Australia Day (or Foundation Day) celebrates the arrival of Jan 26, 1788 of British Captain Arthur Phillip, who landed at Sydney Cove and established the Colony of New South Wales. Of course one person’s Foundation Day is another’s Invasion Day, and that’s how some Indigenous Australians refer to that fateful hour.

Listen to their anthem….

Whatever the viewpoint, Australia Day is a national public holiday with fireworks, music and food. It is also the day they bestow the “Australian of the Year” Awards. This honor has been given out since 1960 to an outstanding citizen who has made significant contributions to the community. Anyone can nominate, and the award has been expanded to include The Young Australian of the Year Award, Senior Australian, and Australia’s Local Hero Award. 

No, don’t burn the dinner roast! Burns Supper is a holiday celebrating the life and poetry of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Author of many Scots poems including “Auld Lang Syne,” Burns is considered to be their national poet. His birthday, January 25, 1759 is commemorated world-wide with a special supper featuring the national dish, the Haggis, a lovely dish featuring sheep’s ‘pluck’ - heart, liver and lungs- minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and boiled in the animal’s stomach for approximately three hours.

The basic format of dinner has remained steady since the poet’s death in 1796. It starts with a general welcome and announcements followed with the Selkirk Grace. Then comes the piping and cutting of the Haggis, where Robert’s famous poem “Address To a Haggis” is read, and the haggis is cut open. Yum! Look for Burn’s Society in your area to taste a bit of this tempting treat!
If you don’t think your family will go for lams stomach, try this other traditional Scottish dish, Shepherd’s Pie.
Ingredients:
1 lb Minced lamb
1 lb Potatoes
Large onion
2 oz. Mushrooms
Bay leaf
2 Carrots
1/2 cup flour
1 tbsp. Tomato puree
1 oz. Butter
4 tbsp. Milk -
1/2 pint Lamb or beef stock
2 oz. Cheese

Method:
Dry fry the lamb with the chopped onion, bay leaf, sliced mushrooms and diced carrots for 8-10 minutes. Add the flour and stir for a minute. Slowly blend in the stock and tomato puree. Cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens and boils. Cover and simmer gently for 25 minutes. Remove the bayleaf and place in an ovenproof serving dish.

At the same time, cook the potatoes in boiling water for 20 minutes until tender. Drain well, mash with the butter and milk and mix well. Spread on top of the mince mixture and sprinkle over with the grated cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees.

Martin Luther King Day honors the man who preached non-violent civil disobedience. It is earmarked in the United States as the third Monday in January, near King’s birthday of January 15. Born in 1929, King became a preacher in the mid 1950’s in Montgomery, Alabama, where he lead protests against the discrimination of  African-Americans. King was killed by an assassin in Memphis on April 3, 1968 but his legacy lives on. There is a movement to make MLK Day bit just a day off from school and work, but a day of social service. To do your part, volunteer for any activity that will benefit the community - serve a meal to homeless or senior, read to children at a local library, fix something in your community. 

You’ll feel good about what you’ve done while you make a difference to someone else - a lesson that King believe in and lived during his life and we can carry on after his death. 

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping.
Edgar Allan Poe
The Raven

Edgar Allan Poe was one of America’s most imaginative writers, bringing to life both the dark and the lighter sides of life and love. Though his writing did not bring him wealth during his lifetime (he was paid less than $20 for “The Raven”), his works continue to entertain and inspire his readers.

One modern admirer has managed to make himself almost as famous as his beloved Poe. Known as the “Poe Toaster”, a cloak figured (presumed to be a man, but who knows) visits the poet’s grave on the anniversary of his birth, Jan 19, 1809. Since 1949 this stranger has entered the Westminster Burying Ground in Baltimore during the wee hour of the morning and raised a glass of cognac at Poe’s grave. He leaves behind three roses - one for Poe, one for Poe’s wife Virginia and one for her mother Maria Clemm - all buried at the site. He also leaves behind a half-filled bottle of cognac, as a tribute to a Poe family tradition. Several of the bottles are on display in the Baltimore Poe House and Museum.

It’s easy to take for granted now, but in the beginning of our country’s history, it was not a citizen’s right to attend any church they wanted. In fact, it could be against the law, punishable with jail or even death. Churches were not monetarily supported by their member, instead taxes levied on all citizens paid for the clergy and churches chosen by the governing body of each colony. The tide began to turn on this practice during pre-Revolutionary times, but it wasn’t until Thomas Jefferson drafted legislation which stopped the church tax that separation of church and state began to become a reality.National Religious Freedom Day is the anniversary of the passage in 1786 of the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom. Thomas Jefferson drafted the legislation and considered it one of his greatest achievements. It stopped the practice of taxing people to pay for the support of the local clergy, and it protected the civil rights of people to express their religious beliefs without suffering discrimination. Jefferson’s statute was used to establish the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom.

