The Squid Calendar

Today is Santa Lucia Day also known as Saint Lucy Day or the Feast of St. Lucy.  Santa Lucia is celebrated mainly in Sweden, but also in several other countries.  It is celebrated in the United States by those of Scandinavian descent.

Learn more about Santa Lucia in this lens by PastorKay.

(photo by urbanlegends)

Tonight at sundown is the start of Hanukkah or Chanukah or Hannukah…How do you spell Hanukkah?

It’s the Festival of Lights. Learn all about The Meaning of Chanukah and perhaps sing a few songs from The TJC Hanukah Songbook.

Happy Hanukkah!

(photo by scazon)

In January of 1963, The Beatles released “Please Please Me” which hit #2 on the the UK singles chart.
On February 9, 1964 The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Millions were influenced by The Beatles – culturally and musically.

And then on December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot.

Millions are still influenced by The Beatles – culturally and musically. And, millions miss John Lennon, including mukunda22 who made: John Lennon: My Favorite Beatle.

On December 7, 1941, The United States of America was attacked, on its own soil by the Japanese. Hawaii was attacked by 353 airplanes by surprise in the early morning. 2,402 were killed and another 1,282 wounded. It marked USA’s entrance into WWII.

Sadly, I could not find a squidoo lens worthy of the day. If you have one, please submit it in the comments.

crazyoctopus)

Today kicks off National Handwashing Awareness Week (December 6-12, 2009). Take this time to remember the importance of handwashing, and to teach your children how to wash their hands properly, when to wash their hands, and why it is so important.

Mylittlescholar has a great place to start: Germs, Germs, Germs – An interactive guide for children and hand washing.

(photo by gabyu)

On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment was ratified ending Prohibition. I’ll drink to that!

As you remember, the 18th Amendment had been ratified in 1919 making alcohol illegal. Between 1919 and 1933 all production, trafficking, and use of alcohol was illegal, which lead to speakeasies (illegal bars), bootlegging, and organized crime.

Learn more about the men who enforced prohibition on tirial‘s lens, The Untouchables – Eliot Ness and Prohibition.

Some breweries made it through prohibition. Yuengling, America’s Oldest Brewery turned to making “near beer” and opening a dairy to supplement income during prohibition, but went back to their passion in 1933 – in fact they sent President Roosevelt a truck load of beer when prohibition was ended!

(Photo by star5112)

Today is Special Education Day, which was chosen as December 2 because it is the anniversary of the United States’ first federal special education law (December 2, 1975).

Teddi41 has a general overview of Special Education for us. Macs tells us about the Educational Needs Of Bipolar Children, and AddaptAbilities answers the question “What the heck is dyscalculia?“.

The economy has gone bad, the world is at war, but even though it is not discussed on the evening news as much as it used to be HIV/AIDS has not gone away.  It is still here.  It still kills millions.  It still ruins lives.

EchoTarpeian‘s lens has some harsh statistics to prove it: Presently Over 33 Million People Living with AIDS.

Donnette introduces us to many children in Africa who know too well the destruction of this disease: Outreach Africa ~Bringing Hope To Africa’s Aids Orphans

What can YOU do for World AIDS Day?  Here are a few ideas:

(photo by Sham Hardy)