October 19 – Sloth International Day

Posted October 19, 2019

(Third Saturday in October)

There are two themes of Sloth International Day:

1. Learning more about sloths and their habitats - and importance of wilderness, wildlife, and rainforests!

2. Learning FROM sloths to sometimes take things slow...to achieve new perspectives...and to be mindful of every moment of our lives.

Sloths are mammals that live in the treetops of the Central and South American rainforests. They are solitary creatures with looooong nails, long fur, loooooooooong slow movements, and a propensity for hanging upside down.

Sloths are slow because their metabolisms are slow. They live largely hidden and high above predators, so they evolved bodies and behaviors that dictate a sluggish pace as they move through the trees and munch on twigs, leaves, and buds. They also sleep a whole lot - from 15 to 18 hours a day! - and of course they sleep upside down.

Do you find sloths cute? In many photos, I think
they're very cute, but in others not so much.

But this baby sloth is adorable!

Here are some sloth lessons; you decide which ones are wise and which are witty (and maybe which are neither!):

Also on this date:

Samora Machel Day in Mozambique 

Constitution Day in Niue

Bettara-Ichi – Pickle Fair in Tokyo 

Anniversary of a Venus Fly-by

Mountaineer Annie Smith Peck's birthday

Wear It Pink Day in the U.K.

Anniversary of Heidelberg University's first lecture

Bridge Day (also here)

(Third Saturday of October)

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• October holidays
• October birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in October

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• November holidays
• November birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in November

June 15 - Día del Árbol in Costa Rica

Posted on June 15, 2019

The English translation of today's holiday is "Day of the Tree" or possibly "Tree Day."

But in English, we commonly call Tree Day "Arbor Day" - using the Latin word for tree, arbor. (We also use the word arbor to mean a shady garden "room" created by plants - the walls and roof are either trees or climbing plants trained over wooden trellises.)

Notice that the Spanish word for tree, árbol, is very similar to the Latin word. Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Romanian are all called Romance languages, from Romans - who spoke, of course, Latin.

Even though people love trees, we cut
them down in order to plant crops, build
cities, and use wood as lumber or to
make paper. But we should be mindful
about how many trees we take -
they provide SO MUCH that we need.

Like, you know, oxygen!

Of course, trees are important in every country, because trees provide shade, shelter, and most important oxygen; they help fight global warming by using carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; they provide necessities such as food (fruits and nuts), fire, building materials, and paper; they are beautiful; they hold the soil and provide homes to wildlife and are a super necessary part the ecosystem!

Trees are maybe even more important to Costa Rica than to some nations, because the rainforests of Costa Rica are among the most beautiful in the world and attract tourists. There are about 100 species of trees in Costa Rica's rainforests, and the forests are homes to everything from gorgeous orchids and colorful birds to quick-moving monkeys and slow-moving sloths.

Also on this date:

Agricultural Fieldays in New Zealand 

National Salvation Day in Azerbaijan 

Nature Photography Day

Global Wind Day

Magna Carta Day

Sculptor Malvina Hoffman's birthday

Valdemar's Day in Denmark

Arkansas's Statehood Anniversary

Native American Citizenship Day

Anniversary of the arrival of pigs and goats on Martinique

World Juggling Day

(Saturday closest to June 15)

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• June holidays

• June birthdays

• Historical anniversaries in June

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• July holidays
• July birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in July
  
  
  

May 22 – Happy Birthday, Margaret Mee

Posted May 22, 2015

The Amazon always had the allure of the exotic – and I am talking here about the world's largest river and largest tropical rainforest.

(I'm not talking about the popular online marketplace for books, streaming video, and almost everything else, from a giant pack of toilet paper to a dog mullet headband with hair extensions!)

In case you are thinking, "I thought that the Nile
was the largest rive in the world," I wanted to point
out that the Nile is the LONGEST river in the world.
The Amazon is largest by volume of water.

Today's famous birthday was a British botanical artist (an artist who specialized in drawing plants) and environmentalist. Margaret Mee, born on this date in 1909, was one of the first people to draw the public's attention to the damage being done to the Amazon rainforest by large-scale mining and deforestation.

