Independence Day Czech Republic- O c t 2 8
The Czech Republic short form Česko is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest. It is a pluralist multi-party parliamentary representative democracy, a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. The Czech state, formerly known as Bohemia, was formed in the late 9th century as a small duchy around Prague, at that time under dominance of the powerful Great Moravian Empire (which reached its greatest territorial extent during the reign of Svatopluk I from the House of Mojmír). After the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power was transferred from Moravia to Bohemia, under the Přemyslids. During the rule of Přemyslid dukes/kings and their successors, the Luxembourgs, the country reached its greatest territorial extent (13th–14th century). Life in the country was significantly affected by the Hussite wars, during which it faced economic embargo and crusades from all over Europe. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg monarchy as one of its three principal parts alongside the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Bohemian Revolt (1618–20) led to the further centralization of the monarchy including forced recatholization and Germanization. During radical reforms in the 18th century the Bohemian Crown was even de facto abolished (1749). In the 19th century the Czech lands became the industrial powerhouse of the monarchy and the core of the Republic of Czechoslovakia which was formed in 1918, following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire after World War I. After the Munich Agreement, Polish annexation of Zaolzie and German occupation of Czechoslovakia and the consequent disillusion with the Western response and gratitude for the liberation of the major portion of Czechoslovakia by the Red Army, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the plurality in the 1946 elections. In a 1948 coup d'état, Czechoslovakia became a communist-ruled state. In 1968, the increasing dissatisfaction culminated in attempts to reform the communist regime. The events, known as the Prague Spring of 1968, ended with an invasion by the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries (with the exception ofRomania); the troops remained in the country until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved into its constituent states, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic is the first former member of the Comecon to achieve the status of adeveloped country according to the World Bank. In addition, the country has the highesthuman development in Central and Eastern Europe, ranking as a "Very High Human Development" nation. It is also ranked as the third most peaceful country in Europe and most democratic and healthy (by infant mortality) country in the region.
Etymology
The traditional English name "Bohemia" derives from Latin "Boiohaemum", which means "home of the Boii". The current name comes from the Czech endonym Čechy using the antiquated spelling Czechy, identical with the Polish one. The country has been traditionally divided into lands, namely Bohemia proper (Čechy) in the west, Moravia (Morava) in the southeast, and Czech Silesia (Slezsko; the smaller, south-eastern part of historical Silesia, most of which is located within modern Poland) in the northeast. Known officially as the "Crown of the Kingdom of Bohemia" since the 14th century, a number of other names of the country had been used, including the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, Czech/Bohemian lands, Bohemian Crown, Lands of the Crown of Saint Wenceslas etc. When the country regained its independence after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918, the new name ofCzechoslovakia was coined to reflect the union of the Czech and Slovak nations within the new country. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word name in English. In 1993, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested the name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ (Česko [ˈtʃɛskɔ] in Czech) as an official alternative in all situations other than formal official documents and the full names of government institutions; however, this has not become widespread in English, even though most other languages have single-word names for the country (usually their own variants of "Czechia").
History
King's Birthday Cambodia - Oct 31 Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk (born October 31, 1922) was the King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until his semi-retirement and voluntary abdication on 7 October 2004 in favor of his son, the current King Norodom Sihamoni. Since his abdication, he has been known as The King-Father of Cambodia (Khmer:Preahmâhaviraksat), a position in which he retains many of his former responsibilities as constitutional monarch. The son of King Norodom Suramarit and Queen Sisowath Kossamak, Sihanouk has held so many positions since 1941 that the Guinness Book of World Records identifies him as the politician who has served the world's greatest variety of political offices. These included two terms as King, two as Sovereign Prince, one as president, two as prime minister, and one as Cambodia's non-titled head of state, as well as numerous positions as leader of variousgovernments-in-exile. Most of these positions were only honorific, including the last position as constitutional King of Cambodia. Sihanouk's actual period of effective rule over Cambodia was from 9 November 1953, when France granted independence to Cambodia, until 18 March 1970, when Lon Nol and the National Assembly deposed Sihanouk.
Names and titles
Since his abdication, Sihanouk's official Cambodian title is: Preah Karuna Preah Bat Sâmdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk Preahmâhaviraksat The literal translation of the title : • Preah ("Sacred,") • Karuna ("Compassionate," referring to the Buddhist concept Karuna) • Bat ("Foot", from Sanskrit Pāda, cognate to Latin Pes, pedis, French pied, English foot) • Sâmdech ("Lord, Prince, Excellency") • Preah ("Sacred") • Norodom (given name of Norodom of Cambodia, used as a family name by his descendants. from Narottam in Sanskrit meaning best in quality (Uttam) among men(Nar). • Sihanouk (given name of Sihanouk; it is a contraction of Siha-, "Lion," from Sanskrit Siṃha, cognate of Singa- in Singapore; and Hanouk, from Sanskrit Hanu, "Jaws") • Preahmâhaviraksat (Preah, "Sacred"; -Mâha-, Sanskrit "Great," Maha- in Maharaja; -Vira-, Sanskrit vīra "brave or eminent man; hero; chief," this Sanskrit word is cognate to many words e.g. Latin Vir, English virile and Greek hero; -Ksat, "Warrior, Ruler," cognate of the Indian word Kshatriya). The word "father" does not appear in the Cambodian title, but in Western languages his title is translated as "His Majesty King-Father Norodom Sihanouk," to distinguish from the title of his son the new King, which is "His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni." Despite the great ritualism surrounding the Cambodian monarchy, Sihanouk has always maintained close relations with the Cambodian people, and when addressing him, or talking about him, they most often call him, Sâmdech Euv, which literally means "Prince Dad," "My Lord Dad" (French: Monseigneur Papa).
life Early King Norodom Sihanouk received his primary education in a Phnom Penh primary school. He pursued his secondary
IV, 1316–78, Charles eleventh king of Bohemia, elected as theNejvětší Čech (Greatest Czech) of all time.
education in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam at "Lycée Chasseloup Laubat" until his coronation and then later attended Cavalry military school inSaumur, France. When his maternal grandfather, King Sisowath Monivong, died on April 23, 1941, the Crown Council selected Prince Sihanouk as King of Cambodia. At that time, colonial Cambodia was part of French Indochina. His coronation took place on September 1941. In March 1945, the Empire of Japan deposed the French colonial administration and took control of French Indochina. Under pressure from the Japanese, Sihanouk proclaimed Cambodia's independence. Unlike the Vietnamese Emperor Bảo Đại, Sihanouk was careful not to compromise himself too much in collaboration with Japan. The Japanese imposed Son Ngoc Thanh as foreign minister then, in August, as prime minister of Cambodia. After Japan's surrender, the French gradually retook control of French Indochina: Son Ngoc Thanh was arrested in October 1945, while Sihanouk, considered by the French a valuable ally in the chaotic Indochinese situation, retained his throne.
Leadership turmoile Prime Minister:
Prehistory:
Archaeologists have found evidence of prehistoric human settlements in the area, dating back to the Neolithic era. In the classical era, from the 3rd century BC Celtic migrations, the Boii and later in the 1st century, Germanic tribes of Marcomanni and Quadi settled there. During the Migration Period around the 5th century, many Germanic tribes moved westwards and southwards out of Central Europe. Slavic people from the Black Sea and Carpathian regions settled in the area (a movement that was also stimulated by the onslaught of peoples from Siberia and Eastern Europe: Huns, Avars,Bulgars and Magyars). Following in the Germans' wake, they moved southwards into Bohemia, Moravia and some of present day Austria. During the 7th century, the Frankish merchant Samo, supporting the Slavs fighting their Avar rulers, became the ruler of the first known Slav state in Central Europe. The Moravian principality arose in the 8th century.
Bohemia:
The Bohemian or Czech state emerged in the late 9th century, when it was unified by thePřemyslid dynasty. The Kingdom of Bohemia was, as the only kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire, a significant regional power during the Middle Ages. It was part of the Empire from 1002 till 1804, with the exception of years 1440–1526. In 1212, King Přemysl Otakar I, bearing the title "king" since 1198, extracted a Golden Bull of Sicily (a formal edict) from the emperor, confirming the royal title for Otakar and his descendants. Large-scaleGerman immigration occurred in the 13th century. The Germans populated towns and mining districts on the Bohemian periphery and, in some cases, formed German colonies in the interior of the Czech lands. In 1235, the mighty Mongol army launched an invasion of Europe. After the Battle of Legnica, the Mongols carried their devastating raid into Moravia, but they were beaten by the Czech royal army in a battle of Olomouc and continued into Hungarian Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, lands. King Přemysl Otakar II earned the nickname "Iron and Golden King" be- first president of Czechoslocause of his military power and wealth. He acquired Austria, Styria,Carinthia vakia. and Carniola, thus spreading the Bohemian territory to theAdriatic Sea. He met his death at the Battle on the Marchfeld in 1278 in a war with his rival, King Rudolph I of Germany. Ottokar's son Wenceslaus II acquired the Polish crown in 1300 for himself and the Hungarian crown for his son. In 1306, the last king of Přemyslid line was murdered in mysterious circumstances in Olomouc while he was resting. After a series of dynastic wars, the House of Luxembourg gained the Bohemian throne. The 14th century, particularly the reign of Charles IV, is considered the Golden Age of Czech history. Of particular significance was the founding of Charles University in Prague in 1348. The Black Death, which had raged in Europe from 1347 to 1352, decimated the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1380, killing about 10% of the population. In the 15th century, the religious and social reformer Jan Hus formed a movement later named after him. Although Hus was named a heretic and burnt in Constanz in 1415, his followers seceded from the Catholic Church and in the Hussite Wars (1419–1434) defeated five crusades organized against them by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. Petr Chelčický continued with Czech Hussite Reformation movement. During the next two centuries, 90% of the inhabitants became adherents of the Hussite Christian movement. After 1526 Bohemia came increasingly under Habsburg control as the Habsburgs became first the elected and then the hereditary rulers of Bohemia. The Defenestration of Prague and subsequent revolt against the Habsburgs in 1618 marked the start of the Thirty Years' War, which quickly spread throughout Central Europe. In 1620, the rebellion in Bohemia was crushed at the Battle of White Mountain, and the ties between Bohemia and Habsburgs' hereditary lands in Austria were strengthened. The war had a devastating effect on the local population; the people were given the choice either to convert to Catholicism or leave the country. The following period, from 1620 to the late 18th century, has been often called the "Dark Age". The population of the Czech lands declined by a third through war, disease, famine and the expulsion of the Protestant Czechs. The Habsburgs banned all religions other than Catholicism. Ottoman Turks and Tatars invaded Moravia in 1663, taking 12,000 slaves. In 1679–1680 the Czech lands faced a devastating plague and an uprising of serfs. The reigns of Maria Theresa of Austria and her son Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor and co-regent from 1765, were characterized byenlightened absolutism. In 1742, most of Silesia, then the possession of the Bohemian crown, was seized by King Frederick II of Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession. The Great Famine, which lasted from 1770 until 1771, killed about one tenth of the Czech population, or 250,000 inhabitants, and radicalized countrysides leading to peasant uprisings. After the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia became part of the Austrian Empire and later of Austria–Hungary. Serfdom was not completely abolished until 1848. After the Revolutions of 1848, Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria instituted an absolute monarch in an effort to balance competing ethnic interests in the empire.
Czechoslovakia:
Czech volunteers formed the Czechoslovak Legions in France, Italy and Russia, where they fought against the Central Powers and the latter later against Bolshevik troops. Following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I, the independent republic of Czechoslovakia was created in 1918. This new country incorporated the Bohemian Crown(Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia) and parts of the Kingdom of Hungary (Slovakia and the Carpathian Ruthenia) with significant German, Hungarian, Polish and Ruthenian speaking minorities. Although Czechoslovakia was a unitary state, it provided what were at the time rather extensive rights to its minorities and remained the only democracy in this part of Europe in the interwar period. The effects of the Great Depression including high unemployment and massive propaganda from Nazi Germany, however, resulted in discontent and strong support among ethnic Ger- The Czech Republic became a member of the Euromans for a break from Czechoslovakia. pean Union in 2004, signed theLisbon Treaty in 2007 Adolf Hitler took advantage of this opportu- and ratified it in 2009 as the last EU member. nity and, using Konrad Henlein's separatist Sudeten German Party, gained the largely German speaking Sudetenland(and its substantial Maginot Line like border fortifications) through the 1938 Munich Agreement(signed by Nazi Germany, France, Britain and Italy), despite the mobilization of 1.2 million-strong Czechoslovak army and the Franco-Czech military alliance. Poland annexed the Zaolzie area around Český Těšín. Hungary gained parts of Slovakia and the Subcarpathian Rus as a result of the First Vienna Award in November 1938. The remainders of Slovakia and the Subcarpathian Rus gained greater autonomy, with the state renamed to "CzechoSlovakia". After Nazi Germany threatened to annex part of Slovakia, allowing the remaining regions to be partitioned by Hungary and Poland, Slovakia chose to maintain its national and territorial integrity, seceding from Czecho-Slovakia in March 1939, and allying itself, as demanded by Germany, with Hitler's coalition. The remaining Czech territory was occupied by Germany, which transformed it into the so-calledProtectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The protectorate was proclaimed part of the Third Reich, and the president and prime minister were subordinate to the Nazi Reichsprotektor ("imperial protector"). Subcarpathian Rus declared independence as the Republic of Carpatho-Ukraine on 15 March 1939 but was invaded by Hungary the same day and formally annexed the next day. Approximately 345,000 Czechoslovak citizens, including 277,000 Jews, were killed or executed while hundreds of thousands of others were sent to prisons and concentration camps or used as forced labour. Perhaps two–thirds of the Czech nation was destined either for extermination or removal. A Nazi concentration camp existed at Terezín, north of Prague. There was Czech resistance to Nazi occupation, both at home and abroad, most notably with the assassination of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich in a Prague suburb on 27 May 1942. The Czechoslovak government-in-exile and its army fighting against the Germans were acknowledged by the Allies; Czech/Czechoslovak troops fought from the very beginning of the war in Poland, France, the UK, North Africa, the Middle East and the Soviet Union. The German occupation ended on 9 May 1945, with the arrival of the Soviet and American armies and the Prague uprising. An estimated 140,000 Soviet soldiers died in conquering Czechoslovakia from German rule. In 1945–1946, almost the entire German minority in Czechoslovakia, about 3 million people, were expelled to Germany and Austria. During this time, thousands of Germans were held in prisons and detention camps or used as forced labour. In the summer of 1945, there were several massacres. The only Germans not expelled were some 250,000 who had been active in the resistance against the Nazis or were considered economically important, though many of these emigrated later. Following a Soviet-organised referendum, the Subcarpathian Rus never returned under Czechoslovak rule but became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, as the Zakarpattia Oblast in 1946. Czechoslovakia uneasily tried to play the role of a "bridge" between the West and East. However, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia rapidly increased in popularity, with a general disillusionment with the West, because of the pre-war Munich Agreement, and a favourable popular attitude towards the Soviet Union, because of the Soviets' role in liberating Czechoslovakia from German rule. In the 1946 elections, the Communists gained 38% of the votes and became the largest party in the Czechoslovak parliament. They formed a coalition government with other parties of the National Front and moved quickly to consolidate power. The decisive step took place in February 1948, during a series of events characterized by Communists as a "revolution" and by anti-Communists as a "takeover", the Communist People's Militias secured control of key locations in Prague, and a new all-Communist government was formed. For the next 41 years, Czechoslovakia was a Communist state within the Eastern Bloc. This period is characterized by lagging behind the West in almost every aspect of social and economic development. The country's GDP per capita fell from the level of neighboring Austria below that of Greece or Portugal in the 1980s. The Communist government completely nationalized the means of production and established a command economy. The economy grew rapidly during the 1950s but slowed down in the 1960s and 1970s and stagnated in the 1980s. The political climate was highly repressive during the 1950s, including numerous show trials and hundreds of thousands of political prisoners, but became more open and tolerant in the late 1960s, culminating in Alexander Dubček's leadership in the 1968 Prague Spring, which tried to create "socialism with a human face" and perhaps even introduce political pluralism. This was forcibly ended by 21 August 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion. The invasion was followed by a harsh program of "Normalization" in the late 1960s and the 1970s. Until 1989, the political establishment relied on censorship of the opposition. Dissidents published Charter 77 in 1977, and the first of a new wave of protests were seen in 1988. Between 1948 and 1989 more than 250,000 Czechs and Slovaks were sent to prison for "anti-state activities" and over 400,000 emigrated.
Velvet revolution and independence:
In November 1989, Czechoslovakia returned to a liberal democracy through the peaceful "Velvet Revolution". However, Slovak national aspirations strengthened and on 1 January 1993, the country peacefully split into the independent Czech Republic and Slovakia. Both countries went through economic reforms and privatisations, with the intention of creating a capitalist economy. This process was largely successful; in 2006 the Czech Republic was recognised by the World Bank as a "developed country", and in 2009 the Human Development Index ranked it as a nation of "Very High Human Development". From 1991, the Czech Republic, originally as part of Czechoslovakia and now in its own right, has been a member of the Visegrád Group and from 1995, the OECD. The Czech Republic joined NATO on 12 March 1999 and the European Union on 1 May 2004. It held the Presidency of the European Union for the first half of 2009.
OHI Day C y pr us , Gr e e c e - Oc t 2 8
Ohi Day (also spelled Ochi Day, Greek: Επέτειος του «'Οχι» Epeteios tou "'Ohi", Anniversary of the "No") is celebrated throughout Greece, Cyprus and the Greek communities around the world on October 28 each year, to commemorate Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas' (in power from August 4, 1936, until January 29, 1941) rejection of the ultimatum made by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on October 28, 1940.
The Italian ultimatum
This ultimatum, which was presented to Metaxas by the Italian ambassador in Greece, Emanuele Grazzi, on October 28, 1940, at dawn (04:00 am), after a party in the German embassy in Athens, demanded that Greece allow Axis forces to enter Greek territory and occupy certain unspecified "strategic locations" or otherwise face war. It was allegedly answered with a single laconic word: όχι (No!) However, his actual reply was, Alors, c'est la guerre (Then it is war). In response to Metaxas's refusal, Italian troops stationed in Albania, then an Italian protectorate, attacked the Greek border at 05:30 am—the beginning of Greece's participation in World War II (see Greco-Italian War and the Battle of Greece). On the morning of October 28 the Greek population took to the streets, irrespective of political affiliation, shouting 'ohi'. From 1942, it was celebrated as Ohi Day.
Anniversary
During the war, October 28 was commemorated yearly by Greek communities around the world and in Greece and Cyprus, and after World War II it became a public holiday in Greece and Cyprus. The events of 1940 are commemorated every year with military and student parades. On every anniversary, most public buildings and residences are decorated with Greek flags.
references Cultural The novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin features a fictional-
ized account of the meeting between Metaxas and Grazzi, written from Grazzi's point of view. The metal band Sabaton reference this event in the title track of their album Coat of Arms •
Republic Day Tu r k e y - O c t 2 9
The Republic Day of Turkey is one of the public holidays in Turkey, commemorating the proclamation of the republic in 1923. It lats 35 hours, starting at 1:00 pm on October 28. On 29 October 1923, Mustafa Kemal declared that Turkey would be a republic and renamed it as the Republic of Turkey.[citation needed] Turkey had effectively been a republic from April 23rd, 1920 (the estabof Grand National lishment Assembly of Turkey) but official recognition of this came only 3 years later. On 29 October 1923, the new name of the nation and its status as a republic was declared. After that, a vote occurred in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and Ataturk was selected as the 1st president of the Republic of Turkey by unanimous vote. Since then, every year on October 29th is celebrated as Republic Day in Turkey.
Reformation Day - Oct 31 Slovenia, Germany, Chile, U.S.
Reformation Day is a religious holiday celebrated on October 31 in remembrance of the Reformation, particularly by Lutheran and some Reformed church communities. It is a civic holiday in Slovenia (since the Reformation contributed to its cultural development profoundly, although Slovenes are mainly Roman Catholics) and in the German states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. It is also a national holiday in Chile since 2008. In the United States churches often transfer the festival, so that it falls on the Sunday (called Reformation Sunday) on or before October 31 and transfer All Saints' Day to the Sunday on or after November 1.
