Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Today it is Father's Day in Australia and in New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.   It is celebrated in June by a majority of countries in the world, but in fact, Father's Day is celebrated somewhere in the world  most months of the year ( only exceptions are January and April).  In the Middle Ages in Europe, Father's Day was celebrated on St Joseph's Day, 19 March.  ( From Wikipedia)  And here are some other facts about Father's Day... Father's Day was inspired by Mother's Day Sonora Smart Dodd, a woman living in Spokane, Washington, believed that if mothers got a day of recognition, fathers deserved one too Father's Day in USA  didn't become an official holiday until the 1970s It's fourth-biggest day for sending greeting cards & flowers after Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Mother's Day (from  Interesting Facts... )  Wherever you are in the world, have a great day and spend some time doing what you love with the ...

Where in the world will FIRST  experience Christmas Day? Because of the time zones and daylight saving , the first places will be   Samoa,    Tonga  and Kiritimati (Christmas Island) . They   are the first places to welcome Christmas. New Zealand and Australia see in Christmas Day soon after,  while American Samoa and Baker Island in the United States of America are among the last. These statistics are more often quoted in relation to New Year's Eve, but I think it seems appropriate that Christmas Island is one of the first to celebrate Christmas in the world.  Kiritimati,    or Christmas Island, is a Pacific Ocean raised coral atoll in the northern Line Islands. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. The name "Kiritimati" is a respelling of the English word "Christmas" in the  Kiribati language   The island has the greatest land area of any  coral atoll  in the w...

Today we are celebrating Father's Day in Australia.. lots of families enjoying the day out or  BBQs at home,  lots of presents like " Best Dad" coffee mugs, chocolates, socks and undies ... so how did all this begin? The first Father’s Day was reported  in Washington , USA on June 19, 1910. A woman  Sonora Smart Dodd came up with the idea of honouring and celebrating her father while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon at church in 1909. She felt as though mothers were getting all the acclaim while fathers were equally deserving of a day of praise. Sonora’s dad was quite a man. William Smart, a veteran of the Civil War, was left a widower when his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. He went on to raise the six children by himself on their small farm in Washington. To show her appreciation for all the hard work and love William gave to her and her siblings, Sonora thought there should be a day to pay homage to him and other dads like him. She initi...