A popular but controversial hero, John Chilembwa is celebrated in Malawi on January 15. Malawi is located in southeastern Africa and was controlled for much of the first half of the 20th century by Britain. Chilembwe was born in 1871 and lived under the oppressed conditions of blacks living under white rule. He was able to travel to America with a Baptist minister and his family. There he attend a seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia. He left America not only as an ordained Baptist minister but also as a black man who wanted to instill self-respect in his contemporaries. But his role models were not the best. In America he learned about the uprising of John Brown in Harper’s Ferry Virginia, a bloody event that left seven people dead.On January 23, 1915 Chilembwe staged his own uprising. He and 200 followers attacked local plantations that they considered to be oppressing African workers. During the attack his followers beheaded a plantation worker in front of his family. The uprising failed to gain support, and Chilembwe tried to flee to Mozambique. He was killed by officials on February 3, 1915.His work was violent, but his message was worthy. For his legacy Malawi celebrates the ideas of independence that Chilembwe worked and died for. His portrait is depicted on some of the country’s banknotes.

If someone tells you to go fly a kite on January 14, don’t be insulted - it’s Makar Sankranti in India. This is the only traditional Indian festival that falls on the same date every year because it is associated with the solar calendar and not the lunar calendar.The Makar Sankranti festival coincides with the day when the sun begins its northward journey and enters the sign of Makar (the Capricorn) from the Tropic of Cancer. This means the days will be getting longer and warmer. It is celebrated as a festival of life and fertility. Since the holiday falls in mid-winter traditional foods served include many that keep the body warm and give energy. Sweets made of molasses and sesame seeds are traditionally eaten on this day and whole cities come to a halt as everybody is on the rooftops, flying kites.

Pongal is a four-day long harvest festival celebrated in Tamil Nadu, a southern state of India. The people of India offer thanksgiving to nature for a bountiful harvest. It is held in the month of Thai during the season when rice and other cereals, sugar-cane, and turmeric are harvested.Each of the four days of the festival is earmarked for a special celebration of thanks. The first day is celebrated as Bhogi festival in honor of Lord Indra, the supreme ruler of clouds that give rains.The name Pongal means boiling over and is a reference to the traditional rice cooked in milk and jaggery. On the second day of the festival, Pongal is prepared in new big earthen pots called ‘Pongal Panai’ and allowed to boil over, showing prosperity and bountifulness of crops. Two varieties of Pongal, a salty one known as ‘ven pongal’ and the sweet one known as ‘Sarkkarai pongal’ are also prepared on the second day.

The third day is known as Mattu Pongal and is reserved for rituals honoring the cows that inhabit the rice paddies. The fourth and final day is Knau or Kannum Pongal day and is a time for rituals concerning the turmeric leaf, an essential ingredient in Tamil cooking.

If you still haven’t thrown out your Christmas tree, this is the day for you. The Swedish celebrate the Christmas season from St. Lucia’s Day on Dec. 13 to St. Knut’s Day on January 13, when tradition says you can finally toss out the Christmas Tree. They also made woven baskets and fill them with sweet treats for the kids.This holiday is celebrated in Sweden and Finland, but not Denmark, even though St. Knut was king of Denmark from 1080 - 1086. He was known for his generous nature and love of Christmas He declared that the holiday season should last 20 days from Dec. 25, ending on January 13.

From the folks that brought you the Twelve Days of Christmas comes Distaff Day. Celebrated on the day after the Epiphany - the final day of the Twelve Days - Distaff Day was the day that women started their traditional household duties after their holiday break. It is also called Rock Day, because the distaff, or rock, used in spinning was the medieval symbol of women’s work. It is also known as St. Distaff’s Day, supposedly poking fun at the fact that it is not a “real” holiday.

Traditions surrounding this holiday center on men and women playing pranks on each other. The menfolks did not resume their work until the Monday after the Twelve Days, so they had plenty of time to find ways to bother the women. Lighting the sun wool on fire seems to have been a favorite way to “trick” the girls. But the women fought back, most often by throwing a pail of water at the scoundrels. Today, modern spinning groups gather with their leftover holiday treats to mark the day and begin their craft in the new year. Happy Spinning!