TODAY - December 7
NIELS’ MORNING GREETINGS
ON: DECEMBER 7
New edition
TODAY’s
LENGTH:
This day is here in Belgium
8 hours and 22 minutes shorter than June 21. Its length is 8 hours and 8
minutes – from 08.30 to 16.38.
See more – also in English –
about where you are on: www.dagenslaengde.dk
TODAY’s NAME:
Today’s name is AGATHAM’s DAY. He was a Roman soldier, who became
a Christian after he had seen how Julianus and Cronion were tortured because of
their faith. After they were killed he protected their bodies. Because of that
he was beheaded. It all happens during the reign of the Roman emperor Decius in 250.
Today (2020) it is 50 years ago German chancellor Willy
Brandt was kneeling
in front of the memorial
for the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw.
The day’s
name in Belgium is SAINT AMBROISE.
He was born in Trier in Germany, became Roman governor in Liguria and
afterwards bishop in Milan. He left many
influential writings about Christianity.
He dies in397.
TODAY’s
EVENT:
1732: The original Covent
Garden Opera House in London
opened.
TODAY’s
QUESTION:
Chinese wedding jar – what is that?
A Chinese
wedding jar is in English called an Antique Chinese Tongzhi Double Happiness
Blue White Porcelain Wedding Jar.
It comes from
the Tongzhi
period (the later
parts of the Quing dynasty at the end of the 19th and beginning of
the 20th century. The jar is made of porcelain.
The writing
on the jar means “Double Happiness” (because the Chinese sign for happiness are indicated twice – one next
to the other.
The jar was
given to Chinese couples at their wedding to wish eternal happiness and a lot
of children (if those two things are possible at the same time J)
The couples
later used to store important food.
An
interesting aspect of the jar’s later use was that the Danish chocolate company
TOM bought a lot of it. And each year they were used as presents for Christmas
to important contacts for the factory – filled with chocolate, of course.
That is why I still have 2 of the jars – no longer with chocolate inside,
though!
The sign for
”Double Happiness” is still today used at Chinese weddings.
One more side
story: When the Chinese political leader Sun
Yat-sen in 1912
abolished the emperor, he used the word – not jar, but Tongzhi – about his
supporters. And when the Communists and Mao took over the power in China from
1949 they also used the word tongzhi – meaning comrade, as other communists
call their members.
But that is
not the responsibility of the nice jar!
_______________________________________________________________
QUESTION FOR
TOMORROW:
Where the pepper grows… What is the origin of that expression? And what does it mean?
47 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT EUROPE:
EUROPE AT WORK www.europe-at-work.be
TODAY’s QUOTE
& FAMOUS PEOPLE :
1. Yesterday’s quote:
I think that men in this world should become less
mannish and women less isolated.
This was said by the Swedish
politician and Nobel Prize winner
Alva
Myrdal to her
husband, professor Gunnar
Myrdal.
2. Today’s quote:
If you have a garden and a library, you are missing
nothing!
Who of today’s persons has said that?
3. Famous people
born on this day:
1598: Giovanni
Lorenzo Bernini ( died
1680 )
1916: Knud
W. Jensen ( died
2000 )
1924: Bent
Fabricius-Bjerre (Bent
Fabric) ( died 2020 )
1924: Mario
Soares ( died 2017 )
4. Famous people died on this day:
43 BC:Marius
Tullius Cicero ( 63
years )
1815: Marchal
Michel Ney ( 46
years )
1894: Ferdinand
de Lesseps ( 89
years )
Niels Jørgen Thøgersen
www.simplesite.com/kimbrer + EUROPE AT WORK: www.europe-at-work.be
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