weird and wacky holidays happening in December

National Regifting Day

Today is National Regifting Day, a holiday invented in 2006 by a credit counseling service and made official in 2008 with a proclamation by Colorado governor Bill Ritter, Jr. It’s always celebrated on the third Thursday of December, which just happens to be the most popular day for company Christmas parties and their Secret Santa gift exchanges. Coincidence? You decide.

national regifting day

Before you attempt to regift unwanted presents, there are some things you need to know.

  1. You should be reasonably certain the recipient will enjoy your (unwanted) gift. Be honest–with yourself, of course. When it comes to your “regiftee,” you’re going to lie like a rug.
  2. The gift must be brand new and in its original packaging.
  3. Don’t regift a personalized item!
  4. Examine it closely—very closely–to ensure you’ve removed any tags before you wrap it in new paper.
  5. Be careful not to regift something to the original giver. (Rookie mistake!) If you can’t remember who gave it to you, don’t give it to anyone else.
  6. Regift only when you are sure the new recipient won’t tell the original giver about what they received from you. Try to regift in different social circles.
  7. Be prepared to fully commit to the lie. If you don’t have a ready response to a question like, “Where did you find this? I’ve been looking everywhere for one!” your ruse will be exposed.

If anything goes wrong, know that the resulting moment of embarrassment will feel like it stretches to infinity. On second thought, why not donate it to charity and give something new? You may get it back next year. Act surprised.

See also:
The Label Maker – Seinfeld’s origins of regifting

Copyright 2016 Worldwide Weird Holidays

National Day of the Horse

National Day of the HorseToday is the National Day of the Horse. On November 18, 2004, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed S.R. 452, described as:

A resolution designating December 13, 2004, as “National Day of the Horse” and encouraging the people of the United States to be mindful of the contribution of horses to the economy, history, and character of the United States.

The resolution goes on to state that “the horse is a living link to the history of the United States;” “without horses, the economy, history, and character of the United States would be profoundly different;” and “horses are a vital part of the collective experience of the United States and deserve protection and compassion.”

What the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have failed to do is pass a permanent federal ban on the slaughter of horses for human consumption. The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (AHSPA) was passed by the House on September 7, 2006. It had to be approved by the Senate as well in order to become law. But the bill was sent to a Senate committee, where it languished and eventually died because it was never approved for a full vote.

It was reintroduced on January 7, 2007, and sent to the House Agriculture Committee, which failed to approve it for a vote, thus killing the same bill it had passed four months before. On Jan 17, 2007, the Senate put forth its own version; it, too, failed to reach a vote, officially dying on January 3, 2009, when the 110th Congressional session ended. A bipartisan effort to revive the AHSPA in 2011 went nowhere.

While numerous state legislatures have enacted laws outlawing the practice, the federal government has sidestepped the issue, choosing instead to add language to its budget proposals that will indirectly impact businesses that slaughter horses.

A line item that denies payment of federal inspectors for time spent evaluating horses deprives an operation the opportunity to receive a USDA seal of approval. Without it, the meat can’t be sold for human consumption. (In 2006, the USDA countered by issuing CFR 352.19, a regulation that would allow companies to circumvent the funding ban by paying for their own inspections.)

In 2014, President Obama signed a budget that included the prohibition against funding for horse inspections. Although many hailed it as a momentous step, others saw it as just one more in a series of temporary fixes that must be requested and granted anew with each successive budget proposal. It did (and does) nothing to prevent U.S. horses from being shipped to Mexico or Canada for slaughter, their meat then exported worldwide.

The protection of this majestic animal isn’t all that’s at stake. Horses are dosed with compounds that accumulate in their tissues and can be toxic to humans. Phenylbutazone, a pain medication routinely given to horses, is known to be carcinogenic to people, especially children; trace amounts can cause potentially lethal aplastic anemia.

Since horses aren’t raised for human consumption, there are no regulations in place to protect anyone who might one day consume their meat. That is more of a risk than most of us think. Horse meat has been discovered in, among other things, school lunches and hospital meals. It’s possible that we’ve unwittingly eaten some already.

There is a permanent solution called the Safeguard American Food Exports Act (SAFE), its stated goal:

Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to deem equine (horses and other members of the equidae family) parts to be an unsafe food additive or animal drug.

Prohibits the knowing sale or transport of equines or equine parts in interstate or foreign commerce for purposes of human consumption.

