Every Day Is Special: Zimbabwe

Showing posts with label Zimbabwe. Show all posts

December 26 - Boxing Day in Great Britain and many other nations

Posted on December 26, 2020

This is an update of my December 26, 2009, post:

Especially common in countries that were once part of the British Empire, this bank and public holiday originally came from the tradition of giving Christmas boxes to people of "lower class." For example, merchants would give gifts to tradespeople; alms boxes in churches would be opened, and the contents would be distributed to the poor; and masters would give servants the day off and a Christmas box (gift).

Nowadays, many people use the day to make yearly donations to charities, but the day has also become associated, for many people, with shopping and sales.

Boxing Day in the U.K. will NOT look like this, not this year!
Global pandemic makes this sort of mob scene dang

Various countries have taken Boxing Day and given it their own twist - although the celebrations will be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, this year:

Annual Sports Day – Falkland Islands
The sports played on this day include horse racing, bull riding, and sheepdog trials.

Day of Goodwill – South Africa
In 1980 Boxing Day was changed to Day of Goodwill so that South Africans could continue the “spirit of Christmas” to everyone in the country.

Family Day – Namibia, Zimbabwe, and other African nations
On this day, families play games together, feast, and remember their ancestors.

Junkanoo – British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas
This is a street parade with music. It is named after an African slave master and trader named “John Canoe,” and the festival celebrated the slaves' freedom.

Contribute!

You could continue the tradition of giving to the less fortunate by gathering boxes of canned goods for a soup kitchen, used clothes and blankets for a homeless shelter, and new cleaning supplies for a family aid organization—just to give a few examples.

Or how about honoring people who have served the community? Make up boxes (care packages) for our overseas troops, and make boxes of homemade goodies for fire fighters.

Also on this date:

St. Stephen's Day

National Candy Cane Day

Anniversary of a Curie discovery

Anniversary of the commissioning of a hospital ship

Second Day of Christmas

Boxing Day

(original post)

Anniversary of the patent for the Frisbee

Kwanza (from 12/26/11 to 1/1/12)

Day of Goodwill in South Africa

Independence and Unity Day in Slovenia

Junkanoo

Wren Day

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest pages on:

December holidays
December birthdays
Historical anniversaries in December

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

August 13 - Heroes Day in Zimbabwe

(Second Monday in August)

Posted on August 13, 2018

This holiday honors those who who died in Zimbabwe's struggle for independence from Britain and in the guerilla war against the rule of the white minority, when the land was called Rhodesia.

Unfortunately, Zimbabwe didn't become a bastion of freedom at the end of all that struggle and war. It suffered under a single "president" - really, a dictator - for decades. Finally, in late 2017, Mugabe was arrested and resigned. The Mugabe regime was at least partly responsible for devastating economic problems and hyper-inflation and, even worse, the deaths of millions of Zimbabweans.

Here are some happier aspects of Zimbabwe:

Some Zimbabweans call themselves Zimbos. I love that!

Zimbabwe basically gave up having its own currency. This was after a period of hyper-inflation. Regular inflation is when prices go up by an annual rate of more than 3%, but Zimbabwe was seeing inflation rates of more than 30% per year and then - and this is crazy, but true - up to 11,200,000% increase!! I know this is supposed to be "happier aspects of Zimbabwe" - but let's celebrate Zimbabwe's move to use other nations' currency instead of their own (Zimbabweans now use everything from U.S. dollars, to South African rands, Botswana pulas, the euro, Chinese renminbi, Indian rupees, pound sterling, and Australian dollars). And even though hyper-inflation is terrible to go through, at least they have some interesting keepsakes from the experience:

Zimbabwe lost a lot of its tourism with the human rights violation and political instability, but hopefully they will be able to gain it back, and then some. After all, there's the hyper-incredible Victoria Falls...

...and other amazing landscapes...

...and beautiful stonescapes...

...and wonderful stone artworks!

Also on this date:

National Women's Day in Tunisia

Battle of Flowers in Jersey

Anniversary of the opening of Bambi

Feminist Lucy Stone's birthday

International Left-Handers' Day

Sharp-shooter Annie Oakley's birthday

Independence Day in the Central African Republic

Teej Festival

Anniversary of an acrobat being crowned King of Albania?

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

August 1 – Africa from A to Z

Posted on August 1, 2017

There are more than 50 nations in Africa - many of them quite large, and several of them tiny - many of them mostly hot and dry and covered with desert, some warm and moist and covered with jungle. Today we are going to look at historical anniversaries from the African countries that start with A and Z.

Angola - On this date in 1974, after a coup removed the Portuguese rulers of this nation, armed forces for this newly independent nation were formed.

Algeria - On this date in 1996 began a visit of the French minister of foreign affairs to Algeria, a former French colony. Algeria had been rocked by violent civil war and civilian massacres for several years, and the visit was supposed to give a "new start" to relations between France and Algeria. However, still on this date, a bomb exploded and killed the respected French-born Archbishop of Oran. The French minister packed up and left.

Zambia - On this date in 1999, a cease-fire agreement was signed by the head of the Congo Liberation Movement. Five other nations involved in the cease fire had already previously signed the accord.

Zimbabwe - On this date in 2008, the badly inflated money of Zimbabwe was re-calibrated, as it were. Every 10 billion dollars became - get this - just 1 dollar.

This last historical anniversary is a true shocker. How is it possible that $10,000,000,000 could, in just one moment, become $1?

Well, at that point, as you may have guessed, the Zimbabwe dollar was pretty much worthless. In just four years, during the 2000s, Zimbabwe went through FOUR currencies!

In 2006:

1,000 First Zimbabwe dollars = 1 Second Zimbabwe dollar

In 2008:

1,000,000,000 Second Zimbabwe dollars = 1 Third Zimbabwe dollar

In 2009:

1,000,000,000,000 Third Zimbabwe dollars = 1 Fourth Zimbabwe dollar

So, if you compare 2005 First Zimbabwe dollars to 2009 Fourth Zimbabwe dollars...

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 First ZWD = 1 Fourth ZWD

Wow!!!!

Of course, ATM machines no longer worked - they would give "data overflow" errors! Z$100 billion wouldn't even buy a loaf of bread!! The value of a check would be decimated by the time the check was deposited and cleared!!!

You cannot increase wealth by just printing more money, and by 2009 the Zimbabwe dollars - all of them - had to be given up. Nowadays the U.S. dollar is the official currency of the nation, although the South African rand and other currencies are in use as well.

Check out the locations of these A - Z African countries: