Veteran’s Day is a US federal holiday celebrated on November 11th to honor the veterans of the United States Armed Forces. The date is the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I.

The following is the official proclamation from President Obama for Veterans Day 2009:

We have a sacred trust with those who wear the uniform of the United States of America. From the Minutemen who stood watch over Lexington and Concord to the service members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, American veterans deserve our deepest appreciation and respect. Our Nation’s servicemen and women are our best and brightest, enlisting in times of peace and war, serving with honor under the most difficult circumstances, and making sacrifices that many of us cannot begin to imagine. Today, we reflect upon the invaluable contributions of our country’s veterans and reaffirm our commitment to provide them and their families with the essential support they were promised and have earned.

Caring for our veterans is more than a way of thanking them for their service. It is an obligation to our fellow citizens who have risked their lives to defend our freedom. This selflessness binds our fates with theirs, and recognizing those who were willing to give their last full measure of devotion for us is a debt of honor for every American.

We also pay tribute to all who have worn the uniform and continue to serve their country as civilians. Many veterans act as coaches, teachers, and mentors in their communities,selflessly volunteering their time and expertise. They visit schools to tell our Nation’s students of their experiences and help counsel our troops returning from the theater of war.These men and women possess an unwavering belief in the idea of America: no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who your parents are, this is a place where anything is possible. Our veterans continue to stand up for those timeless American ideals of liberty, self-determination, and equal opportunity.

On Veterans Day, we honor the heroes we have lost, and we rededicate ourselves to the next generation of veterans by supporting our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen as they return home from duty. Our grateful Nation must keep our solemn promises to these brave men and women and their families. They have given their unwavering devotion to the American people, and we must keep our covenant with them.

With respect for and in recognition of the contributions our servicemen and women have made to the cause of peace and freedom around the world, the Congress has provided(5 U.S.C. 6103(a)) that November 11 of each year shall beset aside as a legal public holiday to honor our Nation’s veterans.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim November 11,2009, as Veterans Day. I encourage all Americans to recognize the valor and sacrifice of our veterans through appropriate public ceremonies and private prayers. I call upon Federal,State, and local officials to display the flag of the United States and to participate in patriotic activities in their communities. I call on all Americans, including civic and fraternal organizations, places of worship, schools, and communities to support this day with commemorative expressions and programs.

The Quad would like to thanks our veterans for their selfless service. We are forever in your debt and our honored to call you our brothers & sisters. Thank you.

Boo! … Did I scare ya? … Saturday is Halloween. This annual celebration is marked by costumes, trick-or-trating, haunted houses, and the barage of scary movies on TV. One of tradistions of Halloween include carving pumpkins to create jack o’lanterns. But have you ever wondered about the History of this tradition? According to the History Channel:

People have been making jack o’lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed “Stingy Jack.” According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree’s bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” and then, simply “Jack O’Lantern.”

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack’s lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o’lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o’lanterns.

Check out the entire Halloween website produced by the History Channel.

Check out this sweet video of a ghost car. Pay close attention to the car. You may need to go full screen to see it:

Happy Halloween!

World Smile Day occurs on October 2nd each year. The theme of the day is “Do an act of kindness.  Help one person smile.”

As is well known by now throughout the world Harvey Ball, a commercial artist from Worcester, Massachusetts created the smiley face in 1963. That image went on to become the most recognizable symbol of good will and good cheer on the planet.

As the years passed Harvey Ball became concerned about the over-commercialization of his symbol, and how its original meaning and intent had become lost in the constant repetition of the marketplace.  Out of that concern came his idea for World Smile Day®. He thought that we, all of us, should devote one day each year to smiles and kind acts throughout the world.  The smiley face knows no politics, no geography and no religion.  Harvey’s idea was that for at least one day each year, neither should we.  He declared that the first Friday in October each year would henceforth be World Smile Day®. Ever since that first World Smile Day® held in 1999, it has continued every year in Smiley’s hometown of Worcester, MA and around the world.

