A to Z: Again (A True Easter Story) and Awake (Sunday Selections)

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.) 

Most of the time, i would do a Cajun joke on Sunday.  For this beautiful Easter Day, i have a true story instead, and it is rather funny and i hope touching.

Some of my extended family are Catholics, and yesterday, my nephew Dre was making his First Communion at the Easter Vigil Mass.  There was a sweet young girl sitting in front of us who was there for the same reason.  Those receiving for the first time got called up ahead of everyone else, of course.

Then, as the rest of the congregation started to go up pew by pew, when her parents got up she asked her father, “Can I go again?”  You could hear the excitement in her voice, and he said, “Sure!”  His wife looked at him a bit oddly, and he said, “Well, you can’t have too much of Jesus!”

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Sunday Selections was started as a way for bloggers to use photos that might otherwise just languish in their files.  It is now hosted by River at Drifting Through Life.    

“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” — Ephesians 5:14

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Today is:

APAWS International Pooper Scooper week -- The Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists believe every dog should have its day, but not on someone else's lawn!

April Fool's Day  a/k/a Huntingowk Day or Gowkie Day in Scotland, because an April Fool is called a gowk; in England it is All Fools Day or April Noddy Day, as an April fool is a "noddy"

Azalea Festival -- Muskogee, OK, US (month long celebration with citywide events throughout)

Capture of Brielle Remembrance -- Brielle, Netherlands

Civil Service Day -- Thailand

Community Spirit Days -- an open invitation, all month long, for any town or community to involve itself in a special service project

Day of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Easter -- Christian (remembrance of the resurrection of Jesus)

    National Baked Ham with Pineapple Day -- US (always on Easter Sunday)

    Paskar -- Iceland (Easter, the day trolls and evil beings sleep through the day, so an auspicious day to look for the wishing stone)

Edible Book Day -- Sponsored by the Edible Book Festival, Austin, TX, US (celebrating books and culinary creativity by making edible representations of books, then eating them)

Fossil Fools Day -- part of the conservationist movement of many organizations that want us to decrease reliance on fossil fuels and stop corporate polluters

Greek Cypriot Day -- Cyprus (EOKA Day)

International Fun at Work Day -- originally sponsored by Playfair, which encourages non-foolish humor that is non-toxic    

International Tatting Day

Investiture of the New Captains Regent -- San Marino (sometimes listed as National Day)

Kalends of April -- Ancient Roman Empire; also

    Festival of Fortuna Virilis -- Fortune in her role of bringing luck to women who want better relationships with men

    Veneralia -- ritual yearly washing of the statue of Venus

Kanamara Matsuri -- Kanayama Shrine, Kawasaki, Japan ("Festival of the Steel Phallus", a phallic symbol festival, now a big tourist draw and used to raise money for HIV research)

Kha b-Nisan -- Assyrians (traditional New Year celebration)

Loki's Day -- by some calculations, but more likely it was moved to this date to celebrate the trickster of all time on the trickiest day of the year

Miyako Odori -- Kobu Kaburenjo Theatre, Kyoto, Japan ("Dance of the Old Capital", the highly anticipated geisha dance and music festival, through the 30th)

National Sourdough Bread Day

Orissa Day -- Orissa, India

One Cent Day -- no history on this, just noted on several sites

Pigasus Award Announcement Day -- by James Randi, awarded to parapsychological, paranormal or psychic frauds

Reading is Funny Day -- a day to read riddles, jokes, and fun things with kids to show them how great reading can be

School Year Begins -- Japan, most schools and universities

Sizdeh Be-dar -- Iran (Nature Day, an ancient Persian celebration to get out and joyfully spend the day outdoors)

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival -- Skagit Valley, WA, US; through the 30th

Sorry Charlie Day -- a day to recognize Charlie the Tuna, always rejected but never giving up, and anyone who has ever been rejected and lived to tell about it

St. Gilbert de Moray's Day (Patron of Caithness, Scotland)

St. Stupid's Day (First Church of the Last Laugh)   

Tree Loving Week begins -- South Korea (always the week that includes April 5, their Arbor Day)

Uzupis Day -- Uzupis District, Vilnius, Lithuania

Anniversaries Today:

Nunavut becomes Canada's third independent territory, 1999

Jim Bakker marries Tammy Faye LaValley, 1961

Birthdays Today:

Randy Orton, 1980

Jon Gosselin, 1977

Rachel Maddow, 1973

Susan Boyle, 1961

Libby Riddles, 1956

Annette O’Toole, 1953

Samuel A. Alito, Jr, 1950

David Eisenhower, 1947

Daniel Joseph “Rusty” Staub, 1944

Ali MacGraw, 1938

Gordon Jump, 1932

Debbie Reynolds, 1932

Jane Powell, 1929

Anne McCaffrey, 1926

Toshiro Mifune, 1920

Abraham Maslow, 1908

Clara "Mother" Hale, 1905

Lon Chaney, 1883

Sergei Rachmaninoff, 1873

Otto von Bismarck, 1815

William Harvey, 1578

Emperor Go-Saga of Japan, 1220

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Will Rogers Follies"(Musical), 1991

"General Hospital"(TV), 1963

"The Doctors"(TV), 1963

"Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel"(Film; premier of Marlene Dietrich), 1930

Today in History:

The ruins of the city of Pompeii are found, 1748

Japan's volcano Unsen erupts, killing about 53,000, 1793

Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine, 1826

Cincinnati becomes the first US city to pay firefighters, 1853

Singapore, Penang & Malakka become British crown colonies, 1867

The London-Paris telephone connection is opened, 1891

The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois, 1891

The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, 1918

The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed, 1924

Generalisimo Frederico Franco announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, 1939

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the Aleutian Islands creates a tsunami that strikes Hawai'i, killing 159, 1946

The twenty-six counties of the Irish Free State become the Republic of Ireland, 1949

The Canadian government repeals Japanese Canadian internment after seven years, 1949

The BBC broadcasts the spaghetti tree hoax on its current affairs programme Panorama, 1957

Project Tiger, a tiger conservation program, is launched in the Corbett National Park, India, 1973

Apple Inc. is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, 1976

The Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia is created, 1996

Comet Hale-Bopp is seen passing over perihelion, 1997

Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories, 1999

Croatia and Albania join NATO, 2009

The world’s first smelling TV screen is unveiled in Japan, 2013