History
In 1516–17, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to raise money to rebuild St Peter's Basilica in Rome. Roman Catholic theology stated that faith alone, whether fiduciary or dogmatic, cannot justify man; and that only such faith as is active in charity and good works (fides caritate formata) can justify man. The benefits of good works could be obtained by donating money to the church. On 31 October 1517, Martin Luther wrote to Albrecht, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, protesting the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his "Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of In- Painting of Martin Luther by Lucas dulgences," which came to be known as The 95 Theses. Hans Hillerbrand writes that Luther had no intention of Cranach. confronting the church, but saw his disputation as a scholarly objection to church practices, and the tone of the writing is accordingly "searching, rather than doctrinaire." Hillerbrand writes that there is nevertheless an undercurrent of challenge in several of the theses, particularly in Thesis 86, which asks: "Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?" Luther objected to a saying attributed to Johann Tetzel that "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory [also attested as 'into heaven'] springs." He insisted that, since forgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances. According to Philipp Melanchthon, writing in 1546, Luther "wrote theses on indulgences and posted them on the church of All Saints on 31 October 1517", an event now seen as sparking theProtestant Reformation. Some scholars have questioned Melanchthon's account, since he did not move to Wittenberg until a year later and no contemporaneous evidence exists for Luther's posting of the theses. Others counter that such evidence is unnecessary because it was the custom at Wittenberg university to advertise a disputation by posting theses on the door of All Saints' Church, also known as "Castle Church". The 95 Theses were quickly translated from Latin into German, printed, and widely copied, making the controversy one of the first in history to be aided by the printing press. Within two weeks, copies of the theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe. Luther's writings circulated widely, reaching France, England, and Italy as early as 1519. Students thronged to Wittenberg to hear Luther speak. He published a short commentary on Galatians and his Work on the Psalms. This early part of Luther's career was one of his most creative and productive. Three of his best-known works were published in 1520: To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and On the Freedom of a Christian.
History of the observance of Reformation Day
The parish order for the New Church in Regensburg states that the Reformation of the city is to be observed the first Sunday after October 15, every year. This document may be from 1567, however the dating is uncertain. The 1569 church order in Pomerania states that the Reformation was to be observed on St. Martin's Day, which falls on November 11. The hundredth anniversary of the Reformation, celebrated throughout the Protestant areas of Germany, was observed from October 31 to November 1, 1617, but a standard annual observance began much later, sometime after the two hundredth anniversary commemoration in 1717.
Lutheran church
Within the Lutheran church, Reformation Day is considered a lesser festival, and is officially referred to as The Festival of the Reformation. Until the 20th century, most Lutheran churches celebrated Reformation Day on October 31, regardless of which day of the week it occurred. Today, most Lutheran churches transfer the festival, so that it falls on the Sunday (called Reformation Sunday) on or before October 31 and transfer All Saints' Day to the Sunday on or after November 1. The liturgical color of the day is red, which represents the Holy Spirit and the Martyrs of the Christian Church. Luther's hymn, A Mighty Fortress is our God is traditionally sung on this day. It is also traditional in some Lutheran schools for schoolchildren to hold Reformation Day plays or pageants that re-enact scenes from the life of Martin Luther. The fact that Reformation Day coincides with Halloween may not be mere coincidence. Halloween, being the Eve of All Saints' Day might have been an entirely appropriate day for Luther to post his 95 Theses against indulgences since the castle church would be open on All Saints' Day specifically for people to view a large collection of relics. The viewing of these relics was said to promise a reduction in time in purgatory similar to that of the purchase of an indulgence.
Nevada Day U.S. - Oct 31
Nevada Day commemorates the admission of the state of Nevada into the union on October 31, 1864. The first known observance of Nevada Day (originally known as "Admission Day") was by the Pacific Coast Pioneer society during the 1870s. It was not until 1933 that the state legislature designated October 31 as Nevada Day and a state holiday.
Observance On this holiday all state, county and city government of-
fices are closed, along with most schools and libraries. Some private businesses, like banks, also close at their discretion. In Nevada's capital, Carson City, a parade is held through the heart of downtown, as well as a carnival and several other events. In 2000, the Nevada Legislature decided to celebrate the holiday on a Friday, hoping that a three-day weekend would generate more interest. Nevada Day is now observed on the last Friday in October. But most of the big events in Carson City, including the parade, occur on the following Saturday. This was shortly followed by Las Vegas and Henderson adding up to three Nevada Days throughout the year in addition to the actual holiday which are determined by city council vote during the first week of each legislative year. Until 2000, Halloween was observed in Carson City, Douglas County, Lyon County, and Storey County on October 30, so as to not conflict with the holiday. Since 2000, Carson City's newspaper, Nevada Appeal, has sponsored a month-long "treasure hunt" each year in October (except for 2003 and 2004) to celebrate Nevada Day. Beginning on the first Monday, a clue is posted on a web site set up for the contest each weekday, which help narrow down the search area. The clues all have to do with Nevada history, and so it encourages people to study it in order to find the "treasure". Upon finding it, the treasure (which is a small plaque referred to as a "medallion") can be redeemed for up to $1000. In 2003 and 2008, the legal holiday for Nevada Day fell on October 31, the actual day of admission.
In popular culture In 2006, Nevada Day, and the Nevada town of Pahrump, were central to the plot in "Nevada Day", a two-part episode of the Aaron Sorkin television drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Part One was originally slated to air on Nevada Day, October 31, but was delayed a week and aired on November 6. Part Two followed a week later on November 13.
D. Hamilton Jackson Day U S Vir gin Is la nds - N ov 1
David Hamilton Jackson (1884-1946) was resident of the United States Virgin Islands which was under the rule of Danish West Indies who was an important figure in the struggle for increased civil liberties and workers' rights on the islands. He petitioned for freedom of the press, was involved in the territory's labor movement, and, when the Danish West Indies became the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1917, he lobbied for citizenship for the islanders. Jackson worked as an educator and later a bookkeeper before becoming involved in the politics of the Danish West Indies. He travelled to Denmark and successfully petitioned for the repeal of a 1779 law which prohibited independent newspapers and enforced strict censorship on all publications in the territory. Upon returning home, he established the first free newspaper, The Herald. The date of this event, November 1, is celebrated as an annual public holiday known as "Liberty Day", "D. Hamilton Jackson Day", or "Bull and Bread Day" in the U.S. Virgin Islands. With the help of Ralph Bough, Jackson organized the first labor union in t h e Danish West Indies in 1913. He lobbied for the transfer of the islands from Danish control to American control, and after the sale of the islands to the United States in 1917, he led a movement to demand U.S. citizenship for residents of the territory. A housing project in Christiansted has been named in his honor.
After World War II and into the early 1950s, King Sihanouk's aspirations became much more nationalistic and he began demanding independence from the French colonists and their complete departure from Indochina. This echoed the sentiments of the other fledgling nations of French Indochina: the State of Vietnam, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the Kingdom of Laos. He went into exile in Thailand in May 1953 because of threats on his life by the French and only returned when independence was granted on 9 November 1953. Whilst independent, Cambodia retained an alliance with the French Union, until the end of the First Indochina Warand the subsequent official end of French Indochina. On 2 March 1955, Sihanouk abdicated in favor of his father, established the Sangkum and took the post of Prime Minister a few months later, after having obtained an overwhelming victory in the parliamentary elections on September 1955. On August 31, 1959, Ngo Dinh Nhu, the younger brother and chief adviser of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem, failed in an attempt to assassinate Sihanouk. He ordered his agents to send parcel bombs to the Cambodian leader. Two suitcases were delivered to the Sihanouk's palace, one addressed to the head of state, and the other to Prince Vakrivan, his head of protocol. The deliveries were labelled as originating from an American engineer who had previously worked in Cambodia and purported to contain gifts from Hong Kong. Sihanouk's package contained a bomb, but the other did not; however, Vakrivan opened both on behalf of the monarch and was killed instantly, as was a servant. The explosion happened adjacent to a room in the palace where Sihanouk's parents were present. Following his father's death in 1960, Sihanouk won general election as head of state, but received the Meeting in Beijing in 1956: from leftMao Zetitle of Prince rather than King. In 1963, he made a dong, Peng Zhen, Sihanouk,Liu Shaoqi. change in the constitution that made him head of state for life. While he was not officially King, he had created a constitutional office for himself that was exactly equal to that of the former Kingship. When the Vietnam War raged, Sihanouk promoted policies that he claimed to preserve Cambodia's neutrality and most importantly security. While he in many cases sided with his neighbors, pressures upon his government from all sides in the conflict were immense, and his overriding concern was to prevent Cambodia from being drawn into a wider regional war. In so doing he made difficult choices of alliances in pursuit of the least dangerous course of action, within a political environment where genuine neutrality was likely impossible at the time. In the spring of 1965, he made a pact with thePeople's Republic of China and North Vietnam to allow the presence of permanent North Vietnamese bases in eastern Cambodia and to allow military supplies from China to reach Vietnam by Cambodian ports. Cambodia and Cambodian individuals were compensated by Chinese purchases of the Cambodian rice crop by China at inflated prices. He also at this time made many speeches calling the triumph of Communism in Southeast Asia inevitable and suggesting Maoist ideas were worthy of emulation. In 1966 and 1967, Sihanouk unleashed a wave of political repression that drove many on the left out of mainstream politics. His policy of friendship with China collapsed due to the extreme attitudes in China at the peak of the Cultural Revolution. The combination of political repression and problems with China made his balancing act impossible to sustain. He had alienated the left, allowed the North Vietnamese to establish bases within Cambodia and staked everything on China's good will. On 11 March 1967, a revolt in Battambang Province led to the Cambodian Civil War.
Deposed, exile, return:
On March 18, 1970, while Sihanouk was out of the country travelling, Prime Minister Lon Nol convened the National Assembly which voted to depose Sihanouk as head of state and gave Lon Nol Emergency powers. Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak, Sihanouk's cousin who had been passed over by the French government in 1941, retained his post as Deputy Prime Minister. The new Khmer Republic was immediately recognized by the United States. After he was deposed, Sihanouk fled to Beijing, formed the National United Front of Kampuchea (Front Uni National du Kampuchéa - FUNK) and began to support the Khmer Rouge in their struggle to overthrow the Lon Nol government in Phnom Penh. He initiated the Gouvernement Royal d'Union Nationale du Kampuchéa (Royal Government of the National Union of Kampuchea), which included Khmer Rouge leaders. After Sihanouk showed his support for the Khmer Rouge by visiting them in the field, their ranks swelled from 6,000 to 50,000 fighters. Many of the new recruits for the Khmer Rouge were apolitical peasants who fought in support of the King, not for communism, of which they had little understanding. King Sihanouk would later argue (1979) that the monarchy being abolished, he was only fighting for his country's independence, "even if [his] country had to be Communist." During Lon Nol's regime, Sihanouk mostly lived in exile in North Korea, where a 60-room palatial residence which even had an indoor movie theater, was built for him. He would later return to his Pyongyang palace after the 1979 Vietnamese invasion.
In Khmer Rouge captivity:
When the Khmer Republic fell to the Khmer Rouge in April 1975, Prince Sihanouk became the symbolic head of state of the new régime while Pol Pot remained in power. Sihanouk, who had imagined living like a retired country gentleman and perhaps being 'a public relations man for [his] country and have jazz parties and do some filming' was to spend the next few years virtually as a hostage of the Khmer Rouge. The next year, on April 4, 1976, the Khmer Rouge forced Sihanouk out of office again and into political retirement. During the Vietnamese invasion, he was sent to New York to speak against Vietnam before The United Nations. After his speech, he sought refuge in China and in North Korea. The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in December 1978 ousted the Khmer Rouge. While welcoming the ousting of the Khmer Rouge government, he remained firmly opposed to the Vietnamese-installed Heng Samrin government of People's Republic of Kampuchea. Hence, Sihanouk demanded Cambodia's seat in the UN be left vacant, since neither Pol Pot regime nor Heng Samrin represented the Khmer people. Although claiming to be wary of the Khmer Rouge and demanding that the Khmer Rouge representatives that still held Cambodia's UN seat be expelled, Sihanouk again joined forces with them in order to provide a united front against the Vietnamese occupation. It has been argued that one of the reasons was the US pressure to work with the Khmer Rouge. In 1982, he moved completely into opposition of the Vietnam-supported government, becoming President of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK), which consisted of his own Armée Nationale Sihanoukiste (ANS), Son Sann's Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF), and the Khmer Rouge. The Vietnamese withdrew in 1989, leaving behind a pro-Vietnamese government under ex-Khmer Rouge cadre Hun Sen to run the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK).
United States support:
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Sihanouk's opposition forces drew limited military and financial support from the United States, which sought to assist his movement as part of the Reagan Doctrine effort to counter Soviet and Vietnamese involvement in Cambodia. One of the Reagan Doctrine's principal architects, the Heritage Foundation's Michael Johns, visited with Sihanouk's forces in Cambodia in 1987, and returned to Washington urging expanded U.S. support for the KPLNF and Sihanouk's resistance forces as a third alternative to both the Vietnamese-installed and supported Cambodian government and the Khmer Rouge, which also was resisting the government.
Restoration as King:
Peace negotiations between the CGDK and the PRK commenced shortly thereafter and continued until 1991 when all sides agreed to a comprehensive settlement which they signed in Paris. Prince Sihanouk returned once more to Cambodia on 14 November 1991 after thirteen years in exile. In 1993, Sihanouk once again became King of Cambodia. During the restoration, however, he suffered from ill health and traveled repeatedly to Beijing for medical treatment. Sihanouk's leisure interests include music (he has composed songs in Khmer, French, and English) and film. He has become a prodigious filmmaker over the years, directing many movies and orchestrating musical compositions. He became one of the first heads of state in the region to have a personal website, which has proven a cult hit. It draws more than a thousand visitors a day, which constitutes a substantial portion of his nation's Internet users. Royal statements are posted there daily.
Self-exile and abdication:
Sihanouk went into self-imposed exile in January 2004, taking up residence in Pyongyang, North Korea and later in Beijing, People's Republic of China. Citing reasons of ill health, he announced his abdication of The Throne on October 7, 2004. Sihanouk was diagnosed with B-Cell Lymphoma in his prostate in 1993; the disease recurred in his stomach in 2005, and a new cancer was found in December 2008. Sihanouk also suffers from diabetes and hypertension. The constitution of Cambodia has no provision for an abdication. Chea Sim, the President of the Senate, assumed the title of acting Head of State (a title he has held many times before), until the Throne Council met on October 14 and appointed H.R.H. Prince Norodom Sihamoni, one of Sihanouk's sons, as the new King.
Chiang Kai-shek's Birthday Ta i w a n - O c t 3 1
Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin. Chiang was an influential member of the Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang (KMT), and was a close ally of Sun Yat-sen. He became the Commandant of the Kuomintang's Whampoa Military Academy, and took Sun's place as leader of the KMT when Sun died in 1925. In 1926, Chiang led the Northern Expedition to unify the country, becoming China's nominal leader. He served as Chairman of the National Military Council of the Nationalist government of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 to 1948. Chiang led China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which the Nationalist government's power severely weakened, but his prominence grew. Unlike Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek was socially conservative, promoting traditional Chinese culture in the New Life Movement and rejected western democracy and the democratic socialism that Sun Yet-sen and other left-wing members of the KMT embraced in favor of an authoritarian nationalist government. Although Chiang's predecessor, Sun Yat-sen, was well-liked and respected by the communists, under Chiang's leadership the Nationalists soon engaged in a longstanding civil war with theChinese Communist Party (CCP). Even after the Japanese invaded China, Chiang ignored this military threat to concentrate on a controversial campaign of systematic eradication of his political opponents—namely the communists. It was only with U.S. intervention that Chiang was forced to address the problem of the Japanese invasion and cooperate with the communists to drive the Japanese out. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Chiang once again became embroiled in a bloody civil war with the Communist Party of China. Ultimately, with support from the Soviet Union and popular support from the largely rural Chinese population, the CCP defeated the Nationalists, forcing the Nationalist government to retreat to Taiwan, where martial law was imposed during a period known as the White Terror, and from where the government continued to declare its intention to take back mainland China. Chiang ruled the island securely as the self-appointed President of the Republic of China and Director-General of the Kuomintang until his death in 1975. General Joseph Stilwell, an American military adviser to Chiang during World War II, strongly criticized Chiang and his generals for what he saw as their incompetence and corruption. In 1944, Operation Matterhorn was commenced by the USAF in order to bomb Japan's steel industry from bases to be constructed in mainland China. This was meant to fulfill President Roosevelt's promise to Chiang Kai-shek to begin bombing operations against Japan by November 1944. However, Chiang Kai-shek's subordinates refused to take airbase construction seriously until enough capital had been delivered to permit embezzlement on a massive scale. Stilwell estimated that at least half of the $100 million spent on construction of airbases was embezzled by Nationalist party officials.
Early life Childhood:
Chiang was born in Xikou, a town approximately 30 kilometers southwest of downtown Ningbo, in Fenghua, Ningbo, Zhejiang. However, his ancestral home, a concept important in Chinese society, was the town of Heqiao (和橋鎮) in Yixing, Wuxi, Jiangsu (approximately 38 km (24 mi) southwest of downtown Wuxi, and 10 km (6.2 mi) from the shores of Lake Tai). Chiang's father, Jiang Zhaocong (蔣肇聰), and mother, Wang Caiyu (王采 玉), were members of an upper-middle to upper class family of salt merchants. Chiang's father died when he was only eight years of age, and he wrote of his mother as the "embodiment of Confucian virtues."
In Japan:
Chiang grew up in a time period in which military defeats and civil wars among warlords had left China destabilized and in debt, and he decided to pursue a military career. He began his military education at the Baoding Military Academy, in 1906. He then left for the Tokyo Shinbu Gakko(東京振武學校), an Imperial Japanese Army Academy Preparatory School for Chinese students, in 1907. There he was influenced by his compatriots to support the revolutionary movement to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and to set up a Chinese republic. He befriended fellow Zhejiang native Chen Qimei, and, in 1908, Chen brought Chiang into the Tongmenghui, a precursor of theKuomintang (KMT) organization. Chiang served in the Imperial Japanese Army from 1909 to 1911.
Hallowe'en Int’l - Oct 31
Halloween (or Hallowe'en) is an annual holiday observed on October 31, which commonly includes activities such as trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, carving jack-o'lanterns,bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.
History Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Hal-
loween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival ofSamhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)". The name of the festival historically kept by the Gaels and Celts in the British Isles which is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end". However, according to the Oxford Dictionary of English folk lore: "Certainly Samhain was a time for festive gatherings, and medieval Irish texts and later Irish, Welsh, and Scottish folklore use it as a setting for supernatural encounters, but there is no evidence that it was connected with the dead in pre-Christian times, or that pagan religious ceremonies were held." The Irish myths which mention Samhain were written in the 10th and 11th centuries by Christian monks. This is around 200 years after the Catholic church inaugurated All Saints Day and at least 400 years after Ireland became Christian.
Origin of name:
The word Halloween is first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even ("evening"), that is, the night before All Hallows Day. Although the phrase All Hallows is found in Old English (ealra hālgena mæssedæg, mass-day of all saints), All-Hallows-Even is itself not attested until 1556.
Symbols
Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. For instance, the carving of jacko'-lanterns springs from the souling custom of carving turnips into lanterns as a way of remembering the souls held in purgatory. The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween, but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips. The American tradition of carving pumpkins is recorded in 1837 and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century. The imagery of Halloween is derived from many sources, including national customs, works of Gothic andhorror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein and Dracula), and classic horror films (such asFrankenstein and The Mummy). Among the earliest works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet John Mayne in 1780, who made note of pranks at Halloween; "What fearfu' pranks ensue!", as well as the supernatural associated with the night, "Bogies" (ghosts), influencing Robert Burns' Halloween 1785.Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks, and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween. Halloween imagery includes themes of death, evil, the occult, or mythical monsters. Black and orange are the holiday's traditional colors.
Trick-or-treating and guising
Trick-or-treating is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat?" The word "trick" refers to a (mostly idle) "threat" to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given. In some parts of Scotland children still go guising. In this custom the child performs some sort of trick, i.e. sings a song or tells a ghost story, to earn their treats. The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays dates back to theMiddle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice ofsouling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls' Day (November 2). It originated in Ireland and Britain, although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy. Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering or whining] like a beggar at Hallowmas." In Scotland and Ireland, Guising — children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins — is a traditional Halloween custom, and is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of Depicts apple bobbing and divination scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money. The practise of Guising at Halloween in North Amer- games at a Halloween party in Blarney, ica is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper inKingston, On- Ireland. tario reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood. American historian and author Ruth Edna Kelley of Massachusetts wrote the first book length history of the holiday in the U.S; The Book of Hallowe'en (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America"; The taste in Hallowe'en festivities now is to study old traditions, and hold a Scotch party, using Burn's poem Hallowe'en as a guide; or to go a-souling as the English used. In short, no custom that was once honored at Hallowe'en is out of fashion now. In her book, Kelley touches on customs that arrived from across the Atlantic; "Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Hallowe'en customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries". While the first reference to "guising" in North America occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920. The earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat" appears in 1927, from Blackie, Alberta, Canada: Hallowe’en provided an opportunity for real strenuous fun. No real damage was done except to the temper of some who had to hunt for wagon wheels, gates, wagons, barrels, etc., much of which decorated the front street. The youthful tormentors were at back door and front demanding edible plunder by the word “trick or treat” to which the inmates gladly responded and sent the robbers away rejoicing. The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but do not depict trick-or-treating. The editor of a collection of over 3,000 vintage Halloween postcards writes, "There are cards which mention the custom [of trick-or-treating] or show children in costumes at the doors, but as far as we can tell they were printed later than the 1920s and more than likely even the 1930s. Tricksters of various sorts are shown on the early postcards, but not the means of appeasing them".Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice until the 1930s, with the first U.S. appearances of the term in 1934,and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939.
