Showing posts with label Ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ireland. Show all posts

Thursday, 14 October 2010

London Mayor, Boris Johnson, Cuts Funds to Black History Month

Posted by The Breaking Perceptions Team at 14:49 Labels: , , , , , , , , 3 comments

In February this year I was disgusted to read that Boris Johnson, the current Mayor of London, had slashed funding for big multi-cultural events while putting £100,000 into a new venture to celebrate America. Here is a portion from the Guardian report:

Figures seen by the Guardian show that the London mayor cut funding for Black History Month, a series of events staged in October to celebrate black culture in the capital, from £132,000 to £10,000, though city hall insists the previous figure was £76,000. Africa Day’s £100,000 grant from the London Development Agency was axed completely and a decision to cut funding for the St Patrick’s Day celebration was roundly criticised last year. Funding for Jewish events was halved to £50,000.

Johnson was accused of “subsidising wealthy Americans” after the Guardian reported earlier this year that the development agency, the mayor’s economic arm, had allocated £75,000 to USA Day. It emerged yesterday that the mayor has agreed to top this up with a further £25,000 from the Greater London Authority (GLA), bringing the total to £100,000.

This information clearly demonstrates where Boris Johnson's loyalties lie and, to be honest, do not help the perception of him being a racist, elitist, out-of-touch, suck-up Conservative.

The 2007 estimates for the number of Black people in London (including those with a mixed black heritage) were 12.1% and 12% were Irish. A study in 2002 found there were 195,000 Jewish people living in London, the 13th highest city in the world.

As for the number of American people living in London? The 2001 census recorded 44,622. Jamaica alone had 80,319 while Ireland had 157,285.

So now we have a few facts, lets step back and look at this decision:

The Mayor of London decides to cut funding to celebrate Black, Irish and Jewish events, with some funding being cut altogether, despite the fact that these three cultural groups make up a substantial portion of the population of London, a city that PRIDES itself on its cultural diversity and loves to celebrate it. He then grants £100,000 to a culture which in 2001 made up 0.85% OF THE LONDON POPULATION.

The Guardian says: Johnson has previously defended the move as part of a drive to attract more American tourists to the capital

So is Mr Johnson suggesting that Americans won't go anywhere that doesn't big up their country? Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't going holiday suggest you want to explore a new and different culture rather than celebrate your own? How many Americans sit at home and think 'oh I wish I could celebrate America... I know, I'LL GO TO THE UK! THEY HAVE USA DAY!'?

Responding to the outrage of this decision, a spokesman for the mayor said:
"Events must have local and community support if they are to add value and make a proper contribution to community cohesion in London, and as has been seen with the celebrations for St Patrick's Day and a new Jewish cultural festival that is coming up, it is possible for communities themselves to create greatly enhanced events, but with reduced GLA funding. The GLA does not own Black History Month or Africa Day, but we would hope community groups would be able to develop programmes that mark these in a similar way."

This is possibly the angriest a Tory politician has ever made me - OH WAIT STRIKE THAT, NOW THEY'RE INCREASING UNIVERSITY TUITION FEES, THE ELITIST BASTARDS! - and I cannot wait for the Mayoral Election when I can do my bit in helping kick Boris Johnson the hell out.

Robyn

To read the full article, click here

Wednesday, 8 September 2010

The Longest Place Names In The World!

Posted by The Breaking Perceptions Team at 10:19 Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 0 comments
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch - North Wales

This town has become famous because of its long name. It has the longest train station name in the UK. The name translates as "St Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St Tysilio of the red cave". To have a go at trying to say the name, click here!


Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu - New Zealand

Taumata whakatangihanga koauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu is the Māori name for a hill, 305 metres (1,001 ft) high in New Zealand.It has gained a measure of fame as it is the longest place-name found in any English-speaking country.

The name on the sign that marks the hill is "Taumata whakatangihanga koauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu", which translates roughly as The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one. At 85 letters, it has been listed in the Guinness World Records as one of the longest place names in the world.

