January 16th 2023 - Holidays and Observances

 

(click on the day for details)

• Christian feast day:
  • Pope Benjamin (Coptic)
  • Berard of Carbio
  • Blaise (Armenian Apostolic)
  • Fursey
  • Joseph Vaz
  • Honoratus of Arles
  • Pope Marcellus I
  • Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Coptic Church)
  • Titian of Oderzo
  • Eve of Saint Anthony observed with ritual bonfires in San Bartolomé de Pinares
  • January 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• National Religious Freedom Day (United States)
• Teacher's Day (Myanmar)
• Teachers' Day (Thailand)

 

Observances (click on the day or week or BD for details)

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

National Fig Newton Day

Appreciate a Dragon Day

Blue Monday

Book Publishers Day

Brew Monday

Civil Rights Day

Elementary School Teacher Day

Idaho Human Rights Day

International Hot and Spicy Food Day

National Boston Day

National Good Teen Day

National Quinoa Day

National Without a Scalpel Day

Prohibition Remembrance Day

Signing of the Peace Accords

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Family Mediation Week

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Sidharth Malhotra’s Birthday

Ruby Rube’s Birthday

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Birthday

Jubilee Sharpe’s Birthday

Jennie Kim’s Birthday

Aaliyah’s Birthday

 

Fun Observances

 Nothing Day

January 16 is Nothing Day, a day to celebrate, well, nothing.

Started by newspaper columnist Harold Pullman Coffin in 1973, the unofficial holiday aims to provide people “with a day where they can just sit without celebrating, observing, or honoring anything."

An Un-Event

The day is an "un-event", which means that it should not be seen as an event and that one should do nothing to promote it as such.

So instead of promoting the day, we will tell you more about nothing. Nothing is an indefinite pronoun that means no thing or not anything. It refers to a person or a thing of no importance, consequence, or interest.

Debates Over Nothing

History is full of debates between philosophers and writers on the importance and the study of nothing. Some philosophers believe that the study of the nature of nothing is a useless endeavor since there is nothing like nothing - to answer the question, what is nothing, one must find nothing.

There is also some disagreement among physicists about the true nature of nothingness in outer space. Many claim that even a true vacuum, devoid of anything is not nothing, because even if it doesn't have any particles of gravity, it contains quantum particles.

How to Celebrate?

• Observe Nothing Day by celebrating nothing.
• Learn facts about absolutely nothing.
• Learn more about how the notion of nothingness features in philosophy and science.
• Watch the Seinfeld episode, The Pitch. In this episode of the popular TV series, George Costanza comes up with the idea of creating a TV show about nothing.

Did You Know…

…that zero as a number was discovered in India in the 9th century AD?

 

 

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For Mother’s Day: My Mom Taught Me …

 

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My coworker at the hotel was miserable at his job and was desperately searching for a new one.

"Why don’t you work for your mother?" I suggested.

He shook his head. "I can’t," he said. "Her company has a very strict policy against hiring relatives."

"Who made up that ridiculous rule?"

"My mother."

 

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I was sound asleep when the telephone jarred me awake.

"Hi!" It was my peppy mother-in-law. She proceeded to rattle on about the busy day she had ahead and all the things that awaited her the rest of the week.

"Mom," I interrupted. "It's five in the morning."

"Really? What are you doing up so early?"

 

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When my nephew, Victor, was five, I took him to a local stable for a pony ride. He was very impressed that the stable hands were riding without a saddle. I explained to him that it's called riding bareback. When I returned him to his parents, they asked him how he enjoyed his pony ride.

He excitedly told them that he saw grownups riding naked!

 

 

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sandrewn