Costumes:
Halloween costumes are traditionally modeled after supernatural figures such as monsters, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils. Over time, the costume selection extended to include popular characters from fiction, celebrities, and generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses. Dressing up in costumes and going "guising" was prevalent in Scotland at Halloween by the late 19th century. Costuming became popular for Halloween parties in the US in the early 20th century, as often for adults as for children. The first mass-produced Halloween costumes appeared in stores in the 1930s when trick-or-treating was becoming popular in the United States. Halloween costume parties generally fall on, or around, 31 October, often falling on the Friday or Saturday prior to Halloween.
UNICEF:
"Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" has become a common sight during Halloween in North America. Started as a local event in a NortheastPhiladelphia neighborhood in 1950 and expanded nationally in 1952, the program involves the distribution of small boxes by schools (or in modern times, corporate sponsors like Hallmark, at their licensed stores) to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small-change donations from the houses they visit. It is estimated Trick-or-treating in Sweden that children have collected more than $118 million for UNICEF since its inception. In Canada, in 2006, UNICEF decided to discontinue their Halloween collection boxes, citing safety and administrative concerns; after consultation with schools, they instead redesigned the program.
Games and other activities
There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween parties. One common game is dunking or apple bobbing, in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water and the participants must use their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant of dunking involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drop the fork into an apple. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity that inevitably leads to a very sticky face. Some games traditionally played at Halloween are forms of divination. A traditional Scottish form of divining one's future spouse is to carve an apple in one long strip, then toss the peel over one's shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's name. Unmarried women were told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror. However, if they were destined to die before marriage, a skull would appear. The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards from the late 19th century and early 20th century. Another game/superstition that was enjoyed in the early 1900s involved walnut shells. People would write fortunes in milk on white paper. After drying, the paper was folded and placed in walnut shells. When the shell was warmed, milk would turn brown therefore the writing would appear on what looked like blank paper. Folks would also play fortune teller. In order to play this game, symbols were cut out of paper and placed on a platter. Someone would enter a dark room and was ordered to put her hand on a piece of ice then lay it on a platter. Her "fortune" would stick to the hand. Paper symbols included: dollar sign-wealth, button-bachelorhood, thimble-spinsterhood, clothespin- poverty, rice-wedding, umbrella- journey, caldron-trouble, 4-leaf clover- good luck, penny-fortune, ring-early marriage, and key-fame. The telling of ghost stories and viewing of horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of television series and Halloween-themed specials (with the specials usually aimed at children) are commonly aired on or before the holiday, while new horror films are often released theatrically before the holiday to take advantage of the atmosphere.
Haunted attractions
Haunted attractions are entertainment venues designed to thrill and scare patrons. Most attractions are seasonal Halloween businesses. Origins of these paid scare venues are difficult to pinpoint, but it is generally accepted that they were first commonly used by the Junior Chamber International (Jaycees) for fundraising. They include haunted houses, corn mazes, and hayrides, and the level of sophistication of the effects has risen as the industry has grown. Haunted attractions in the United States bring in an estimate $300–500 million each year, and draw some 400,000 customers, although press sources writing in 2005 speculated that the industry had reached its peak at that time. This maturing and growth within the industry has led to more technically-advanced special effects and costuming, comparable with that of Hollywood films.
Foods Because the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest,
candy apples (known as toffee apples outside North America), caramel or taffy apples are common Halloween treats made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, sometimes followed by Halloween in Yonkers, New York, US rolling them in nuts. At one time, candy apples were commonly given to children, but the practice rapidly waned in the wake of widespread rumors that some individuals were embedding items like pins and razor blades in the apples. While there is evidence of such incidents, they are quite rare and have never resulted in serious injury. Nonetheless, many parents assumed that such heinous practices were rampant because of the mass media. At the peak of the hysteria, some hospitals offered free X-rays of children's Halloween hauls in order to find evidence of tampering. Virtually all of the few known candy poisoning incidents involved parents who poisoned their own children's candy. One custom that persists in modern-day Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays, the purchase) of abarmbrack (Irish: báirín breac), which is a light fruitcake, into which a plain ring, a coin and other charms are placed before baking. It is said that those who get a ring will find their true love in the ensuing year. This is similar to the tradition of king cake at the festival of Epiphany. List of foods associated with the holiday: Barmbrack (Ireland) • Bonfire toffee (Great Britain) • Candy apples/toffee apples (Scotland & Ireland) • Candy corn, candy pumpkins (North America) • Caramel apples • Caramel corn • Colcannon (Ireland) • Novelty candy shaped like skulls, pumpkins, bats, • worms, etc. Pumpkin, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread • Roasted pumpkin seeds • People dressing in Halloween CosRoasted sweet corn • tumes in Dublin. Soul cakes •
Around the world
Halloween is not celebrated in all countries and regions of the world, and among those that do the traditions and importance of the celebration vary significantly. In Scotland and Ireland, traditional Halloween customs include children dressing up in costume going "guising", holding parties, while other practices in Ireland include lighting bonfires, and having firework displays. Mass transatlantic immigration in the 19th century popularized Halloween in North America, and celebration in the United States and Canada has had a significant impact on how the event is observed in other nations. This larger North American influence, particularly in iconic and commercial elements, has extended to places such as South America, Australia, New Zealand, continental Europe, Japan, and other parts of East Asia.
Religious perspectives Christian attitudes towards Halloween are diverse. In the Anglican Church, some dio-
ceses have chosen to emphasize the Christian traditions of All Saints’ Day, while some other Protestants celebrate the holiday as Reformation Day, a day to remember the Protestant Reformation. Father Gabriele Amorth, a Vatican-appointed exorcist in Rome, has said, "if English and American children like to dress up as witches and devils on one night of the year that is not a problem. If it is just a game, there is no harm in that." In more recent years, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has organized a "Saint Fest" on the holiday. Similarly, many contemporary Protestant churches view Halloween as a fun event for children, holding events in their churches where children and their parents can dress up, play games, and get candy for free. Many Christians ascribe no negative significance to Halloween, treating it as a purely secular holiday devoted to celebrating "imaginary spooks" and handing out candy. this Halloween To these Christians, Halloween holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children: being In taught about death and mortality, and the ways of the Celtic ancestors actually being greeting card from a valuable life lesson and a part of many of their parishioners' heritage. In theRoman 1904, divination is deCatholic Church, Halloween is viewed as having a Christian connection, and Hal- picted: the young loween celebrations are common in Catholic parochial schools throughout North woman looking into a America and in Ireland. in a darkened mirror Some Christians feel concerned about Halloween, and reject the holiday because they feel it trivializes – or celebrates – paganism, theoccult, or other practices and room hopes to catch a cultural phenomena deemed incompatible with their beliefs. A response among some glimpse of the face of fundamentalist and conservative evangelical churches in recent years has been the her future husband. use of "Hell houses", themed pamphlets, or comic-style tracts such as those created by Jack T. Chick in order to make use of Halloween's popularity as an opportunity for evangelism. Some consider Halloween to be completely incompatible with the Christian faith believing it to have originated as a pagan "Festival of the Dead".
Paganism Celtic NeoPagans consider the season a holy time of year. Celtic Reconstructionists, and others who maintain ancestral customs, make offerings to the gods and the ancestors.
All Saints` Day Worldwide - N o v 1
All Saints' Day (in the Roman Catholic Church officially the Solemnity of All Saints and also called All Hallows or Hallowmas), often shortened to All Saints, is a solemnity celebrated on 1 November by parts of Western Christianity, and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Eastern Christianity, in honor of all the saints, known and unknown. In Western Christian theology, the day commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. It is a national holiday in historically many Catholic countries. the Roman In Catholic Church and Anglican many churches, the next day, All Souls' Day, specifically commemorates the departed faithful who have not yet been purified and reached heaven. Catholics celebrate All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day in the fundamental belief that there is a prayerful spiritual communion between those in the state of grace who have died and are either being purified in purgatory or are in heaven (the 'church penitent' and the 'church triumphant', respectively), and the 'church militant' who are the living. Other Christian traditions define, remember and respond to the saints in different ways.
In the East
Chiang's body was not buried in the traditional Chinese manner but entombed in his former residence in Cihu in respect for his wish to be buried in his native Fenghua.
Return to China:
Returning to China in 1911 after learning of the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising, Chiang intended to fight as an artillery officer. He served in the revolutionary forces, leading a regiment in Shanghai under his friend and mentor, Chen Qimei, as one of Chen's chief lieutenants. According to various sources, Chiang's first personal act of violence occurred around this time, when he either instigated or performed the assassination of a dissident member of the Revolutionary Alliance who opposed both Sun Yat-sen and Chen Qimei. The Xinhai Revolutionultimately succeeded with the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, and Chiang became a founding member of the KMT. After the takeover of the Republican government by Yuan Shikai and the failed Second Revolution in 1913, Chiang, like his KMT comrades, divided time between exile in Japan and the havens of the Shanghai International Settlement. In Shanghai, Chiang cultivated ties with the city's underworld gangs, dominated by the notorious Green Gang and its leader Du Yuesheng. On February 15, 1912, several KMT members, including Chiang, murdered Tao Chengzhang, the leader of the Restoration Society, in a Shanghai French Concession hospital. On May 18, 1916 agents of Yuan Shikai assassinated Chen Qimei. Chiang then succeeded Chen as leader of the Chinese Revolutionary Party in Shanghai. Sun Yat-sen's career was at its lowest point then, with most of his old Revolutionary Alliance comrades refusing to join him in the exiled Chinese Revolutionary Party.
Establishment of the Kuomintang in Guangzhou:
In 1917, Sun Yat-sen moved his base of operations to Guangzhou, and Chiang joined him in 1918. At this time Sun remained largely sidelined; and, without arms or money, was soon expelled from Guangzhou and exiled again to Shanghai. He was restored to Guangzhou with mercenary help in 1920. After returning to Guangzhou, a rift developed between Sun, who sought to militarily unify China under the KMT, and Guangdong Governor Chen Jiongming, who wanted to implement a federalist system with Guangdong as a model province. On June 16, 1923 Chen attempted to assassinate Sun and had his residence shelled. During a prolonged skirmish between the troops of these opposing forces, Sun and his wife Soong Ching-ling narrowly evaded heavy machine gun fire and were rescued by gunboats under Chiang's direction. The incident earned Chiang the trust of Sun Yat-sen. Sun regained control of Guangzhou in early 1924, again with the help of mercenaries from Yunnan, and accepted aid from the Comintern. Undertaking a reform of the KMT, he established a revolutionary government aimed at unifying China under the KMT. That same year, Sun sent Chiang to spend three months in Moscow studying the Soviet political and military system. During his trip in Russia, Chiang met Leon Trotsky and other Soviet leaders, but quickly came to the conclusion that the Russian model of government was not suitable for China. Chiang later sent his eldest son, Ching-kuo, to study in Russia. After his father's split from the First United Front in 1927, Ching-kuo was forced to stay there, as a hostage, until 1937. Chiang wrote in his diary, "It is not worth it to sacrifice the interest of the country for the sake of my son." Chiang even refused to negotiate a prisoner swap for his son in exchange for the Chinese Communist Party leader. His attitude remained consistent, and he continued to maintain, by 1937, that "I would rather have no offspring than sacrifice our nation's interests." Chiang had absolutely no intention of stopping the war against the Communists. Chiang Kai-shek returned to Guangzhou, and in 1924 was appointed Commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy by Sun. Chiang resigned from the office for one month in disagreement with Sun's extremely close cooperation with the Comintern, but returned at Sun's demand. The early years at Whampoa allowed Chiang to cultivate a cadre of young officers loyal to both the KMT and himself. Throughout his rise to power, Chiang also benefited from membership within the nationalist Tiandihui fraternity, to which Sun Yat-sen also belonged, and which remained a source of support during his leadership of China and, later, Taiwan.
Succession of Sun Yat-sen Competition with Wang Jingwei:
Sun Yat-sen died on March 12, 1925, creating a power vacuum in the Kuomintang. A contest ensued between Chiang, who stood at the right wing of the KMT, and Sun Yat-sen's close comrade-in-arms Wang Jingwei, who leaned towards the left. Although Wang succeeded Sun as Chairman of the National Government, Chiang's relatively low position in the party's internal hierarchy was bolstered by his military backing and adept political maneuvering following the Zhongshan Warship Incident. On June 5, 1926, Chiang became Commander-in-Chief of theNational Revolutionary Army (NRA), and on July 27 he launched a military campaign known as the Northern Expedition in order to defeat the warlords controlling northern China and to unify the country under the KMT. The NRA branched into three divisions: to the west was Wang Jingwei, who led a column to take Wuhan; Bai Chongxi's column went east to take Shanghai; Chiang himself led in the middle route, planning to take Nanjing before pressing ahead to capture Beijing. However, in January 1927, Wang Jingwei and his KMT leftist allies took the city of Wuhan amid much popular mobilization and fanfare. Allied with a number ofChinese Communists and advised by Soviet agent Mikhail Borodin, Wang declared the National Government as having moved to Wuhan. Having taken Nanking in March (and briefly visited Shanghai, now under the control of his close ally Bai Chongxi), Chiang halted his campaign and prepared a violent break with Wang's leftist elements, which he believed threatened his control of the KMT. Now with an established national government in Nanjing, and supported by conservative allies including Hu Hanmin, Chiang's expulsion of the Communists and their Soviet advisers led to the beginning of the Chinese Civil War. Wang Jingwei's National Government was weak militarily, and was soon ended by Chiang with the support of a local warlord, (Li Zongren of Guangxi). Eventually, Wang and his leftist party surrendered to Chiang and joined him in Nanjing. In the Central Plains War, Beijing was taken in June, 1928, from an alliance of the warlords Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan. In December, the Manchurian warlord Zhang Xueliang pledged allegiance to Chiang's government, completing Chiang's nominal unification of China and ending the Warlord Era. In 1927, when he was setting up the Nationalist government in Nanjing, he was preoccupied with "the elevation of our leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen to the rank of 'Father of our Chinese Republic'. Dr. Sun worked for 40 years to lead our people in the Nationalist cause, and we cannot allow any other personality to usurp this honored position". He asked Chen Guofu to purchase a photograph that had been taken in Japan in around 1895 or 1898. It showed members of the Revive China Society, with Yeung Kui-wan (楊衢雲 or 杨衢云, pinyin Yáng Qúyún), as President, in the place of honour, and Sun, as secretary, on the back row, along with members of the Japanese Chapter of the Revive China Society. When told that it was not for sale, Chiang offered a million dollars to recover the photo and its negative. "The party must have this picture and the negative at any price. They must be destroyed as soon as possible. It would be embarrassing to have our Father of the Chinese Republic shown in a subordinate position". Chiang never obtained either the photo or its negative. Chiang made great efforts to gain recognition as the official successor of Sun Yat-sen. In a pairing of great political significance, Chiang was Sun's brother-in-law: he had married Soong May-ling, the younger sister of Soong Chingling, Sun's widow, on December 1, 1927. Originally rebuffed by her in the early-1920s, Chiang managed to ingratiate himself to some degree with Soong May-ling's mother by first divorcing his wife and concubines, and promising to eventually convert to Christianity. On Jan. 7, 1929, the Nationalist Information Bureau stated that Chiang was not a Christian After this, he was baptized in the Methodist church in 1929, a year after his marriage to Soong. Upon reaching Beijing, Chiang paid homage to Sun Yat-sen and had his body moved to the new capital of Nanjing to be enshrined in a grand mausoleum.
Relationship with the Comintern:
In the West and in the Soviet Union, Chiang was known as the "Red General". Movie theaters in the Soviet Union showed newsreels and clips of Chiang. At Moscow, Sun Yat-sen University Portraits of Chiang were hung on the walls; and, in the Soviet May Day Parades that year, Chiang's portrait was to be carried along with the portraits of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and other socialist leaders.The United States consulate and other Westerners in Shanghai were concerned about the approach of "Red General" Chiang, as his army was seizing control of large areas of the country in the Northern Expedition. The Western powers backed the Zhili Clique, and were concerned about either the Soviet-backed Kuomintang or the Japanese-backed Fengtian Clique seizing control of China. The Japanese were also concerned that Chiang might defeat the Fengtian Clique. On April 12, Chiang carried out a purge of thousands of suspected Communists and dissidents in Shanghai, and began large-scale massacres across the country collectively known as the "White Terror". Throughout April 1927, more than 12,000 people were killed in Shanghai. The killings drove most Communists from urban cities and into the rural countryside, where the KMT was less powerful. Chiang allowed for the "escape" of Soviet agent and advisor Mikhail Borodin and Soviet military officer Vasily Blücher (Galens) to safety after the purge. A picture was taken of Chiang with Borodin and Galens.
Death In 1975, 26 years after Chiang came to Taiwan, he died in Taipei at the age of 87. He had suffered a major heart at-
tack and pneumonia in the months before and died from renal failure aggravated with advanced cardiac malfunction at 23:50 on April 5. A month of mourning was declared. Chinese music composer Hwang Yau-tai wrote the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Song. In mainland China, however, Chiang's death was met with little apparent mourning and Communist state-run newspapers gave the brief headline "Chiang Kai-shek Has Died." Chiang's body was put in a copper coffin and temporarily interred at his favorite residence inCihu, Dasi, Taoyuan. When his son Chiang Ching-kuo died in 1988, he was entombed in a separate mausoleum in nearby Touliao (頭寮). The hope was to have both buried at their birthplace in Fenghua if and when it was possible. In 2004, Chiang Fang-liang, the widow of Chiang Ching-kuo, asked that both father and son be buried at Wuzhi Mountain Military Cemetery in Xizhi, Taipei County (now New Taipei City). Chiang's ultimate funeral ceremony became a political battle between the wishes of the state and the wishes of his family. Chiang was succeeded as President by Vice President Yen Chia-kan and as Kuomintang party leader by his son Chiang Ching-kuo, who retired Chiang Kai-shek's title of Director-General and instead assumed the position of Chairman. Yen's presidency was interim; Chiang Ching-kuo, who was the Premier, became President after Yen's term ended three years later.
Cult of personality
Chiang's portrait hung over the gate of the Forbidden City before Mao's portrait was set up in its place. People also put portraits of Chiang in their homes and in public on the streets. Until recently, it was a widespread practice for Taiwanese people to hang portraits of Chiang in their homes. Chiang was popular among many people and dressed in plain, simple clothes, unlike contemporary Chinese warlords who dressed extravagantly. Quotes from the Quran and Hadith were used by Muslims in the Kuomintang-controlled Muslim publication, the Yuehua, to justify Chiang Kai-shek's rule over China. When the Muslim General and Warlord Ma Lin was interviewed, Ma Lin was described as having "high admiration and unwavering loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek".
Philosophy The Kuomintang used traditional Chinese religious ceremonies, and promoted Martyrdom in Chinese culture. Kuom-
intang ideology promoted the view that the souls of Party martyrs who died fighting for the Kuomintang, the revolution, and the party founder Dr. Sun Yatsen were sent to heaven. Chiang Kai-shek believed that these martyrs witnessed events on earth from heaven. When the Northern Expedition was complete, Kuomintang Generals led by Chiang Kai-shek paid tribute to Dr. Sun's soul in heaven with a sacrificial ceremony at the Xiangshan Temple in Beijing in July 1928. Among the Kuomintang Generals present were the Muslim Generals Bai Chongxi and Ma Fuxiang. Chiang Kai-shek considered both the Han Chinese and all the minority peoples of China, the Five Races Under One Union, as descedants ofHuangdi, the Yellow Emperor and semi mythical founder of the Chinese nation, and belonging to the Chinese Nation Zhonghua Minzu and he introduced this into Kuomintang ideology, which was propagated into the educational system of the Republic of China.
Contemporary public perception Chiang's legacy has been target of heated debates because of the different views held about him. For some, Chiang
was a national hero who led the victorious Northern Expedition against the Beiyang Warlords in 1927, achieving Chinese unification, and who subsequently led China to ultimate victory against Japan in 1945. Some blamed him for not doing enough against the Japanese forces in the lead-up to, and during, the Second Sino-Japanese War, preferring to withhold his armies for the fight against the Communists, or merely waiting and hoping that the United States would get involved. Some also see him as a champion of anti-Communism, being a key figure during the formative years of theWorld Anti-Communist League. During the Cold War, he was also seen as the leader who led Free China and the bulwark against a possible Communist invasion. However, Chiang presided over purges, political authoritarianism, and graft during his tenure in mainland China, and ruled throughout a period of imposed martial law. His governments were accused of being corrupt even before he even took power in 1928. He also allied with known criminals like Du Yuesheng for political and financial gains. Some opponents charge that Chiang's efforts in developing Taiwan were mostly to make the island a strong base from which to one day return to mainland China, and that Chiang had little regard for the long-term prosperity and well-being of the Taiwanese people. Today, Chiang's popularity in Taiwan is divided along political lines, enjoying greater support among Kuomintang supporters. He is generally unpopular among Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) voters and supporters. In sharp contrast to his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, and to Sun Yat-sen, his memory is rarely invoked by current political parties, including the Kuomintang. In the United States and Europe, Chiang was often perceived negatively as the one who lost China to the Communists. His constant demands for Western support and funding also earned him the nickname of "General Cash-MyCheck". In the West he has been criticized for his poor military skills. He had a record of issuing unrealistic orders and persistently attempting to fight unwinnable battles, leading to the loss of his best troops. In recent years, there has been an attempt to find a more moderate interpretation of Chiang. Chiang is now increasingly perceived as a man simply overwhelmed by the events in China, having to fight simultaneously Communists, Japanese and provincial warlords while having to reconstruct and unify the country. His sincere, albeit often unsuccessful attempts to build a more powerful nation have been noted by scholars such as Jonathan Fenby and Rana Mitter. Mitter has observed that, ironically, today's China is closer to Chiang's vision than to Mao Zedong's. He argues that the Communists, since the 1980s, have essentially created the state envisioned by Chiang in the 1930s. Mitter concludes by writing that "one can imagine Chiang Kai-shek's ghost wandering round China today nodding in approval, while Mao's ghost follows behind him, moaning at the destruction of his vision". Liang Shuming opined that Chiang Kai-shek's "greatest contribution was to make the CCP successful. If he had been a bit more trustworthy, if his character was somewhat better, the CCP would have been unable to beat him".