Other forms of the name are longer still: "Taumata whakatangihanga koauau o tamatea ure haea turi pukaka piki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua ki tana tahu" has 92 letters. An even longer version, Taumata-whakatangihanga-koauau-o-Tamatea-haumai-tawhiti-ure-haea-turi-pukaka-piki-maunga-horo-nuku-pokai-whenua-ki-tana-tahu, has 105 letters and means The hill of the flute playing by Tamatea — who was blown hither from afar, had a slit penis, grazed his knees climbing mountains, fell on the earth, and encircled the land — to his beloved.

To have a try at saying this name, click here!

Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit - Thailand

This is the ceremonial name of Bangkok, Thailand, in Thai; it has the Guinness World record for longest place name in the world. The translation is:
krungthep mahanakhon
The land of angels, the great city of
amorn rattanakosin
immortality, various of devine gems,
mahintara yudthaya mahadilok pohp
the great angelic land unconquerable,
noparat rajathanee bureerom
land of nine noble gems, the royal city, the pleasant capital,
udomrajniwes mahasatarn
place of the grand royal palace,
amorn pimarn avaltarnsatit
forever land of angels and reincarnated spirits,
sakatattiya visanukram prasit
predestined and created by the highest devas

Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg - USA

This is the longest place name in the United States at 45 letters and is a lake in Webster, Massachusetts. It means "Fishing Place at the Boundaries — Neutral Meeting Grounds" and is sometimes facetiously translated as "you fish your side of the water, I fish my side of the water, nobody fishes the middle". The lake is also known as Lake Webster.




Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya Hill - Australia

The longest official geographical name in Australia is Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya Hill. It has 26 letters and is a Pitjantjatjara word meaning "where the Devil urinates".

Muckanaghederdauhaulia - Ireland

In Ireland, the longest English placename at 22 letters is Muckanaghederdauhaulia (from the Irish language, Muiceanach Idir Dhá Sháile, meaning "pig-marsh between two saltwater inlets") in County Galway.

Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein - South Africa

Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein is the name of a farm in South Africa and is Afrikaans for "The spring (lit. Fountain) where two buffaloes were cleanly killed with a single shot", which follows a common format for place names in South Africa. It is uncertain as to whether Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein is the name of a farm, or a small town in South Africa, as various sources state either of these two as being correct.

Äteritsiputeritsipuolilautatsijänkä - Finland

Äteritsiputeritsipuolilautatsijänkä is a bog region in Savukoski, Lapland in Finland. The name is 35 letters long and is the longest place name in Finland.

Pekwachnamaykoskwaskwaypinwanik - Canada

This is a lake in Manitoba and Nunavut, in the Inuktitut language and at 31 letters is the longest official one-word placename in Canada.

Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta - India

Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta is a village in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is in the Telugu language and is the longest place name in India. It is also a railway station in Andhra Pradesh on the border with Tamil Nadu, India with the distinction of having the longest name among all stations on the Indian Railway system.

Gasselterboerveenschemond - Netherlands

Gasselterboerveenschemond is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Drenthe.It is the largest town name of The Netherlands that is written as one word. With 25 characters it is just one character larger than Gasselternijveenschemond, which lies a few kilometres from Gasselterboerveenschemond. To try to say the name, click here!





Parangaricutirimicuaro - Mexico

Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro, in the Mexican state of Michoacán, is a small village near the Parícutin volcano. The city is called "Nuevo" (Spanish for "New") because the original San Juan Parangaricutiro was destroyed during the formation of the Parícutin volcano in 1943.San Juan Parangaricutiro is also famously known as Parangaricutirimícuaro, the longest place name word in Mexico. Some believe that “Parangaricutirimícuaro” is an urban legend and does not exist. It is the object of the folklore of many fictitious fables. The word itself is a tongue-twister and it is also used in longer tongue-twisters that include nonsense words similar to Parangaricutirimícuaro.To try to say the name click here!

