International Dance Day

International Dance Day is a global celebration of dance, created by the Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), the main partner for the performing arts of UNESCO. The event takes place every year on 29 April, which is the anniversary of the birth of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727–1810), the creator of modern ballet. The day strives to encourage participation and education in dance through events and festivals held on the date all over the world. UNESCO formally recognize ITI to be the creators and organizers of the event.To mark International Dance Day each year, on 29 April, the International Theatre Institute invites its members along with dancers, choreographers, dance students and enthusiasts to join them in a Gala Celebration.

The Gala Celebration takes place in a chosen host city decided on by the Executive Council of the International Theatre Institute – for instance in 2017 it was held in Shanghai, China, and in 2018 it was in Havana, Cuba.The programme of the Gala Event can vary, but usually consists of top-quality dance performances from around the world, student performances, keynote speeches, and a recital of the Message for that year’s event read, in person, by that years selected message author.
In Shanghai 2017 for instance, the event became a three-day celebration with greater emphasis on education through dance workshops and presentations led by an international cast of dance experts. The evenings were reserved for performances, the finale of which was the Gala Celebration. The Shanghai event also had a humanitarian aspect, with much of its focus being on celebrating the achievements of disabled dancers and encouraging disabled children to dance.

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Easter Sunday

Easter, also called Pascha or Resurrection Sunday, is a festival and holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day after his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD. It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent , a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.Most Christians refer to the week before Easter as "Holy Week", which contains the days of the Easter Triduum, including Maundy Thursday, commemorating the Maundy and Last Supper, as well as Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus.In Western Christianity, Eastertide, or the Easter Season, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts seven weeks, ending with the coming of the 50th day, Pentecost Sunday. In Eastern Christianity, the season of Pascha begins on Pascha and ends with the coming of the 40th day, the Feast of the Ascension.

Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts which do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars which follow only the cycle of the Sun; rather, its date is offset from the date of Passover and is therefore calculated based on a lunisolar calendar similar to the Hebrew calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established two rules, independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the only rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the council. No details for the computation were specified; these were worked out in practice, a process that took centuries and generated a number of controversies. It has come to be the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March. Even if calculated on the basis of the more accurate Gregorian calendar, the date of that full moon sometimes differs from that of the astronomical first full moon after the March equinox.

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Good Friday

Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of Passover. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, and Black Friday.Members of many Christian denominations, including the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist, Oriental Orthodox and Reformed traditions, observe Good Friday with fasting and church services.
The date of Good Friday varies from one year to the next on both the Gregorian and Julian calendars. Eastern and Western Christianity disagree over the computation of the date of Easter and therefore of Good Friday. Good Friday is a widely instituted legal holiday around the world, including in most Western countries and 12 U.S. states.Some countries, such as Germany, have laws prohibiting certain acts, such as dancing and horse racing, that are seen as profaning the solemn nature of the day.

A common folk etymology incorrectly analyzes "Good Friday" as a corruption of "God Friday" similar to the linguistically correct description of "goodbye" as a contraction of "God be with you". In fact, "Good Friday" comes from the obsolete sense "pious, holy" of the word "good".Less common examples of expressions based on this obsolete sense of "good" include "the good book" for the Bible, "good tide" for "Christmas" or Shrovetide, and Good Wednesday for the Wednesday in Holy Week.In Old English, the day was called “Long Friday”, and this term was adopted from Old English and is still used in Scandinavian languages and Finnish.

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Zoo Lovers Day

Each year on April 8th, National Zoo Lovers Day encourages us to explore our local zoos. Each year millions of people visit zoos and learn about the many animals that live there. Also known as zoological parks, many of them serve as breeding centers. These facilities are relied upon when species are endangered or at risk of becoming endangered. They also provide education to the public about a broad variety of animals and their habitats. 

Zoo Lovers Day is a great excuse to get your family together and go for a trip to see the exotic animals of the world!  Zoos have a long history, bringing strange new animals from the far flung and mysterious regions of the world straight into the heart of civilization. Where else can you see prowling lions, playful monkeys, and majestic elephants outside of the depths of the Savannah?  Well, or main street London when Harrod’s still had a zoo section!

Zoo is actually short for Zoological Garden, and is mostly used to refer to the modern concept of a zoo.   Prior to this the term menagerie was used, coming from a long history reaching back all the way to the ancient world.  The oldest collection of this sort was found during an archeological dig in Hierakonpolis Egypt in 2009.   The animals they had there included an impressive array of hippos, elephants, baboons, wildcats, and hartebeests.

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World Table Tennis Day

Table tennis is not only a matter of competition; it is also a vehicle for positive social change, a healthy worthwhile use of leisure time and an opportunity to bring people together, an excellent tool for social inclusion. This sport has a unique value where people from different ages, gender, skills or physical condition can play together. Hence, there’s a day for people who love table tennis to spread their love for the sport and get people interested in it. It’s called World Table Tennis Day! Read more below to find out more about its history and how you can take part in the celebration.

Table tennis, also called ping pong, originated during Victorian England where it was originally played as a parlour game. The term “ping-pong” was used as a catchy phrase by the company J. Jaques & Son Ltd and hence was trademarked by them in 1901. Table tennis didn’t become a competitive sport until 1988 when the summer Olympics started. Table Tennis has since honed in its rules when the 2000 Olympics in Sydney when they implemented rules for players to join for competition, and now organizations like the International Table Tennis Federation formed and took table tennis to a whole new level.The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is to promote table tennis globally to be played in each corner of the world. To accomplish this mission, ITTF created ITTF Development to make the sport accessible to everyone. In 2015, ITTF created World Table Tennis Day to get people interested in this competitive sport and has since been celebrating the holiday so that way more people can learn about the sport.

Since then, ITTF developed a Table tennis for ALL program with the aim to make the sport Popular, Universal and Inclusive. The term “ALL” means more people, but not only that, also different kinds of people in terms of age, gender, social status, culture and physical ability.The World Table Tennis Day is celebrated by organizing activities, such as tournaments and exhibitions on the streets, clubs, bars, schools, workplaces, shopping centres, etc. All these events can be registered on the official website of the day, tt4all.com, to join the world wide celebration. If you’re looking for other ways to celebrate World Table Tennis Day, watch competitive world tennis on TV and hashtag #worldtabletennisday on social media so your friends can know what day it is!

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Amber Fossil

Amber is fossilized tree resin, which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times.Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects.Amber is used in jewelry. It has also been used as a healing agent in folk medicine.There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions.Amber occurring in coal seams is also called resinite, and the term ambrite is applied to that found specifically within New Zealand coal seams.

The English word amber derives from Arabic ʿanbar (cognate with Middle Persian ambar) via Middle Latin ambar and Middle French ambre. The word was adopted in Middle English in the 14th century as referring to what is now known as ambergris (ambre gris or "grey amber"), a solid waxy substance derived from the sperm whale. In the Romance languages, the sense of the word had come to be extended to Baltic amber (fossil resin) from as early as the late 13th century. At first called white or yellow amber (ambre jaune), this meaning was adopted in English by the early 15th century. As the use of ambergris waned, this became the main sense of the word.

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