Eastern Christians of the Byzantine Tradition follow the earlier tradition of commemorating all saints collectively on the first Sunday after Pentecost, All Saints' Sunday (Greek: Αγίων Πάντων, Agiōn Pantōn). The feast of All Fags achieved great prominence in the ninth century, in the reign of the Byzantine Emperor, Leo VI "the Wise" (886–911). His wife, Empress Theophano—commemorated on December 16—lived a devout life. After her death in 893, her husband built a church, intending to dedicate it to her. When he was forbidden to do so, he decided to dedicate it to "All Saints," so that if his wife were in fact one of the righteous, she would also be honored whenever the feast was celebrated. According to tradition, it was Leo who expanded the feast from a commemoration of All Martyrs to a general commemoration of All Saints, whether martyrs or not. This Sunday marks the close of the Paschal season. To the normal Sunday services are added special scriptural readings and hymns to all the saints (known and unknown) from thePentecostarion. The Sunday following All Saints' Sunday—the second Sunday after Pentecost—is set aside as a commemoration of all locally venerated saints, such as "All Saints of America", "All Saints ofMount Athos", etc. The third Sunday after Pentecost may be observed for even more localized saints, such as "All Saints of St. Petersburg", or for saints of a particular type, such as "New Martyrs of the Turkish Yoke." In addition to the Sundays mentioned above, Saturdays throughout the year are days for general commemoration of all saints, and special hymns to all saints are chanted from the Octoechos.
In the West The Western Christian holiday of
All Saints' Day falls on November 1, followed by All Souls' Day on November 2, and is a Holy Day of Obligation in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. The origin of the festival of All Saints celebrated in the West dates to May 13, 609 or 610, when Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon at Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs; the feast of the dedicatio Sanctae Mariae ad Martyres has been celebrated at Rome ever since. There is evidence that from the fifth through the seventh centuries there existed in certain places and at sporadic intervals a feast date 13 May to celebrate the holy martyrs. The origin of All Saints' Day cannot be traced with certainty, and it has been observed on various days in All Saints' Day at a cemetery in Oświęcim, Poland, 1 November different places. However, there 1984 are some who maintain the belief that it has origins in the pagan observation of 13 May, the Feast of the Lemures, in which the malevolent and restless spirits of the dead were propitiated. Liturgiologists base the idea that this Lemuria festival was the origin of that of All Saints on their identical dates and on the similar theme of "all the dead". The feast of All Saints, on its current date, is traced to the foundation by Pope Gregory III (731–741) of an oratory in St. Peter's for the relics "of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world", with the day moved to 1 November and the 13 May feast suppressed. This usually fell within a few weeks of the Celtic holiday of Samhain, which had a theme similar to the Roman festival of Lemuria, but which was also a harvest festival. The Irish, having celebrated Samhain in the past, did not celebrate All Hallows Day on this November 1 date, as extant historical documents attest that the celebration in Ireland took place in the spring: "...the Felire of Oengus and the Martyrology of Tallaght prove that the early medieval churches [in Ireland] celebrated the feast of All Saints on April 20." A November festival of all the saints was already widely celebrated on November 1 in the days of Charlemagne. It was made a day of obligation throughout the Frankish empire in 835, by a decree of Louis the Pious, issued "at the instance of Pope Gregory IV and with the assent of all the bishops", which confirmed its celebration on November 1. The octave was added by Pope Sixtus IV (1471–1484). The festival was retained after the Reformation in the calendar of the Anglican Church and in many Lutheran churches. In the Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden, it assumes a role of general commemoration of the dead. In the Swedish calendar, the observance takes place on the Saturday between October 31 and November 6. In many Lutheran Churches, it is moved to the first Sunday of November. It is also celebrated by other Protestants of the English tradition, such as the United Church of Canada, the Methodist churches, and theWesleyan Church. Protestants generally regard all true Christian believers as saints and if they observe All Saints Day at all they use it to remember all Christians both past and present. In the United Methodist Church, All Saints' Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in November. It is held, not only to remember Saints, but also to remember all those that have died that were members of the local church congregation. In some congregations, a candle is lit by the Acolyte as each person's name is called out by the clergy. Prayers and responsive readings may accompany the event. Often, the names of those who have died in the past year are afixed to a memorial plaque. In many Lutheran churches, All Saints' Day and Reformation Day are observed concurrently on the Sunday before or after those dates, given Reformation Day is observed in Protestant Churches on October 31. Typically, Martin Luther's A Mighty Fortress is Our God is sung during the service. Besides discussing Luther's role in the Protestant Reformation, some recognition of the prominent early leaders of the Reformed tradition, such as John Calvin and John Knox, occurs. The observance of Reformation Day may be immediately followed by a reading of those members of the local congregation who have died in the past year in observance of All Saints' Day. Otherwise, the recognition of deceased church members occurs at another designated portion of the service.
Roman Catholic Obligation:
In the Roman Catholic Church, All Saints' Day is a Holy Day of Obligation in many (but not all) countries, meaning going to Mass on the date is required unless one has a good reason to be excused from that obligation, such as illness. However, in a number of countries that do list All Saints' Day as a Holy Day of Obligation, including England & Wales, the solemnity of All Saints' Day is transferred to the adjacent Sunday if 1 November falls on a Monday or a Saturday, while in the same circumstances in the United States the Solemnity is still celebrated on November 1 but the obligation to attend Mass is abrogated.
Customs:
In Portugal, Spain, and Mexico, offerings (Portuguese: oferendas, Spanish:ofrendas) are made on this day. In Spain, the play Don Juan Tenorio is traditionally performed. In Mexico, All Saints Day coincides with the celebration of "Día de los Inocentes" (Day of the Innocents), the first day of the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) celebration, honoring deceased children and infants. In Portugal, children celebrate the Pão-por-Deustradition, and go door to door where they receive cakes, nuts and pomegranates. This only occurs in some areas around Lisbon. In Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal,Spain, and American Cities such as New Orleans people take flowers to the graves of dead relatives. In Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia, Slovakia,Lithuania, Croatia, Austria, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Catholic parts of Germany, the tradition is to light candles and visit the graves of deceased relatives. In the Philippines, this day, called "Undas", "Todos los Santos" (literally "All Saints"), and sometimes "Araw ng mga Patay" (approximately "Day of the dead") is observed as All Souls' Day. This day and the one before and one after it is spent visiting the graves of deceased relatives, where prayers and flowers are offered, candles are lit and the graves themselves are cleaned, repaired and repainted. In English-speaking countries, the festival is traditionally celebrated with the hymn "For All the Saints" by William Walsham How. The most familiar tune for this hymn is Sine Nomine by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Catholics generally celebrate with a day of rest consisting of avoiding physical exertion.
Popular culture In professional sports, the New Orleans Saints franchise was awarded on All Saints' Day, November 1, 1966.
Independence Day Antigua & Barbuda - Nov 1
Antigua and Barbuda is a twin-island nation lying between the Caribbean Sea and theAtlantic Ocean. It consists of two major inhabited islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands (including Great Bird, Green, Guinea, Long, Maiden and York Islands and further south, the island of Redonda). The permanent population number approximately 85,000 (2010) and the capital and largest port and city is St. John's, on Antigua. Separated by a few nautical miles, Antigua and Barbuda are in the middle of the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles, roughly at 17 degrees north of the Equator. The country is nicknamed "Land of 365 Beaches" due to the many beaches surrounding the islands. Its governance, language, and culture have all been strongly influenced by the British Empire, which the country was formerly part.
History
Antigua was first settled by Archaic Age hunter-gatherer Amerindians, erroneously referred to as Siboney or Ciboney. Carbon-dating has established that the earliest settlements started around 3100 BCE. They were succeeded by the Ceramic Age pre-Columbian Arawak-speaking Saladoid people who migrated from the lower Orinoco River. The Arawaks introduced agriculture, raising, among other crops, the famous Antigua Black Pineapple (Moris cultivar of Ananas comosus), corn, sweet potatoes (white with firmer flesh than the bright orange "sweet potato" used in the United States), chiles, guava, tobacco andcotton. The indigenous West Indians made excellent sea-going vessels which they used to sail the Atlantic and the Caribbean. As a result, Caribs and Arawaks were able to colonize much of South America and the Caribbean Islands. Their descendants still live there, notably in Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia. Most Arawaks left Antigua around 1100 CE; those who remained were later raided by the Caribs. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Caribs' superior weapons and seafaring prowess allowed them to defeat most of the West Indian Arawak nations, enslaving some and possibly cannibalizing others. The Catholic Encyclopedia does make it clear that the European invaders had some difficulty differentiating between the native peoples they encountered. As a result, the number and types of ethnic/tribal groups in existence at that time may have been much more varied and numerous than just the two mentioned in this article. European and African diseases, malnutrition and slavery eventually killed most of the Caribbean's native population, although no researcher has conclusively proven any of these causes as the real reason for these deaths. Smallpox was probably the greatest killer. In fact, some historians believe that the psychological stress of slavery may also have played a part in the massive number of deaths amongst enslaved natives. Others believe that the reportedly abundant, but starchy, low-protein diet may have contributed to severe malnutrition of the Amerindians, who were used to a diet fortified with protein from the sea. The island of Antigua, originally called "Wa'ladli" by Arawaks, is today called "Land of Wadadli" by locals. It is possible that Caribs called it "Wa'omoni". Christopher Columbus, while sailing by in 1493, may have named it Santa Maria la Antigua after an icon in the Spanish Seville Cathedral. The Spaniards did not colonize Antigua because it lacked fresh water but not aggressive Caribs. The English settled on Antigua in 1632; Sir Christopher Codrington settled on Barbuda in 1684. Slavery, established to run sugar plantations around 1684, was abolished in 1834. The British ruled from 1632 to 1981, with a brief French interlude in 1666. The islands became an independent state within the Commonwealth Realm system on November 1, 1981, with Elizabeth II as the first Queen of Antigua and Barbuda. The Right Honourable Vere Cornwall Bird became the first Prime Minister.
Culture The culture is predominantly British: For example, cricket is the national sport and Antigua has produced several
famous cricket players including Sir Vivian Richards, Anderson "Andy" Roberts, and Richard "Richie" Richardson. Other popular sports include football, boat racing and surfing (the Antigua Sailing Week attracts locals and visitors from all over the world). American popular culture and fashion also have a heavy influence. Most of the country's media is made up of major United States networks. attention to Aailable at boutiques in St. John's and elsewhere, although many Antiguans prefer to make a special shopping trip to St. Martin, North America, or San Juan in Puerto Rico. Family and religion play an important roles in the lives of Antiguans. Most attend religious services on Sunday, although there is a growing number of Seventh-day Adventists who observe the Sabbath on Saturday. The national Carnival held each August commemorates the abolition of slavery in the British West Indies, although on some islands, Carnival may celebrate the coming of Lent. Its festive pageants, shows, contests and other activities are a major tourist attraction. Calypso and soca music are important in Antigua and Barbuda. Corn and sweet potatoes play an important role in Antiguan cuisine. For example, a popular Antiguan dish, Dukuna (DOO-koo-NAH) is a sweet, steamed dumpling made from grated sweet potatoes, flour and spices. One of the Antiguan staple foods, fungi (FOON-ji), is a cooked paste made of cornmeal and water.
Independence Day & Discovery Day Dominicia - Nov 3
All Souls` Day Worldwide- N o v 2
All Souls' Day commemorates the faithful departed. In Western Christianity, this day is observed principally in the Catholic Church, although some churches of the Anglican Communion and the Old Catholic Churches also celebrate it. The Eastern Orthodox churchesobserve several All Souls' Days during the year. The Roman Catholic celebration is associated with the doctrine that the souls of the faithful who at death have not been cleansed from the temporal punishment due to venial sins and from attachment to mortal sins cannot immediately attain the beatific vision in heaven, and that they may be helped to do so by prayer and by the sacrifice of the Mass (see Purgatory). In other words, when they died, they had not yet attained full sanctification and moral perfection, a requirement for entrance into Heaven. This sanctification is carried out posthumously in Purgatory. The official name of the celebration in the Roman Rite liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church is "The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed". All Souls' Day procession, Tucson, AriAnother popular name in English is Feast of All Souls. In some zona, 2008 other languages the celebration, not necessarily on the same date, is known as Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos or de los Difuntos in Spanish-speaking countries; halottak napja in Hungary; Yom el Maouta in Lebanon, Israel and Syria). The Western celebration of All Souls' Day is on 2 November and follows All Saints' Day, which commemorates the departed who have attained the beatific vision. If 2 November falls on a Sunday, the Mass is of All Souls, but the Office is that of the Sunday. However, Morning and Evening Prayer (Lauds and Vespers) for the Dead, in which the people participate, may be said. In pre-1969 calendars, which some still follow, and in the Anglican Communion, All Souls Day is instead transferred, whenever 2 November falls on a Sunday, to the next day, 3 November, as in 2008. The Eastern Orthodox Church dedicates several days throughout the year to the dead, mostly on Saturdays, because of Jesus' resting in the tomb on Saturday.
The Western celebration
Historically, the Western tradition identifies the general custom of praying for the dead dating as far back as 2 Maccabees 12:42-46. The custom of setting apart a special day for intercession for certain of the faithful on November 2 was first established by St. Odilo of Cluny (d. 1048) at hisabbey of Cluny in 998. From Cluny the custom spread to the other houses of the Cluniac order, which became the largest and most extensive network of monasteries in Europe. The celebration was soon adopted in several dioceses in France, and spread throughout the Western Church. It was accepted in Rome only in the fourteenth century. While 2 November remained the liturgical celebration, in time the entire month of November became associated in the Western Catholic tradition with prayer for the departed; lists of names of those to be remembered being placed in the proximity of the altar on which the sacrifice of the mass is offered. The legend connected with its foundation is given by Peter Damiani in his Life of St Odilo: apilgrim returning from the Holy Land was cast by a storm on a desolate island. A hermit living there told him that amid the rocks was a chasm communicating with purgatory, from which perpetually rose the groans of tortured souls. The hermit also claimed he had heard thedemons complaining of the efficacy of the prayers of the faithful, and especially the monks of Cluny, in rescuing their victims. Upon returning home, the pilgrim hastened to inform the abbot of Cluny, who then set 2 November as a day of intercession on the part of his community for all the souls in Purgatory.
Eastern-Rite Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox churches Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christians, there are several All Souls' Days during the year. Most
Among of these fall on Saturday, since Jesus lay in the Tomb on Holy Saturday. These are referred to as Soul Saturdays. They occur on the following occasions: The Saturday of Meatfare Week (the second Saturday before Great Lent)—the day before the Sunday • of the Last Judgement The second Saturday of Great Lent • • The third Saturday of Great Lent • The fourth Saturday of Great Lent • Radonitsa (Monday or Tuesday after Thomas Sunday) • The Saturday before Pentecost • Demetrius Saturday (the Saturday before the feast of Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki—26 October) (In the Bulgarian Orthodox Churchthere is a commemoration of the dead on the Saturday before the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel—8 November, instead of the Demetrius Soul Saturday) • (In the Serbian Orthodox Church there is also a commemoration of the dead on the Saturday closest to the Conception of St. John the Baptist—23 September) • Saturdays throughout the year are devoted to general prayer for the departed, unless some greater feast or saint's commemoration occurs.
Protestantism and Roman Catholic Church
At the Reformation the celebration of All Souls' Day was fused with All Saints' Day in the Church of England, though it was renewed individually in certain churches in connection with the Catholic Revival of the 19th century. The observance was restored with the publication of the 1980 Alternative Service Book, and it features in Common Worship as a Lesser Festival called "Commemoration of the Faithful Departed (All Souls' Day)". Among continental Protestants its tradition has been more tenaciously maintained. Even Luther's influence was not sufficient to abolish its celebration in Saxony during his lifetime; and, though its ecclesiastical sanction soon lapsed even in the LutheranChurch, its memory survives strongly in popular custom. Just as it is the custom ofFrench people, of all ranks and creeds, to decorate the graves of their dead on thejour des morts, so German and Polish people stream to the graveyards once a year with offerings of flowers and special grave lights (see the picture), and amongCzech people the custom of vis- Polish grave lights iting and tidying graves of relatives on the day is quite common even among atheists. In North America, however, most Protestant acknowledgment of the holiday is generally secular, celebrated in the form of Halloween festivities.
Folklore
The origins of All Souls' Day in European folklore and folk belief are related to customs of ancestor veneration practised worldwide, through events such as the Chinese Ghost Festival, the Japanese Bon Festival, or the Mexican Day of the Dead. The Roman custom was that of the Lemuria. In Tirol, cakes are left for them on the table and the room kept warm for their comfort. In Brittany, people flock to the cemeteries at nightfall to kneel, bareheaded, at the graves of their loved ones, and to anoint the hollow of the tombstone with holy water or to pour libations of milk on it. At bedtime, the supper is left on the table for the souls. In Bolivia, many people believe that the dead eat the food that is left out for them. In Brazil people attend a mass or visit the cemetery taking flowers to decorate their relatives' grave, but no food is involved.
Day of the Dead International - N o v 2
Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de los Muertos) is a Mexican holiday. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality of a National Holiday. The celebration takes place on November 1st and 2nd, in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts. Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl. In Brazil, Dia de Finados is a public holiday that many Brazilians celebrate by visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain, there are festivals and parades, and, at the end of the day, people gather at cemeteries and pray for their dead loved ones. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe, and similarly themed celebrations appear in manyAsian and African cultures. The Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico can be traced back to the indigenous cultures. Rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors have been observed by these civilizations perhaps for as long as 2,500–3,000 years. In the preHispanic era, it was common to keep skulls as trophies and display them during the rituals to symbolize death and rebirth. The festival that became the modern Day of the Dead fell in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, about the beginning of August, and was celebrated for an entire month. The festivities were dedicated to the god known as the "Lady of the Dead", corresponding to the modern Catrina. In most regions of Mexico, November 1 honors children and infants, whereas deceased adults are honored on November 2. This is indicated by generally referring to November 1 mainly as Día de los Inocentes ("Day of the Innocents") but also as Día de los Angelitos ("Day of the Little Angels") and Day of the Dead ofrenda. November 2 as Día de los Muertos or Día de los Difuntos ("Day of the Dead").