Information from:

Thursday, 20 May 2010

Dancing around the world: Jive, Belly Dance, Garba, Irish Stepdance

Posted by The Breaking Perceptions Team at 19:19 Labels: , , , , , , , , , 0 comments
Jive

In Ballroom dancing, Jive is a dance style in 4/4 time that originated in the United States from African-Americans in the early 1940s. It is a lively and uninhibited variation of the Jitterbug, a form of Swing dance.





Belly Dance

Belly dance is a Western-coined name for a traditional Middle Eastern dance, especially raqs sharqi (Arabic: رقص شرقي‎). It is sometimes also called Middle Eastern dance or Arabic dance in the West, or by the Greco-Turkish term çiftetelli. The term "Belly dance" is a misnomer as every part of the body is involved in the dance; the most featured body part in raqs sharqi being the hips. Belly dance takes many different forms depending on country and region, both in costume and dance style and new styles have been invented in the West as its popularity has spread globally.



Garba

Garba is an Indian form of dance that originated in the Gujarat region. Many traditional garbas are performed around a central lit lamp. The circular and spiral figures of Garba have similarities to other spiritual dances. Traditionally it is performed during the nine-day Hindu festival Navarātrī. Modern garba is also heavily influenced by raas, a dance traditionally performed by men. The merger of these two dances has formed the high-energy dance that is seen today. Both men and women usually wear colorful costumes while performing garba and dandiya. There is a huge interest in Garba amongst the youth of the Indian and in particular Gujarati diaspora in Garba. Garba and Dandiya Raas are popular in America where more than 20 Universities have Raas Garba Competitions of a huge scale every year with professional choreography. Garba is also very popular in the United Kingdom where there are a number of Gujarati castes who hold their own garba for each individual community.



Irish Stepdance

Irish stepdance is a type of performance dance originating in Ireland from traditional Irish dance. Irish stepdancing has been recently popularized by the world-famous show "Riverdance" and its followers. Irish stepdance is performed in most places with large Irish populations, though most stepdancers are not of Irish ancestry. Aside from public dance performances, there are also stepdance competitions all over the world. Most competitive stepdances are solo dances, though many stepdancers also perform and compete using traditional set and céilí dances. When performed as a solo dance, it is generally characterized by a stiff upper body and the quick and precise movements of the feet.



Information from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Stepdancing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garba_(dance)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belly_dance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_(dance)

Monday, 3 May 2010

The importance of press freedom

Posted by The Breaking Perceptions Team at 14:46 Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 0 comments
The United Nations General Assembly declared 3 May to be World Press Freedom Day to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991.

Freedom of the press is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials. While such freedom mostly implies the absence of interference from an overreaching state, its preservation may be sought through constitutional or other legal protections.

With respect to governmental information, any government may distinguish which materials are public or protected from disclosure to the public based on classification of information as sensitive, classified or secret and being otherwise protected from disclosure due to relevance of the information to protecting the national interest. Many governments are also subject to sunshine laws or freedom of information legislation that are used to define the ambit of national interest.

According to Reporters Without Borders, more than a third of the world's people live in countries where there is no press freedom. Overwhelmingly, these people live in countries where there is no system of democracy or where there are serious deficiencies in the democratic process. Freedom of the press is an extremely problematic problem/concept for most non-democratic systems of government since, in the modern age, strict control of access to information is critical to the existence of most non-democratic governments and their associated control systems and security apparatus.

World opinion is divided on the importance of having a free press, according to a poll conducted for the BBC World Service in 2007. Of those interviewed, 56% thought that freedom of the press was very important to ensure a free society but 40% said it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press's freedom to report news truthfully. The strongest endorsement came from North America and Western Europe, where up to 70% put freedom first, followed by Venezuela, Kenya and South Africa, with over 60%. In India, Singapore and Russia, by contrast, more people favoured stability over press freedom.

