World Health Day

The World Health Day is a global health awareness day celebrated every year on 7 April, under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as other related organizations. In 1948, the WHO hold the First World Health Assembly.

7 April 2020 is the day to celebrate the work of nurses and midwives and remind world leaders of the critical role they play in keeping the world healthy. Nurses and other health workers are at the forefront of COVID-19 response – providing high quality, respectful treatment and care, leading community dialogue to address fears and questions and, in some instances,  collecting data for clinical studies. Quite simply, without nurses, there would be no response.

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship. ~ Buddha

Leap Day 2020

February 29, also known as leap day or leap year day, is a date added to most years that are divisible by 4, such as 2016, 2020, and 2024. A leap day is added in various solar calendars (calendars based on the Earth’s revolution around the Sun), including the Gregorian calendar standard in most of the world. Lunisolar calendars (whose months are based on the phases of the Moon) instead add a leap or intercalary month.

In the Gregorian calendar, years that are divisible by 100, but not by 400, do not contain a leap day. Thus, 1700, 1800, and 1900 did not contain a leap day; neither will 2100, 2200, and 2300. Conversely, 1600 and 2000 did and 2400 will. Years containing a leap day are called leap years. Years not containing a leap day are called common years. February 29 is the 60th day of the Gregorian calendar in such a year with 306 days remaining until the end of the year. In the Chinese calendar, this day will only occur in years of the monkey, dragon, and rat.

A leap day is observed because the Earth’s period of orbital revolution around the Sun takes approximately six hours longer than 365 whole days. A leap day compensates for this lag, realigning the calendar with the Earth’s position in the Solar System; otherwise, seasons would occur later than intended in the calendar year. The Julian calendar used in Christendom until the 16th century added a leap day every four years; but this rule adds too many days (roughly three every 400 years), making the equinoxes and solstices shift gradually to earlier dates. By the 16th century the vernal equinox had drifted to March 11, and the Gregorian calendar was introduced both to shift it back by omitting several days, and to reduce the number of leap years via the aforementioned century rule to keep the equinoxes more or less fixed and the date of Easter consistently close to the vernal equinox.

Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_29

Leap Year Birthday

A person born on February 29 may be called a “leapling”, a “leaper”, or a “leap-year baby”. In non-leap years, some leaplings celebrate their birthday on either February 28 or March 1, while others only observe birthdays on the authentic intercalary date, February 29.

Sarojini Naidu Birth Anniversary

Sarojini was born in Hyderabad on 13 February, 1879. Her father, Aghorenath Chattopadhyay, came from Brahmangarh, a village in East Bengal of undivided Bengal. Her mother’s name was Varada Sundari. From her early years, Sarojini showed signs of her extraordinary talent. She began to write poems in English language from her school days. At thirteen, she wrote a long poem, a la Lady of the Lake- 1,300 lines, in six days. At thirteen, she also, wrote a drama of 2,000 lines in English.

While at Madras, Sarojini passed the Matriculation Examination at the age of twelve, obtaining a First Class, from the Madras University. In 1895, Sarojini was sent by her father to King’s College, London, and Girton, Cambridge for higher education. But she returned to India without a degree, at the age of eighteen, although her study of English literature and her personal contact with the liter­ary world in London was of far greater value than mere aca­demic distinction. In her later years, she became a Member of the Royal Literary Society, London, and was conferred the degree of Doctorate by many universities.

Sarojini was affected by the partition of Bengal and decided to join in the freedom movement. The leaders of the Indian freedom movement asked her to devote her intellect for the political cause. She had played an immense role in freedom struggle and partly responsible for establishing gandhian principles all over India.

She found Women’s India association with other leaders and urged the congress to involve more women in the freedom struggle. She was one among the two delegates who attended east African congress. She was elected on 1925 as the president of Indian national congress. She met her end on March 1949 at uttarpradesh.

World Radio Day

World Radio Day is celebrated annually on February 13 to recognize radio as a method for teaching individuals, transporting data and promoting the opportunity of expression across global cultures.

Radio is a medium that has kept its prominence alive even in the age of newer discoveries. The science of transmitting waves to send news, promote education and transmit information has moulded with the onslaught of television and new media.

World Radio Day: History

The Executive Board of UNESCO recommended first to the General Conference regarding the proclamation of World Radio Day.

On the proposal of the Director-General of UNESCO, Radio was established in 1946.

Thereafter, the 36th session of UNESCO’s General Conference proclaimed February 13 as World Radio Day.

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly endorsed UNESCO’s proclamation of World Radio Day on 14 January in 2013.

Following this, the 67th session of the UN General Assembly, a resolution was adopted for proclaiming 13 February as World Radio Day.

Martyrs Day or Shaheed Diwas

Every year, January 30 is observed as Martyrs’ Day ( Shaheed Diwas), which marks the death anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi (Gandhi Ji) who is most popularly known and titled as the Father of the Nation. Gandhi was assassinated on this day in 1948 and since that day, January 30 is named as Martyrs’ Day.

30 January is the date observed in the national level. The date was chosen as it marks the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Ji in 1948, by Nathuram Godse. On Martyr’s Day the president, the vice president, the prime minister, the defense minister, and the three Service Chiefs gather at the samadhi at Raj Ghat memorial and lay wreaths decorated with multi-color flowers. The armed forces personnel blow bugles sounding the Last Post. The inter-services contingent reverse arms as a mark of respect. A two-minute silence in memory of Indian martyrs is observed throughout the country at 11 am. Participants hold all-religion prayers and sing tributes

Birth Anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

Subhash Chandra Bose born in 23 January 1897 in Cuttack and died in a plane crash in Taiwan in 1945. But many Indian’s believed that he didn’t die that time. The Government of West Bengal submitted many evidence that he was alive after the plane crash too.

