TODAY - November 29

 

NIELS’ MORNING GREETINGS

ON: NOVEMBER 29

New edition

TODAY’s LENGTH:

This day is here in Belgium 8 hours and 7 minutes shorter than June 21. Its length is 8 hours and 22 minutes – from 08.20 to 16.42.

Se more – also in English – about where you are on:  www.dagenslaengde.dk

TODAY’s NAME:

Today’s name is SATURNINUS’ DAY.  He was a missionary in Toulouse in the southwest of France. And later he became a bishop there.  In the year 250 AC the non-Christians decided to kill him. He was tied to the legs of a bull. And the bull was then pursued down the stairs from the local capitol.  Later a church named Notre-Dame-du-Tours was built on that spot.

The day’s name in Belgium is SAINT RADBOD – after a Frisian king, who was also bishop in Utrecht in the Netherlands.  He was fighting with the Franconeans and defeated Karel Martel near Cologne.  He died in 719.

 

TODAY’s EVENT:

1814: The newspaper The Times in London starts.

TODAY’s QUESTION:

Black Friday – what is it? And what is the history behind it?

This expression comes originally from the US. It is the day after Thanksgiving Day – which every year is the 4th Thursday in November.

This Friday is a public holiday in 24 American states. And since the 1930ies it is considered to be the start of Christmas shopping.

It is widely believed that the name was first used in Philadelphia, where it referred to the fact, that on this very day there was a lot of traffic and a lot of pedestrians on the streets of the city.

Later the meaning of the word Black Friday has gradually changed to refer to the fact that the shops in general were running deficits in the period up to Thanksgiving (“red figures”), while from Black Friday and onwards they enjoyed surplus (“black figures”) due to the Christmas shopping.

At some point the rumour circulated that the name referred to the tradition that the trade with slaves started on that day.  This is historically false. Thanksgiving only started after the American Civil War, which – as you know – abolished slavery.

Black Friday has after 2000 also arrived in many countries in Europe and in other places in the world. It has become a useful element in the marketing of Christmas shopping.

 

 

QUESTION FOR TOMORROW:

French Foreign Legion  -  what is that ?  And what is the history behind it?

 

47 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT EUROPE:

EUROPE AT WORK     www.europe-at-work.be

 

TODAY’s QUOTE & FAMOUS PEOPLE :

1.  Yesterday’s quote:

To generalise is the same as being an idiot!

            This was said by the British painter and poet William Blake.

2.  Today’s quote:

We will end up as a bunch of folk dancers, porters and hoars, if we do not

do something about it.

Who has said that?

3.  Famous people born on this day:

1803:  Christian Johann Doppler  ( died 1853 )

1879:  Jacob Gade  ( died 1963 )

1924:  Erik Balling  ( died 2006 )

1932:  Jacques Chirac  ( died 2019 )

 

4.  Famous people died on this day:

1780:  Maria Theresia  ( 63 years )

1924:  Giacomo Puccini  ( 66 years )

1962:  Erik Scavenius  ( 85 years )

1981:  Nathalie Wood  ( 43 years )

1986:  Cary Grant  ( 82 years )

2001:  George Harrison  ( 58 years )

 

Niels Jørgen Thøgersen

niels4europe@gmail.com  

www.simplesite.com/kimbrer   +  EUROPE-AT-WORK    www.europe-at-work.be