On This Day: January 11th … Strange Holidays
Learn Your Name In Morse Code Day
Step In A Puddle And Splash Your Friend’s Day
Clean Off Your Desk Day
National Human Trafficking Day
National Milk Day
Two of these are simple enough, were it not for cows there would be no milk, thank god for Elsie and her moo-mooing friends. Best way to clean off your desk is tilt one end of the desk over an open window and watch everything slide off until it hits the street. Otherwise, you know what you need to do.
National Human Trafficking Day
This will be longer than what I usually do but this one is important. I don’t want to end this post on a serious note.
National Human Trafficking Awareness Day on January 11 raises awareness of the persistent issue of human trafficking. Though the entire month of January has already been recognized as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, this day is specifically dedicated to awareness and prevention of the illegal practice. This holiday is also separate from the World Day Against Trafficking Persons, as established by the United Nations. Since the Senate established this day of observance in 2007, it has drawn massive public support from individual donations to government-organized events. The horrific injustice of human trafficking can affect people of any race and background, and on this day we are all called to fight human trafficking wherever it exists.
Human trafficking, according to Unitas, is the exploitation of another person for labor, domestic servitude, or commercial sexual activity by force, fraud, or coercion. It is also the act of enslaving or exploiting unwilling other people. Unfortunately, slavery in some form has existed for hundreds of years – and persistently exists today, though many are unaware of this fact.
Most are familiar with the slave trade of the 1400s and beyond. Instituted by Europeans, the slave trade captured and held in bondage millions of Africans from across the continent, eventually selling them for labor or sexual exploitation. This practice flourished in countries like Spain, the growing United States, Holland, France, Sweden, and Denmark for centuries.
It was not until the late 1700s and 1800s that governments began to declare the Transatlantic slave trade illegal, with Great Britain setting the example in 1807 and the United States following in 1820 – the slave trade became a crime punishable by death, but many years passed before more widespread freedom was achieved. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 largely put an end to slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment of 1866 abolished it.
It was after the recognition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade as immoral that governments began to discuss “white slavery,” the term used at the time for sexual human trafficking. 1904 saw the passage of the International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic, written into law by European monarchs, and 12 countries signed the International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic. The League of Nations soon changed the name from “white slavery” to “traffic in women and children.”
The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries saw gains for the movement against human trafficking. In 2000, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act addressed modern-day slavery, becoming the first federal law to do so. The American charity group Free The Slaves, part of Anti-Slavery International, was also formed. In 2007, the United States Senate ratified the resolution establishing January 11th as National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. In 2010, President Obama dedicated the entire month of January to awareness and prevention of human trafficking. Today, there are over 50 established organizations that globally combat this illegal practice, and more awareness has been raised than ever before.
Step In A Puddle And Splash Your Friend’s Day
The aim of the day is to walk somewhere with one or more friends. When you happen upon a puddle on the ground, step into it with hasty abandon! The result? Your friends will likely end up with damp clothing, and perhaps be a bit grumpy with you! Don’t worry, though, because they are sure to see the funny side of it later.
Be aware, though, that if you explain to them why you stepped or jumped into a puddle of water, they are likely to do the same back to you. It might be on the same day, or it could be on January 11th the following year. You just don’t know – so be alert!
The first known reference to Step In A Puddle And Splash Your Friends Day dates to 2011. On that year, Anita Silvey’s “Children’s Book-a-Day Almanac” got published online, and in print a year later. Silvey is an established author and literary critic of children’s literature.
She first started publishing the Children’s Book-a-Day Almanac in 2010. In a nutshell, the publication is a daily essay on children’s books. For the 2012 edition, she makes mention of Step In A Puddle And Splash Your Friends Day for the January 11th entry.
On that date’s page in her Almanac, she notes that it’s celebrated by people that live in an ice and snowless place. Silvey also recommends reading “Splish, Splash” by Sarah Weeks, “The Problem with Puddles” by Kate Feiffer, and “Splash” by Ann Jonas.
This made me think of this song.
(Keep in mind at the time this was done live but this is the original)
Learn Morse Code Day
These holidays center around Samuel Morse, the morse code, and the magnetic telegraph machine that was first used to transmit this revolutionary means of communication from one distant location to another. In 1836, Samuel Morse and his compatriots, Alford Vail and Joseph Henry developed morse code. On January 11, 1838, Samuel Morse and Alford Vail demonstrated the use of the electric telegraph to transmit a message in morse code for the first time.
Did you know SOS signals were often sent in morse code. While SOS had no specific translation, it was said to mean "save our souls" or "save our ship".
Morse code uses a unique series of dots and dashes, called "dii and dah", for each letter of the alphabet, and the numbers 0 thru 9. Long before the invention of radios and cell phones, operators used telegraph machines to send messages in morse code. On the receiving end, the morse code is translated back into alphabetic characters and numbers to form the message. The message allowed for instant, coast to coast communication of information over telegraph lines. Once radios arrived, morse code continued to be a major means of communications. Morse code was in use in the military, ham radios and other means of communication for decades.
Morse code is in danger of disappearing as a means of communications. As of 2007 , knowledge of morse code is no longer a requirement for a ham radio license.
Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day was created in 2015 by Sheila Cicchi from Virginia. She is the owner and creator of Brownielocks.com. According to Chcchi "I figured if people started with their name, thought it was fun, it would encourage them to learn the entire alphabet and numbers." She chose this date, as Morse Code Day and the telegraph were first demonstrated on this day in 1838.
This website gives you a chance to play with Morse Code. Have fun with it.
More strange holidays are coming!