13 | April | 2015 | M'chelsMusings

Monday, the 13th of April, 2015 is the 103th day in 2015 and in the 16th calendar week.

International Dark Skies Week
April 13-19, 2015 in the World

In mid-April (13-18 April) people from around the world will turn out their lights in an attempt to bring back the night sky for International Dark Skies Week. In most cities, the light pollution is so intense that the band of stars which stretches across our sky, we know only from books and pictures as the Milky Way. The International Dark Skies week was created to bring awareness to the loss of our starry night, and spread the word about how we can combat the effects of light pollution to bring back the dark night, not only for astronomy but for better managing our energy usage, protecting ecosystems and helping our own safety and health.

Light pollution interrupts natural circadian rhythms in humans, plants and animals. Melatonin is a hormone that is naturally released during prolonged periods of darkness. The presence of light can interfere with its production, especially blue light, like the light that comes from computer and phone screens. The International Dark Sky committee is proposing that red light is used, it’s at a lower wavelength, therefore, has the least impact on night vision and also decreases loss of melatonin. In humans, melatonin loss can lead to stress, weight gain, insomnia and depression. Animals decline in population due to interrupted mating cycles and migration patterns and predator and prey interactions for nocturnal creatures are disrupted. Light pollution also effects nocturnal insect pollination and hinders regulation of plant growth and root formation.

http://www.darksky.org/about-ida/109-international-dark-sky-week

American Indian Awareness Week
April 13-19, 2015 in the USA

http://www.bhsu.edu/Research/Centers/AmericanIndianStudies/Events/tabid/576/Default.aspx

http://www.uwsp.edu/pointeronline/Pages/articles/Native-American-AwarenessWeek.aspx

http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0067/1563081.pdf

General Events:

Cambodian New Year
April 13, 2015 in Cambodia

Cambodian New Year takes place on April 13, 2015. Cambodian New Year or Chaul Chnam Thmey in the Khmer language, literally “Enter New Year”, is the name of the Cambodian holiday that celebrates the New Year. The holiday lasts for three days beginning on New Year’s Day, which usually falls on April 13 or 14th, which is the end of the harvesting season, when farmers enjoy the fruits of their labor before the rainy season begins. Khmers living abroad may choose to celebrate during a weekend rather than just specifically April 13 through 15th. The Khmer New Year coincides with the traditional solar new year in several parts of India, Myanmar and Thailand.

Where is Cambodian New Year?
Nationwide Cambodia

Songkran Festival
April 13, 2015 in Thailand

Songkran Festival takes place on April 13, 2015. The Songkran Festival is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year’s Day from 13 to 15 April. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia. The date of the festival was originally set by astrological calculation, but it is now fixed. If these days fall on a weekend, the missed days off are taken on the weekdays immediately following.

Where is Songkran Festival?
Nationwide Thailand

International Plant Appreciation Day
April 13, 2015 in the World

International Plant Appreciation Day takes place on April 13, 2015. Plants are living multicellular organisms of the kingdom Plantae. They form a clade that includes the flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns, clubmosses, hornworts, liverworts and mosses, as well as, depending on definition, the green algae. Plants exclude the red and brown algae, and some seaweeds such as kelp, the fungi, archaea and bacteria.

Much of human nutrition depends on land plants, either directly or indirectly. Human nutrition depends to a large extent on cereals, especially maize (or corn), wheat and rice. Other staple crops include potato, cassava, and legumes. Human food also includes vegetables, spices, and certain fruits, nuts, herbs, and edible flowers. Beverages produced from plants include coffee, tea, wine, beer and alcohol.

Thousands of plant species are cultivated for aesthetic purposes as well as to provide shade, modify temperatures, reduce wind, abate noise, provide privacy, and prevent soil erosion. People use cut flowers, dried flowers and houseplants indoors or in greenhouses. In outdoor gardens, lawn grasses, shade trees, ornamental trees, shrubs, vines, herbaceous perennials and bedding plants are used.

http://www.plantea.com/international-plant-appreciation.htm

Where is the event?
Worldwide

Vaisakhi
April 13, 2015 in the World

Vaisakhi (also known as Baisakhi, Vaishakhi, or Vasakhi) is a festival celebrated in the Punjab region. The festival coincides with other festivals celebrated on the first day of Vaisakh, in some regions of India such as Puthandu, the Tamil new year.

Vaisakhi is especially important for the Sikh community as it marks the establishment of the Khalsa. More recently, this festival is also celebrated around the world by the Sikh diaspora.

The festival is also celebrated by Hindus and Buddhists for different reasons including the start of a new year. People in the Punjab Region regard Vaisakhi as a harvest festival and the Punjabi new year.

Vaisakhi is a harvest festival for Punjabis and, according to the Punjabi calendar, the Punjabi New Year. The Punjabi calendar is based on the Bikrami calendar and is used by all communities. Hindus use the Punjabi calendar as their religious calendar too. Fairs are organised on Vaisakhi day in Punjabi villages.

This day is also observed as the thanksgiving day by the farmers whereby the farmers pay their tribute, thanking God for the abundant harvest and also praying for the future prosperity.

Where is Vaisakhi?
Worldwide

Scrabble Day 2015
April 13, 2015 in the World

Scrabble Day is observed on April 13, 2015. It celebrates the popular board game on the birthday of it’s inventor, Alfred Mosher Butts. Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a gameboard marked with a 15×15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary.

The game is sold in 121 countries and there are 29 different language versions. Approximately 150 million sets have been sold worldwide, and sets are found in roughly one-third of American homes. In 1938, American architect Alfred Mosher Butts created the game as a variation on an earlier word game he invented called Lexiko. Alfred Mosher Butts was born in Poughkeepsie, New York on April 13, 1899.

Where is the event?
Worldwide

Historical Events on 13th April:

989 – Battle at Abydos: Byzantine emperor Basilius II beats Bardas Phocas

1180 – Republic day of Gelnhausen

1250 – The Seventh Crusade is defeated in Egypt, Louis IX of France is captured

1556 – Portuguese Marranos who revert back to Judaism burned by order of Pope

1742 – George Frideric Handel’s oratorio “Messiah” performed for the 1st time at New Music Hall in Dublin

1829 – English Emancipation Act grants freedom of religion to Catholics

1849 – Hungarian Republic proclaimed

1863 – Hospital for Ruptured & Crippled in NY is 1st orthopedic hospital

1868 – Abyssinian War ends as British and Indian troops capture Magdala and Ethiopian Emperor commits suicide

1902 – J C Penney opens his 1st store in Kemmerer, Wyo