A Brief History On October 12, 1810, the Royal Family of Bavaria, in what is now Germany, for the occasion of the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen, invited all the citizens of Munich to join in the first ever Oktoberfest, a tradition that has become the largest “volksfest” in the world. Lasting from 16 to 18 days, the main attraction is the wonderful beer that Bavaria is known for, but of course there is also music, dancing, and other folk-type activities, similar to American annual county fairs. Digging Deeper While…
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A Brief History On August 30, 2018, we celebrate National Toasted Marshmallow Day, a day in late summer when we gather around the campfire with long forks or even sharpened sticks and toast our bubbly, gooey marshmallow treats. Be careful not to burn your mouth! Our more sophisticated marshmallow connoisseurs may ratchet things up a notch by making “Smores,” another gooey treat in which one smears melted, toasted marshmallows on a graham cracker with melted milk chocolate. MMMM! A tradition among campers and Scouts (Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts). Digging Deeper So what are those white, spongy cubes we…
A Brief History On August 3, 2018, just as on every first Friday in August, we celebrate International Beer Day. In fact, here in History and Headlines Land, we celebrate International Beer Day everyday! For those readers that are underage, teetotalers, or lightweight non-hackers, forget this important holiday and go right to National Watermelon Day, which is celebrated on August 3 each year. For that matter, so is Grab Some Nuts Day, a holiday favored by squirrels everywhere. Today is also Airplane Crop Duster Day and Pie Day. We think Pie Day is the more important of those last 2…
A Brief History On May 14, 2018, we celebrate another one of those goofy pseudo-holidays, this time National Dance Like a Chicken Day, a day in which we acknowledge the superiority of that wedding reception standby (along with the Hokey Pokey), the Chicken Dance. Of course, we must also delve into what chickens are and how they are important to us. Digging Deeper Long before there was a Chicken Dance, people kept Chickens not for food, but for entertainment. About 5,000 years ago in Asia people started keeping the Red Junglefowl (perhaps crossbred with the Grey Junglefowl), the bird that…
A Brief History On May 5, 1862, the Mexican Army defeated the French Army at the Battle of the Puebla (Puebla City) during the Second French Intervention in Mexico, a marvelous victory for the Mexicans over a superior French force, a victory celebrated each year on May 5th, or in Español, Cinco de Mayo. Oddly enough, the Mexican celebration has been appropriated by Americans in the United States where it has become a bigger holiday for us Gringos than for Mexicans! Digging Deeper Mexico had been torn by one of their seemingly eternal civil wars which impoverished the country and…