It was introduced in the Senate on March 12, 2013. What happened?

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Clearly, there is more work to be done. Each year, approximately 150,000 horses—including pregnant mares and foals—are packed into trucks and taken to Mexico and Canada. Conditions are deplorable as the only goal is to keep the horses barely alive until they are slaughtered and their meat packaged for sale to humans.

It’s not too late to help. The SAFE Act (S. 1214/H.R. 1942) was revived in 2015 and is still knocking around in committee. Find your Congresspeople on govtrack.us and tell them to keep it alive. Someone should take a stand against this big, cruel business. It might as well be us.

Happy National Day of the Horse!

Copyright 2016 Worldwide Weird Holidays

 

 

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December 12 is Poinsettia Day

poinsettia dayToday is Poinsettia Day, which marks the death of Joel Roberts Poinsett on December 12, 1851. Poinsett was appointed in 1825 by President John Quincy Adams as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico. (The title “Ambassador” wasn’t created until 1896.)

While there, Poinsett, an amateur botanist, introduced the American elm to Mexico. In 1829, he returned to his home in South Carolina with cuttings of a shrub with red flowers and cultivated it in his greenhouse.

The plant has a rich history in Mexico. The Aztecs called it Cuitlaxochitl (from cuitlatl, for residue, and xochitl, for flower) and used the leaves to dye fabrics and the sap to control fevers. Today it’s known in Mexico and Guatemala as La Flor de la Nochebuena (Flower of the Holy Night) and is displayed during celebrations of the Dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe, which also happens to take place on December 12.

poinsettia day

We’re not sure who started the rumor that poinsettias are poisonous, but we’ve found many studies refuting it, including this one, published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine:

To determine if there was any validity to the toxicity claims, 849,575 plant exposures reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers were electronically analyzed. Poinsettia exposures accounted for 22,793 cases and formed the subset that was analyzed to critically evaluate the morbidity and mortality associated with poinsettia exposures. There were no fatalities among all poinsettia exposures and 98.9% were accidental in nature, with 93.3% involving children. The majority of exposed patients (96.1%) were not treated in a health care facility and 92.4% did not develop any toxicity related to their exposure to the poinsettia.

Experts say a fifty-pound child would have to eat at least five hundred leaves just to get a bellyache. Since they taste terrible and a plant has a fraction of that number of leaves, it’s unlikely anyone is going to make a meal of them.

Although poinsettia leaves won’t kill pets, either, its emetic properties can make them throw up which, let’s face it, is no fun for anyone involved. Just to be on the safe side, keep it away from Fido and Mr. Whiskers. Everyone else can enjoy the sight of this iconic symbol of the holiday season and have a happy (and healthy) Poinsettia Day!

Copyright 2016 Worldwide Weird Holidays

Worldwide Candle Lighting

Worldwide Candle LightingThe Worldwide Candle Lighting ceremony is held each year on the second Sunday of December. It was created by The Compassionate Friends (TCF), a non-profit organization that assists grieving families.

Stephen Simmons, a chaplain at England’s Warwickshire Hospital, founded TCF in 1969. After bringing together two sets of grieving parents, he realized the support they gave one another was better than anything he could provide.

The group grew as word of it spread around the globe. In 1978, it crossed the ocean and was incorporated in Illinois. The first Worldwide Candle Lighting took place there in 1997. 

The annual observance unites family and friends to remember sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and grandchildren gone too soon. Participants light candles from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. local time.

Considered the largest mass candle lighting on the planet, the Worldwide Candle Lighting produces a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from one timezone to the next. Hundreds of formal events are conducted while thousands of families meet in private to honor the memories of departed loved ones and express gratitude for the time they shared.

TCF and allied organizations are joined by local bereavement groups, churches, funeral homes, hospitals, hospices, children’s gardens, schools, cemeteries, and community centers. Services have ranged in size from just a few people to nearly a thousand.

If no Worldwide Candle Lighting service was held near you last year and you’d like to hold one, TCF invites you to use its Suggestions to Help Plan a Memorial Service in Conjunction with The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting© to help you organize an event. Submit the information to the TCF website so it can add your service to the many others held in the U.S. and around the world.

The Worldwide Candle Lighting encourages bereaved families everywhere to “light a candle for all children who have died…that their lights may always shine.”

Copyright 2016 Worldwide Weird Holidays