After Harvey died in 2001, the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation was created to honor his name and memory.  The Foundation continues as the official sponsor of World Smile Day® each year.

SMILE!

http://www.worldsmileday.com/

Celebrate the day today… it’s Labor Day.

But besides an excuse for a Dirty Jobs marathon, what is Labor Day?

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

US Department of Labor: Labor Day History

For students, Labor Day is a good day to catch up – finish the homework you missed in the past few weeks, and plan for the next few months. Midterm exams are just around the corner!

Today is Independence Day. The Fourth of July. The birthday of America. It is known as the day that the new nation declared its independence from Great Britian by signing the Declaration of Independence.

I’d like to celebrate the day by reciting one of America’s most recognized anthems, The Star-Spangled Banner.

O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

These words were written by Mr. Francis Scott Key in 1814 after witnessing an American victory following the bombardment of Fort McHenry by Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. It was later set to music and official recognized as the United States National Anthem in 1931.

Be safe and enjoy your holiday.

God Bless America

With all the stress and studying, you might have forgotten that today is Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day is a holiday that recognizes motherhood and maternal bond in general and the positive contributions of mothers to society. In Canada, Brazil and the United States, Mother’s Day falls on the second Sunday of each May, in Mexico it is on May 10th, regardless what day of the week that date falls.

For those of you kids who have already bought your mother flowers, or sent them a card; good work. You are set for another year.

For those of you who rely on The Quad to tell you about important holidays, you’re in luck. I’ve got a mother’s day poem that is guaranteed to produce tears. Forget about the flowers, pick up the phone, and read this to your mom. You can even tell her that you wrote it (just do it before your brother tries the same thing).

Enjoy, and Happy Mother’s Day!

Today, March 17th, is the real St. Patrick’s Day. Although we may celebrate this day with green beer and clever shirits, what do you actually know about St. Patrick?

“Well he was not a leprechaun who drank green beer or had a blarney stone or a pot of gold,” explains historian William Federer, who wrote St. Patrick: The Real History of His Life, From Tragedy to Triumph. “He was actually a missionary and he converted 120,000 druids from paganism to Christianity.”

In fact, Federer contends that in the fifth century A.D., Patrick did more than perhaps anyone in history to spread this new religion through Europe.

“He started over 300 churches and used the three-leafed clover to teach the [Holy] Trinity,” Federer says, noting that this teaching tool is now the symbol of St. Patrick’s Day and Ireland itself.

Patrick himself, though, was actually born in nearby Wales.

“Different Viking tribes began attacking and carrying away slaves, and Patrick was one of those carried away as a slave to Ireland,” says Federer. “He was there from 16 years old to 22 years old, when he had a dream in which he heard the Lord tell him to escape. So he did.”

“He went to the shore and, sure enough, there was a boat. He hopped aboard and hitchhiked his way across Europe and made his way back to Britain. His life was pretty uneventful until he was 40 years old, when he had another dream. That’s when things started to get interesting.”

That was when Patrick returned to Ireland as a missionary.

“His style was evangelism was to walk right into the smoky dens of these chieftans. The druids knew that this new religion was going to displace them, and so they tried killing him at least a dozen times. Once he was held for two weeks, and [the druid ruler] was holding him to kill him.”

But the chieftan instead spared Patrick and even gave him money to build his first church. For the rest of his life, Patrick preached about Jesus Christ, spread Christianity across the British Isles, and spoke out against slavery. Some historians even call him the world’s first abolitionist!

The Roman Catholic Church made him a saint in 664 A.D.

“It wasn’t until 1846, when there was a potato famine in Ireland, and millions of Irish Catholics came to America,” Federer says. “The Irish population went from two percent to 20 percent in just a decade. Half of New York City was now Roman Catholic Irish! The same thing happened in Boston, and there was an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, anti-Irish backlash.”

“When they had their first parade, it was more of a political statement. In Ireland, it didn’t matter how many of them there were, they didn’t have a voice in Parliament. But in America, when they had their first parade and 15,000 of them showed up, politicians in New York City said, ‘wait a minute, they haven’t decided who to vote for yet,’ so they decided to march with them.”

