January 18th - Winnie the Pooh Day, Jazz Day, and Pat Pineapple Day

HOW I CELEBRATED

For Winnie the Pooh Day, which is technically incorrectly titled, as though the first book was called "Winnie the Pooh", the text has Christopher Robin correcting the narrator and saying it's not Winnie THE Pooh, it's Winnie THER Pooh. No explanation is given on what 'ther' means, though. Anyway, for Winnie the Pooh Day, I celebrated in what was probably the most exhausting way for any of the holidays so far, I actually read an omnibus hardcover edition of the original Pooh stories by A.A. Milne cover to cover. That's about 344 pages of Pooh, for those who don't know. Great stories, mind you, but I really shouldn't have decided to read the whole damn thing in one day. My baby sister also watched a few Winnie the Pooh movies this morning as I started my reading in the same room. I wish that I could also say that I did something related to the production of Winnie the Pooh that local theater group the Eastpointe Players is putting on, but sadly I didn't make cast when I auditioned for it.

For much of the time spent reading, and much of the day in general whether reading or not, I celebrated Jazz Day as well. As is probably self-evident, that means that I have had various types of jazz music on all day, from ragtime, to fusion, to bebop, to other sub-genres I'm not sure of the name of. A slight selection of some of the bands/artists included in this musical binge include Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Steely Dan, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Frank Sinatra (though Ol' Blue Eyes tended to bounce between pop and jazz, a lot of his stuff still counts in my opinion).


Today's third holiday was the Discordian celebration Pat Pineapple Day. This had a much simpler expression on my part than the others, I just had some pineapple pieces with breakfast.

HOW OTHERS MIGHT CELEBRATE

Hopefully for Winnie the Pooh Day, no one reading this blog will go as far overboard as I did. Simply sharing one or two of the stories as a family or reading them on your own should suffice. Watching one of the Disney features (preferrably an old one, but that's your choice, not mine) would be a good option as well.

Jazz Day is a pretty simple one as well. In fact, all three of today's are. Any celebration of jazz music, be it performance or listening (or a mix of the two) is perfect.


Pat Pineapple Day's celebrations as far as I was informed when I discovered it are simply to consume or do something made from, or based off, pineapples.


HISTORICAL/CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

After first being published in 1926, the children's book "Winnie-the-Pooh" by A.A. Milne and along with its sequel "The House at Pooh Corner" from 1928, it has spawned a multi-billion dollar line of animated movies, cartoon series', etc. after the rights were purchased by the Walt Disney corporation (first in 1966 for the short "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" and countless times afterward), as well as the original stories charming parents and children alike worldwide. At some unknown point, Milne's birthday became officially recognized as Winnie the Pooh Day in honour of his most famous creation.

I have found no background on why today is Jazz Day, so I am under the assumption that it's just another one of those made up holidays.

Pat Pineapple Day is a Discordian holiday. Not being in on the texts of whatever the Discordian holy book is called, and thus unable to find it online, I am unaware of this day's significance. I do know, however, that a person(?) in their belief system was called Pat Pineapple and that's who this day is named for.

UNOFFICIAL THEME SONG

For Winnie the Pooh Day I'm torn between the song "Winnie the Pooh" written by the Sherman Brothers and at least excerpted in some form in every single animated feature I've seen about him and "House at Pooh Corner" by Loggins and Messina.
Jazz Day, being named for a style of music is obviously unable to have a single theme as it is beyond subjective as to what the ultimate piece of music in said style is, though the most performed would be "In the Mood" popularized by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, though my personal tastes are pressuring me to say the entirety of "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane. This is basically a "pick your own" day, so whatever jazz piece you like best is your pick.

FOOTNOTES

-There are twenty official Winnie the Pooh stories at this date, though the third official book is slated to be published this October 6th. These are not lost stories written by A.A. Milne, but rather a completely new collection.

-I'm kicking myself for skipping Daniel Webster's Birthday. I could easily have celebrated by telling the story usually referred to as 'The Devil and Daniel Webster' at Trixie's Poetry Night... oh well.