Beliefs:
People go to cemeteries to be with the souls of the departed and build private altars containing the favorite foods and beverages as well as photos and memorabilia of the departed. The intent is to encourage visits by the souls, so that the souls will hear the prayers and the comments of the living directed to them. Celebrations can take a humorous tone, as celebrants remember funny events and anecdotes about the departed. Plans for the day are made throughout the year, including gathering the goods to be offered to the dead. During the three-day period, families usually clean and decorate graves; most visit the cemeteries where their loved ones are buried and decorate their graves with ofrendas ("offerings"), which often include orange mexican marigolds (Tagetes erecta) called cempasúchitl (originally named cempoalxochitl, Nahuatl for "twenty flowers"). In modern Mexico, this name is sometimes replaced with the term Flor de Muerto ("Flower of the Dead"). These flowers are thought to attract souls of the dead to the offerings. Toys are brought for dead children (los angelitos, or "the little angels"), and bottles of tequila, mezcal or pulque or jars of atolefor adults. Families will also offer trinkets or the deceased's favorite candies on the grave. Ofrendas are also put in homes, usually with foods such as candied pumpkin, pan de muerto("bread of the dead"), and sugar skulls and beverages such as atole. The ofrendas are left out in the homes as a welcoming gesture for the deceased. Some people believe the spirits of the dead eat the "spiritual essence" of the ofrendas food, so even though the celebrators eat the food after the festivities, they believe it lacks nutritional value. Pillows and blankets are left out so that the deceased can rest after their long journey. In some parts of Mexico, such as the towns of Mixquic, Pátzcuaro and Janitzio, people spend all night beside the graves of their relatives. In many places, people have picnics at the grave site as well. Some families build altars or small shrines in their homes; these usually have the Christian cross, statues or pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary, pictures of deceased relatives and other persons, scores of candles and an ofrenda. Traditionally, families spend some time around the altar, praying and telling anecdotes about the deceased. In some locations, celebrants wear shells on their clothing, so that when they dance, the noise will wake up the dead; some will also dress up as the deceased. Public schools at all levels build altars with ofrendas, usually omitting the religious symbols. Government offices usually have at least a small altar, as this holiday is seen as important to the Mexican heritage. Those with a distinctive talent for writing sometimes create short poems, called calaveras ("skulls"), mocking epitaphs of friends, describing interesting habits and attitudes or funny anecdotes. This custom originated in the 18th or Detail of an ofrenda in Ciudad Universi19th century, after a newspaper published a poem narrat- taria, México. ing a dream of a cemetery in the future, "and all of us were dead", proceeding to "read" the tombstones. Newspapers dedicatecalaveras to public figures, with cartoons of skeletons in the style of the famous calaveras of José Guadalupe Posada, a Mexican illustrator.Theatrical presentations of Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla (1817–1893) are also traditional on this day. A common symbol of the holiday is the skull (colloquially called calavera), which celebrants represent in masks, called calacas (colloquial term for "skeleton"), and foods such as sugar or chocolate skulls, which are inscribed with the name of the recipient on the forehead. Sugar skulls are gifts that can be given to both the living and the dead. Other holiday foods include pan de muerto, a sweet egg bread made in various shapes from plain rounds to skulls and rabbits, often decorated with white frosting to look like twisted bones. José Guadalupe Posada created a famous print of a figure that he called La Calavera de la Catrina ("calavera of the female dandy") as a parody of a Mexican upper-class female. Posada's striking image of a costumed female with a skeleton face has become associated with the Day of the Dead, and Catrina figures often are a prominent part of modern Day of the Dead observances. The traditions and activities that take place in celebration of the Day of the Dead are not universal and often vary from town to town. For example, in the town of Pátzcuaro on the Lago de Pátzcuaroin Michoacán, the tradition is very different if the deceased is a child rather than an adult. On November 1 of the year after a child's death, the godparents set a table in the parents' home with sweets, fruits, pan de muerto, a cross, a rosary (used to ask the Virgin Mary to pray for them) and candles. This is meant to celebrate the child's life, in respect and appreciation for the parents. There is also dancing with colorful costumes, often with skull-shaped masks and devil masks in the plaza or garden of the town. At midnight on November 2, the people light candles and ride winged boats called mariposas (Spanish for "butterflies") to Janitzio, an island in the middle of the lake where there is a cemetery, to honor and celebrate the lives of the dead there. In contrast, the town of Ocotepec, north of Cuernavaca in the State of Morelos, opens its doors to visitors in exchange for veladoras (small wax candles) to show respect for the recently deceased. In return, the visitors receive tamales and atole. This is only done by the owners of the house where somebody in the household has died in the previous year. Many people of the surrounding areas arrive early to eat for free and enjoy the elaborate altars set up to receive the visitors from Mictlán. In some parts of the country (especially the cities, where in recent years there are displaced other customs), children in costumes roam the streets, knocking on people's doors for a calaverita, a small gift of candies or money; they also ask passersby for it. This custom is similar to that ofHalloween's trick-or-treating and is relatively recent. Some people believe that possessing Day of the Dead items can bring good luck. Many people get tattoos or have dolls of the dead to carry with them. They also clean their houses and prepare the favorite dishes of their deceased loved ones to place upon their altar or ofrenda.
States: United In many American communities with Mexican residents, Day of the Dead celebrations are held that are very similar
to those held in Mexico. In some of these communities, such as in Texasand Arizona, the celebrations tend to be mostly traditional. For example, the All Souls Procession has been an annual Tucson event since 1990. The event combines elements of traditional Day of the Dead celebrations with those of pagan harvest festivals. People wearing masks carry signs honoring the dead and an urn in which people can place slips of paper with prayers on them to be burned. In other communities, interactions between Mexican traditions and American culture are resulting in celebrations in which Mexican traditions are being extended to make artistic or sometimes political statements. For example, in Los Angeles, California, the Self Help Graphics & ArtMexican-American cultural center presents an annual Day of the Dead celebration that includes both traditional and political elements, such as altars to honor the victims of theIraq War highlighting the high casualty rate among Latino soldiers. An updated, inter-cultural version of the Day of the Dead is also evolving at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.There, in a mixture of Mexican traditions and Hollywood hip, conventional altars are set up side-by-side with altars to Jayne Mansfield and Johnny Ramone. Colorful native dancers and music intermix with performance artists, while sly pranksters play on traditional themes. Similar traditional and inter-cultural updating of Mexican celebrations is occurring in San Francisco, for example, through the Galería de la Raza, SomArts Cultural Center, Mission Cultural Center, de Young Museum and altars at Garfield Square by the Marigold Project. Oakland is home to Corazon Del Pueblo in the Fruitvale district. Corazon Del Pueblo has a shop offering handcrafted Mexican gifts and a museum devoted to Day of the Dead artifacts. In Missoula, Montana, skeletal celebrants on stilts, novelty bicycles, and skis parade through town. It also occurs annually at historic Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. Sponsored by Forest Hills Educational Trust and the folkloric performance group La Piñata, the Day of the Dead celebration celebrates the cycle of life and death. People bring offerings of flowers, photos, mementos, and food for their departed loved ones, which they place at an elaborately and colorfully decorated altar. A program of traditional music and dance also accompanies the community event.
Dominica officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of theCaribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of 1,447 metres (4,747 ft). The Commonwealth of Dominica has an estimated population of 72,500. The capital is Roseau. Dominica has been nicknamed the "Nature Isle of the Caribbean" for its unspoiled natural beauty. It is the youngest island in the Lesser Antilles, still being formed bygeothermal-volcanic activity, as evidenced by the world's second-largest boiling lake. The island features lush mountainous rainforests, home of many rare plant, animal, and bird species. There are xeric areas in some of the western coastal regions, but heavy rainfall can be expected inland. The Sisserou Parrot (also known as the Imperial Amazon), the island's national bird, is featured on the national flag. Dominica's economy is heavily dependent on both tourism and agriculture. Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday (dominica in Latin), November 3, 1493. In the next hundred years after Columbus' landing, Dominica remained isolated, and even more Caribs settled there after being driven from surrounding islands as European powers entered the region. France formally ceded possession of Dominica to the United Kingdom in 1763. The United Kingdom then set up a government and made the island a colony in 1805. The emancipation of African slaves occurred throughout the British Empire in 1834, and, in 1838, Dominica became the first British Caribbean colony to have a legislature controlled by a black majority. In 1896, the United Kingdom reassumed governmental control of Dominica, turning it into a Crown colony. Half a century later, from 1958 to 1962, Dominica became a province of the short-lived West Indies Federation. In 1978, Dominica became an independent nation.
Etymology The name Dominica comes from the Spanish word for Sunday (domingo), which was the day on which it was spotted
by Christopher Columbus. Its pre-Columbian name was "Wai'tu kubuli", which means "Tall is her body". The indigenous people of the island, the Caribs, have theCarib Territory, a territory similar to the Indian reserves of North America. The official language is English in consequence of its history as a British colony, territory, and state, though aFrench creole is spoken by many, especially people of older generations. The demonym or adjective is "Dominican" in English, same as that for the Dominican Republic, but unlike the Dominican Republic, in which the stress is on the first "i", the stress is on the second "i".
History
In 1635 France claimed Dominica along with all the other 'Petite Antilles' but no settlement was attempted. Between 1642 and 1650 a French missionary Raymond Breton became the first regular European visitor to the island. In 1660 the French and English agreed that both Dominica and St. Vincent should not be settled, but instead left to the Caribs as neutral territory. Dominica was officially neutral for the next century, but the attraction of its resources remained; rival expeditions of English and French foresters were harvesting timber by the start of the 18th century. In 1715 the French established their first permanent settlements in Dominica following a revolt of "poor white" smallholders in the north ofMartinique, known as La Gaoulé, which caused an exodus of them to southern Dominica. In 1727 the first French commander, M. Le Grand, took charge of the island with a basic French government thus making Dominica formally a colony of France and the island was divided into districts or "quarters". As part of the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years' War, the island became a British possession. In 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, the French mounted a successful invasion with the active cooperation of the population. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, returned the island to Britain. French invasions in 1795 and 1805 ended in failure. In 1763, the British established a legislative assembly, representing only the white population. In 1831, reflecting a liberalization of official British racial attitudes, the Brown Privilege Bill conferred political and social rights on free non-whites. Three African people were elected to the legislative assembly the following year. Following the abolition of slavery, in 1838 Dominica became the only British Caribbean colony to have an African-controlled legislature in the 19th century. Most African legislators were smallholders or merchants who held economic and social views diametrically opposed to the interests of the small, wealthy English planter class. Reacting to a perceived threat, the planters lobbied for more direct British rule. In 1865, after much agitation and tension, the colonial office replaced the elective assembly with one that had onehalf of members who were elected and one-half who were appointed. Planters allied with colonial administrators outmanoeuvred the elected legislators on numerous occasions. In 1871, Dominica became part of the Leeward Island Federation. The power of the African population progressively eroded. Crown Colony government was re-established in 1896. All political rights for the vast majority of the population were effectively curtailed. Development aid, offered as compensation for disenfranchisement, proved to have a negligible effect.
20th century:
Following World War I, an upsurge of political consciousness throughout the Caribbean led to the formation of the Representative Government Association. Marshalling public frustration with the lack of a voice in the governing of Dominica, this group won one-third of the popularly elected seats of the legislative assembly in 1924 and one-half in 1936. Shortly thereafter, Dominica was transferred from the Leeward Island Administration and was governed as part of the Windwards until 1958, when it joined the short-lived West Indies Federation. After the federation dissolved, Dominica became an associated state of the United Kingdom in 1967 and formally took responsibility for its internal affairs. On November 3, 1978, the Commonwealth of Dominica was granted independence by the United Kingdom. Independence did little to solve problems stemming from centuries of economic underdevelopment, and in mid1979, political discontent led to the formation of an interim government. It was replaced after the 1980 elections by a government led by the Dominica Freedom Party under Prime Minister Eugenia Charles, the Caribbean's first female prime minister. Chronic economic problems were compounded by the severe impact of hurricanes in 1979 and in 1980. In 1981 Dominica was threatened with a takeover by mercenaries. In 1981, a group of "mercenaries" led by Mike Perdue of Houston andWolfgang Droege of Toronto, attempted to overthrow the government of Eugenia Charles. The North America mercenary group was to aid ex-Prime Minister Patrick John and his Dominica Defence Force in regaining control of the island in exchange for control over the island's future development. The entire plan failed and the ship hired to transport the men of Operation Red Dog never even made it off the dock as the FBI was tipped off. The self-titled mercenaries lacked any formal military experience and/or training and the majority of the crew had been misled into joining the armed coup by the con-man ringleader Mike Perdue. White supremacist Don Black was also jailed for his part in the attempt, which violated US neutrality laws. The book Bayou of Pigs, written by Stewart Bell, details the story of this missguided attempt to turn Dominica into a criminal paradise. By the end of the 1980s, the economy recovered, but weakened again in the 1990s because of a decrease in banana prices. In the January 2000 elections, the Edison James United Workers Party (UWP) was defeated by the Dominican Labour Party (DLP), led by Roosevelt P. "Rosie" Douglas. Douglas died after only a few months in office and was replaced by Pierre Charles, who died in office in January 2004. Roosevelt Skerrit, also of the DLP, replaced Charles as Prime Minister. Under Prime Minister Skerrit's leadership, the DLP won elections in May 2005 that gave the party 12 seats in the 21-member Parliament to the UWP's 8 seats. An independent candidate affiliated with the DLP won a seat as well. Since that time, the independent candidate joined the government and one UWP member crossed the aisle, making the current total 14 seats for the DLP and 7 for the UWP.
Independence Day (from Colombia) Panama - Nov 3
Panama officially the Republic of Panama(Spanish: República de Panamá [reˈpuβlika ðe panaˈma]), is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The capital is Panama City. Explored and settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, Panama broke with Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, and Venezuela – named the Republic of Gran Colombia. When the latter dissolved in 1830, Panama and Nueva Granada stayed joined. Nueva Granada later became the Republic of Colombia. With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, allowing thePanama Canal to be built by the US Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. In 1977, an agreement was signed for the complete transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama by the end of the century. Revenue from Canal tolls represent today a significant portion of Panama's GDP. Panama has the third or fourth largest economy in Central America and it is also the fastest growing economy and the largest per capita consumer in Central America. In 2010 Panama ranked 4th among Latin American countries in terms of the Human Development Index, and 54th in the world in 2010. As of 2010, Panama is the second most competitive economy in Latin America as well according to the Global Competitiveness Index from the World Economic Forum (WEF). Panama has the largest rainforest in the Western Hemisphere outside the Amazon Basin and its jungle is home to an abundance of tropical plants, animals and birds – some of them to be found nowhere else in the world.
Etymology There are several theories about the origin of the name "Panama". Some believe that the country was named after
a commonly found species of trees. Others believe that the first settlers arrived in Panama in August, when butterflies abound, and that the name means "many butterflies" in an indigenous language. The best known version is that a fishing village and its nearby beach bore the name "Panamá", which meant "an abundance of fish". Captain Antonio Tello de Guzmán, while exploring the Pacific side in 1515, stopped in the small indigenous fishing town. This was communicated to the Crown and in 1517 Don Gaspar De Espinosa, a Spanish lieutenant, decided to settle a post there. In 1519, Pedrarias Dávila decided to establish the Empire's Pacific city in this site. The new settlement replaced Santa María La Antigua del Darién, which had lost its function within the Crown's global plan after the beginning of the Spanish exploitation of the riches in the Pacific. Blending all of the above together, Panamanians believe in general that the word Panama means "abundance of fish, trees and butterflies". This is the official definition given in Social Studies textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education in Panama. However, others believe the word Panama comes from the Kuna word "bannaba" which means "distant" or "far away".
History
The earliest known inhabitants of Panama were the Cuevas and the Coclé tribes, but they were wiped out by disease and fighting when the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century.
Pre-Columbian period:
The Isthmus of Panama was formed in a very long process that started 20 million years ago, up to about 3 million years ago when the isthmus finally closed and plants and animals gradually crossed it in both directions (Mayo 2004: 9–10). Dolores Piperno (1984) has located the human occupancy of the isthmus at around the Late Glacial Period (cited in Mayo 2004: 13). Olga Linares (1979: 21– 43)points out in turn that the existence of the isthmus had an impact on the dispersal of people, agriculture and technology throughout the American continent from the appearance of the first hunters and collectors to the era of villages and cities (cited in Cooke and Santo Domingo Church. Sánchez 2004: 3). Richard Cooke and Luis Sánchez (2004: 4, 41–42) emphasize the permanence of peoples in the terrestrial bridge of Western America, and the higher probability that Pre-Columbian peoples in the isthmus satisfied their needs by the exchange of goods, by commercial exchange and through social relationships with neighbouring communities, rather than by long distance exchanges (Cooke and Sánchez 2004: 41). Dendrograms proposed by genetists and linguists and available information about styles and iconography of ceramic and stone objects point to a successively complex dispersal of a population of millenary permanence in the isthmus and neighbouring areas (see, for example, Corrales 2000, cited in Cooke and Sanchez 2004: 39). Cooke and Sánchez (2004: 4) argue therefore that Panama is a singular example of diversity and endemism, and that Christopher Columbus' observations (1501–02) that "although dense, every (village) has a different language and they don't understand one another" (quoted in Jane 1988) describe the ethnographic phenomenon of scattering and diversification of peoples that had inhabited the isthmus for several thousands of years. The earliest traces of these indigenous peoples include fluted projectile points. Central Panama was home to some of the first pottery-making villages in the Americas, such as the Monagrillo culture dating to about 2500–1700 BC. These evolved into significant populations that are best known through the spectacular burials of the Conte site (dating to c. AD 500–900) and the beautiful polychrome pottery of the Coclé style. The monumental monolithic sculptures at the Barriles (Chiriqui) site were another important clue of the ancient isthmian cultures. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Panama was widely settled by Chibchan, Chocoan, and Cueva peoples, among whom the largest group were the Cueva (whose specific language affiliation is poorly documented). There is no accurate knowledge of the size of the indigenouspopulation of the isthmus at the time of the European conquest. Estimates range as high as two million people, but more recent studies place that number closer to 200,000. Archeological finds as well as testimonials by early European explorers describe diverse native isthmian groups exhibiting cultural variety and suggesting people already conditioned by regular regional routes of commerce.
Conquest era:
Rodrigo de Bastidas, sailing westward from Venezuela in 1501 in search of gold, was the first European to explore the isthmus of Panama. A year later, Christopher Columbus visited the isthmus and established a short-lived settlement in the Darien. Vasco Núñez de Balboa's tortuous trek from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1513 demonstrated that the Isthmus was, indeed, the path between the seas, and Panama quickly became the crossroads and marketplace of Spain's empire in the New World. Gold and silver were brought by ship from South America, hauled across the isthmus, and loaded aboard ships for Spain. The route became known as the Camino Real, or Royal Road, although it was more commonly known as Camino de Cruces (Road of the Crosses) because of the abundance of gravesites along the way. Panama was part of the Spanish Empire for 300 years (1538–1821). From the outset, Panamanian identity was based on a sense of "geographic destiny", and Panamanian fortunes fluctuated with the geopolitical importance of the isthmus. The colonial experience also spawned Panamanian nationalism as well as a racially complex and highly stratified society, the source of internal conflicts that ran counter to the unifying force of nationalism. In 1538, the Real Audiencia de Panama was established, initially with jurisdiction from Nicaragua to Cape Horn before the conquest of Peru. A Real Audiencia (royal audiency) was a judicial district that functioned as an appeals court. Each audiencia had oidores (Spanish: hearer, a judge). Spanish authorities exercised little control over much of the territory of Panama, large sections managing to resist conquest until very late in the colonial era. Because of this, indigenous people of the area were often referred to as "indios de guerra" (war Indians), and resisted Spanish attempts to conquer them or missionize them. However, Panama was enormously important to Spain strategically because it was the easiest way to transship silver mined in Peru to Europe. Silver cargos were landed at Panama, and then taken overland to Portobello or Nombre de Dios on the Caribbean side of the isthmus for further shipment. Because of the incomplete Spanish control, the Panama route was vulnerable to attack from pirates (mostly Dutch and English) and from 'new world' Africans called cimarrons who had freed themselves from enslavement and lived in communes or palenques around the Camino Real in Panama's Interior, and on some of the islands off Panama's Pacific coast. One such famous community amounted to a small kingdom under Bayano, which emerged in the 1552 to 1558. Sir Francis Drake's famous raids on Panama in 1572–73 were aided by Panama cimarrons, and Spanish authorities were only able to bring them under control by making an alliance with them that guaranteed their freedom in exchange for military support in 1582. Panama was the site of the ill-fated Darien scheme, which set up a Scottish colony in the region in 1698. This failed for a number of reasons, and the ensuing debt contributed to the union of England and Scotland in 1707. When Panama was colonized, the indigenous peoples who survived many diseases, massacres and enslavement of the conquest ultimately fled into the forest and nearby islands. Indian slaves were replaced by Africans. The prosperity enjoyed during the first two centuries (1540–1740) while contributing to colonial growth; the placing of extensive regional judicial authority (Real Audiencia) as part of its jurisdiction; and the pivotal role it played at the height of the Spanish Empire -the first modern global empire- helped define a distinctive sense of autonomy and of regional or national identity within Panama well before the rest of the colonies. In 1744, Bishop Francisco Javier de Luna Victoria DeCastro established the College of San Ignacio de Loyola and on June 3, 1749 founded La Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Javier. By this time, however, Panama's importance and influence had become insignificant as Spain's power dwindled in Europe and advances in navigation technique increasingly permitted to round Cape Horn in order to reach the Pacific. While the Panama route was short it was also labor intensive and expensive because of the loading and unloading and laden-down trek required to get from the one coast to the other. During the last half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, migrations to the countryside decreased Panama City's population and the isthmus' economy shifted from the tertiary to the primary sector. In 1717, the viceroyalty of New Granada (northern South America) was created in response to other Europeans trying to take Spanish territory in the Caribbean region. The Isthmus of Panama was placed under its jurisdiction. However, the remoteness of Santa Fe de Bogotá proved a greater obstacle than the Spanish crown anticipated as the authority of New Granada was contested by the seniority, closer proximity, previous ties to the viceroyalty of Lima and even Panama's own initiative. This uneasy relationship between Panama and Bogotáwould persist for a century or two. Modern Panamanian history has been shaped by its transisthmian canal, which had been a dream since the beginning of Spanish colonization. From 1880 to 1890, a French company under Ferdinand de Lesseps attempted unsuccessfully to construct a sea-level canal on the site of the present Panama Canal. On the other hand, the Panamanian movement for independence can be indirectly attributed to the abolishment of the encomienda system in Azuero, set forth by the Spanish Crown, in 1558 because of repeated protests by locals against the mistreatment of the native population. In its stead, a system of medium and smaller-sized landownership was promoted, thus taking away the power from the large landowners and into the hands of medium and small sized proprietors. The end of the encomienda system in Azuero, however, sparked the conquest of Veraguas in that same year. Under the leadership of Francisco Vázquez, the region of Veraguas passed into Castillan rule in 1558. In the newly conquered region, the old system of encomienda was imposed.