Freedom of the Press is a yearly report by US-based non-governmental organization Freedom House, measuring the level of freedom and editorial independence enjoyed by the press in every nation and significant disputed territories around the world. Levels of freedom are scored on a scale from 1 (most free) to 100 (least free). Depending on the basics, the nations are then classified as "Free", "Partly Free", or "Not Free". If you would like to see the results of this report - which differs slightly from the Reporters Without Borders freedom of the press index - then click on the third link at the bottom of this post.

Every year, Reporters Without Borders establishes a ranking of countries in terms of their freedom of the press. Below is the ranking for 2009:

1 Denmark 0.00
1 Finland 0.00
1 Ireland 0.00
1 Norway 0.00
1 Sweden 0.00
6 Estonia 0.50
7 Netherlands 1.00
7 Switzerland 1.00
9 Iceland 2.00
10 Lithuania 2.25
11 Belgium 2.50
11 Malta 2.50
13 Austria 3.00
13 Latvia 3.00
13 New Zealand 3.00
16 Australia 3.13
17 Japan 3.25
18 Germany 3.50
19 Canada 3.70
20 Luxembourg 4.00
20 United Kingdom 4.00
20 United States 4.00
23 Jamaica 4.75
24 Czech Republic 5.00
25 Cyprusa 5.50
25 Hungary 5.50
27 Ghana 6.00
28 Trinidad and Tobago 7.00
29 Uruguay 7.63
30 Costa Rica 8.00
30 Mali 8.00
30 Portugal 8.00
33 South Africa 8.50
34 Macedonia 8.75
35 Greece 9.00
35 Namibia 9.00
37 Poland 9.50
37 Slovenia 9.50
39 Bosnia and Herzegovina 10.50
39 Chile 10.50
39 Guyana 10.50 42 Suriname 10.60
43 France 10.67
44 Cape Verde 11.00
44 Slovakia 11.00
44 Spain 11.00
47 Argentina 11.33
48 Hong Kong 11.75
Grenada 12.00
49 Italy 12.14
50 Romania 12.50
51 Northern Cyprusb 14.00
51 Maldives 14.00
51 Mauritius 14.00
54 Paraguay 14.33
55 Panama 14.50
56 Papua New Guinea 14.70
57 Burkina Faso 15.00
57 Haiti 15.00
59 Republic of China (Taiwan) 15.08
60 Kuwait 15.25
61 Lebanon 15.42
62 Botswana 15.50
63 Liberia 15.50
63 Malawi 15.50
63 Serbiac 15.50
63 Tanzania 15.50
63 Togo 15.50
68 Bulgaria 15.61
69 South Korea 15.67
70 Bhutan 15.75
71 Brazil 15.88
72 Benin 16.00
72 Seychelles 16.00
72 Timor-Leste 16.00
75 Kosovod 16.58
76 Nicaragua 16.75
77 Montenegroc 17.00
78 Croatia 17.17
79 El Salvador 17.25
80 Central African Republic 17.75
Tonga 18.00
81 Georgia 18.83
82 Comoros 19.00
82 Mozambique 19.00
84 Ecuador 20.00
85 Peru 20.88
86 Uganda 21.50
86 United Arab Emirates 21.50
88 Albania 21.75
89 Senegal 22.00
89 Ukraine 22.00
91 Mongolia 23.33
92 Guinea-Bissau 23.50
93 Israel (Israeli territory) 23.75
94 Qatar 24.00
95 Bolivia 24.17
96 Kenya 25.00
97 Zambia 26.75
98 Dominican Republic 26.83
99 Lesotho 27.50
100 Guinea 28.50
100 Indonesia 28.50
100 Mauritania 28.50
103 Burundi 29.00
103 Côte d'Ivoire 29.00
105 India 29.33
106 Guatemala 29.50
106 Oman 29.50
108 United States (extra-territorial) 30.00
109 Cameroon 30.50
110 Djibouti 31.00
111 Armenia 31.13
112 Jordan 31.88
113 Tajikistan 32.00
114 Moldova 33.75
115 Sierra Leone 34.00
116 Republic of the Congo 34.75
117 Cambodia 35.17
118 Nepal 35.63
119 Angola 36.50
119 Bahrain 36.50
121 Bangladesh 37.33
122 Philippines 38.25
122 Turkey 38.25
124 Venezuela 39.50
125 Kyrgyzstan 40.00
126 Colombia 40.13
127 Morocco 41.00
128 Honduras 42.00
129 Gabon 43.50
130 Thailand 44.00
131 Malaysia 44.25
132 Chad 44.50
133 Singapore 45.00
134 Madagascar 45.83
135 Nigeria 46.00
136 Zimbabwe 46.50
137 Gambia 48.25
137 Mexico 48.25
139 Niger 48.50
140 Ethiopia 49.00
141 Algeria 49.56
142 Kazakhstan 49.67
143 Egypt 51.38
144 Swaziland 52.50
145 Iraq 53.30
146 Azerbaijan 53.50
146 Democratic Republic of the Congo 53.50
148 Sudan 54.00
149 Afghanistan 54.25
150 Israel (extra-territorial) 55.50
151 Belarus 59.50
152 Fiji 60.00
153 Russia 60.88
154 Tunisia 61.50
155 Brunei 63.50
156 Libya 64.50
157 Rwanda 64.67
158 Equatorial Guinea 65.50
159 Pakistan 65.67
160 Uzbekistan 67.67
161 Palestinian Authority 69.83
162 Sri Lanka 75.00
163 Saudi Arabia 76.50
164 Somalia 77.50
165 Syria 78.00
166 Vietnam 81.67
167 Yemen 83.38
168 People's Republic of China 84.50
169 Laos 92.00
170 Cuba 94.00
171 Myanmar 102.67
172 Iran 104.14
173 Turkmenistan 107.00
174 North Korea 112.5
175 Eritrea 115.50


