Gratitude Week -- Friday

It is Frenzy of Acquisition Day, a/k/a Black Friday, in the books of so many people.

On this day, i'm grateful for what i already have. It is enough.

Enjoy Buy Nothing Day with me, if you wish. It's freeing, i promise.


Today is:

Anniversary of Moquegua -- Peru

Black Friday or Buy Nothing Day (I will observe the latter)

Cat-Nipping Convention -- Fairy Calendar

ClauWau-Santa Claus World Championship -- Samnaun, Switzerland (through the 27th; compete in such things as the chimney climb with toys and the sledge race with timed gift giving to be crowned the world champion Santa)

Day Sacred to Proserpina -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Evacuation Day -- 19th Century New York City

Family Day -- Nevada, US

Hari Guru -- Indonesia (Teacher's Day)

Independence Day -- Suriname

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Maize Day -- US; celebrating the First Nations of the Americas and the role maize/corn played in their cultures

Mangé Yam -- Haiti (fete de la moisson; a yam harvest festival)

National Day -- Bosnia and Herzegovina

National Day of Listening -- encouraging you to record your family stories for future generations

National Don't Utter A Word Day -- internet generated, and variously listed as the 25th of November, February, or May; pick one if you want

National Flossing Day -- only floss the teeth you want to keep!

National Parfait Day

Native American Heritage Day -- US

Saint Catherine of Alexandria's Day -- of the Catherine Wheel, sometimes associated with the Wheel of Karma and the Hindu Kali; one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers (Patron of apologists, archivists, attorneys, barristers, craftsmen who work with wheels of any sort, dying people, educators, girls, jurists, knife grinders and sharpeners, lawyers, librarians, libraries, maidens, mechanics, millers, nurses, old maids, philosophers, potters, preachers, scholars, schoolchildren, scribes, secretaries, spinners, spinsters, stenographers, students, tanners, teachers, theologians, turners, University of Paris, unmarried girls, and wheelwrights)

Shopping Reminder Day -- exactly a month until Christmas

Sinkie Day -- the day to eat over the sink (celebrated by some on Nov. 24 annually, by others, it varies and is the day after Thanksgiving, with leftovers as the stars of the show; a third group asks what's to celebrate, where else would you eat?)

Vajiravudh Day -- Thailand

Windmill Blessing Day -- Holland (millers bless their windmills by throwing a handful of flour into the wind as an offering to the mischievous windmill spirits)

Women's Merrymaking Day -- Women go 'Cath'rining' and have a good time (in some places, especially France, women may propose marriage on this day)

You're Welcome Day -- the day after Thanksgiving, started by someone who obviously had a sense of humor


Birthdays Today:

Barbara and Jenna Bush, 1981
Donovan McNabb, 1976
Christina Applegate, 1971
Jill Hennessy, 1968
Amy Grant, 1960
John F. Kennedy, Jr., 1960
John Larroquette, 1947
Paul Desmond, 1924
Ricardo Montalban, 1920
Joe DiMaggio, 1914
Solanus Casey, 1870
Carry Nation, 1846
Karl F. Benz, 1844
Andrew Carnegie, 1835


Today in History:

A tsunami, caused by the earthquake in the Tyrrhenian Sea, devastates Naples (Italy) and the Maritime Republic of Amalfi, among other places, 1343
The siege of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, begins, 1491
A deadly earthquake rocks Shemakha, in the Caucasus, killing 80,000 people, 1667
The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, reaches its peak intensity which it maintains through November 27. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people died, 1703
First English patent granted to an American, for processing corn, 1715
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is founded, 1758
Farmer's Almanac first published, 1792
The Greek frigate Hellas arrives in Nafplion to become the first flagship of the Hellenic Navy, 1826
A cyclone slams India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying the port city of Coringa (never to be entirely rebuilt again); the storm wave sweeps inland, taking with it 20,000 ships and thousands of people. An estimated 300,000 deaths result from the disaster, 1839
Alfred Nobel patents dynamite, 1867
John B Meyenberg of St Louis patents evaporated milk, 1884
American College of Surgeons incorporates in Springield, Illinois, 1912
First Thanksgiving Day Parade is held in Philadelphia, 1920
690 earthquake shocks recorded in 1 day in Ito, Japan, 1930
The first Soviet liquid fuel rocket attains altitude of 261' (80m), 1933
Woody Woodpecker debuts with release of Walter Lantz's "Knock Knock", 1940
New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom, 1947
Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London later becoming the longest continuously-running play in history, 1952
The Minneapolis Thanksgiving Day Fire destroys an entire city block, 1982
The United Nations establishes the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women to commemorate the murder of three Mirabal Sisters for resistance against the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship in Dominican Republic, 1999
Powerful storm brings 3 years worth of rain in 4 hours to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, sparking terrible floods, 2009