Born in England, she earned her degrees and began to teach in England, but then decided to travel to other nations. She was actually in Berlin in 1933, and she witnessed some of the early shenanigans by the Nazis, including a boycott of goods made and sold by Jewish people. She went back to England during the War, serving as a draughtswoman at an aircraft factory. That means that she made detailed technical plans and drawings so that workers would be able to build the planes.

In 1952, Mee moved to Brazil to teach art, but soon she joined expeditions exploring the Amazon Basin, and she became a botanical artist for various organizations. She published a book and helped put on protests to draw worldwide attention to the problems occurring in the Amazon.

• 
  Learn more about the Amazon at National Geographic Kids and Kids Discover. 

Also on this date:

Unity Day in Yemen

Composer Richard Wagner's birthday 

International Day for Biological Diversity

Artist Mary Cassatt's birthday

National Maritime Day

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• May holidays 
• May birthdays 
• Historical anniversaries in May

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• June holidays
• June birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in June

April 11, 2010

Juan Santamaria Day – Costa Rica

Did you know that a private American citizen overthrew the country of Nicaragua and tried to conquer other nations of Central America, too? William Walker wanted to form a private slave-holding empire!


(This was in 1856, shortly before the U.S. Civil War.)

Costa Rica's national hero Juan Santamaria died during a battle at Rivas, Costa Rica, against William Walker's forces. Santamaria was (some sources say) able to light a hostel on fire before he died, and by eliminating the hostel and its superior firing position, he turned the tide of the battle, leading to Costa Rica's victory.

In 1860 William Walker was captured and executed in another Central American country, Honduras.

A person who takes this kind of unauthorized military action—when a citizen of the U.S. mounts an attack on another country, without U.S. government knowledge or support, in order to create or further a revolution, he is called a filibuster. According to Wikipedia, filibusters created revolutions for financial gain, for their political ideals, or just for adventure.

Later the term filibuster was used figuratively for the political act of one person talking and talking and talking in the U.S. Senate and thereby single-handedly delaying or preventing a vote on a particular bill. Nowadays (thank goodness!) we don't have American citizens randomly trying to overthrow other governments through military force, so the term filibuster is used almost entirely for this Senatorial maneuver.

Learn a Bit about Juan Santamaria

Santamaria was a poor laborer and the son of a single mother. He answered the call by the Costa Rican president to fight against William Walker's attack, joining the army as a drummer boy.

He was nicknamed “the Porcupine” (el erizo) because of his spiked hair.

When he volunteered to do the dangerous task that got him killed, Santamaria asked that, if he died, others would take care of his mother. The Costa Rican government did give his mother a pension for the rest of her life. Perhaps she was comforted in her loss by the fact that her son is one of very few Costa Rican heroes honored by statues, an airport named for him, and a national day.

Learn a Bit About Costa Rica

This nation in Central America lies just north of Panama. It is one of the most stable and peaceful of the Central American countries, with a higher literacy rate and better economy than most. It is the oldest democracy in Latin America and is ranked the “greenest” or most ecologically-minded country in the entire world!

The official language is Spanish.

• Check out some of the beauties of Costa Rica and its rainforests.

• All sea turtle species are endangered. Here is a YouTube video about kids helping to save sea turtles in Costa Rica. It's in Spanish (very rapid Spanish!), so I just enjoyed the footage of kids with the lumbering mama turtle and countless hatchlings.

• Eco-tourism is important to Costa Rica. This includes visitors who want to experience the rainforest and the incredible animals that live there. Learn about the rainforest at Kids Saving the Rainforest. Be sure to take a look at the baby animals the organization has rehabilitated, here and here. (One is el erizo!)

• Nature Kids is a Costa Rican organization that helps families in need but that also focuses on environmental protection.

• Some kids created a travel blog for National Geographic. Check out the bats in this first Costa Rica post, and the volcano in this post. (There are six posts about Costa Rica—read them all!)

• One kind of rainforest creature that is fun to learn about is frogs. Do some frog jigsaw puzzles, and learn about frog life cycles. Use what you have learned to label this diagram of a frog. Little kids might like this picture crossword puzzle about frogs.
  

• Color rainforest animals here.