chinese New Year

Firecrackers pop and crackle! Cymbals crash! Drums roll! A giant dragon comes zigzagging down the street decorated with hundreds of sparkling sequins.

Chinese people are celebrating the start of the New Year. Friends and family get together for meals. Adults give children little red envelopes with lucky money. And a colourful parade marks the end of several days of festivities.

Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, is China’s most important festival. It is also the most important celebration for families and a week of an official public holiday.

The Chinese New Year begins on the date of the first new moon between January 21 and February 19. This is because the ancient Chinese calendar is based on the moon. Chinese people around the world observe the holiday. Vietnamese and Koreans also celebrate the New Year at this time.

In many Chinese cities, from New Year’s Day, traditional performances can be seen: dragon dances, lion dances, and imperial performances like an emperor’s wedding. A great variety of traditional Chinese products are on offer, and rarely seen Chinese snacks. City parks and temple fairs are the places to go for this.

Every street, building, and house where Spring Festival is celebrated is decorated with red. Red is the main color for the festival, as red is believed to be an auspicious Color.

Red Chinese lanterns hang in streets; red couplets are pasted on doors; banks and official buildings are decorated with red New Year pictures depicting images of prosperity.

Picture Credit : Google

Martin Luther King, Jr., Day

Martin Luther King, Jr., was a Baptist minister. He led people to work against the bad treatment that African Americans in the U.S.A. got in the mid-1900’s. Until then, African Americans in many states were not allowed to go to the same schools as white people or buy houses in white neighbourhoods. Black people had to use different drinking fountains and sit in different areas of restaurants and cinemas, too. Many were treated violently.

King wanted to change this unfair treatment. He preached that people must learn to live together and that people should not like or dislike others because of the colour of their skin. He preached that violence is bad.

People threw stones at King and put him in jail for his words and actions. In 1968, a hidden rifleman shot and killed King.

Today, many people around the world have followed King’s ideas. In the U.S.A., people honour King by celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr., Day on the third Monday in January.

The Month of February

February is the second month of the year and the shortest. Usually, this month has only 28 days. But every fourth year - called leap year - an extra day is added. This keeps the calendar in time with the seasons. If you were born on February 29, you have a real birthday only once every four years.

The Roman calendar was designed to reflect the length of the lunar months. A calendar year lasted 355 days, which is the approximate duration of 12 lunar months. A straightforward method of dividing this time span into 12 calendar months would have been to have some months with 29 days and some with 30 days. However, since even numbers were considered unlucky in ancient Rome, we ended up with a calendar that has seven months with 29 days and four months with 31 days instead. This left February, the last month of the year, with the remaining 28 days.

With its even number of days, the Romans considered February an unlucky month, and it was reserved for rituals honoring the dead.

The word February comes from the Latin word februare, which means “to purify” or “to make clean”.

February is usually cold and stormy in the northern half of the world and warm and sunny in the south.

Picture Credit : Google

Republic Day in India

Rose petals fall from the sky. Huge elephants wearing clanging bells and shining beads lumber down the street along with big, armoured tanks. What a parade! It’s Republic Day, a national holiday in India.

Republic Day, January 26, marks the date in 1950 when India had its own constitution, or set of basic laws. People in India celebrate this as a big step in their independence from Great Britain.

On Republic Day, celebrations occur all over India. The biggest celebration takes place in New Delhi, the capital city. There, a great parade travels down the Raj Path, or Government Road.

Many parades begin with rose petals being dropped from helicopters. Then bands begin to play and Indian soldiers called jawans march in perfect order. The parading elephants carry musicians wearing brightly coloured turbans. As the parade ends, thousands of green, white, and orange-yellow balloons - the colours of India’s flag - float into the air. For the next two days, folk dancers entertain crowds throughout New Delhi.

Picture Credit : Google

Australia Day

Clink-clank-clink. Barefoot prisoners in chains trudge along the road. All around them are guards with guns.

These people aren’t really prisoners and guards. They’re part of a celebration that is held every year in Sydney, Australia’s oldest and largest city. The marchers are showing people what life was like in Australia more than 200 years ago.

On January 26, 1788, a fleet of ships anchored in a harbour off the coast of Australia at what is now Sydney. These ships brought 730 prisoners from Britain. The prisoners, or convicts, were the first Europeans to settle in Australia. Since then, millions of Europeans have chosen Australia as their homeland. Wherever they’re from, they all take part in celebrating Australia Day every year on the Monday closest to January 26.

On this national holiday, Australians enjoy folk dances and happy music from the many nations of people who now live in Australia. Dancers and musicians perform in the oldest part of Sydney, called the Rocks. This hilly area is near the harbour where the first Europeans landed.