Subhas Chandra Bose, affectionately called as Netaji, was one of the most prominent leaders of Indian freedom struggle. Though Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru have garnered much of the credit for successful culmination of Indian freedom struggle, the contribution of Subash Chandra Bose is no less. He has been denied his rightful place in the annals of Indian history. He founded Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) to overthrow British Empire from India and came to acquire legendary status among Indian masses.

Subhas Chandra Bose’s father Janaki Nath Bose was a famous lawyer and his mother Prabhavati Devi was a pious and religious lady. Subhas Chandra Bose was the ninth child among fourteen siblings. Subhas Chandra Bose was a brilliant student right from the childhood. He topped the matriculation examination of Calcutta province and graduated with a First Class in Philosophy from the Scottish Churches College in Calcutta. He was strongly influenced by Swami Vivekananda’s teachings and was known for his patriotic zeal as a student. To fulfill his parents wishes he went to England in 1919 to compete for Indian Civil Services. In England he appeared for the Indian Civil Service competitive examination in 1920, and came out fourth in order of merit. However, Subhas Chandra Bose was deeply disturbed by the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre, and left his Civil Services apprenticeship midway to return to India in 1921.

Minorities Rights Day (India)

Minorities Rights Day in India is observed on 18 December every year to remind us about the rights of minorities and to educate people about it. No doubt every nation has different ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities group. Let us read more about Minorities Rights Day in India, how is it celebrated and its significance. The Constitution of India provides equal rights for all citizens and adopted several measures for safeguarding the rights of linguistic, ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities. Also, it takes cares of those people who are economically or socially disadvantaged people irrespective of their caste, cultural and community including the people of scheduled tribes and scheduled castes.

Minorities in India:

• The minorities in India include Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains.
• Minorities in India constitute about 19% of the total population.
• J & K, Punjab, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Lakshadweep are the only states where any notified minority is in majority.
• The Ministry of Minority Affairs, which was established in 2006, is the apex body in the Union government to carry out various welfare, regulatory and developmental programmes for the minority communities.
• A National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has also been set up under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.

The United Nations, on 18th December 1992, promulgated the “Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities” to discourage the countries to discriminate amongst people worldwide on the basis of religion, language, nationality or ethnicity.

Interional Tea Day

Happy International Tea Day

International Tea Day is observed annually on December 15. It has been celebrated since 2005 in tea producing countries like India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia,Bangladesh, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Uganda and Tanzania. International Tea Day aims to draw global attention of governments and citizens to the impact of the global tea trade on workers and growers, and has been linked to requests for price supports and fair trade.

Let us learn the different types of Tea available in Market –

1. Black Tea – Black tea is allowed to wither, which precedes a process called oxidation (sometimes incorrectly referred to as fermentation) during which water evaporates out of the leaf and the leaf absorbs more oxygen from the air .
2. Dark Tea – Dark tea is from Hunan and Sichuan provinces of China and is a flavorful aged probiotic tea that steeps up very smooth with a natural slightly sweet note. 
3. Oolong Tea – Oolong tea (also known as wulong tea) is allowed to undergo partial oxidation. These teas have a caffeine content between that of green teas and black teas. The flavor of oolong (wulong) teas is typically not as robust as blacks or as subtle as greens, but has its own extremely fragrant and intriguing tones.
4. Green Tea – Green tea is allowed to wither only slightly after being picked. Then the oxidation process is stopped very quickly by firing (rapidly heating) the leaves. Therefore, when brewed at lower temperatures and for less time, green teas tend to have less caffeine (10-30% of coffee).
5. White Tea – White tea is the most delicate of all teas. They are appreciated for their subtlety, complexity, and natural sweetness. They are hand-processed using the youngest shoots of the tea plant, with no oxidation.
6. Puer Tea – Puer tea is an aged black tea from China prized for its medicinal properties and earthy flavor. It is perhaps the most mysterious of all tea. Until 1995 it was illegal to import it into the U.S., and the process of its production is a closely guarded state secret in China.
7. Yellow Tea – Yellow is a rare category of tea that is similar to green tea in appearance and flavor. Yellow tea, however, typically does not have the grassiness of some green teas. Yellow teas typically go through more oxidation than green teas and a longer, slower drying period. All yellow teas come from China.

Various Types of Tea

Human Rights Day

Human Rights Day is observed by the international community every year on 10 December. It commemorates the day in 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The formal inception of Human Rights Day dates from 1950, after the Assembly passed resolution 423 (V) inviting all States and interested organizations to adopt 10 December of each year as Human Rights Day.

When the General Assembly adopted the Declaration, with 48 states in favor and eight abstentions, it was proclaimed as a “common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations”, towards which individuals and societies should “strive by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance”. Although the Declaration with its broad range of political, civil, social, cultural and economic rights is not a binding document, it inspired more than 60 human rights instruments which together constitute an international standard of human rights. Today the general consent of all United Nations Member States on the basic Human Rights laid down in the Declaration makes it even stronger and emphasizes the relevance of Human Rights in our daily lives.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights, as the main United Nations rights official, and his Office play a major role in coordinating efforts for the yearly observation of Human Rights Day.

Indian Armed Forces Flag Day

The Armed Forces Flag Day or the Flag Day of India is a day dedicated to India towards collection of funds from people of India for the welfare of the Indian Armed Forces personnel. It has been observed annually in India on December 7 since 1949.