Jan 1 2025 - A New Year Starts

 

Because I send out a photo of the day, I write the date every day.  So today we start writing 2025.  Today - January 1st - is also one of the rarest birthdays of the year.  Supposedly an estimated 371,504 babies will be born on New Year's Day.  That'w a pretty precise "estimate." Of course, the actual rarest birthday is February 29th.  The next rarest is December 25th, and then comes January 1st.  December 24th is next, July 4th follows, and January 2nd is after that.    January 1 is a common birthday in Pakistan and Afghanistan because 1/1 is an easy date for people to remember in cultures that don't follow Western standards of time.    Most curious of the birthday facts is an entry for the richest birthday - what could that mean?  Nineteen out of 500 top billionaires worldwide have the same birthday - November 30th.   As  I start a new folder in my Photo of the Day library, I can see that September 2008 was the first folder, the first entry is the image below.  That was taken in the Toronto Airport.  The Canadian flag is behind a water wall.

There's BBC photo coverage of the New Year around the world HERE.  They had updates every time another country, province, state rang in the new year.  What a lot of work they go to. What comes with the new year? Artworks, books and films enter the public domain.  So music from 1924 and other works from 1929 will enter the public domain - the original comic strip iteration of Popeye, Mickey Mouse animations, William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury, and the song Singin' in the Rain.  That goes for  U.S. copyright.  I wonder what strange horror versions we will see of Popeye and Mickey Mouse. We started with the first image in the photo archive, and below is the last image in 2024.  While it was taken a few years ago, it seems to be appropriate for 2025 - We look forward to the dawn of a new year, but see a lot of withering decay in our social order.

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Jan 22 2023 - Chinese New Year

 

Chinese New Year this year brings the year of the rabbit.  I wonder if we will be present to this after today.   There are a lot of traditions - more than I imagined. And a lot of time to celebrate them in - since the mid-1990s the Chinese have been given seven consecutive days off work.  As there are 15 days of  traditional celebrations, they will need to double up..  What are the celebrations? I took a look to find out and realize how little I know about the traditions and legends.  Just the first few days: It says the first day is "Birthday of Chicken" where the oldest and most senior members will be visited. The second day is "Birthday of Dog" where people will burn the picture they welcomed on the New Year's Eve, and traditionally married women will visit and pay respect to their birth parents. Since the day is characterised by the birthday of the dogs, pets and strays will be fed well. The third day is "Birthday of Pig" where families who had an immediate relative deceased in the past 3 years will not go house-visiting as a form of respect to the dead. The third day of the New Year is allocated to grave-visiting instead. Some people conclude it is inauspicious to do any house visiting at all, as it is believed that evil spirits roam the earth this day and hence it would be bad luck to be outdoors. We skip ahead to Sheep, Ox, Cattle, Horse, and at day 7 are at the "Birthday of Men". This is the day when human beings were created.  We still have to get to Day 15, so there are lots of celebrations yet to come.   Some of the traditions are taboos such as no hair cutting, no using scissors, knives and other sharp  things, no arguing, swearing, saying unlucky words (death, sickness) and no breaking things.  And then there are articles on what to wear, typical Chinese New Year greetings, and so on.  One in five people in the world is Chinese. Shouldn't Chinese New Year be a part of our lives in some way more than a one day celebration around the world. Its traditions seem so separate from  "western culture."   Raindrop s on windshield pictures. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 2 2023 - Covid Surge

 

Covid Surge in 2023? The U.S. experts think there is a level of immunity in the population this winter, along with more tools.   The prediction is that the current surge is not going to be as big as last winter's.  Georges Benjamin of the American Public Health Association says: "But I think there’s one really big outlier out there, China. If China gets hit with a big spike, then it is quite possible that it will bleed into the U.S... That's my one caveat, a nd I'm worried to death about that." Not very scientific writing to me.  I rather prefer what I found from Sylvia Browne, the psychic.  She died in 2013, and this is her prophecy on Covid.  “In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments. Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived, attack again 10 years later, and then disappear completely,” the book reads.   Looking back, there is some humour on the subject of Covid Why did the chicken cross the road? Because the chicken behind it didn’t know how to socially distance properly. My husband purchased a world map and then gave me a dart and said, “Throw this and wherever it lands—that’s where I’m taking you when this pandemic ends.” Turns out, we’re spending two weeks behind the fridge. The World Health Organization announced that dogs cannot contract COVID-19. Dogs previously held in quarantine can now be released. To be clear, WHO let the dogs out. Quarantine has really put a damper on comedy. For months nobody has walked into a bar. Our pictures are of Meconopsis Poppies - the Himalayan Poppy, in that beautiful Cerulean Blue that is so beloved.  It seems a perfect way to welcome the New Year.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 1 2023 - Predictions this year