Information from:

Saturday, 1 May 2010

Labour Day Around The World!

Posted by The Breaking Perceptions Team at 13:12 Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 0 comments

Labour Day or Labor Day is an annual holiday celebrated all over the world that resulted from the labour union movement, to celebrate the economic and social achievements of workers. The majority of countries celebrate Labour Day on May 1, and it is popularly known as May Day and International Workers' Day, while some celebrate on the first Monday of September.The celebration of Labour Day has its origins in the Eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest.

Image: Labour day in Scandinavia

Most countries celebrate Labour Day on May 1, known as May Day and International Workers' Day. In Europe the day has older significance as a rural festival which is predominantly more important than that of the Labour Day movement. The holiday has become internationalised and several countries hold multi-day celebrations including parades, shows and other patriotic and labour-oriented events. However, in Northern Europe, Walpurgis Night is celebrated on the preceding night and this holiday merges with the Labour Day in some countries.

May 1 is a national holiday in Albania, commemorating the Workers' Movement. During Socialist Albania, the Politburo organised pompous parades on the main boulevard of Tirana. Since the collapse of communism, however, unions organise occasional peaceful protests.

Celebrating the Australian labour movement, the Labour Day public holiday in Australia is fixed by the various state and territory governments, and so varies considerably. In both Queensland and the Northern Territory, it is the first Monday in May.

Labour Day in China is a major holiday carrying comparable significance as the National Day, which occurs on October 1, and the Spring Festival on the first day of the first lunar month.

May 1 is declared a holiday in France. The French also celebrate Le jour du muguet. Workers and students sell lily of the valley on the streets and from door-to-door to collect funds for unions and associations.

In Germany, Labour Day was established as an official holiday in 1933 after the Nazi Party rose to power. It was supposed to symbolise the new-found unity between the state and the German people. However, just one day later on May 2, 1933, all free unions were outlawed and destroyed. But since the holiday had been celebrated by German workers for many decades before the official state endorsement, the Nazi attempt to appropriate it left no long-term resentment.

In Greece, May 1 is a state holiday. Left-wing parties invariably refer to it as a "strike" instead, organizing commemorative marches throughout the country.

1 May (Día del Trabajo) is a public holiday in Guatemala. Celebrations mainly in Guatemala City with a parade held by General Workers Union and left wing parties.