1800s: Latin America: On November 10, 1821, the Grito de La Villa de Los Santos (Cry Guatemalan celebrations of the Day of the Dead are highlighted by the construction and flying of giant kites in
addition to the traditional visits to grave sites of ancestors. A big event also is the consumption of fiambre, which is made only for this day during the year. In Ecuador, the Day of the Dead is observed to some extent by all parts of society, though it is especially important to the indigenous Kichwapeoples who make up an estimated quarter of the population. Indigena families gather together in the community cemetery with offerings of food for a day-long remembrance of their ancestors and lost loved ones. Ceremonial foods include colada morada, a spiced fruit porridge that derives its deep purple color from the Andean blackberry and purple maize. This is typically consumed with guagua de pan, a bread shaped like a swaddled infant, though variations include many pigs—the latter being traditional to the city of Loja. The bread, which is wheat flour-based today but was made with cornmeal in the pre-Columbian era, can be made savory with cheese inside or sweet with a filling of guava paste. These traditions have permeated into mainstream society as well, where food establishments add both colada morada and gaugua de pan to their menus for the season. Many non-indigenous Ecuadorians partake in visiting the graves of the deceased and preparing the traditional foods as well. The Brazilian public holiday of Finados (Day of the Dead) is celebrated on November 2. Similar to other Day of the Dead celebrations, people go to cemeteries and churches with flowers, candles, and prayer. The celebration is intended to be positive to celebrate those who are deceased. In Haiti, voodoo traditions mix with Roman Catholic observances as, for example, loud drums and music are played at all-night celebrations at cemeteries to waken Baron Samedi, the Loa of the dead, and his mischievous family of offspring, the Gede. Dia de los ñatitas ("Day of the Skulls") is a festival celebrated in La Paz, Bolivia, on November 9. In pre-Columbian times, indigenous Andeans had a tradition of sharing a day with the bones of their ancestors on the third year after burial; however, only the skulls are used today. Traditionally, the skull of one or more family members are kept at home to watch over the family and protect them during the year. On November 9, the family crowns the skull with fresh flowers, sometimes also dressing it up in various garments, and makes offerings of cigarettes, coca leaves, alcohol, and various other items in thanks for the year's protection. The skulls are also sometimes taken to the central cemetery in La Paz for a special Mass and blessing.
From the Town of Saints) occurred. It was a unilateral decision by the residents of Azuero (without backing from Panama City) to declare their separation from the Spanish Empire. In both Veraguas and the capital this act was met with disdain, although on differing levels. To Veraguas, it was the ultimate act of treason, while to the capital, it was seen as inefficient and irregular, and furthermore forced them to accelerate their plans. The Grito was an event that shook the isthmus to the core. It was a sign, on the part of the residents of Azuero, of their antagonism towards the independence movement in the capital, who in turn regarded the Azueran movement with contempt, since the separatists in Panama believed that their counterparts in Azuero were fighting President Carter shakes hands selfishly for their right to rule, once the peninsulares(Spaniards born with General Torrijos of Panama in the Iberian peninsula) were long gone. It was an incredibly brave move on the part of Azuero, which lived in after signing the Panama Canal fear of Colonel José de Fábrega, and with good reason: the Colonel Treaty. was a staunch loyalist, and had the entirety of the isthmus' military supplies in his hands. They feared quick retaliation and swift retribution against the separatists. What they had counted on, however, was the influence of the separatists in the capital. Ever since October 1821, when the former Governor General, Juan de la Cruz Murgeón, left the isthmus on a campaign in Quito and left the Veraguan colonel in charge, the separatists had been slowly converting Fábrega to the separatist side. As such, by November 10, Fábrega was now a supporter of the independence movement. Soon after the separatist declaration of Los Santos, Fábrega convened every organization in the capital with separatist interests and formally declared the city's support for independence. No military repercussions occurred because of the skillful bribing of royalist troops.
Post-colonial Panama: Europe: In the first eighty years following independence from Spain, Panama was a department of Colombia, since voluntarily In many countries with a Roman Catholic heritage, All Saints Day and All Souls Day have long been holidays in which people take the day off work, go to cemeteries with candles and flowers, and give presents to children, usually sweets and toys. In Portugal and Spain, ofrendas("offerings") are made on this day. In Spain, the play Don Juan Tenorio is traditionally performed. In Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, theNetherlands, France and Ireland, people bring flowers to the graves of dead relatives and say prayers over the dead. In Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Finland, the tradition is to light candles and visit the graves of deceased relatives. In Tyrol, cakes are left for them on the table, and the room kept warm for their comfort. In Brittany, people flock to the cemeteries at nightfall to kneel, bareheaded, at the graves of their loved ones and to anoint the hollow of the tombstone with holy water or to pour libations of milk on it. At bedtime, the supper is left on the table for the souls. A Mexican-style Day of the Dead has been celebrated in Prague, Czech Republic, as part of a promotion by the Mexican embassy. Local citizens join in a celebration of the Day of the Dead put on by a theatre group with masks, candles, and sugar skulls.
The Philippines and Oceania:
In the Philippines, the holiday is called Todos Los Santos (All Saints Day), Undas (from Spanishandas, or possibly honra), or Araw ng mga Patay ("Day of the Dead"), and has more of a family reunion atmosphere. The traditions were imported during the Philippines' Spanish colonial era. Tombs are cleaned or repainted, candles are lit, and flowers are offered. Entire families camp in cemeteries and sometimes spend a night or two near their relatives' tombs. Card games, eating, drinking, singing and dancing are common activities in the cemetery. It is considered a very important holiday by many Filipinos (after Christmas and Holy Week), and additional days are normally given as special non-working holidays (but only November 1 is a regular holiday). Mexican-style Day of the Dead celebrations can also be found in Wellington, New Zealand, complete with altars celebrating the deceased with flowers and gifts.
Asia: Other similar traditions: Many other cultures around the world have similar traditions of a day set aside to visit the graves of deceased family
members. Often included in these traditions are celebrations, food and beverages, in addition to prayers and remembrances of the departed. The Bon Festival (O-bon (お盆) or only Bon (盆) is a Japanese Buddhist holiday to honor the departed spirits of one's ancestors. (August) In Korea, Chuseok (추석, 秋夕) is a major traditional holiday, also called Hangawi. People go where the spirits of one's ancestors are enshrined and perform ancestral worship rituals early in the morning; they visit the tombs of immediate ancestors to trim plants, clean the area around the tomb, and offer food, drink, and crops to their ancestors. The Ching Ming Festival (simplified Chinese: 清明节; traditional Chinese: 清明節; pinyin: qīng míng jié) is a traditional Chinese festival usually occurring around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar. Along with Double Ninth Festival on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese calendar, it is a time to tend to the graves of departed ones. In addition, in the Chinese tradition, the seventh month in the Chinese calendar is called the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits come out from the underworld to visit earth. During the Nepali holiday of Gai Jatra ("Cow Pilgrimage"), every family who has lost a family member during the previous year makes a construction of bamboo branches, cloth, paper decorations and portraits of the deceased, called a gai. Traditionally, a cow leads the spirits of the dead into the next land. Depending on local custom, either an actual live cow or a construct representing a cow may be used. The festival is also a time to dress up in costume, including costumes involving political comments and satire. In some cultures in Africa, visits to the graves of ancestors, the leaving of food and gifts, and the asking of protection serve as important parts of traditional rituals. One example of this is the ritual that occurs just before the beginning of hunting season. In some tribes of the Amazon, they believe that the dead return as flowers rather than butterflies.
In popular culture Literature:
• The novel Under the Volcano (1947) by Malcolm Lowry takes place on this day in a fictionalized Cuernavaca, Morelos. • Ray Bradbury's novel The Halloween Tree (1972) includes an explanation of the holiday as part of a greater worldwide tradition and features a Mexican sugar skull as a plot device. • Barbara Hambly's novel Days Of The Dead (2003) climaxes on this day in 1835.
Film:
• The film The Crow: City of Angels takes place in a fictionalized version of Los Angeles during the Day of the Dead celebration. Sugar skulls and tribute altars are referenced, and the film's climax takes place during a large Day of the Dead street party.
Television:
The first episode of the Adult Swim series The Venture Bros., "Dia de Los Dangerous!", takes place on • this day. Hank and Dean Venturepurchase sombreros and sugar skulls, and then Hank describes the events to their father, who has just given a lecture to a very small audience, due in part to the holiday.
Festivity of San Martin de Porres Peru - Nov 3
Saint Martin de Porres (December 9, 1579 – November 3, 1639) was a lay brother of the Dominican Order who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. He is the patron saint of mixed-race people and all those seeking interracial harmony. He was noted for work on behalf of the poor, establishing an orphanage and a children's hospital. He maintained an austere lifestyle, which included fasting and abstaining from meat. Among the many miracles attributed to him were those of levitation, bilocation, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures, and an ability to communicate with animals.
Account of his Life Juan Martin de Porres was born in the city of Lima, in the
Viceroyalty of Peru, on December 9, 1579, the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a black former slavewho was born in Panama. He had a sister named Juana, born three years later in 1581. He grew up in poverty and, when his mother could not support him, Martin was confided to a primary school for two years, and then placed with a surgeon-barber to learn the medical arts. He spent hours of the night in prayer, a practice which increased as he grew older. At the age of 15 he asked for admission to the Dominican Convent of the Rosary in Lima and was received first as a servant boy, and as his duties grew he was promoted to almoner. Eventually he felt the call to enter the Dominican Order, and he was received as a tertiary. Years later, his piety and miraculous cures led his superiors to drop the racial limits on admission to the friars, and he was made a full Dominican. It is said that when his conventwas in debt, he implored them: "I am only a poor mulatto, sell me." Martin was deeply attached to the Blessed Sacrament, and he was praying in front of it one night when the step of the altar he was kneeling on caught fire. Throughout all the confusion and chaos that followed, he remained where he was, unaware of what was happening around him. When he was 34, after he had been given the habit of a coadjutor brother, Martin was assigned to the infirmary, where he was placed in charge and would remain in service until his death at the age of fifty-nine. His superiors saw in him the virtues necessary to exercise unfailing patience in this difficult role. It was not long before miracles were attributed to him. Saint Martin also cared for the sick outside his convent, often bringing them healing with only a simple glass of water. One day an aged beggar, covered with ulcers and almost naked, stretched out his hand, and Martin took him to his own bed. One of his brethren reproved him. Martin replied: “Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness." When an epidemic struck Lima, there were in this single Convent of the Rosary sixty friars who were sick, many of them novices in a distant and locked section of the convent, separated from the professed. Martin is said to have passed through the locked doors to care for them, a phenomenon which was reported in the residence more than once. The professed, too, saw him suddenly beside them without the doors having been opened. Martin continued to transport the sick to the convent until the provincial superior, alarmed by the contagion threatening the religious, forbade him to continue to do so. His sister, who lived in the country, offered her house to lodge those whom the residence of the religious could not hold. One day he found on the street a poor Indian, bleeding to death from a dagger wound, and took him to his own room until he could transport him to his sister’s hospice. The superior, when he heard of this, reprimanded his subject for disobedience. He was extremely edified by his reply: “Forgive my error, and please instruct me, for I did not know that the precept of obedience took precedence over that of charity. The superior gave him liberty thereafter to follow his inspirations in the exercise of mercy. Martin did not eat meat. He begged for alms to procure necessities the convent could not provide. In normal times Martin succeeded with his alms to feed 160 poor persons every day, and distributed a remarkable sum of money every week to the indigent. Martin founded in the city of Lima a residence for orphans and abandoned children. This lay brother had always wanted to be a missionary, but never left his native city; yet even during his lifetime he was seen elsewhere, in regions as far distant as Africa, China,Algeria and Japan. An African slave who had been in irons said he had known Martin when he came to relieve and console many like himself, telling them of heaven. When later the same slave saw him in Peru, he was very happy to meet him again and asked him if he had had a good voyage; only later did he learn that Saint Martin had never left Lima. A merchant from Lima was in Mexico and fell ill; he said aloud: “Oh, Brother Martin, if only you were here to care for me!” and immediately saw him enter his room. And again, this man did not know until later that he had never been in Mexico.
Death and commemoration
Martin was a friend of both Saint John de Massias and Saint Rose of Lima. When he died in Lima on November 3, 1639, Martin was known to the entire city. Word of his miracles had made him known as a saint throughout the region. As his body was displayed to allow the people of the city to pay their respects, each person snipped a tiny piece of his habit to keep as a relic. It is said that three habits were taken from the body. His body was then interred in the grounds of the monastery. After he died, the miracles and graces received when he was invoked multiplied in such profusion that his body was exhumed after 25 years and said to be found intact, and exhaling a fine fragrance. Letters to Rome pleaded for his beatification; the decree affirming the heroism of his virtues was issued in 1763 by Pope Clement XIII. Pope Gregory XVI beatified Martin de Porres in 1837. Nearly 125 years later, Blessed Martin was canonized in Rome by Pope John XXIII on May 6, 1962. His feast day is November 3. He is the patron saint of people of mixed race, and of innkeepers, barbers, public health workers and more. He is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Church of England on 3 November. In iconography, Martin de Porres is often depicted as a young mulatto friar (he was a Dominican brother, not a priest, as evidenced by the black scapular and capuce he wears, while priests of the Dominican order wear all white) with a broom, since he considered all work to be sacred no matter how menial. He is sometimes shown with a dog, a cat and a mouse eating in peace from the same dish. Today, Martin is commemorated by, among other things, a school building that houses themedical, nursing, and rehabilitation science schools of the Dominican University of Santo Tomasin the Philippines. A programme of work is also named after him at the Las Casas Institute atBlackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. He is also the titular saint of the St. Martin de Porres Marianist elementary school in Uniondale, New York. He is also notably mentioned in popular culture. In the 1980 novel A Confederacy of Dunces, Ignatius Reilly contemplates praying to Porres for aid in bringing social justice to the black workers at the New Orleans factory where he works. In music, the first track of jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams's album Black Christ of the Andes is titled "St. Martin De Porres." There are several Spanish and Mexican works regarding his life in cinema and television, starred by Cuban actor Rene Muñoz, the most of them referring to his mulatto origin, his miracles and his life of humilty. The most known movies are Fray Escoba (Friar Broom) (1963) and Un mulato llamado Martin (A mulatto called Martin) (1975).
Revolution Day Algeria - Nov 1
The Algerian War was a conflict between France and Algerian independence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria's gaining its independence from France. An important decolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized byguerrilla warfare, maquis fighting, terrorism against civilians, the use of torture on both sides, and counter-terrorism operations by the French Army. The conflict was also a civil war between loyalist Algerian Muslims who believed in a French Algeria and their insurrectionist Algerian counterparts. Effectively started by members of the National Liberation Front (FLN) on November 1, 1954, during the Toussaint Rouge ("Red All Saints' Day"), the conflict shook the foundations of the French Fourth Republic (1946–58) and led to its eventual collapse. The war involved a large number of rival movements which fought against each other at different moments, such as on the independence side, when the FLN fought viciously against the Algerian National Movement (MNA) in Algeria and in the Café Wars on the French mainland; on the pro-French side, during its final months, when the conflict evolved into a civil war between pro-French hardliners in Algeria and supporters of General Charles de Gaulle. The French Army split during two attempted coups, while the right-wing Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS) fought against both the FLN and the French government's forces. Under directives from Guy Mollet's French Section of the Workers' International(SFIO) government and from François Mitterrand, who was minister of the interior, the French Army initiated a campaign of "pacification" of what was considered at the time to be a full part of France. This "public-order operation" quickly grew to a full-scale war. Algerians, who had at first largely favored a peaceful resolution, turned increasingly toward the goal of independence, supported by other Arab countries and, more generally, by worldwide opinion fueled by anti-colonialist ideas. Meanwhile, the French were divided on the issues of "French Algeria" (l'Algérie Française), specifically, concerning whether to keep the status-quo, negotiate a status intermediate between independence and complete integration in the French Republic, or allow complete independence. The French army finally obtained a military victory in the war, but the situation had changed, and Algerian independence could no longer be forestalled. Because of the instability in France, the French Fourth Republic was dissolved.Charles de Gaulle returned to power during the May 1958 crisis and subsequently founded the Fifth Republic with his Gaullist followers. De Gaulle's return to power was supposed to ensure Algeria's continued occupation and integration with theFrench Community, which had replaced the French Union and brought together theFrance's colonies. However, de Gaulle progressively shifted in favor of Algerian independence, purportedly seeing it as inevitable. De Gaulle organized a vote for the Algerian people. The Algerians chose independence, and France engaged in negotiations with the FLN, leading to the March 1962 Evian Accords, which resulted in the independence of Algeria. After the failed April 1961 Algiers putsch, organized by generals hostile to the negotiations headed by Michel Debré's Gaullist government, the OAS (Organisation de l'armée secrète), which grouped various opponents of Algerian independence, initiated a campaign of bombings. It also initated peaceful strikes and demonstrations in Algeria in order to block the implementation of the Evian Accords and the exile of the pieds-noirs (Algerians of European origin). Ahmed Ben Bella, who had been arrested in 1956 along with other FLN leaders, became the firstPresident of Algeria. To this day, the war has provided an important strategy frame for counter-insurgencythinkers, while the use of torture by the French Army has provoked a moral and political debate on the legitimacy and effectiveness of such methods. This debate is far from being settled because torture was used by both sides. The Algerian war was a founding event in modern Algerian history. It left long-standing scars in both French and Algerian societies and continues to affect some segments of society in both countries. It was not until June 1999, 37 years after the conclusion of the conflict, that the French National Assembly officially acknowledged that a "war" had taken place, while the Paris massacre of 1961 was recognized by the French state only in October 2001. On the other hand, the Oran massacre of 1962 by the FLN has also not yet been recognized by the Algerian state. Relations between France and Algeria are still deeply marked by this conflict and its aftermath.
becoming part of it at the end of 1821. The people of the isthmus made several attempts to secede and came close to success in 1831, and again during the Thousand Days War of 1899–1902. When the Senate of Colombia rejected the Hay-Herran Treaty, the United States decided to support the Panamanian independence movement. In November 1903, Panama proclaimed its independence and concluded the Hay/Bunau-Varilla Treaty with the United States. The treaty granted rights to the United States "as if it were sovereign" in a zone roughly 10 miles (16 km) wide and 50 miles (80 km) long. In that zone, the U.S. would build a canal, then administer, fortify, and defend it "in perpetuity." In 1914, the United States completed the existing 83 km (52 mi) canal. The early 1960s saw the beginning of sustained pressure in Panama for the renegotiation of this treaty. From 1903 until 1968, Panama was a constitutional democracy dominated by a commercially oriented oligarchy. During the 1950s, the Panamanian military began to challenge the oligarchy's political hegemony. Amidst negotiations for the Robles-Johnson treaty, Panama held elections in 1967. The candidates were Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid, Antonio González Revilla, and Engineer David Samudio, who had the government's support. Samudio was the candidate of Alianza del Pueblo ("People's Alliance"), Arias Madrid was the candidate of Unión Nacional ("National Union"), and González Revilla was the candidate ofDemocracia Cristiana ("Christian Democrats") (see Pizzurno Gelós and Araúz, Estudios sobre el Panamá republicano 508). Arias Madrid was declared the winner of elections that were marked by violence and accusations of fraud against Alianza del Pueblo. On October 1, 1968, Arias Madrid took office as president of Panama, promising to lead a government of "national union" that would end the reigning corruption and pave the way for a new Panama. A week and a half later, on October 11, 1968, the National Guard (Guardia Nacional) ousted Arias and initiated the downward spiral that would culminate with the United States' invasion in 1989. Arias, who had promised to respect the hierarchy of the National Guard, broke the pact and started a large restructuring of the Guard. To preserve the Guard's interests, Lieutenant ColonelOmar Torrijos Herrera and Major Boris Martínez commanded the first coup of a military force against a civilian government in Panamanian republican history (see Pizzurno Gelós and Araúz, Estudios sobre el Panamá republicano 523). The military justified itself by declaring that Arias Madrid was trying to install a dictatorship, and promised a return to constitutional rule. In the meantime, the Guard began a series of populist measures that would gain support for the coup. Amongst them were the freezing of prices on food, medicine and other goods until January 31, 1969, the freezing of renting prices, and the legalization of the permanence of squatting families in boroughs surrounding the historic site of Panama Viejo. Parallel to this, the military began a policy of repression against the opposition, who were labeled communists. The military appointed a Provisional Government Junta that would arrange new elections. However, the National Guard would prove to be very reluctant to abandon power and soon began calling itself El Gobierno Revolucionario ("The Revolutionary Government").