Picture Credit : Google

Ramadan

Do people of your religion eat and drink less during certain times of the year? This custom is called fasting. Muslims, people who follow the Islamic religion, fast for a month every year.

Both the long fast and the month are called Ramadan. This is the ninth month of the Islamic year. Because the Islamic calendar is based on the moon, the dates of Ramadan change. During the early 2000’s, Ramadan occurs in autumn in the northern part of the world, but each year it moves a little earlier in the year.

During Ramadan, Muslims fast every day from dawn to sunset. They fast to have their sins forgiven. Those who cannot fast for some reason must either make up the days they miss or feed the hungry. Pregnant women, young children, the elderly, and people who are ill do not have to fast.

In the daytime, Muslims work less and spend more time praying and reading their holy book, called the Quran.

Muslims celebrate the end of Ramadan with a great festival called the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast. It is one of the two great Muslim festivals. The other is the Festival of Sacrifice.

Picture Credit : Google

The Month of January

In most of the world, January is the first month of the year. It is named after the ancient Roman god Janus.

Janus was the god of beginnings and the god of gates and doorways. He is shown with two faces. One face looks to the future. The other face looks back at the past.

In the northern part of the world, January is cold and snowy. It is near the beginning of winter. People go skating and sledging. But in the southern part of the world, January is warm. It is near the beginning of summer - a time for swimming and picnics.

New Year’s Day is just the first of many special days and observances in January. There are plenty of other days that can provide you with ideas for learning and fun to share with your child or students. For example, it's International Creativity Month, so together you can explore and enjoy indoor activities that celebrate everything from letter writing and puzzles to dragons and kazoos. January is a prime time to learn about important people in history, such as Benjamin Franklin, Amelia Earhart, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Some observances focus on achieving a healthier lifestyle. You may find related activities planned by community centers, schools, or health care organizations related to these specific topics. On other days, you can celebrate with comfort foods, such as chocolate and bagels. Have fun celebrating the Chinese New Year, which is a long holiday filled with daily cultural traditions including feasts of symbolic foods and exchanging monetary gifts in auspicious red envelopes.

Picture Credit : Google

New Year’s Day

Shhhh! We’re counting the seconds to midnight. The New Year is almost here. As the clock begins to strike 12, noise fills the air in many parts of the world. Church bells ring out and people toot horns. Everyone shouts, “Happy New Year!”

Why is there so much noise? It’s one way people show how happy they are. It’s also an old custom. Long ago, people believed that loud noises scared away evil spirits.

Many people also celebrate New Year’s Day with special customs. Some visit friends and relatives. Some make New Year’s resolutions. They promise themselves to do better in the New Year than they did in the old year.

Children in Belgium write their parents New Year’s messages on decorated paper and read them on New Year’s Day. In Russia, children may visit the Kremlin in the heart of Moscow. There, they see a huge fir tree called the New Year Tree. The tree is decorated with many coloured lights.

In Scotland, the evening of December 31 is called Hogmanay. People wait up on Hogmanay until midnight for the “first footer” to arrive. The “first footer” is the first person to cross over the doorstep on the first day of the New Year. According to Scottish tradition, the first footer carries a piece of coal to bring wealth, and a sprig of mistletoe to protect the family from the old year’s spirits.

In Ecuador, people make a straw man dressed in their old clothes. They give the man a list of their family’s faults, and then burn him and the list at midnight to get rid of all their faults.

In many parts of the world, people eat special foods to bring good luck in the coming year. In Japan, people eat a kind of pink fish called red snapper. Pink is a lucky colour in Japan. In southern India, they boil new rice to bring good luck.

In Portugal, people choose 12 grapes from a bunch. They eat them one by one as the clock strikes midnight.

In countries in Europe, roast pig is often served on New Year’s Day. In Hungary, the pig has a four-leaf clover in its mouth for good luck.

In Romania, people stuff their pockets with corn. They walk from house to house “sowing” the corn by tossing it at friends to bring them good luck.

How do you welcome the New Year? Try some of these ideas or make up some of your own!

Picture Credit : Google

Feast of Epiphany

In the Christian tradition, it is said that three wise men followed a guiding star to a stable in Bethlehem to see baby Jesus. There, they gave the child gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

With this story in mind, children in Puerto Rico fill their shoes with grass or straw just before bedtime on January 5. The grass or straw is for the animals ridden by the Three Wise Men, sometimes called the Three Kings. The next morning, known as the Feast of Epiphany or Three Kings’ Day, the children find sweets and toys in their shoes - gifts from the Three Kings.

Epiphany is also when some Churches remember when Jesus was Baptised, when he was about 30, and started to teach people about God. Epiphany means 'revelation' and both the visit of the Wise Men and his Baptism are important times when Jesus was 'revealed' to be very important.

Some Churches celebrate use Epiphany to celebrate and remember both the visit of the Wise Men and Jesus's Baptism!