 

What are the predictions for 2023?   Our great psychics are listed as: Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, Jeanne Dixon, Ingo Swann, Sylvia Browne, John Edward, Doreen Virtue, Chip Coffey, VBaba Vanga and Esther Hicks.  That's according to the best psychics.club.  Today  it is Nostradamus' turn.  He's still making the news after all these centuries with over 6,300 prophecies: Predictions 2023  World War  Nostradamus wrote, "Seven months the Great War, people dead of evil-doing." Mars landing  The French mystic cryptically referred to a "light on Mars falling", suggesting that humans could possibly visit the Red Planet in 2023. New Pope  Nostradamus' third prediction for 2023 is a new Pope succeeding Francis. He suggested that Pope Francis will be the last true Pope and that the next Pope will create a scandal. New World Order  Nostradamus' final prediction for 2023 talked about the new alliance of two great powers coming together. The new alignment will potentially be between a strong man and a weak one or even a male and a female leader. However, the alliance's good effects will not be long-lasting. While there are more details for each one, his language is strange and vague  so I left most of it out.   Here they are with another author's own comments.

Our pictures today are abstracts - rain on the windshield in the foreground and a lamp post in the background.

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Dec 31 2021 - Top FIVE things for 2022

 

What if there were only FIVE things to watch in 2022?  What's the first?   It is the Pandemic and its persistent set of rolling waves.  Everyone is asking if 2022 is the year it moves into an endemic which somehow seems less scary than the past two years of pandemic.  That's the active word right now.   I am looking past the waves that roll into endemic and on to the aftershocks that impact the health care system itself.  That seems to me to be the actual thing to keep track of in 2022.  And it is going to be close-up and personal for those of us who are older and more dependent on the health care system. On to Number Two:  Would you think climate change, climate events, and climate actions might be the second thing?  Not according to the media.  Nothing there on climate change as the key trend.  It is things like inflation, The Big Resignation, electric vehicles and space travel.  These are so much easier to write about.  And the news organizations have been very low on expertise on climate, just as they were low on expertise on the pandemic when it started.  As an aside, I think the space travel trend in 2022 might bring the first big space accident, given the near misses of 2021.  I don't see anybody else making this sort of prediction, but then it is macabre. So climate change is likely to have even more climate events that impact more of us, and personally. A growing swell of weather gone wrong.  I am attentive to the weather forecast as never before, and considering the worst scenario is where I live. And the other three things?   It seems it is up for grabs, but it is actually easy to see.  It is our attention to U.S. politics and the state of democracy in America.  The US news media and social media players have a hold on us.  They want to rekindle the comedy and tragedy of the Donald Trump days - that Trump frenzy. And what about  the gladiator hand-to-hand combat of the "Republican problem?"  Be ready for it to play out on January 6th. So we're down to what are the remaining two things to watch in 2022?  What are you considering?  What compels your attention?   It is time for a new calendar - but I don't seem to have Kim Klassen's New Years templates.  I'll have to go find out if she produced them this year. Here's a New Years greeting from a few years ago.  What a different time that was, and doesn't this image demonstrate it.  A magical Longwood Gardens' Himalayan Blue Poppy welcoming the New Year into a welcoming Blue Starry Sky.

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Feb 26 2021 - Let's Lantern Tonight!

