Photo-Finish Friday: Appropriate

Leah of The Goat's Lunch Pail started Photo-Finish Friday, and i appreciate her photos and posts that share her world with me.

When our electricity came back on again, Little Girl changed the quote on the chalkboard coffee cup.  It was quite appropriate:

She knew just what to write!

It's nice to have electricity again. 

Today is

Agriculture Day and Labor Day -- Haiti

Amtrak Day -- the train service began this day in 1971

Beltaine / Samhain -- Wiccan/Pagan

Calends of May -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observances
     Day sacred to Maia
     Feast for Lares Praestites (household gods)

Childhood Stroke Awareness Month -- also called Pediatric Stroke Awareness Day, because kids can have strokes, too

Chimney Sweeps Day -- the boys as young as 4 trained to help master sweeps got Mayday off each year

Constitution Day / National Day -- Marshall Islands

Dandelion May Fest -- Der Marktplatz, Dover, OH, US (if a food or drink can be made with dandelion, you will find it here, along with fun and entertainment galore; through tomorrow)

Exaltation of Ribeiro Wine -- Ourense, Spain (wine, fruit, music and dance, what more could you ask? through Sunday)

Executive Coaching Day -- a reminder, on what is most countries' Labor Day, that workers deserve great leaders

Faint-Hearted Fairies May (or May Not) Ball -- Fairy Calendar

Feast of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage -- Antipolo, Rizal, Philippines (pilgrimages to the shrine of Nuestra Sra de la Paz y Buen Viaje; through the month)

Festa Del Serpari -- Cocullo, Italy (The Procession of the Snake Catchers, in honor of the city's patron, St. Dominick, whom they believed could cure snakebite)

Festival of Saint Efisio -- Cagliari, Italy (one of the most colorful religious festivals anywhere in the world; through the 4th)

Garland Dressing -- Charlton on Otmoor, England (a wooden cross is bedecked with yew and box leaves)

Global Love Day -- sponsored by The Love Foundation

Go Fetch! National Food Drive for Homeless Animals -- PALS Foundation www.gofetch.org

Gujarat Day / Maharashtra Day -- MH, India

International Space Day -- UN

International Tuba Day -- yes, here for details

Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival -- Fernandina Beach, FL, US (celebrating the birthplace of the modern shrimping industry; through Sunday)

Josey's World Champion Junior 4-D Barrel Race -- Josey's Ranch, Marshall, TX, US (finest youth barrel racing in the world; through Sunday)

Journée Internationale de la Guérilla Tournesol / International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day -- begun in Belgium, now celebrated worldwide, guerrila gardeners are encouraged to plant sunflowers (or an appropriate plant for their climate) in a neglected public place or shabby flower bed

Keep Kids Alive! Drive 25 Day -- 20-25mph in school zones, please

Kentucky Derby & Oaks -- Churchill Downs, Louisville, KY, US (the Oaks is today; the Derby tomorrow is the longest continually held sporting event in the US)

Kevadpuha -- Estonia (Spring Day)

Law Day, USA -- US, by Presidential Proclamation

Lei Day -- Hawai'i (where you celebrate Mayday with a lei instead of mayflowers)

Loyalty Day -- US

Magic Dragon Street Meet -- Historic Bagnell Dam Strip and Prewitt's Point, MO, US (if you like car shows, this is the place for you! through Sunday)

May Day Fairie Festival -- Spoutwood Farm, Glen Rock, PA, US (celebrate the beginning of spring and the return of all the nature spirits to the warm world with musicians, dancers, storytellers, a Maypole dance, fairie arts and crafts activities and vendors, education about healthy eating and organic farming, fairie and gnome habitat tours, fairie tea parties, and guest appearances by the Green Man, the Mossmen, Sweet Pea, and others; through Sunday)

May Day / Labor Day / Worker's Day -- International; celebrated as the beginning of summer in some places, as a Labor Day in others

Mother Goose Day -- as declared by the Mother Goose Society

National Chocolate Parfait Day

National Love Day -- Czech Republic (couples flock to the memorial of the poet Karel Hynek Mácha in Prague and kiss)

National Purebred Dog Day -- US (as proposed on this page)

New Homeowner's Day -- can't find confirmation on this one, listed at a few sites but no history or records of why this day

No Pants Day -- first Friday in May, and not to be confused with the annual No Pants Subway Ride in NYC

'Obby 'Oss (Hobby Horse) Parade -- Padstow, Cornwall, England (every May 1 since 1502, if the records are correct)

Orangeburg Festival of Roses -- Orangeburg, SC, US (celebrating flowers on the banks of the Edisto River, the longest black water river in the world; through Sunday)