India started observing Labour week beginning on May 1, 1927. However, Labour day in India is not a national holiday, but is confined to specific states. In Maharashtra and Gujarat (States in India), Labour week also coincides with 'Maharashtra Divas' and 'Gujarat Divas' (respectively, Maharashtra Day and Gujarat Day) because the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat were created on the same week in 1960.

In the Islamic Republic of Iran (1979–present), Labour Day (May 1) is a holiday according to Article 63 of the Iranian labour law and it is officially celebrated to acknowledge the workers contribution to economy as an important group of society by ceremonial events.

In Ireland, Labour Day falls on May Day which is a public holiday.

In Israel May 1 is not officially celebrated, but each year the socialist and Marxist youth movements arrange a parade in Tel Aviv.

In Italy, May 1 is a national holiday and demonstrations by trade unions are widespread. Since the 1990s, the unions have organised a massive free concert in Rome, with attendances topping a million people.

In 1961, Jamaican Chief Minister Norman Washington Manley proposed the replacement of Empire Day with Labour Day, a celebration in commemoration of May 23, 1938, when Alexander Bustamante led a labour rebellion leading to Jamaican independence. Until May 23, 1971, Labour Day was primarily a trade unions celebration with public rallies and marches. On occasion, opposing trade unions clashed on this day, so in 1972, Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley promoted Labour Day as a showcase for the importance of labour to the development of Jamaica, and a day of voluntary community participation to beneficial projects. Since then, Labour Day has not only been a public holiday, but also a day of mass community involvement around the country.

1 May (L-Ewwel ta' Mejju or Jum il-Ħaddiem) is a public holiday in Malta. Celebrations mainly in Valletta held by General Workers Union and Malta Labour Party.

In Mexico, Labour Day, El Día del Trabajo, is a public, federal holiday held on May 1.

Every May 1 in the Philippines, labour unions march from the Mabuhay Rotonda in the Quezon City-Manila border to Plaza Miranda to Mendiola Bridge to protest anti-labour practices and to denounce the seating president. The only exception was on May 1, 2001, during EDSA III uprising, where the protest is not related to Labour day but to unseat the president. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a State of Rebellion pursuant to Proclamation No. 38 and lifted the order on May 7, 2001.

In Syria, May 1 is a public holiday to appreciate the important rule of labourers in the society

In Trinidad and Tobago, Labour Day is celebrated every June 19. This holiday was proposed in 1973 to be commemorated on the anniversary of the 1937 Butler labour riots.

In Turkey, May 1 is celebrated as Labour and Solidarity Day, valid from 2009 and its public holiday.

Information from:

Thursday, 1 April 2010

All About April Fools Day!

Posted by The Breaking Perceptions Team at 10:07 Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 0 comments
What is April Fool's Day?

April Fool's Day, also known as All Fools Day, is always celebrated on April 1st and marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication. Traditionally, in countries such as 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 Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Korea, The Netherlands, and the USA, the jokes last all day.

Where does it come from?

The origin of April Fools' Day is unknown. One likely theory is that April Fool's Day comes from the Persian tradition of Sizdah Bedar, which is believed to be the oldest prank-related tradition in the world still alive, celebrated by Persians as far back as 536 BC. Another theory is that the modern holiday was first celebrated soon after the adoption of the Gregorian calendar; the term referred to someone still adhering to the Julian Calendar, which it replaced. In many pre-Christian cultures May Day (May 1) was celebrated as the first day of summer, and signalled the start of the spring planting season. An April Fool may have been someone who did this prematurely. Another possible origin lies in the fact that when King Charles IX of France officially changed the first day of the year from April 1 to January 1, some of his subjects continued using the old system.

The best April Fool's of all time

The Museum of Hoaxes lists the top 100 April Fool's day hoaxes of all time, and we have picked our top 10. If you want to see the full list, click here.