 

I think we set in our "Western Ways." We mostly ignore an opportunity for a Lantern Festival.  This is the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year.  It is marked with massive displays of lanterns.  Wikipedia tells me that festivals are held in some western cities - in London and various U.S. cities.  New York's is the largest.  But these seem more like a commercial version of the traditional Chinese festival.  At the same time, I realize it is hard to just 'adopt' them.  These sorts of traditions have ancient roots in religious celebrations.  That's what makes our holidays such as Christmas, Easter, and so on so special for us.     On the other hand, it is never too late to adapt.  So let's check nearby.  Niagara Falls is an international attraction so should have something for tourists who celebrate the lunar new year.  Of course it does! And here it is:   "Buy your ticket now! Seasky International Light Show is coming to Niagara. This visually spectacular lantern and light festival will allow you to explore over 30 magical light displays on the illuminated trail that you can walk at your leisure. Light up the darkness and bring a smile to your face!"  The pictures are amazing - great big displays  Here's the website HERE.  However, we're in the COVID gray zone so we're in lockdown, and tickets are on hold right now.  With only two days left, it seems a shame to have only found out about it now - early December was the opening.  However, the opening was postponed, so let's hope for next year to celebrate this event.  What else made me think of lanterns today?  The Snow Moon 2021 is out.  What a huge moon it was - both last night in the east and this morning in the west.   Today, February 27 is the 'big day' so take a look out and enjoy the lantern festival we have. Doesn't this pretty entrance gate look perfect for such an event as the Snow Moon?  This is the Moon Gate entrance to the gardens at Lost Horizons nursery.  The white sign says "Display Gardens". And here's what we would experience at the entrance to the Seasky Lantern Festival 2021. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 12 21021 - There's One Chinese New Year's Joke

 

It is Chinese New Year.  How is  the date determined? First new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February  I know so little about how it works.  Here's an impact - figuring out your Chinese birth-year: "Many people inaccurately calculate their Chinese birth-year by converting it from their Gregorian birth-year. As the Chinese New Year starts in late January to mid-February, the previous Chinese year dates through 1 January until that day in the new Gregorian year, remaining unchanged from the previous Gregorian year. For example, the 2018 year of the Dog began on 16 February 2018. The year 2018 is generally aligned with the year of the Dog. However, the 2017 year of the Rooster officially ended on 15 February 2018. This means that anyone born from 28 January 2017 to 15 February 2018 was actually born in the year of the Rooster rather than the year of the Dog. Many online Chinese Sign calculators do not account for the non-alignment of the two calendars, using Gregorian-calendar years rather than official Chinese New Year dates." There are lots of charts in the Wikipedia entry as the Chinese calendar is not continuous but cyclical.  That just seems so strange to me now that we've become an arithmetic-based, linear society.  The headline promises easy but funny Chinese New Year Jokes 2021 For Everyone.  But there aren't many jokes.  Here's one: If you celebrated Chinese New Year in America do you celebrated American Years in China? Summer images are so full of colour compared to our current landscape. The statue is in the Powell Garden in Kansas City. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 1 2021 - Who Chewed My Resolutions?

 

Resolution has gone far beyond its meaning - a firm decision to do or not do something.  In the context of the New Year, it is a promise to do better.  Not just differently as Merriam-Webster says, but towards improvement of the body or mind.  In the past, it was improvement of the soul. We can blame the Babylonians for this practice - that's 4,000 years ago.  Of course it has religious origins.  The Babylonians were negotiating with their gods at the new year which started in March.  Would it be easier to keep resolutions if we made them in March?  The Babylonians idea of resolution was what we would call completion - settling debts and returning things that weren't theirs.  They wanted to be rewarded with good fortune by the gods for the upcoming year.   And when did we acknowledge historically that we failed to keep these promises?  By 1802, when a magazine wrote a series of joke resolutions.  And shockingly, I have found them HERE and give you the page from Walker's Hibernian Magazine, in February 1802.  It is most rewarding to find a scanned book from a public library on the internet, rather than some social media rants.  I had thought decades ago - that we would be doing real research on the internet.  Got that one wrong. As compared to the past when new year's resolutions were religious activities, they are now secular.  The top resolutionS are to lose weight, eat healthier, lose weight, save money, learn new skill, travel more, etc, etc.  Blah, bah... It is no wonder satire set in quickly.   We have endearingly continued this satiric tradition, and there are now many options for our New Year's Resolution Satiric Entry.  Here's the one I have chosen:     You might want to see what our most popular cartoonists have to say.  Here's Dilbert and the New Yorker Magazine.    This picture comes from 2009, on Broadview Avenue during a photo walk about in Toronto.  It seems perfect for the beginning of a new year.   Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 6 2020 - Next Holiday Countdown

