Kitty's Corner

World Book and Copyright Day, also known as International Day of the Book or World Book Days, is a yearly event on 23 April, organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and copyright. The Day was first celebrated in 1995.

The connection between 23 April and books was first made in 1923 by booksellers in Spain as a way to honour the author Miguel de Cervantes who died on that day. This became a part of the celebrations of the Saint George's Day (also 23 April) in the region, where it has been traditional since the medieval era for men to give roses to their lovers and since 1925 for the woman to give a book in exchange. Half the yearly sales of books in Catalonia are at this time with over 400,000 sold and exchanged for over 4 million roses.


Two thirds of people have claimed to read a book they haven’t

• 65% of people have lied about reading a book they haven’t, with 1984 being the most popular book to pretend to have read
• 41% of respondents confess to having turned to the last page to find out what happens before finishing a book
• 96% of people admit to staying up late to finish a book

George Orwell’s 1984 tops the list of books that people pretend they have read, in a survey carried out for World Book Day 2009 to uncover the nation’s guilty reading secrets. Of the 65% who claimed to have read a book which in truth they haven’t 42% admit to having said they had read modern classic 1984.

Those who lied have claimed to have read:

1. 1984 by George Orwell (42%)
2. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (31%)
3. Ulysses by James Joyce (25%)
4. The Bible (24%)
5. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (16%)
6. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (15%)
7. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (14%)
8. In Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust (9%)
9. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama (6%)
10. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (6%)

Today it's International Women's Day, a day where countries around the world celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women.

I wanted to go to a debate today, but I just realized yesterday that I should have bought a ticket for it this Thursday. I thought I could just buy it at the entrance. So I guess I'll just celebrate the day in peace and order.
(- I do in fact have another event up my sleeve, but more about that later - I will blog about that.)

So, for now I'll just finish my morning bun, drink my milk, and relax.

I wish you all a happy Women's Day!

Today is the day where shrovetide is celebrated here.

In most Christian denominations, Lent is a 40-day liturgical season that represents the time Jesus spent in the desert, where, according to the Bible, he endured temptation by Satan.

The purpose of Lent is to prepare the believer - through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial - for the annual commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus, as celebrated during Holy Week, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter.

As the fast applies to festivities as well as foods, the implication was that food stored from the previous harvest should be eaten before it went bad during the period. People naturally developed a desire to hold a large celebration at the last possible opportunity before fasting. From heathen times, the transition from winter to spring was also a reason to celebrate. The celebrations developed into a carnival, which comes from the Latin "carne vale" or "goodbye to meat".

Denmark calls this carnival "Fastelavn", which derives from the Low German "Fastelovend" or "Fastnacht" - "the evening before the fasting".

In practice, the Danish carnival celebration takes the form of children in carnival-inspired costumes and make-up beating wooden barrels, scoffing candy and eating round sweet rolls usually covered with icing and filled with cream (Lenten buns).

In the game of "Slå katten af tønden" ("beating a cat out of a barrel" ), the children hit a suspended wooden barrel that is full of candy until the bottom of the barrel breaks and candy starts to fall out. The child doing this becomes "kattedronning" (queen of cats). After the candy pours out, the game continues until the entire barrel is broken. The child who knocks out the last piece of the barrel becomes "kattekonge" (king of cats).

Today, the barrel has the image of a cat painted on it. Historically, however, there was a real black cat in the barrel, and beating it was superstitiously considered a safeguard against evil. It was once believed that killing a cat meant a town could avoid the plague.

During the celebrations, children sing songs and rattle a bundle of fresh beach twigs laced with cut-out figures in the faces of parents and others to wake them up. In fact, this tradition symbolises Jesus’ suffering on the Cross.


So, like others of our holidays, we use these for an excuse to enjoy ourselves by eating candy and buns.