  1. 1976: The British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.
  2. 1996: The Taco Bell Corporation announced it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell was housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical joke. The best line of the day came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale. Thinking on his feet, he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold. It would now be known, he said, as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.
  3. 1959: The residents of Wellingborough, England woke to find a trail of white footprints painted along the main street of their town. At the end of the trail were the words, "I must fly."
  4. 1974: Residents of Sitka, Alaska were alarmed when the long-dormant volcano neighboring them, Mount Edgecumbe, suddenly began to belch out billows of black smoke. People spilled out of their homes onto the streets to gaze up at the volcano, terrified that it was active again and might soon erupt. Luckily it turned out that man, not nature, was responsible for the smoke. A local practical joker named Porky Bickar had flown hundreds of old tires into the volcano's crater and then lit them on fire, all in a (successful) attempt to fool the city dwellers into believing that the volcano was stirring to life. According to local legend, when Mount St. Helens erupted six years later, a Sitka resident wrote to Bickar to tell him, "This time you've gone too far!"
  5. 1915: On April 1, 1915, in the midst of World War I, a French aviator flew over a German camp and dropped what appeared to be a huge bomb. The German soldiers immediately scattered in all directions, but no explosion followed. After some time, the soldiers crept back and gingerly approached the bomb. They discovered it was actually a large football with a note tied to it that read, "April Fool!"
  6. 1965: Politiken, a Copenhagen newspaper, reported that the Danish parliament had passed a new law requiring all dogs to be painted white. The purpose of this, it explained, was to increase road safety by allowing dogs to be seen more easily at night.
  7. 1997: An email message spread throughout the world announcing that the internet would be shut down for cleaning for twenty-four hours from March 31 until April 2. This cleaning was said to be necessary to clear out the "electronic flotsam and jetsam" that had accumulated in the network. Dead email and inactive ftp, www, and gopher sites would be purged. The cleaning would be done by "five very powerful Japanese-built multi-lingual Internet-crawling robots (Toshiba ML-2274) situated around the world." During this period, users were warned to disconnect all devices from the internet. The message supposedly originated from the "Interconnected Network Maintenance Staff, Main Branch, Massachusetts Institute of Technology." This joke was an updated version of an old joke that used to be told about the phone system. For many years, gullible phone customers had been warned that the phone systems would be cleaned on April Fool's Day. They were cautioned to place plastic bags over the ends of the phone to catch the dust that might be blown out of the phone lines during this period.
  8. 1993: Westdeutsche Rundfunk, a German radio station, announced that officials in Cologne had just passed an unusual new city regulation. Joggers going through the park would be required to pace themselves to go no faster than six mph. Any faster, it was felt, would unnecessarily disturb the squirrels who were in the middle of their mating season.
  9. 1993: The China Youth Daily, an official state newspaper of China, announced on its front page that the government had decided to make Ph.D. holders exempt from the state-imposed one-child limit. The logic behind this decision was that it would eventually reduce the need to invite as many foreign experts into the country to help with the state's modernization effort. Despite a disclaimer beneath the story identifying it as a joke, the report was repeated as fact by Hong Kong's New Evening News and by Agence France-Presse, an international news agency. Apparently what made the hoax seem credible to many was that intellectuals in Singapore are encouraged to marry each other and have children, and China's leaders are known to have great respect for the Singapore system. The Chinese government responded to the hoax by condemning April Fool's Day as a dangerous Western tradition. The Guangming Daily, Beijing's main newspaper for intellectuals, ran an editorial stating that April Fool's jokes "are an extremely bad influence." It went on to declare that, "Put plainly, April Fool's Day is Liar's Day."
  10. In 1994 National Public Radio's All Things Considered program reported that companies such as Pepsi were sponsoring teenagers to tattoo their ears with corporate logos. In return for branding themselves with the corporate symbol, the teenagers would receive a lifetime 10% discount on that company's products. Teenagers were said to be responding enthusiastically to this deal.

April Fool.... Wait.... No it isn't!