Play of St. Evermaar -- Belgium (annual performance of a mystery play, in its original form from over 1,000 years ago, by the village)

Riding of the Bounds -- Berwick-upon-Tweed, Casey, England (riders scour the countryside to be sure the Scots have not encroached upon English soil in this 5 century old tradition)

Rodonitsa -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (day to offer feasts to the ancestors, named for Rod, god of family and the cosmos)

Santacruzan / Flore de Mayo -- Philippines (lasts through the month, with the biggest celebratory days being May 26-27 this year)

Save the Rhino Day / Rhino Mayday -- International

School Principal's Day -- since teachers get a day, so should the principal

Silver Star Day -- US (to honor all military who have earned a Silver Star)

Stepmother's Day -- sponsored by secondwivesclub.com

Store Bededag -- Denmark; Faroe Islands; Greenland (Great Prayer Day)

St. Joseph the Worker's Day -- Holy See(Vatican City)

St. Peregrine Laziosi's Day (Patron of AIDS patients, cancer patients, and the sick; against cancer, open sores and skin diseases)

St. Walpurga's Canonization Day (The saint who banishes the evil from Walpurgis night.)

Swieta Panstwowe -- Poland (National Day)

Tammany's Day / St. Tamenend -- US soldiers in the Revolution wanted a patron saint to rival St. George of the British Army, and chose Delaware Indian chief and wise man Chief Tamenend, also called Tammany

Toad Suck Daze -- Conway, AR, US (toad-jumping contests, carnival, parade, concerts, arts and crafts, softball tournament, and more; through Sunday)

Unity Day -- Kazakhstan

Virgen de Chapi Festival -- Peru

Yotaka Matsuri -- Fukuno, Toyama, Japan (enjoy floats, paper lanters, and mock battles in this two day festival)

Zuni Green Corn Dance -- Zuni Native Americans (welcoming back the Corn Maidens who fled during the winter; dating approximate as many Native ceremonies are closed to outsiders)


Anniversaries Today:

Cheerios go on sale, 1941
Empire State Building Ribbon Cutting, 1931


Birthdays Today:

Wes Anderson, 1969
Tim McGraw, 1967
Charlie Schlatter, 1966
Steve Cauthen, 1960
Ray Parker, Jr., 1954
Paul Teutul, Sr., 1949
Rita Coolidge, 1945
Bobbie Ann Mason, 1940
Judy Collins, 1939
Sonny James, 1929
Charles "Chuck" Bednarik, 1925
Terry Southern, 1924
Jack Paar, 1918
Glenn Ford, 1916
Archie Williams, 1915
Kate Smith, 1909
Mark Clark, 1896
Leo Sowerby, 1895
Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Burke), 1852
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, 1837
King Kamehameha I of Hawai'i, 1738
Joseph Addison, 1672


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"My One and Only"(Musical), 1983
Citizen Kane(Film), 1941
"Batman"(Detective Comics #27), 1939
"Buffalo Bill's Wild West"(touring Western show), 1883
"Le nozze di Figaro/The Marriage of Figaro"(Mozart Opera, K492), 1786


Today in History:

The Wars of Scottish Independence end with a treaty recognizing the Kingdom of Scotland as a separate entity, 1328
The Act of Union joins the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, 1707
Species Plantarum is published by Linnaeus, marking the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, 1753
Josiah Wedgwood founds the Wedgwood  pottery company in Great Britain, 1759
Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt establishes the Illuminati in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria), 1776
Kamehameha, the king of Hawai'i defeats Kalanikupule and establishes the Kingdom of Hawai'i, 1785
The British colonies abolish slavery, 1834
The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom, 1840
The first wagon train leaves from Independence, MO, bound for California, 1841
Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second, Asia's first modern police force is established, 1844
Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition in London, 1851
The Empire of Brazil, Argentina  and Uruguay  sign the Treaty of the Triple Alliance, 1865
The Folies Bergère opens in Paris, 1869
Moses Fleetwood Walker becomes the first black person to play in a professional baseball game in the United States, 1884
The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her two hundred and second, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic, 1915
The first cooked meals on a scheduled flight are introduced on an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris, 1927
The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named, 1930
The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City, 1931
The Summer Olympics are cancelled due to war, 1940
The Salk vaccine is made available to the public, 1956
Fidel Castro proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections, 1961
Amtrak is formed to take over the U.S. passenger rail service, 1971
Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, 1987
On the same day, Rickey Henderson of the Oakland A's sets the record for stolen bases (his 939th), and Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers pitches his 7th career no-hitter, breaking his own record, 1991
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, , 2004
Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden, 2009
Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, 2011
The U.N. Human Rights Office determine it is a violation of international law to force-feed hunger strikers at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison, 2013