From those early parades, St. Patrick’s Day gained popularity as the Irish immigrants who celebrated it gained acceptance until finally both became the indispensible parts of American culture that they are today.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

The History of St. Patrick’s Day – MSNBC

Well, it’s official. Today is the day. An unofficial celebration of St. Patrick’s day began no doubt early this morning with the wearing of green and the drinkage of alcohol.

This day, as you know, has been riddled with controversy over the years. The university has tried every year to end the celebrations, but the students are relentless. One of the popular activities of Unofficial is to drink and go to class; even if you don’t have a class today. This year, the University will be taking guard at campus buildings to prevent “liquored learning.”

“It is surprising, to say the least, that students would actually decide to both celebrate ‘Unofficial’ and go to class. We do have kids who think they might want to do both,” said U. of I. spokeswoman Robin Kaler.

That’s where the administrators-turned-bouncers will step in. “We have people at the door who are trained at searching through backpacks,” Kaler said. “They will confiscate 50-gallon garbage cans full of this stuff.”

Some of the other preventative measures this year include the 21 age limit at campus bars and the limitation that bars cannot start serving alcohol until 11am. This is not likely to stop the spirit of the celebrating students who usually make-do at a local apartment.

Whatever your plans are this Unofficial, The Quad reminds you to keep it safe. Don’t drink and drive. Don’t drink and drum. Don’t drink and … well, just be safe.

Have a great Friday!

Check out The Quad’s complete coverage of Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day here.

Even if you are not a math person, you have undoubtedly realized that today’s day (3) and month (3) are both the square roots of the last two digits of this year (09). That means that today is Square Root Day!

One suggested way of celebrating the holiday is by eating square radishes, or other root vegetables cut into shapes with square cross sections (thus creating a “square root”).

So this marks the first official Square Root party on The Quad. I encourage you to sit back, relax, grab a drink and say a cheers for this crazy day!

Happy Square Root Day, see you again on 4/4/16!

Square Root Day – Wikipedia

Today is President’s Day, it’s a U.S. federal holiday; but, you’d never know. That’s because you are in school today. Just another holiday we as college students get ripped off of.

There is some discrepancy as to the actual purpose of the holiday whether it is celebrating the birthday of George Washington or Lincoln or Jefferson, or all three. It actually varies widely by state.

Today, the February holiday has become well-known for being a day in which many stores, especially car dealers, hold sales. Until the late 1980s, corporate businesses were universally closed on this day, the way they are on (for example) Memorial Day or Christmas Day. With the late 1980s advertising push to rename the holiday, more and more businesses are staying open on the holiday each year, and, as on Veterans Day and Columbus Day, most delivery services outside of the U.S. Postal Service now offer regular service on the day as well. Some public transit systems have also gone to regular schedules on the day. Various theories exist for this, one accepted reason being to make up for the growing trend of corporations to close in observance of the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. However, when reviewing the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill debate of 1968 in the Congressional Record, one notes that supporters of the Bill were intent on moving federal holidays to Mondays to promote business. Over time, as with many federal holidays, few Americans actually celebrate Presidents Day, and it is mainly known as a day off from work or school, although most non-governmental workers do not get the day off.

Consequently, some schools, which used to close for a single day for both Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthday, now often close for the entire week (beginning with the Monday holiday) as a “mid-winter recess”. For example, the New York City school district began doing so in the 1990s.

The federal holiday Washington’s Birthday honors the accomplishments of the man who has been referred to, for over two centuries, as “The Father of his Country”. Celebrated for his leadership in the founding of the nation, he was the Electoral College’s unanimous choice to become the first President; he was seen as a unifying force for the new republic and set an example for future holders of the office.

The holiday is also a tribute to the general who created the first military badge of merit for the common soldier. Revived on Washington’s 200th birthday in 1932, the Purple Heart recognizes injuries received in battle. Like Memorial Day and Veterans Day, Washington’s Birthday weekend offers another opportunity to honor the country’s veterans.

Happy Presidents’ Day… now get to class!