Post-1970:
During Omar Torrijos's control, the military regime transformed the political and economic structure of the country by initiating massive coverage of social security services and expanding public education. The constitution was changed in 1972. For the reform to the constitution, the military created a new organization, the Assembly of Corregimiento Representatives, which replaced the National Assembly. The new assembly, also known as the Poder Popular ("Power of the People"), was composed of 505 members selected by the military without the participation of political parties, which had been eliminated by the military. The new constitution proclaimed Omar Torrijos the "Maximum Leader of the Panamanian Revolution," and conceded him unlimited power for six years, although, to keep a façade of constitutionality, Demetrio B. Lakas was appointed president for the same period (Pizzurno Gelós and Araúz, Estudios sobre el Aftermath of urban warfare during Panamá republicano 541). In 1981, Torrijos died in a planecrash. It the U.S. invasion of Panama. has been widely speculated that his death was a CIA assassination due to his resistance to renegotiate the Panama Canal Treaty, negotiated under the Carter administration, with President Ronald Reagan. Torrijos' death altered the tone of Panama's political evolution. Despite the 1983 constitutional amendments, which proscribed a political role for the military, the Panama Defense Forces (PDF), as they were then known, continued to dominate Panamanian political life. By this time, General Manuel Noriega was firmly in control of both the PDF and the civilian government. In the 1984 elections, the candidates were Nicolás Ardito Barletta Vallarino, supported by the military in a union called UNADE; Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid, for the opposition union ADO; the ex-General Rubén Darío Paredes, who had been forced to an early retirement by Noriega, running for Partido Nacionalista Popular PNP ("Popular Nationalist Party"), and Carlos Iván Zúñiga, running for Partido Acción Popular (PAPO) meaning "Popular Action Party". Nicolás Ardito Barleta was declared the winner of elections that had been clearly won by Arnulfo Arias Madrid. Ardito Barletta inherited a country in economic ruin and hugely indebted to the IMF and the World Bank. Amidst the economic crisis and Barletta's efforts to calm the country's creditors, street protests arose, and so did military repression. Meanwhile, Noriega's regime had fostered the development of a well-hidden criminal economy that operated as a parallel source of income for the military and their allies, providing revenues from drugs and money laundering. Towards the end of the military dictatorship, a new wave of Chinese migrants arrived on the isthmus in the hope of migrating to the United States. The smuggling of Chinese became an enormous business, with revenues of up to 200 million dollars for Noriega's regime. The military dictatorship, at that time supported by the United States, perpetrated the assassination and torture of more than one hundred Panamanians and forced into exile at least another hundred dissidents (see Zárate 15). Noriega also began playing a double role in Central America under the supervision of the CIA. While the Contadora group conducted diplomatic efforts to achieve peace in the region, Noriega supplied the Nicaraguan Contras and other guerrillas in the region with weapons and ammunition (Pizzurno Gelós and Araúz, Estudios sobre el Panamá republicano 602). On June 6, 1987, the recently retired Colonel Roberto Díaz Herrera, resentful for Noriega's violation of the "Torrijos Plan" of succession that would turn him into the chief of the military after Noriega, decided to denounce the regime. He revealed details of the electoral fraud, accused Noriega of planning Torrijos's death, declared that Torrijos had received 12 million dollars from the Shah of Iran so that Panama would give the exiled Iranian leader asylum, and blamed Noriega for the assassination by decapitation of opposition leader Dr. Hugo Spadafora (Pizzurno Gelós and Araúz, Estudios sobre el Panamá republicano 618). On the night of June 9, 1987, the Cruzada Civilista ("Civic Crusade") was created and began organizing actions of civil disobedience. The Crusade called for a general strike. In response, the military suspended constitutional rights and declared a state of emergency in the country. On July 10, the Civic Crusade called for a massive demonstration that was violently repressed by the "Dobermans," the military's special riot control unit. That day, later known as El Viernes Negro ("Black Friday"), left six hundred people injured and another six hundred detained, many of whom were later tortured and raped. United States President Ronald Reagan began a series of sanctions against the military regime. The United States froze economic and military assistance to Panama in the summer of 1987 in response to the domestic political crisis in Panama and an attack on the U.S. Embassy. Yet these sanctions did little to overthrow Noriega but instead severely damaged Panama's economy. The sanctions hit the Panamanian population hard and caused the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to decline almost 25 percent between 1987–1989 (see Acosta n.p.). On February 5, 1988, General Manuel Antonio Noriega was accused of drug trafficking by federal juries in Tampa and Miami. In April 1988, the U.S. President Ronald Reagan invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, freezing Panamanian government assets in all U.S. organizations. In May 1989 Panamanians voted overwhelmingly for the anti-Noriega candidates. The Noriega regime promptly annulled the election and embarked on a new round of repression. On 19 December, President George H. W. Bush decided to use force against Panama, declaring that the operation was necessary to safeguard the lives of U.S. citizens in Panama, defend democracy and human rights, combat drug trafficking, and secure the functioning of the Canal as required by the Torrijos-Carter Treaties (New York Times, A Transcript of President Bush's Address n.p.). Operation Just Cause was justified by the United States as necessary to secure the functioning of the Canal and reestablish democracy in the country. Although described as a surgical maneuver, the action led to civilian deaths whose estimated numbers range from 400 to 4,000 during the two weeks of armed activities in the largest United States military operation since the end of theVietnam War. For some commentators, the action was not intended only to rid Panama of the dictatorship but served also to reinforce United States authority over the region right at the end of the Cold War, as well as use Panama as practice field for weapons and strategies that would shortly after be used in the Gulf War (Cajar Páez 22). The urban population, living below the poverty level, was greatly affected by the 1989 invasion, becoming the ‘collateral cost’ of thedemocratization of the country. As pointed out in 1995 by a UN Technical Assistance Mission to Panama, the bombardments during the invasion caused the displacement of 20,000 persons. The most stricken district was El Chorrillo where several blocks of apartments were completely destroyed. El Chorrillo had been since Canal construction days a series of wooden barracks; these easily caught fire under the United States attack. According to the Technical Mission, the displaced were segregated to unfinished USAID dwellings, far from communications and basic services, or were sent back to live in El Chorrillo's new low-standard multi-family buildings constructed hastily by the Panamanian government in replacement of their lost homes (see Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, n.p.). As stated by respondents in a 2005 survey conducted in El Chorrillo, after the invasion, crime and drug trafficking increased, and living conditions in the neighborhood worsened. Coleen Acosta points out that "the intervention added further to (Panama's) economic decline. Some sections of Panama City were heavily damaged, leaving thousands homeless, and subsequent looting left businesses with damages in the hundreds of millions. The economic damage caused by the invasion and subsequent civil disobedience has been estimated to be between 1.5 and 2 billion dollars (...) Unemployment rose to record highs as the government infrastructure was left in chaos. According to the Chamber of Commerce, 10,000 employees lost their jobs in the aftermath of the war (n.p.). The U.S. troops involved in Operation Just Cause achieved their primary objectives, and Noriega eventually surrendered to U.S. authorities. He completed his sentence for drug trafficking charges in September 2007. In August 2007, a U.S. federal court in Miami found Noriega extraditable to France, where he was convicted in absentia for money laundering. Noriega was extradited to France on April 26, 2010 and his trial started on June 28, 2010 in Paris, France. On July 7, 2010, Noriega was convicted by the 11th chamber of the Tribunal Correctionnel de Paris, and sentenced to seven years in jail. The prosecutor in the case had sought a ten-year prison term. In addition, €2.3 million (approximately US$3.6 million) that has long been frozen in Noriega's French bank accounts was ordered to be seized.
Post-invasion era:
Panama's Electoral Tribunal moved quickly to rebuild the civilian constitutional government, reinstated the results of the May 1989 election on December 27, 1989, and confirmed the victory of President Guillermo Endara and Vice Presidents Guillermo Ford and Ricardo Arias Calderon. During its five-year term, the often-fractious government struggled to meet the public's high expectations. Its new police force was a major improvement over its predecessor but was not fully able to deter crime. Ernesto Pérez Balladares was sworn in as President on September 1, 1994, after an internationally monitored election campaign. Though Panama suffered heavy economic upPerez Balladares ran as the candidate for a three-party coalition dominated by the Democratic Revolutionary heavals because of military warfare, it has managed to rebuild its economy as one of the Party (PRD), the erstwhile political arm of military dictatorships. Perez Balladares worked skillfully during the fastest growing in the world. campaign to rehabilitate the PRD's image, emphasizing the party's populist Torrijos roots rather than its association with Noriega. He won the election with only 33% of the vote when the major non-PRD forces splintered into competing factions. His administration carried out economic reforms and often worked closely with the U.S. on implementation of the Canal treaties. On September 1, 1999, Mireya Moscoso, the widow of former President Arnulfo Arias Madrid, took office after defeating PRD candidateMartin Torrijos, son of Omar Torrijos, in a free and fair election. During her administration, Moscoso attempted to strengthen social programs, especially for child and youth development, protection, and general welfare. Moscoso's administration successfully handled the Panama Canal transfer and was effective in the administration of the Canal. The PRD's Martin Torrijos won the presidency and a legislative majority in the National Assembly in 2004. Torrijos ran his campaign on a platform of, among other pledges, a "zero tolerance" for corruption, a problem endemic to the Moscoso and Perez Balladares administrations. After taking office, Torrijos passed a number of laws which made the government more transparent. He formed a National Anti-Corruption Council whose members represented the highest levels of government, as well as civil society, labor organizations, and religious leadership. In addition, many of his closest Cabinet ministers were non-political technocrats known for their support for the Torrijos government's anti-corruption aims. Despite the Torrijos administration's public stance on corruption, many high-profile cases, particularly involving political or business elites, were never acted upon. Conservative supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli was elected to succeed Martin Torrijos with a landslide victory at the May 2009 presidential election. Mr. Martinelli's business credentials drew voters worried by slowing growth due to the world financial crisis. Standing for the four-party opposition Alliance for Change, Mr. Martinelli gained 60% of the vote, against 37% for the candidate of the governing left-wing Democratic Revolutionary Party.
Bunka no Hi Japan - Nov 3
Culture Day (文化の日 Bunka no hi) is a national holiday held annually in Japan on November 3 for the purpose of promoting culture, the arts, and academic endeavour. Festivities typically include art exhibitions, parades, and award ceremonies for distinguished artists and scholars.
History Culture Day was first held in 1948, to
commemorate the announcement of the post-war Japanese constitution on November 3, 1946. November 3 was first celebrated as a national holiday in 1868, when it was called Tenchō-setsu(天長節), a holiday held in honor of the birthday of the reigning emperor— at that time, the Meiji Emperor. With the death of the Meiji Emperor in 1912, November 3 ceased to be a holiday until 1927, when his birthday was given its own specific holiday, known as Meiji-setsu (明治節). As Meiji-setsu was discontinued with the announcement of Culture Day in 1948, some see Culture Day as a continuation of this tradition as well—a mere renaming of Meiji-setsu—although they are ostensibly unrelated.
Current practice As Culture Day exists to promote the arts and various fields of academic endeavor, local and prefectural governments typically choose this day to hold art exhibits, culture festivals, and parades. For example, Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture holds the annual Feudal Lord's Parade(箱根大名行列 Hakone Daimyō Gyōretsu?) to exhibit Edo Period clothing and costumes. It is common for universities to present new research and projects on Culture Day. Since 1937, the award ceremony for the prestigious Order of Culture has been held on this day. Given by the Emperor himself to those who have significantly advanced science, the arts or culture, it is one of the highest honors bestowed by the Imperial Family. The prize is not restricted to Japanese citizens, and for instance was awarded to the Apollo 11 astronauts upon their successful return from the moon. Culture Day is statistically one of the clearest days of the year. Between 1965 and 1996, there have only been three years with rain occurring in Tokyo on Culture Day.
HUNGARY Seven hundred new jobs in Szombathely (Online 26 Oct) Nearly 700 new jobs will be created with the help of the N e w Széchenyi Plan at LuK Savaria Ltd. in Szombathely. The factory in Szombathely celebrated its 15th anniversary and its expansion today with the participation of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The Prime Minister stated in his speech that the Hungarian economy has Photo: Károly Árvai opportunities to expand in the automobile industry. establish the Western Pannon autoReferring to the Mercedes and Opel mobile industry and mechatronics investments in Hungary, he said that centre, through which the region the corner points of a new car indus- could become the third car, electronic try triangle have been established. and engineering industry hub after He emphasised that the Hungarian Győr and Kecskemét. The GovernGovernment always welcomes with ment supports this initiative, he respect companies that see an op- added, stating that their goal is to portunity in Hungary and do not have 25000 new jobs and attract 1 solely seek rapid financial gains and billion euros worth of new investmarket penetration, but also view ments. The company – a member of the Hungarian companies as partners. Defence Minister Hende, who was German Schaeffler Group that deals with the production of primarily present at the event as Szombathely’s individual Member of Parlia- clutches and flywheels – will open a twenty thousand square metre new ment, announced that within the region Szombathely, Zalaegerszeg, production hall in Szombathely. The cost of the investment is 3.3 biltotal Szentgotthárd alongside their companies and unions have decided to lion forints, out of which 1 billion
forints will be covered by grants from the New Széchenyi Plan. The company will install press machinery, special tempering-furnaces and various emulsion and cooling equipment in the new production hall using state-ofthe-art technology. Every fourth new car in Europe is equipped with clutches produced by the LuK Group thanks to the high production quality, the low number of errors and the continuous development. The expansion of the production hall will result in the expansion of the number of employees from the current 1 800 to 2 500 by the end of 2014. The company’s new employees will be mainly engineers and technicians. With approximately 74,000 employees worldwide, Schaeffler is one of the largest German and European industrial companies in family ownership. With 180 locations in over 50 countries, Schaeffler has a worldwide network of manufacturing locations, research and development facilities, sales companies, engineering offices, and training centres.
Hungary is obliged to contribute to solving global problems, Szabolcs Takács stated Hungary, as a (Online 25 Oct) member of the EU and NATO, is part of the developed world, and therefore is obliged to contribute to solving global problems, - stated Szabolcs Takács, the Deputy State Secretary for Global Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Corvinus University on October 24. State Secretary Takács opened the photo exhibition entitled „International development cooperation – Struggle against poverty”, which was jointly organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Corvinus University on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of
Poverty. The Deputy State Secretary for Global Affairs emphasized that foreign policy was changing and it did not only focuse on traditional issues as security policy any more. International development cooperation had become a significant element as well. State Secretary Takács pointed out that Hungary also pays attention to the struggle against poverty, and though it is a domestic problem as well, Hungary must take part in global efforts. He welcomed that Hungarian NGOs and volunteers also participated in these efforts, adding that it was fortunate that Corvinus University hosted the exhibition
because future experts on economy and international relations could learn more about the struggle against poverty. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty has been commemorated since 1992 – in Hungary since 1996 – on the basis of a resolution passed by the UN General Assembly. 189 UN member states committed themselves to fighting global poverty in 2000, setting the objective to reduce the number of those who live off on less than a dollar by half until 2015.
FM János Martonyi on the close cooperation between Hungary and Poland (Online 25 Oct) The common political and economic interests of Hungary and Poland can provide for an enduring and close cooperation, Foreign Minister János Martonyi stated following the meeting with his Polish counterpart, Radoslaw Sikorski, in Warsaw on October 24. The Hungarian Foreign Minister stressed that both countries were exploring further forms of cooperation. Hungary recently appointed two honorary consuls in Poland, one in Szczecin and another in Bydgoszcz. The bilateral agreement on education, cultural and scientific cooperation is currently under preparation. Minister Martonyi pointed out in connection to the EU cohesion policy that the interests of Hungary and Poland did not always coincide, and therefore it was important to continue
negotiating about a common position. He claimed that it was in the interest of each member of the informal group of „Friends of Cohesion” to refrain from opposing each other as they could advance their interests only in a coordinated and consistent manner. This had been demonstrated by the success of the regular consultations initiated by the Polish Presidency of the Visegrad cooperation that preceded the EU meetings. During his official visit in Warsaw Foreign Minister János Martonyi also had a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic Affairs Waldemar Pawlak. Following their meeting the Hungarian Foreign Minister declared that according to economic figures Polish-Hungarian trade falls short of the opportunities. Both sides agreed that business en-
terprises had to be encouraged to take part in bilateral trade relations. They also discussed the importance of advancing energy cooperation since infrastructural connections between the two countries lacked sufficient development. Minister Martonyi emphasized that this hinders not just economic relations but tourism as well. The two ministers agreed that Hungarian-Polish cooperation was one of the most important factors concerning the dynamic development of the region. The Hungarian Foreign Minister stated that the Hungarian government supported all initiatives aiming to diminish one-sided dependence on energy supply and promote economic cooperation between the two countries.
Lively Hungarian cultural life in South American states (Online 26 Oct) Deputy State Secretary for Hungarian Communities Abroad Zsuzsanna Répás found Hungarian cultural life to be lively on her tour of several South American countries, during which she made contact with Hungarian communities living there. Deputy State Secretary Répás visited remote locations such as Coronel du Graty and Villa Angela in northern Argentina, where the descendants of Hungarian émigrés have lived for eighty years, preserving traditions and observing national holidays to this day. Practically nobody outside the older generations speaks Hungarian, and even they have limited knowledge of the lan-
guage, having almost no contact with Hungary. They have waited a long time for meaningful contact with their country of origin, said Deputy State Secretary Répás on the telephone from Rio de Janeiro – one of the stops on her ten day tour. The deputy state secretary took part in wreath-laying ceremonies, cultural events and meetings with local representatives of Hungarian communities in the two Argentine settlements mentioned above, in Santiago de Chile, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Asunción in Paraguay and in Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo in Brazil – the country with the largest Hungarian community in South America, numbering more than 100,000. In the lat-
ter city, which is the economic heart of Brazil, there are longstanding Hungarian institutions and schools. Deputy State Secretary Répás noted how active Hungarians are in Uruguay, involving locals in Hungarian folk dance classes and thus introducing them to Hungary and Hungarian culture. Folk dance groups have been established in several age ranges and Hungary’s reputation has been enhanced, said Deputy State Secretary Répás. Generally she found that among second and third generations there is interest in applying for places in Hungarian higher education, and also in learning and improving Hungarian language skills in Hungary.
Hungarian theatre, traditional costume and sculpture in Japan Cultural pro(Online 25 Oct) grammes linked to Hungary have begun in Japan. State Secretary for Public Diplomacy Zoltán Kovács is attending the events, and on Saturday his itinerary includes opening the cultural festival in Tokyo in which young Hungarian performers from Transylvania will take the stage. The series of programmes in Japan is part of the Wallenberg centenary year, and was initiated by the Hungarian Embassy in Tokyo, with cooperation from the Embassies of Sweden and Israel. On Thursday, Mr. Kovács, Hungarian ambassador István Szerdahelyi and representatives from the Israeli and Swedish governments took part in a treeplanting ceremony at the Josai International University campus in Tokyo in memory of Raoul Wallenberg. In his speech, the Minister of State told
his audience that recently the Israeli ambassador in Budapest had presented this year’s ‘Righteous among the Nations’ honours to several Hungarian citizens who, like Wallenberg, had saved Jews during the Second World War. He added that in the course of history there have been many times when brave protectors of the weak like Wallenberg had been needed, and one such occasion was the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Following the commemorative event, presentations centring on Wallenberg were given at the university, with 500 Japanese students in attendance. A documentary film from the Terror House Museum in Budapest was also screened. On Friday there will be a meeting of Hungarian students studying at Tokyo University and Japanese students of Hungarian culture, who are
promoting Hungarian culture – for example presenting traditional ‘matyó’ wedding costume at the Aoyama cultural festival, which is starting now. On Saturday a cultural festival will open at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, which will include performances by a company of young Hungarians from Transylvania. Minister of State Kovács will open the event in the name of the Hungarian government. On Sunday the work of a Hungarian sculptor will be unveiled on Aoyama Street in the heart of Tokyo’s international quarter, where the main diploeconomic and tourist matic, institutions are located. The sculpture ‘Street Music’ by Sándor Kligl – who this year was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit – will be a new attraction on this Tokyo thoroughfare.
Orbán and head of London's National Gallery open Cézanne exhibition in Budapest (Online 25 Oct) The exhibition of the Museum of Fine Arts entitled Cézanne and the past – which can be visited from 26 October 2012 to 17 February 2013 – presents the life's work of the French painter together with its artistic predecessors. This is the first ever exhibition of the Post-Impressionist artist in Hungary. At the opening, the Prime Minister highlighted that such a period of crisis is the best time to invest in culture, adding that the present exhibition shows that we are able to
organise a world class cultural event in Hungary. According to museum director László Baán, this will be the most significant exhibition of the museum’s one-hundred year history. He recalled that the preparations for the exhibition were kept in high regard by the Hungarian state as well; Parliament, for instance, has recently amended the law to increase the limits for state guarantees. The exhibition will present more than a hundred oil paintings, aquarelles
and drawings of Cézanne displayed in parallel with 40 works of his predecessors. Among others, the only work by Cézanne permanently displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts (Buffet), works on loan from the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay of Paris, the National Gallery, the British Museum and the Tate Modern of London, the Uffizi of Florence, the Albertina of Vienna, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Los Angeles Getty Museum will be exhibited.
