Sunday, January 20, 2013 at 3:26PM Today is the actual day that the President of the United Stated is sworn in. Tomorrow the ceremony where a huge number of people will be in the District of Columbia to see Barack Obama sworn in for his second term will occur at the federal house of congress. I actually made a video in front of the house but can not find a way to up load it from here so will do that later.
Saturday, January 19, 2013 at 9:23AM Today is the anniversary of Edger Allen Poe, a very famous horror writer from America. Up until a couple of years ago (actually the last time it happened was the 200 anniversary) an individual dressed in black would sneak into the graveyard where his grave is and leave an almost empty bottle of cognac (apparently a very nice one) and roses.
Normally I would not have written about this as it has ended and really only celebrated by one or arguably a handful of people but I have always loved Poe's writing and this was such a perfect way to celebrate it.
This is a great write up http://www.wbal.com/article/97038/3/template-story/Poe-Toaster-Remains-A-Mystery
Friday, January 18, 2013 at 3:28PM Bo Sang is a small town in Thailand, known for the Umbrellas it makes. They hold a festival every year during the third week (I think I probably did not get the right dates but this is close to the right time).
The umbrellas are made of paper or silk and range in size from the little ones you find in drinks to very large. I found a very good write up on the festival by Shannon at A Little Adrift. She was able to find a little more about the history and is a good read.
There is a parade and beauty pageant as well as souvenirs to buy. The umbrellas are apparently very high quality as well as being very pretty. It is very interesting that a town in Thailand would specialize in a product like this and has done so for at least 100 years.
Links: http://www.bangkok101.com/2013/01/14/bor-sang-umbrella-festival/
http://www.thailand.com/travel/festival/festivals_chiangmai_umbrella.htm
Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 12:15PM The largest Carnival in Greece, it runs from January 17 to Clean Monday (the start of Lent for the Greek Orthodox Church).
The carnival looks like it is just incredible. Dancing, parades, games, the video does a good job showing all the stuff that goes on though the music is Latin (not sure where that comes from).
With the event starting well over 100 years ago it has grown to be a huge celebration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patras_Carnival
Wednesday, January 16, 2013 at 9:21AM I was a little disapointed when I started to do my research for todays festivals when all I really found was Teacher's Day in Thailand then I ran accross a write up by Cassandra James on Yahoo. You can read her articale here, I am not going to just repost what she wrote but it is worth reading.
From what she said there are ceramonies called Wai Kru in schools all accross Thailand and they actually occure at different points of the year but according to Wikipedia January 16th being teacher's day is one of the days it is observed.
There is a big ceramony where the students pay respect to their teacher's and give gifts because the teachers give the gift of knowledge to the students.
I also found another site where it looks like students may get the day off.
So happy Teacher's Day to all the teaches out there!