Picture Credit : Google

How do you know what day a holiday falls on? You look at a calendar, of course! But long ago, the only “calendars” people had were the moon, the sun, the stars, and the changing seasons. Even today we still use calendars that follow the changes of the moon and the seasons.

People made the first calendars by dividing a year into 12 “moons,” or months. But they had a problem. A year is the time it takes the earth to travel once around the sun. This comes to about 365 days. A moon-month is the time from one new moon to the next - about 29 1/2 days. There are 12 months in a year. So 12 moon-months come to about 354 days. And this is 11 days less than a year!

Sometimes people added days or months to keep the calendar in step with the seasons. Over the years, some people developed a calendar that matched the seasons. They based this calendar on the solar year, or the time it takes for the earth to circle the sun. It has 365 days.

Picture Credit : Google

Holidays and Calendars

Some holidays follow calendars based on the moon. These days are called “floating holidays” because they float around on our standard calendar. They are not celebrated on the same day each year. Many of these floating holidays are religious. They follow a religious calendar.

The Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar follows the moon. But it also groups years into sets of 12. Each year is named after an animal. The first of the twelve years is the Year of the Rat. This is followed by the years of the ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig.

The Hebrew Calendar

The Hebrew, or Jewish, calendar is also based on the moon. The Jews use it to fix the dates of their religious years. There are 12 months in the Hebrew calendar. An extra month, added seven times every 19 years, keeps the calendar more or less in time with the seasons. Also, days are added or taken away to make sure certain holy days fall on proper days of the week. As a result, a Jewish year can be as short as 353 days or as long as 385 days.

The Christian Calendar

Christian calendars use the moon to set some holy days, too. Easter, for example, can fall any time from March 22 to April 25. The exact date depends on the moon.

The Muslim Calendar

Muslims follow the religion of Islam. They also use a calendar based on the moon. It has 12 months of 30 or 29 days. Eleven times in every 30 years, an extra day is added to the calendar. This keeps the calendar in time with the moon, but not with the seasons.

The Islamic year is only 354 or 355 days long. It does not follow the calendar year that includes the months of January to December. That calendar year has 365 days. The Islamic year is about 11 days shorter than that. So each year, an Islamic holiday is about 11 days earlier than the year before. But in 32 1/2 years, it’s back to where it started.

Picture Credit : Google

People celebrate for many reasons. Some people celebrate special family days. Other people get together as a group, a community, or even as a whole nation to celebrate a special event. Many celebrations are religious. People also celebrate certain times of the year.

Some celebrations take place on days when you don’t have to go to school and adults don’t have to go to work. These days are often marked with visits from friends and relatives and with special treats. Sometimes, people have picnics. And sometimes, people go to a church, a temple, or another house of worship.

Some of our festivals and celebrations mark the passing of the year and its changing seasons. These are usually very old customs. Long, long ago, before people had heating and electric lights, winter in many places was a hard time of dark days and bad weather. No wonder people celebrated the coming of summer with feasting and dancing! A good harvest at the end of the summer meant that there would be plenty to eat all winter. Everyone gave thanks for good crops.

Birthdays are favourite celebrations for many people. It’s fun to have a birthday cake with candles on it - one candle for every year of your life. Some people get birthday presents. Some people have a birthday party and invite all their friends.

Many people celebrate the birthday of their country. People also often celebrate the birthdays of religious leaders, presidents, kings and queens, national heroes, or other people they want to remember and honour.

Some holidays honour special groups of people. For example, certain days remind us of those who died fighting for their country. On other days, we honour people we love and respect, such as our parents and our teachers. A few holidays celebrate working people.

Some Christians celebrate “name days”. In some countries, children are named after Christian saints. Each saint has a special day, and children named after a saint celebrate on that saint’s day.

The word holiday comes from the words holy day - a day on which people pray or give thanks. Some holy days are celebrated by people all around the world. These important days may be remembered by going to a place of worship, by gathering together to pray, or by dressing up and having a good time. Some of the celebrations include feasting or a time of fasting. Fasting means that people stop eating, eat less than usual, or stop eating certain things.

Some celebrations are holidays, but not all of them. Today, we use the word holiday for any day of celebration, relaxation, or other change from an ordinary day.

On holidays, you may see parades with marching bands. At night, there may be dazzling fireworks.

Holidays are filled with traditions. People often prepare wonderful foods especially for holidays. People sometimes wear traditional clothes or brighten their homes and neighbourhoods with holiday lights and decorations. People also sing traditional songs and play holiday games. What are some of your favourite traditions?

We sometimes celebrate days that seem to be just for fun. On some of these days, we play jokes on people. On others, we get together with friends and neighbours to enjoy music, dancing, and singing.

Picture Credit : Google