A c t iv e a c t ion a ga ins t t he us e of t he int e r ne t for te r r or is t pur pos e s (Online 25 Oct) Hungary plays an important role in the fight against cyberterrorism - Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér emphasized on Monday at a UN conference in Vienna, where the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) introduced a practical guidance on terrorism involving the internet. The publication, entitled "The use of the Internet for terrorist purposes", is the first document to summarize the experiences and the various legal regulations on the topic and was produced in collaboration with the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force. The Minister pointed out that the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime adopted in 2001 in Budapest, is still a significant document. The Hungarian capital has also
hosted conferences and seminars in this field, including the two-day Cybercrime Conference in October 2012. “Hungary is currently not among the especially endangered countries but we should avoid being the weakest link, since those who are unprepared can become targets easily.” –Minister Pintér said in his speech. He added: the Hungarian law enforcement units are adequately prepared to avert and repel crimes of this nature through the Counter Terrorism Centre (TEK) especially established for these tasks. Minister Pintér said that in many cases it is difficult to determine the line between freedom of speech and terrorist propaganda. Every case should be treated individually and freedom of speech can under no cir-
cumstances be violated. The Austrian Minister of Interior Johanna Mikl-Leitner, hostess of the Vienna conference, said that it is important to widen the knowledge of the people in order for them to be able to recognize terrorist propaganda and encourage them to contact the authorities. The Austrian Minister also praised Hungary for organizing the Cyberspace Conference attended by influential experts and politicians in the field. The participants in Vienna emphasized that the advantages of the internet are not only enjoyed by peaceful citizens but are also tools of criminals and terrorists. They also warned that the internet is also used for spreading terrorist propaganda, recruiting, gathering information and operating virtual “training camps”.
M inis te r B a log t o v is it Ge r m a n Pr e s ide nt Ga uc k t his a utum n (Online 24 Oct) Minister of Human Resources Zoltán Balog visited Germany to participate on the unveiling of the Roma Holocaust memorial in Berlin, where German President Joachim Gauck was also present.
They agreed that the Hungarian Minister will visit President Gauck in his office, in Germany sometime this year. Minister Balog stated that since the President fought against communism
in Eastern Germany, he probably has a better understanding of Central and Eastern European problems and shows a special interest towards Roma affairs.
H unga r ia ns a r ound t he wor ld r e m e m be r the ’5 6 R e v olution (Online 24 Oct) On 23 October hundreds of thousands of people peacefully commemorated the 56th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight in Budapest, across the country and beyond the borders. State events in Budapest were held in several locations, and had a family atmosphere. Four hundred thousand people heard Prime Minister Viktor Orbán give a speech in front of Parliament. Just as at the demonstration in January, hundreds of thousands of people stood by the Government in an event organised by members of civil society. Around 400,000 people listened to the Prime Minister’s speech in front of Parliament in Kossuth tér, where in 1956 peaceful protesters were shot and killed on orders from the Communist powers.
The Prime Minister said that this celebration is sacred, as it was consecrated with the blood of Hungarians, and that now every freedom-loving Hungarian is with us in spirit from Kolozsvár through Budapest to Los Angeles. Tens of thousands took part in cultural events at Parliament, in the Terror House Museum and the Opera House. Commemoration events were held in almost every settlement in the country and every Hungarian community around the world. Minister of Public Administration and Justice Tibor Navracsics took part in a commemorative event organised in Szabadka (Subotica) by the Alliance of Hungarians in Vajdaság/Vojvodina (VMSZ), and Deputy Minister of State for Hungarian Communities Abroad Zsuzsanna Répás attended
events with Hungarian communities in Latin America. The 1956 Revolution was one of the most important events in the history of the Hungarian people. It broke out in opposition to Soviet communist oppression and occupation, beginning with a peaceful demonstration by university students and ending in bloody street fighting. Thousands of Hungarian citizens were killed, the Freedom Fight was crushed and communist dictatorship and Soviet occupation remained, becoming even more brutal. Right up until the political transition of 1989 it was forbidden to speak of the Revolution, and the subject was not taught in schools. During the transition, as a mark of respect for 1956, the Third Hungarian Republic was declared on 23 October, 1989.
Hungary Condemns Anti-Semitic Provocations (Online 24 Oct) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary declares – in response to the verbal and physical insult committed by extremists with anti-Semitic intentions in Budapest on October 23 – that it is unacceptable to disparage and insult our fellow citizens of Jewish identity and it is equally unacceptable to defile the
national flag of the State of Israel. It is particularly disheartening for us that the provocations, which undermine the unity of our nation and damage our international reputation, took place on the fifty-sixth anniversary of the 1956 Revolution, since the revolution demonstrated our national unity with unprecedented brightness
and Hungary won the recognition of the entire free world. The Government of Hungary is committed to fighting all forms of antiSemitism and racism, and stands firm, employing all means necessary, against the dangerous manifestations of extremism.
Increased cooperation in agriculture and land administration with China and South Korea (Online 24 Oct) State Secretary for Rural Development Zsolt V. Németh held talks on widening cooperation with relation to land affairs in Peking between October 17-21 with his Chinese counterpart Wang Shiyuan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources. The Hungarian model of land administration, which is based on a unified property registry system and over 40 years of experience, may be successfully applied in China, stressed Zsolt V. Németh. The State Secretary said that the new act on surveying and mapping activities introduces the three-dimensional property registry, which may be especially significant in highly urbanised areas such as eastern China. He also presented the proposed new land act, which protects Hungarian farmland by providing a suitable legislative background. Wang Shiyuan stressed that the protection of farmland is one of the most important tasks in China also, since it is the central element for the provision of an adequate food supply. The representatives of the Hungarian Ministry of Rural Development and the Chinese Ministry of Land and Natural Resources signed a declaration of intent in June 2011 with regard
to future cooperation in land administration. Based on this declaration, the parties then agreed on the joint development of agricultural, environmental and land-related applications. On October 19, Zsolt V. Németh inaugurated the virtual Science and Technology Centre jointly established by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and the Hungarian Ministry of Rural Development in Hohhot in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. On the basis of the agreement signed previously, it will be possible for business relations to be established with Inner Mongolia based on the characteristics and level of technological development of Hungarian agriculture. At the inaugural ceremony, Zsolt V. Németh stressed that opportunities for cooperation are available within the fields of animal husbandry, feed production and goose breeding, which is already underway, as well as with regard to agriculturally important crops such as potatoes, rapeseed, wheat and soy, and in addition within the field of irrigation. The bilateral, high-level meetings and professional discussions are achieving the expected result; more and more agreements are being concluded between institutions and business players from the two countries.
Continuing his series of meetings in East Asia, Zsolt V. Németh held talks in Seoul between October 21-23 with Deputy Minister for Commerce of the South Korean Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Kim Jong Jin. Kim Jong Jin stressed that trade relations between the two countries have increased fourfold since 2005. He highlighted the importance of the free trade agreement between the European Union and South Korea, which came into force on July 1 2011. Thanks to the agreement, customs duties on products exported from the EU to South Korea will decrease. Zsolt V. Németh emphasised the fact that South Korea is the third largest importer of GMO-free corn from Hungary. It is important to South Korea that Hungary's Fundamental Law guarantee's the country's freedom from GMOs. Director of the Hungarian Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing Bence Toronyi concluded a cooperation agreement with the director of the Korean Cadastral Survey Corporation. The parties will greatly increase their cooperation within the fields of land administration and three-dimensional property registry management.
Navracsics: Hungarian-Serbian relations are now at their best in recent times (Online 24 Oct) of Minister Public Administration and Justice Tibor Navracsics considers Hungarian-Serbian relations to be now better than at any time in the recent past, and that the Alliance of Hunin garians Vajdaság/ Voj v o d i n a (VMSZ) is able to effectively represent the of interests Hungarians living in that region. Tibor Navracsics (photo: Zsolt Burger) Deputy Prime opportunity that must be utilised. He Minister Navracsics, who has re- remarked that for centuries the two cently returned from Belgrade, was neighbouring nations had always opspeaking on the programme ‘180 posed each other in historical conMinutes’, broadcast on Kossuth flicts, and this has given rise to much Radio on Wednesday morning. disquiet, but he now sees the relaMr. Navracsics said that the Hungar- tions between the two countries as ian government is committed to co- being better than at any time in the operating with the neighbouring recent past. country of Serbia, which is also open Mr. Navracsics said that the political to such a relationship. representation of Hungarians in VajThe minister said that an extremely daság/Vojvodina – and the whole close partnership can emerge be- Hungarian community there – is tween the two countries – a historic
going through a complicated period. One aspect is that simp l i f i e d naturalisation procedures and open borders have proan duced enormous temptation to relocate and migrate from Serbia, which has been hit by the economic He crisis. added that ‘The Serbian political scene is in such ferment and has witnessed the apof pearance such contrasting players with divergent agendas, that Hungarians in Vajdaság/Vojvodina and their political representatives must redefine themselves in almost every area.’ Mr. Navracsics thinks that the VMSZ is responding appropriately to the demands which are arising and that it has support and legitimacy, and therefore he is confident that in the future the organisation will continue to effectively represent the interest of Hungarians in Vajdaság/Vojvodina.
Zsuzsanna Répás meets Hungarians in Latin America (Online 24 Oct) As part of her tenday tour in South America, Deputy Minister of State for Hungarian Communities Abroad Zsuzsanna Répás has met members of the Hungarian community in Latin America and has attended Hungarians’ events in commemoration of the 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight. On Thursday, at the invitation of Hungarian organisations there, Zsuzsanna Répás started a South American tour which will take her to several states. On 19 October, the first day of the tour, Mrs. Répás gave a speech at the monument to the 1956 Revolution in Plaza San Esteban, Santiago de Chile, and later laid a wreath at the memorial to Cardinal József Mindszenty. During her short visit, she was received by Camilo
Escalona, the President of the Chilean Senate, and she met leaders and members of the Hungarian Cultural Association in Chile in the temporarily closed embassy building. Opportunities for further development of links were the subject of informal discussion. The Deputy Minister of State continued her trip in Uruguay where, at a commemoration in the 60-year-old Hungarian Home in Montevideo, she encouraged the Hungarian community in Uruguay to strengthen their roots and preserve their traditions. She said that geographical distance should not be an obstacle to the maintenance of regular links and visits, and she paid her respects to the heroes of the Revolution at the 1956 monument in the city. On 21 October Mrs. Répás gave a
commemorative speech at the Hungarian community’s event in Buenos Aires, and took part in an oath of citizenship ceremony at the Hungarian embassy there. In the course of the day she visited the Calvinist and Lutheran communities, the Szent László School, the library at the Hungarian House and met leaders of Hungarian organisations in the capital. The next stop on her tour was to visit the Hungarian community in North-West Argentina. On 23 October the Deputy Minister of State travelled to Paraguay, and on 25 October she travels to Brazil, where on 27 October she will attend an event in commemoration of 1956 in São Paolo, and a citizenship oath ceremony there.
Pr im e M inis te r Vik tor Or bá n's Spe e c h in B uda pe s t on Oc tobe r 2 3 (Online 26 Oct) Prime Minister Orbán’s speech that he gave on 23 October in front of the Parliament Building. Ladies and Gentlemen! A few minutes before this event, the first Hungarian Order of Honour, established following the two-thirds majority victory in 2010 was presented in Parliament. The Order of Honour may be awarded to those who have provided an outstanding service in the interests of the nation and have performed acts of heroism while showing great personal courage. The first recipient of the Hungarian Order of Honour is Mrs. Ilona Tamás, a schoolteacher from the Balog Valley in Upper Hungary, who celebrated her 100th birthday this year. After the Act on Simplified Repatriation was adopted by Parliament, she reclaimed her Hungarian nationality, as a result of which Slovakia stripped her of her Slovakian citizenship. Honour to the brave! She is here with us today; let us greet her with affection! – Mrs. Ilona Tamás: I'm glad that there are so many of us here. Thanks you for this great distinction; I don't really know why I received this award, [what I did] was the most natural thing in the world. I now bring you greetings from Upper Hungary and from my Hungarian companions who are in a similar situation in Slovakia, and with whom we are fighting to have justice. Through the power of the beautiful word, I would like to quote you just one sentence. In Upper Hungary in the Balog Valley, where István Gyöngyösi once lived, he wrote these lines in his poem entitled Murányi Venus, a present to Mária Széchy. If I could, I would imprint these words into the hearts of everyone. "Tis no noble mind that easily changes, wavering like reeds in the smallest of breezes, gold becomes pure where the hot fires glow, just as the rose midst the sharp thorns doth grow." This tells us everything about the path we must take; and it is the path I am taking myself. – Long live Hungarian integrity! Ladies and Gentlemen! Companions in Remembrance! We have gathered here today to celebrate 23 October 1956, the revolution and the fight for independence. This Hungarian public holiday is a sacred one because is has been sanctified with the blood of those who have fallen for the freedom of Hungary. We, who are fierce believers in Hungarian freedom and independence, gather together on this day each year. We congregate and at this time every freedom-loving Hungarian from Kolozsvár [Cluj] to Los Angeles is here with us in spirit. We congregate so that we may remember with gratitude those heroes and martyrs who courageously, and not rarely with death-defying bravery, stood up against the foreign oppressors and their compatriot mercenaries who took up arms against their own countrymen. They fought against armoured vehicles, tanks and heavy artillery with rifles, machine guns and Molotov cocktails, hugely outnumbered. Let us remember with respect those Hungarians who remained upright in the face of tyranny, fought until their final minute and died! Let us remember those who accepted the fate of martyrs! Let us bow our heads in respect to the heroes who were executed and suffered terrible prison sentences! We swear never to forget them! It was they who carved the first and fatal fissure in the Soviet empire. It was they who awakened the conscience of the Western left. Four decades later, it was they who gave us the strength to drive out the Soviets, to topple the Socialist Workers Party, and to destroy the minefields and barbed wire that separated us from the free world. Today, the whole world knows and acknowledges that the Hungarian's revolution and fight for independence made the world a better place. Long live Hungary! Long Live the Hungarian People! Companions in Remembrance! And let us now also remember the bitter path that lead the Hungarians to begin their fight for freedom. With the armed help of the occupying soviet army, the Hungarian Communist Workers Party brutally repressed Hungarian democracy, which had been developing in a way that inspired hope since the end of the war. The national, civil, Christian and left-wing groups were also crushed. The very existence of churches and trade unions was attacked. In a country in which the majority of people wished for self-determination and a civil way of life, the reverse happened; being middleclass or bourgeois was decreed shameful and a crime. In a country that belonged to a Christian culture, the reverse happened; it was decreed shameful and a crime for someone to be Christian or come from a religious family
of any kind. Oppression and dependency could be felt in every segment of life. The people endured the blood and sweat of work production contests, starvation wages and overtime, yet they had nothing to show for it. Families fell into poverty and lived in constant fear. Hundreds of thousands of humiliated, disowned and imprisoned people were forced to live lies and enthusiastically cheer the Party. This is what led here, to Kossuth Tér, on 23 October 1956. A huge crowd gathered. And it was here on this square that the miracle took place, the miracle of the revolution. It is here that what until then had seemed unimaginable happened. In a sudden flash everyone, even the majority of party members, realised that it is impossible to live without honour. People's souls opened up and found each other, in friendship and in trust. It was here that the endeavours of party reformers to improve the socialist system turned into demands for freedom and independence. The sense of justice that sprang from people' hearts changed the improving of socialism into demands for free elections and Russian withdrawal. The subjugated people took the Marshall's baton from the hands of the reformers and when they met with physical resistance they themselves took up arms, they themselves brought down tyranny, and they themselves won back the nation's freedom. Ladies and Gentlemen! Every year, October 23 reminds us that the ambitions of those who put down the revolution and fight for independence have not disappeared from Hungarian public life. It is enough to recall the events of 23 October 2006: mounted police charges, teargas, iron bars and plastic bullets, followed by the decoration and rewarding of those who were at the forefront of the brutality. We would do well to keep this in mind. Companions in Celebration! Socialism, which had portrayed itself as the world's most advanced form of democracy, collapsed from one day to the next in Hungary in 1956. It became apparent that is stood not on its own legs and on the will of the people, but hung from the string of an empire. The string snapped, or the fist that held it became weak, and the whole construction collapsed. One morning in the late summer of 2008, an American financial giant in New York collapsed. Western economies were in shock. It became apparent that the economy of the western world, of which we are now also a part, is not standing on its own legs. Not on its own legs, meaning not based on honest work, but instead hanging on the loan string of a financial empire. The string snapped and the whole construction collapsed. Several national economies and tens of millions of lives were destroyed in the process. Today, even schoolchildren know the difference between socialism and monetary economy. And even a child can see clearly that the reason both began to crack is because neither were on the path of truth. A state or an economy cannot be built on lies, dogmas, self-deception and deceit. Modern man is now relearning the ancient law that without truth there is no life, no love or beauty, nothing worth living for, and there is also no respectable economy to provide a living. Ladies and Gentlemen! Companions in Remembrance! We are living through a period of great change throughout the planet. We can see it everyday and feel the effects of the fact that something is happening with us, our families, our country, Europe and the world which will change our lives for decades to come. Although we would like to rebuild European life, which has become incapacitated, we know that there is no way back. Half of Europe is up to its eyes in debt, produces expensively and is held in check by its own dogmas. The great change is sifting the world's nations and distancing them from each other. It will decide which nations fall into poverty and which will become rich. It will decide who has work and who does not. It will decide who will work hopelessly like a galley slave on the sea of debt, and who will, having won back their freedom, reach the shore. It will decide where upheaval will become the norm, which countries will fall into chaos and anarchy, and where there will be a certain, secure and dependable future. Ladies and Gentlemen! Europe has not yet decided where to stand. In Brussels, they do not yet know whether to step on the brake or instead on the accelerator, if they should turn the steering wheel left or right. Europe's western and eastern rivals lack neither confidence nor common sense. In con-
trast, the EU doubts itself, and instead of common sense, relies on ideologies. Yet Europe today needs a simultaneous combination of courageous resolve, common sense and the uplifting of hearts. Europe should recognise that without nations it has no heart, and without Christianity it has no soul. A special thank you to the Peace March, which made a stand for this vision of a European Hungary. Ladies and Gentlemen! In Brussels there are many who instead of reforming the European economy want to breathe new life into the crippled system of monetary and banking capitalism, and who instead of a labour-based economy would prefer to resurrect the system of the speculators, who instead of an equitable distribution of burdens want the people to again bear the burdens of the crisis alone. This we cannot accept! We can accept and do accept those rules that apply to everyone. But we cannot accept that instead of us, others should tell us what we can or cannot do within our own homeland. We accept the regulations of European cooperation that apply to us all, but we are not prepared to allow foreigners to govern us, no matter how sophisticated their methods. We accept the common moral standards of European cultural nations, but we will not accept double standards. We accept and will fulfil the obligations that Hungary has undertaken, but we do not accept that the whole country should continue to be punished in Brussels for the mistakes of past socialist governments. We accept that European institutions must be respected, but we cannot accept any of the EU's institutions behaving disrespectfully towards Hungarians. Ladies and Gentlemen! Let us consider the fact that if in 1956, ten years after the Second World War, the signing of the Paris Peace Treaties and the Russian occupation, the Hungarian nation was capable of taking up arms to fight for its freedom then we, the Hungarians of today, should have no reason to doubt our own strength. If after the war our grandparents rebuilt the country with their bare hands within just a few years, then, no matter how hard the task, we too are capable or reforming Hungary. Yes, despite the European crisis in 2010 we were capable of pulling the nation back from the brink of bankruptcy. Yes, twenty years after the regime change we were capable of giving the nation a new constitution. Yes, ninety years after the Treaty of Trianon we were able to give hundreds of thousands of Hungarians back their nationality through cross-border consolidation of the nation. And yes, over the past two years in the midst of the worst storm of the crisis, we were capable of reducing our debt. Yes, over the past two years we were capable of saving hundreds of thousands of families who had taken on foreign currency loans from the debt trap, despite the wishes of the financial world. Yes, despite the difficult monetary situation we were capable of protecting pensions and wages, of raising the minimum wage and reducing the tax burden on families. Yes, while employment is falling throughout Europe we were capable of providing work to two-hundred thousand people instead of welfare payments, and with it a wage that is double the welfare. And if we stand firm we will be capable of providing opportunities for more rewarding work and greater appreciation for those living on wages and salaries. And we will be capable of carving out a Hungary to which young people who are currently looking to make their fortunes abroad will come home to in a few years' time. Ladies and Gentlemen! Companions in Celebration! The revolution was mainly undertaken by workers; wage and salary earners. Although they were truly dispossessed and had no future to look forward to, they nevertheless did not accept their plight. Their pockets were empty, but their hearts were filled to the brim; they did not accept that the future holds nothing for them, and through faith, the desire for freedom and the love of their homeland they created the greatest thing that man can achieve: they stood up in revolt and with that gave the nation back its dignity. If we have only half the faith that they had, we will be able to move mountains. My wish for the many Hungarians who have gathered to commemorate the Revolution is that wherever you are, be it a few hundred metres or many thousands of kilometres away, October 23 may always remind you that: we are only as alive as Hungary is alive. Go Hungary! Go Hungarians!