Did You Know? Facts, Figures & Folklore About St. Patrick’s Day March 16 : 01 day till St. Pat’s Day

Did you know that there are 34 million U.S. citizens claiming Irish ancestry?

That’s nearly ten times the population of Ireland today, which has 3.9 million people. Since 1820, 4.8 million Irish have legally immigrated to the U.S.

Did you know that Irish Americans are the second most numerous ethnic group in the United States?

Only four other countries (Germany, Italy, Mexico and the United Kingdom) have sent more native-born residents to U.S. shores.

Celebrating the patron saint of Ireland, its said that on St. Patrick’s Day everyone is Irish! The day is celebrated worldwide with shamrocks, parades and green beer!

We’ll be presenting a new “Did You Know?” fun fact each day so join us as we countdown to St. Patrick’s Day on March 17th!

Signup for our Did You Know? Holiday Countdown emails or follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/holidaysnet (@holidaysnet)

Did You Know?
Facts, Figures & Folklore about
the Jewish Holiday of Passover
March 16 : 13 days till 1st night Passover

Did you know that the holiday of Passover is celebrated for eight days?

In Israel, the holiday is one day shorter- just one week long.

Did you know that the Hebrew word for Passover is Pesach?

Like the English name for this holiday, Pesach means passing over, and refers to G-d’s sparing of the firstborn Jewish males during the 10th Plague, which smote all firstborns in Egypt.

Spring has arrived and with it comes the eight-day Jewish holiday of freedom. It’s time to clean out your chametz, open up a box of matzah and set up for your seder. So join us for our Did You Know? countdown to Passover, which begins at sundown on Monday March 29, 2010.

Signup for our Did You Know? Holiday Countdown emails or follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/holidaysnet (@holidaysnet)

Lips Appreciation Day
Ah those lips. The lovely frames for your pearly whites. You’ve spent a fortune on your teeth and now its time to do something good for your lips.

And lets not forget kissing is always a great way to celebrate your lips!

photo credit: via flickr

Holiday Reminder: The 1st night of the Jewish holiday of Passover begins in 2 weeks, Monday March 29th (@ sundown).

Visit our Passover celebration for more holiday fun and information.

Did You Know? Facts, Figures & Folklore About St. Patrick’s Day March 15 : 02 days till St. Pat’s Day

Did you know that the myth that Saint Patrick drove all the snakes from Ireland into the Irish Sea is just that — a myth?

Many locals still insist that the serpents were drowned in the Irish Sea by Saint Patrick, causing their seas to be so rough.

The truth, however, is that serpents where never native to Ireland. The story is most likely a metaphor for the druidic religions, which disappeared from the Emerald Island after St. Patrick spread the seeds of Christianity.

Celebrating the patron saint of Ireland, its said that on St. Patrick’s Day everyone is Irish! The day is celebrated worldwide with shamrocks, parades and green beer!

We’ll be presenting a new “Did You Know?” fun fact each day so join us as we countdown to St. Patrick’s Day on March 17th!

Signup for our Did You Know? Holiday Countdown emails or follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/holidaysnet (@holidaysnet)

Did You Know?
Facts, Figures & Folklore about
the Jewish Holiday of Passover
March 15 : 14 days till 1st night Passover

Did you know that Passover celebrates the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt?

On a broader level, the holiday also marks the birth of the Jewish nation, whose journey began with Moses leading them across the Red Sea and culminates with G-d* giving them the Torah on Mount Sinai fifty days later?

(*BTW – Did you know that Jews do not write the name G-d or L-rd? It has to do with the commandment about taking G-d’s name in vain. It is believed that if the name was written on a piece of paper and the paper was crumpled, discarded, or destroyed it would be considered a sin).

Spring has arrived and with it comes the eight-day Jewish holiday of freedom. It’s time to clean out your chametz, open up a box of matzah and set up for your seder. So join us for our Did You Know? countdown to Passover, which begins at sundown on Monday March 29, 2010.

Signup for our Did You Know? Holiday Countdown emails or follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/holidaysnet (@holidaysnet)

Ides of March

Beware the Ides of March

This line from Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar is generally regarded as a foreboding of doom, especially when you consider its also the day Caesar was killed.

Here’s a bit of info concerning the assassination of Cesar from Wikipedia…

Caesar summoned the Senate to meet in the Pompey’s Theater on the Ides of March, 44 BC for the purpose of reading a petition, written by the senators, asking him to hand power back to the Senate. According to the Greek biographer Plutarch, a few days before, the soothsayer Titus Vestricius Spurinna apparently warned Caesar, “Beware the Ides of March.” Caesar disregarded the warning.

“…A certain seer warned Caesar to be on his guard against a great peril on the day of the month of March which the Romans call the Ides; and when the day had come and Caesar was on his way to the senate-house, he greeted the seer with a jest and said: “Well, the Ides of March are come,” and the seer said to him softly: “Ay, they are come, but they are not gone.”

As the Senate convened, Caesar was attacked and stabbed to death by a group of senators who called themselves the Liberatores (”Liberators”); they justified their action on the grounds that they committed tyrannicide, not murder, and were preserving the Republic from Caesar’s alleged monarchical ambitions.*

source: wikipedia – Ides of March