Last week the FP Gal and I talked about the difficulty of naming this particular day. We remember it for scattered but related events. If it was just the Towers or the Pentagon it would be simple but as it is we think about the whole day and that's how we usually talk about it. It's become 'September 11th' or 9/11.
Or so I thought. When I got to work I noticed that today is called 'Patriot Day' (USA). I'd never heard of that before. Maybe I live under a rock or something but that passed me by.
I emailed Jodi to check on her calendar (correct me if you need to). She has a diversity calendar that celebrates holidays all over the world while ignoring important dates in US history. I told her what my (snooty, Latin) calendar said and asked her what her calendar said. She responded, "Happy Ethiopia's New Year".
We traded emails about celebrating with fireworks and then she sent me this one:
We had our monthly cake and ice cream. The cake was a US flag; I madeAha! I'm not alone! And then, in a further bit of synchronicity I ran across this post about the Ethiopians:
the comment it was left over from Labor Day. The guy looked at me and
said, "No, it's for Patriot Day. Why am I the only one that knows about
this?"
One of the oldest Christian countries, Ethiopia keeps the Coptic Orthodox calendar ushers in the 21st Century. and at 5 pm EST, it is midnight in Addis Ababa, the party has just begun and tens of thousands have burst into celebration, as Ethiopia ushers in the 21st Century.So...good for them I guess. One more thing? When I told my coworkers about this story, they decided that cake was just the thing for them, too. So a quick trip was made to Sam's Club and we had cake this afternoon.
Patriot Day? It's been around since 2002 but the term isn't used very much.
1 comment:
I had also noted that on my calendars but didn't think much about it. I have mixed feelings about that "title" for the day.
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