No wonder there's depression after Christmas with January and February being the least favourite months of the year.  The next holiday is Family Day/Valentine's Day.  It doesn't have a lot to offer in terms of traditions. While chocolate is an excellent main theme, it hasn't been able to create secular activities that rally our social life and communities.   Other countries have something to look forward to.  In China, we'd be gearing up for the Chinese New Year - Saturday, January 25th. January 1st as New Year's Day was officially recognized in China in 1912.  The Gregorian calendar came with Jesuit missionaries in 1582.  With Communism, there was a lapse of celebrations. In 1996, China instituted a week-long vacation called Spring Festival so that people could travel home to celebrate the new year. And then there is the big ice festival that is about to get underway -  the Harbin Ice Festival with displays of traditional ice-lantern exhibits, alpine skiing events, and enormous ice sculptures.   "More than 100 activities and events will be held in Harbin city for celebrating the 36th Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in 2020. The activities and events for ice and snow culture including Beidahuang Ice and Snow Culture Festival, ice and snow tourism photographic match, art exhibition about ice and snow spirit, poetry party (the theme of the party is "the rhyme of winter"), ice and snow photography, original poetry, international ice sculpture competition, transnational ice sculpture competition, international snow sculpture competition, match among the masters of international snow sculptors, family ice and snow sculpture competition (only for Harbin city resident), and some other more than 10 activities and events."  Niagara's Ice Wine Festival starts this weekend.  It is our best bet for continuing the celebration of the new year and a motivation for heading into pretty Niagara-on-the-Lake or seeing Niagara Falls.  Today our plants celebrate the East - the first is Jade Vine - found at Longwood Gardens.  The second is another picture of a Himalayan Poppy.

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Jan 1 2020 - New Day Ahead

All the world's clocks have turned to the new year.  This is the day we greet everyone with special greetings and wishes for a good life in the year ahead. Then we return to our regular daily greetings.  Here are some creative daily greetings I found on a blog, along with the blog's explanations.  Yo! This funny greeting came from 90s hip-hop culture. Today, it is commonly used in America. Are you OK? / Alright mate? It is a British slang version of “Hello. How are you?” If your friend asks you one of these questions, respond “Yeah, fine”. Howdy! This weird greeting is an abbreviation of “How do you do?” widely used in some regions of Canada and America. Sup? / Whazzup? All teenagers know that this greeting is a short version of “What’s up?” When we look ahead to what to expect from 2020, what comes to mind on a leap year is the Olympics.  The Summer Olympics begin on Friday July 24 and complete on Sunday, August 9 in Tokyo. The last time Tokyo had the Olympics was 1964.  What are our pictures today?  We visited the Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls yesterday, and found this new sculpture installation.  Metal walls with multi-colour leds shining on them, making rainbow lines.  It is titled Niagara Strait and is by artist Gordon Reeve.  The oak leaf is sitting on lights in the snow.

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Dec 31 - New Year in Graphs & Maps

Here we are at the end of a decade, a year and a day.  The New Year has come to Samoa and Christmas Island at 5:00am our time.  I go to timeanddate.com to find out time things.  I can see them in various ways. The Multi Time Zone Countdown and the Time Zone Map are my favourites.  The world is laid out flat with UTC in the middle and the time zones are vertically colour coded - and red dots are places - so many in the middle of the oceans. What intrigues me is that at the left side of the map is an overlap of starts - Samoa is in the New Year, but next door is American Samoa and it is 1 day, plus 17 minutes away from the New Year. There's an answer to this in Wikipedia. The nation of Samoa observed the same time as the Samoa Time Zone until it moved across the International Date Line at the end of 29 December 2011; it is now 24 hours (25 hours in southern hemisphere summer) ahead of American Samoa. Do you remember when we crossed the millennium?  There was great discussion on when the 21st century started - it started with 2001. It took the attention away from the triple start. No worries this time as we are only crossing a decade and they begin with the 0th year.  So we're on a double celebration with both the decade and  year.  How will it be marked? What will the new decade be called?  Do you know there's no agreement on what the name is for the last 10 years?  It is expected that the twenty-tens will be used for it. Will we be the twenty-twenties?  Sounds good to me. Our pictures today are created using theIndia Ink filter by Flaming Pear.   But I find out that the Tom Stoppard quote is not quite correct - too many variations on the internet.  It should be:   "Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else." ~Tom Stoppard Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are dead

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