Mom’s Favorite Reads eMagazine December 2019

by Poppy Flynn

Decemberis the twelfth, and final, month of the year in theJulianandGregorian Calendars. It gets its name from the Latin word ‘decem’ meaningten, which dates back to the Calendar of Romulus circa 750 BC where it was originally the tenth month of the year in a calendar which began in March.

Interestingly, the winter period which followed December wasn’t actually included as part of any month. There was simply a nameless period which later became January and February, although the Anglo-Saxonsdid used to refer to December and January as Ġēolamonaþ which in modern English roughly translates to the Yule month.

December contains thewinter solsticein theNorthern Hemisphere with December 21 st (or 22 nd

) being the day with the fewest daylight hours and the beginning of the astronomicalwinter. At the same time, the Southern Hemisphere celebrates the summer solstice, the day with the most daylight hours.

There are now 195 countries in the world and over 160 of them celebrate Christmas, which is what December is most associated with. A few countries refer to the holiday as Family Day, including Angola and Uruguay, while others, like Jordan and Pakistan, designate December 25th as an official holiday only for Christians.

Thezodiac signs for December areSagittarius, running until December 21 st

andCapricorn, from there onwards.

December's birth flower is thenarcissus, which might seem like a somewhat odd choice, since it tends to be more strongly associated with the Spring season, but it symbolises good wishes, faithfulness and respect and shouldn’t be confused with the daffodil, thebirth flowerfor March, which is also a type of narcissus.

The three birthstones for the month are turquoise, which is regarded as a love charm as well as a symbol of good fortune and successand it is believed that wearing turquoise will calm and balance emotions. Then there is zircon, which is sometimes confused with synthetic cubic zirconia, but which is actually the oldest natural mineral on Earth, dating back 4.4 billion years. Although it is available in many colours, blue is the most popular and that is the colour which is most often associated with December’s birthstone. The gem was once believed to induce sleep, promote wealth, and protect from injury andevil.

The third birthstone is tanzanite which was discovered in Tanzania in 1967. It is in fact a blue version of zoisite but because tanzanite is available only from a small area, it is likely to be depleted in the next few decades. Although December tends to be monopolised by Christmas, there are many other significant historical events which occurred in December. Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself the Emperor of France in 1804, William the Conqueror was crowned King of England in 1066 and King Edward VIII of the UK abdicated the throne in 1936. Anti-apartheid icon and former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela died in 2013 and the singer/ song writer of Beatles fame, John Lennon, was shot dead in 1980.

An earthquake off the coast of Sumatra caused tidal waves which killed over 300,000 people in 2004, a terrorist bomb exploded on a Pan Am flight over Scotland in 1988 and the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour in 1941, pulling the US into World War 11. In 1857 Ottawa was declared the capital of Canada, and in 1922, the USSR was founded. Exactly 69 years and 1 day later, in 1991, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved. In 1612, Galileo first observed the planet, Neptune, but it was almost 300 years before the Wright Brothers made their first aeroplane test flight in December 1903. By comparison it was only a mere 55 years later that aeronautics had developed enough that on Christmas Eve 1968, we saw Apollo 8 orbit the moon and take stunning photographs of the Earth rising. What an amazing Christmas present to the population of Earth that must have been.

Poppy Flynn was born in Buckinghamshire, UK and moved to Wales at eight years old with parents who wanted to live the 'self-sufficiency' lifestyle. Today she still lives in rural Wales and is married with six children. Poppy's love of reading and writing stemmed from her parents' encouragement and the fact that they didn't have a television in the house. "WHen you're surrounded by fields, cows and sheep, no neighbors, no TV and the clostest tiny village is four miles away, there's a certain limit to your options, but with books your adventures and your horizons are endless." Discover more about Poppy on Mom's Favorite Reads website:

https://moms-favorite-reads.com/moms-authors/poppy-flynn