Other Holidays and observances on this date include:
-First day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
-Thesaurus Day
-Paryaya Day at Udupi (falls on even-numbered years, as such it did not occur today)
-Royal Thai Armed Forces Day
-Feast of the Cross (Eastern Orthodox Catholicism)
-Feast of the Confession of St. Peter (Eastern Orthodox, Angelican, and Lutheran)
-Daniel Webster's Birthday
-Catholic Feast Days for St. Athanasius (Eastern Orthodox), St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Margaret of Hungary, St. Prisca, and St. Volusianus

January 5th - National Bird Day, George Washington Carver Recognition Day, and Mungday

HOW I CELEBRATED

For National Bird Day I originally planned to visit my aunt's house and her bird Naya, but that didn't end up happening, so instead I just hung a bird feeder outside and listened to some Charlie 'Bird' Parker. In fact, I'm listening to some of his stuff as I type this.

For the Discordian holiday Mungday you're supposed to do some navel-gazing, which I did. I spent a while today wondering about whether pushing for riches and glory in life is really worth it. Everything is left either twisted or forgotten by history, after all. I ended up focusing on myself and this very blog with that line of thought, but ended up deciding that the experiences are their own reward.

I would have loved for the History Channel or Discovery Channel or something to show some sort of program on George Washington Carver or something today. Did they? Nope, of course not. Instead of dropping Gerorge Washington Carver Recognition Day from my schedule of holidays, though, instead I'll just use the Historical/Cultural Significance section of the blog to celebrate his achievements. I also had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch today.

HOW OTHERS MIGHT CELEBRATE

National Bird Day is an easy one. Feed the birds, adopt a bird, if you own a bird go spend some time with it, go birdwatching, listen to some Charlie Parker, read about birds, just do something relating to birds or someone nicknamed 'Bird'.

Mungday is also pretty easy, just do some navel-gazing. For anyone who's not familiar with the term, 'navel-gazing' doesn't refer to literally gazing at your navel or the navel of another person, it actually means to pseudo-philosophically focus and think about a subject.

George Washington Carver Recognition Day would be an easier one if it were recognized by the History Channel and Discovery Channel, but as it is, it's still pretty interesting. If you're a teacher or parent you can teach your kids about him. Reading a book on him would be good, too, or even just eating some peanut butter while thinking about him.

HISTORICAL/CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

I really don't know why January 5th is National Bird Day, and the official site really doesn't offer any help either, but I guess it doesn't matter that much since there actually is an official site you can go explore.

I did my best to try to understand why Mungday exists, seriously. I tried reading the Discordian stories on the subject, but they're pretty full of odd references and inside jokes, that I was only able to determine a) that it's the main holy day for their season "Chaos" which runs from January 1 to sometime in May (between the 10th and 19th) and has to do with a 'Sacred Chao' that a guy called the 'Apostle Hung Mung' devised for Discordians.

George Washington Carver, as pretty much every American, or anyone interested in history or agriculture in any way, should know was an African American inventor and botanist who revolutionized farming in the American South during the latter half of the 1800s. He is believed to have been born in January 1864, a little over a year before the abolition of slavery in the U.S. His work with the peanut as a commercial crop did a great deal to help improve crop rotation and bring nutrients back to the soil. It also helped the agriculture-based economy of much of the south survive after the boll weevil ruined the cotton harvest in the Reconstruction era. Aside from that and discovering over 100 uses of various sorts for the peanut (including fabric dyes and nitroglycerin), Carver also helped to aid in religious, cultural, and educational reforms in the U.S. Dubbed by some to be the "Black Leonardo da Vinci", he was considered even in his day to be a great genius, and after he died on January 5th, 1943, Congress dubbed the day of his death to be George Washington Carver Recognition Day in his honour.

UNOFFICIAL THEME SONG

Since it's National Bird Day, it only seemed right to choose Charlie 'Bird' Parker's classic jazz composition "Yardbird Suite" as today's unofficial theme song.

FOOTNOTES

Other Holidays and observances on this date include:
-Red Hackle Anniversary Day of the Black Watch
-National Whipped Cream Day
-Catholic feast days for St. John Neumann, St. Simoen Stylites, and Pope Telesphorous