The frequency of April Fools' hoaxes sometimes makes people doubt real news stories released on April 1. Below are some events that were taken to be April Fools jokes, but weren't!
  • The April 1, 1946 Aleutian Island earthquake tsunami that killed 165 people in Hawaii and Alaska resulted in the creation of a tsunami warning system (specifically the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre), established in 1949 for Pacific Ocean countries. The tsunami in question is known in Hawaii as the "April Fools' Day Tsunami" due to people drowning because of the assumptions that the warnings were an April Fools' prank.
  • In 1979, Iran declared April 1 its national Republic Day. Thirty years on, this continues to be mistaken for a joke.
  • On April 1, 1984, singer Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father. Originally, people assumed that it was a fake news story, especially considering the bizarre aspect of the father being the murderer.
  • Gmail's April 2004 launch was widely believed to be a prank, as Google traditionally perpetrates April Fools' Day hoaxes each April 1. Another Google-related event that turned out not to be a hoax occurred on April 1, 2007, when employees at Google's New York City office were alerted that a ball python kept in an engineer's cubicle had escaped and was on the loose. An internal e-mail acknowledged that "the timing…could not be more awkward" but that the snake's escape was in fact an actual occurrence and not a prank.
  • On April 1, 2009, A school was almost burned to the ground in the Danish town Albertslund; apparently, the fire department refused to believe that the news was true the first two times that people called to report it.
  • Also on April 1, 2009, a Virus/Worm was called Conficker and spread to millions of computers and releasing personal info and deleting files. This was supposed to be a joke, but random computers throughout America were hit. Before this happened, news media like, NBC, Fox News, ABC and CBS told the viewers to install firewalls and updates to their Windows Computers before it hit.
Information from:

Wednesday, 17 March 2010

Today's Celebrations March 17th!

Posted by The Breaking Perceptions Team at 09:27 Labels: , , , , , , 0 comments
Today is...

Birthday of Bangabnadhu in Bangladesh
Camp Fire Boys & Girls Founders Day in the United States of America
Evacuation Day (Boston only) in the United States of America
St. Patrick's Day in Canada, Ireland, Montserrat, Switzerland, United Kingdom and in the United States of America

Tuesday, 16 February 2010

The Forgotten Holiday: Pancake Day February 16!

Posted by The Breaking Perceptions Team at 11:00 Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 0 comments
Looking at today's celebrations, I realised one was missing that we are celebrating in the UK: PANCAKE DAY! I have contacted earthcalender.net, who we use to get the information on Holidays, and have told them to add it to their list!

In the UK Shrove Tuesday is also known as Pancake Day because it is the one day of the year that nearly everyone eats a pancake!

It was originally a religious day, as the last day before the Christian lent. It was a tradition to eat pancakes on this day as it was seen as your last chance to indulge yourself and use up the foods that aren't allowed during lent such as fat, butter and eggs. Today, however, most people celebrate Pancake Day just for the pancakes and do not recognise it as a religious event. I know a huge and dedicated fan of Pancake Day and she is an Atheist!

Shrove Tuesday is always 47 days before Easter Sunday so the date varies from year to year and falls between 3rd February and 9th March.

A pancake is a thin, flat cake made of batter and fried in a pan. Usually once it is cooked people put caster sugar or lemon juice over the pancake . You can also add things like berries, golden syrup, jam and melted chocolate.

Quite a few different countries celebrate Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, but perhaps have different names for it. They are all listed below:

UK, Ireland, Australia: Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day
Brazil: Terça-feira Gorda (Fat Tuesday) - the final day of Brazilian carnival
Greece: Apocreas (from the meat) they also don't eat meat during lent
Sweden: Fettisdagen - Fat Tuesday
USA: In Catholic and French-speaking parts of the US it is called Mardi Gras
Germany: Fastnacht (Also spelt "Fasnacht", "Fasenacht", "Fasteloven" (in the Rhine area) or "Fasching" in Bavaria.)
France: Mardi Gras (Grease or Fat Tuesday)
Iceland: Sprengidagur (Bursting Day)
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Photobucket