Which Holiday?

As I noted before, the holidays have crashed all together on this year's calendar. This has made for Valentine displays right next to Mardi Gras colors in the stores, amid the President's Day sales. Can we say "clash of colors?" Big red heart displays next to flags next to the purple, gold, and green of Carnival -- ouch.

Because it has put President's Day into the middle of the mix, it has added one other dilemma. The problem down here, where Carnival parades can make mail delivery next to impossible, is that every business that closes for holidays has to pick.

So, some banks are closed today for President's Day, and open tomorrow. Some, it is the opposite, open today and observing Mardi Gras as their holiday tomorrow. Our credit union seems to have a split personality, and the branches in northern Louisiana are closed today, the ones down here are closed tomorrow.

And I can never get straight which day we will get mail.

The good news for my retail friends, like Jody the "Coffee Bar Goddess" at Whole Foods (a/k/a Whole Paycheck!), is that the next major holiday for which they have to keep up with displays is St. Patrick's Day, just over a month from now.

Note to Canadians: Happy Flag Day! Commemorating the raising of the National Flag of Canada, the maple leaf flag, over Parliament Hill in Ottawa on this day in 1965.


Today is:

Battleship Day

Bolludagur, Iceland (Bun Day)

Clean Out Your Computer Day

Candlemas - on the Julian Calendar

Decimal Day, UK

Fasching, Austria, Germany

Flag Day, Canada

Great Lent - a/k/a Clean Monday, Ash Monday, Pure Monday, Monday of Lent, Shrove Monday, Collop Monday, Rose Monday, Merry Monday or Hall Monday, and (in Cypress) Green Monday -- Orthodox Christian

Kamakura Day, Japan (Snow Cave Festival)

Lantern Festival, China and Taiwan

Lundi Gras (Fat Monday)

Lupercalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar, festival of Faunus/Pan, god of shepherds

National Gum Drop Day

Nirvana Day -- Buddhist

President's Day - third Monday of month

Remember the Maine Day

Senior Day

Shrove Monday

Singles Awareness Day

St. Sigfrid's Day (patron of Sweden)

Susan B. Anthony Day

Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show (through the 16th)



Birthdays Today:

Renee O'Connor, 1971
Jane Child, 1967
Chris Farley, 1964
Matt Groening, 1954
Melissa Manchester, 1951
Jane Seymour, 1951
Claire Bloom, 1931
Harvey Korman, 1927
Cesar Romero, 1907
John Barrymore, 1882
Elihu Root, 1824
Susan B. Anthony, 1820
Cyrus McCormick, 1809
Henry Engelhard Steinway, 1797
Galileo Galilei, 1564
Babur, 1483 (founder of Mughal dynasty in India)
Claudius Drusus Germanicus Caesar Nero, 37


Today in History:

Philosopher Socrates is sentenced to death, BC399
Khosrau II is crowned as king of Persia, 590
Ho-tse Shen-hui, Zen teacher, disputes the founder of Northern Ch'an line, 732
The city of St. Louis, Missouri, is founded by Pierre Laclade Ligue as a French trading post, 1764
The first US printed ballots are authorized, in Philadelphia, 1799
Sarah Roberts is barred from attending a white school in Boston, 1848
Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, London, admits its first patient, 1852
A fire in Rotterdam, Netherlands, damages the Museum Boymans, 1864
Nine inches (23cm) of snow falls on New Orleans, Louisiana, 1898
The USS Maine sinks in Havana harbor, cause unknown-258 sailors die, 1898
The first Teddy Bear is introduced in America, made by Morris and Rose Michtom, 1903