jueves, 5 de mayo de 2011
HALLOWEEN
Halloween is a night of fantasy and mystery which recalls andrepresents everything about the world of the dead and thephenomenon of death itself, which attracts both men. The origin ofthe popular festival of Halloween is to be found in old Ireland. On the night of witches around the world represents a great sceneryin memory of departed loved ones and spirits. The costumes and disguises,trick or treat, traditional sweets, pumpkins, are symbols of Halloween archiconocidos Anglo.
VETERANS DAY
In 1921, an unidentified American soldier from World War I was buried in a special place in Arlington National Cemetery. Amemorial service was established to honor all soldiers whofought in that war on the date and time that the First World Warhad officially ended, on November 11, 1918 at 11:00 am. It became officially known as Armistice Day in 1926. It was notuntil 12 years after he became a national holiday.
3 In 1956 after World War II and the Korean War, it was decidedto rename the holiday. Should reflect the honor of all veteransand the name was changed to Veterans Day.
CULUMBUS DAY
Many countries in the New World celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492, as an official holiday.
This event is celebrated as:
-Columbus Day in the United States
-Día de la Raza in many countries in Latin America.
-Discovery Day in the Bahamas.
-Día de la Hispanidad and Fiesta Nacional in Spain.
-Día de las Américas in Uruguay.
These holidays have been celebrated unofficially since the late 18th century, and officially in various countries since the early 20th century.
HISTORY
Columbus Day first became an official state holiday in Colorado in 1906, and became a federal holiday in 1937. People have celebrated Columbus's voyage since the colonial period. In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison called upon the American people to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of the event.
Since 1971, the holiday has been fixed to the second Monday in October, coincidentally the same day as Thanksgiving in neighboring Canada (which was fixed to that date in 1959).
HOW AMERICA CELEBRATES COLOMBUS DAY
Actual observance varies in different parts of the United States, ranging from large-scale parades and events to complete non-observance. Most states celebrate Columbus Day as an official state holiday, though many mark it as a "Day of Observance" or "Recognition" and two do not recognize it at all. Some states close schools and other state services, while others operate as normal.
San Francisco claims the nation's oldest continuously existing celebration with the Italian-American community's annual Columbus Day Parade, which was established by Nicola Larco in 1868, while New York City boasts the largest.
As in the mainland U.S., Columbus Day is a legal holiday in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. In the United States Virgin Islands, the day is celebrated as both Columbus Day and "Puerto Rico Friendship Day.
Virginia also celebrates two legal holidays on the day, Columbus Day and Yorktown Victory Day, which honors the final victory at the Siege of Yorktown in the Revolutionary War.
Hawaii and South Dakota are the two states that do not recognize Columbus Day at all, though both mark the day with an alternative holiday, also Nevada doesn’t celebrate Columbus Day as an official holiday. The city of Berkeley, California has replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day since 1992 and various tribal governments in Oklahoma designate the day "Native American Day", or name the day after their tribe.
BLACK FRIDAY
In USA, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving (thanksgiving is celebrated the fourth Thursday of November) when almost stores offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season. On this day, stores use to open very early, often at 4 am or close lately, like Saturday at 2 am. Also virtually all retailers in the country, big and small, offer various sales.
Black Friday isn’t a holiday but many employers give their employees the day off, for increase the number of potential shoppers.
The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian (walking people) and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term began by 1966 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975.
By the early 1980s, an alternative theory began to be circulated: that retailer traditionally operated at a financial loss for most of the year (January through November) and made their profit during the holiday season, beginning on the day after Thanksgiving. When this would be recorded in the financial records, once-common accounting practices would use red ink to show negative amounts and black ink to show positive amounts. Black Friday, under this theory, is the beginning of the period where retailers would no longer have losses (the red) and instead take in the year's profits (the black).
Recent years have seen a marked increase in extreme chaos resulting from people's desires to take advantage of Black Friday sales.
-In 2006, a man in Roanoke, Virginia shopping at Best Buy was recorded on video assaulting another shopper.
-Unruly (crazy) Wal-Mart shoppers at a store outside Columbus, Ohio, quickly flooded in the doors at opening, pinning several employees against stacks of merchandise.
-In 2008 a crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers in Valley Stream, New York, waited outside for the 5:00 a.m. opening of the local Wal-Mart. As opening time approached the crowd grew anxious and when the doors were opened the crowd pushed forward, breaking the door down, and trampling a 34 year old employee to death.
More recently, Black Friday has been exported to nations outside of North America such as Australia and the United Kingdom by major online retailers like Amazon or Apple.
APRIL FOOL’S DAY
In other countries is also called “poisson d'avril” (in French) and “pesce d'aprile” (In Italian).
April fool’s day is a culture holiday celebrated in the most of the western world, in countries like Italy, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Brazil, Portugal and United States.
This holiday is usually celebrated on April 1st , even Fools day is not a legal holiday, is recognized and celebrated as a day which tolerates practical or ‘heavy’ jokes and all kind of foolishness.
Traditionally, in some countries such as New Zealand, the UK, Australia, and South Africa, the jokes only last until noon, and someone who plays a trick after noon is called an "April Fool".
Elsewhere, such as in France, Ireland, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Canada, and the U.S., the jokes last all day.
ORIGINS
A lot of stories have given to explain how Fools day appear, but the version story, who tells that the jokes that people play to another begin in Carlos IX’s reign (France), is the most certain.
In XVI century people in France celebrated New Year since March 25th until April 1st, but on 1564 the king adopted the Gregorian calendar, so New Year celebration was moved to January 1st, but some people, who didn’t approve or simply forgot the change continued celebrating the holiday on April so the jokers took advantage of this situation for make some foolishness, so April Fool’s day started.
The name has given for zodiacal reasons.