international Archives - Page 12 of 14 - Worldwide Weird Holidays

October 12 is International Top Spinning Day

October 11, 2016/0 Comments/in October

Today is International Top Spinning Day, created in 2003 by the Spinning Top & Yo-Yo Museum of Burlington, WI, to celebrate one of the oldest toys in the world. It always takes place on the second Wednesday of October.

The earliest known tops, constructed of clay, date back to around 3500 BC. Archaeologists discovered them in the ruins of the ancient city of Ur in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). Certainly, children improvised with rocks, acorns and other found objects long before then.

In addition to providing entertainment, tops make excellent teaching tools. “The earth spins around a single axis, just as toy spinning tops and yo-yos do,” explains museum director Judith Schulz.

Tops demonstrate the “gyroscopic effect,” which employs inertia, gravity, momentum and centrifugal force. When a top is spun, it appears to stay upright. Eventually friction between the top and the surface it is spinning on slows the rotation, causing it to wobble before falling over.

How should you celebrate? The museum hosts a mass spinning event at noon. If you can’t make it there, you could buy or build a top of your own. Feeling less industrious? A penny will do. Start spinning and rediscover the simple joys of a beloved childhood pastime.

Happy International Top Spinning Day!

International Virtual Assistants Day 2016

May 20, 2016/0 Comments/in May

Today is 2016’s International Virtual Assistants Day (IVAD), which honors the support staff who will never hit on a coworker, pass gas in the conference room, or steal someone else’s yogurt from the company fridge. It takes place on the third Friday of May, during the Online International Virtual Assistants Convention (OIVAC).

On OIVAC’s home page, the header indicates the convention runs from May 19-21, 2016, but the text refers to the “upcoming” IVAD celebration on May 17, 2013. The latest blog post is from 2012. The names of past winners of the Thomas Leonard Virtual Assistant of Distinction Award and the Janet Jordan Achievement Award are listed from 2006-2012, which would make this its 11th year.

To learn more, we signed up for OIVAC 2016’s free informational seminar. When we received the confirmation email, we clicked on the link, which took us back to the signup page. (We don’t care to admit how many times we repeated the action to make sure it wasn’t our fault. It wasn’t.)

This shook our confidence in the “IVAD Creed: Dedication, Experience, Expertise and Determination to Succeed of professionals providing administrative and other business support services, virtually (DEEDS), exemplifies our integrity and commitment to provide superior service.”

Everyone makes mistakes, but when you know you’ll dedicate one day each year to attracting positive attention to your profession, why not avail yourself of a quick copy edit in advance? Maybe the site’s proofreaders are truly virtual; we’ve only assumed they exist in real life.

In a last-ditch effort for answers, we decided to visit the A*************, listed on the OIVAC site and identified on some sites as a sponsor of the convention and holiday. We are not going to name the organization here because when we clicked on the calendar dropdown, it resulted in a malicious website script redirect attack that Norton Antivirus deemed “High Risk.” Although we’ve never met, Norton has never let us down.

We’ll have to trust that International Virtual Assistant Day is really happening today at the Online International Virtual Assistants Convention. Perhaps that is exactly as it should be.

Barbed Wire Festival

May 5, 2016/1 Comment/in May

May 5, 2016: The 50th Annual Barbed Wire Festival kicks off this evening in La Crosse, Kansas. The first convention for collectors of barbed wire was hosted there in 1967. According to the festival’s website, 2,000 people attended, earning La Crosse, described by Wikipedia as a “city” of 1,342, the title of “Barbed Wire Capital of the World™.”

The site is a bit sparing with details about today’s festivities, stating only, “The ceremony will begin at 5:00 pm with an olympic-style opening ceremony for the 50th Annual Festival.” (We’re guessing that in this case, the eternal flame will be represented by two books of matches and a can of Sterno.)

Next, a monument to departed supporters will be unveiled at its location by the sidewalk in front of the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum. The dedication will be followed by a meeting of the Antique Barbed Wire Society, the only international organization devoted to the collection, preservation, exhibition and cultural appreciation of barbed wire.

Friday’s program features an exhibition of vintage military garb; displays of wire fence and collectibles will be judged. (Note to newbies: Don’t collect wire under 18 inches long. Anything shorter is worthless.) The evening will be capped off with the “Kansas Barbed Wire Museum Casino Night and Mexican & More Buffet.” Proceeds will benefit the Museum Operating Fund.

Saturday’s main event is the 50th annual “World Champion Barbed Wire Splicing Contest™. ” Contestants begin with double strand, two-point galvanized barbed wire and must splice in a third strand, twisting it using only their hands. (Gloves are allowed.) Finished wires must be able to support a 75-pound weight. There’s a Powder Puff version for women. All the requirements are the same but the gender bias is thrown in for free.

Attendees who are plumb tuckered out can look forward to the Golden Memories Candlelight Banquet, a gourmet meal “featuring the finest cuts of beef, fabulous trimmings, salad, and dessert.” (In this context, “trimmings” sounds suspiciously like “fixins.”) Following the meal, there will be a short awards ceremony. The site promises, “This will be our finest banquet yet. Black tie optional.” A sigh of relief goes up from those who forgot to pack their tuxedos. Or their special Sunday-go-to-meeting shorts.

Five more shows are scheduled this year in California, Texas, Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. In the autumn, La Crosse will host the “Miss Barbed Wire Capital Pageant & Variety Show.” The first Barbed Wire Collector magazine was issued in 1983. It is published six times a year by the Antique Barbed Wire Society to inform and entertain barbed wire aficionados between functions.

Happy Barbed Wire Festival!

International Pillow Fight Day

April 2, 2016/2 Comments/in April

Today is the ninth annual International Pillow Fight Day, a holiday that encourages us to play like children on a grand scale. The event has gained momentum since its inception in 2008 and is now celebrated in more than 100 countries around the world. It always takes place on the first Saturday of April.

International Pillow Fight Day is part of what’s known as the urban playground movement. The founders explain:

One of our goals is to make these unique happenings in public space become a significant part of popular culture, partially replacing passive, non-social consumption experiences like watching television, and consciously celebrating public spaces in our cities as our ‘urban living rooms.’ The result, we hope, will be a global community of participants in a world where people are constantly organizing and attending these happenings in every major city in the world.

If you’re in the Western hemisphere, you’re in luck. Many pillow fights take place in the afternoon. (In New York City and Toronto, for example, the fights start at 3 pm. Check pillowfightday.com for a fight near you.)

We thought it might whet your appetite to see the festivities that have already taken place today.