A Romanian Christian's blog
It’s that time of the year when we celebrate the birth of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that time of the year when, if God wills it, we spend quality time with family and/or friends, that time of the year when we try our best to show kindness and love to our brethren. It is Christmas.
We live troubled times, but we should not lose hope. I hope you had a decent or at least manageable year, and I wish you a Merry Christmas! May God bless us, everyone!
I’ve been on hiatus for a while due to health problems, but I haven’t completely abandoned this blog.
This article should have been posted at the beginning of September, so I would like to apologize for its late publication, as the month has already reached its middle.
Regardless, it is still September, and it’s a busy month. Lots of things are being celebrated and/or observed during this second month of Autumn (including my birthday), and I would like to present a brief list of things that have September as their official month.
For a longer list of monthly observances for the month of September, I invite you to visit the following sites:
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/2021/09/
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/september-monthly-observances/
This year, on International Disability Day, I want to leave you with this short video created by Australian motivational speaker Tim from AskTim.com.au, about why we should try to find the ability in disability:
https://www.facebook.com/timreplies/posts/2853123825009010
It reminds me of a quote attributed to Mr. Rogers: “It’s not what you can’t do. It’s what you can do that matters.” (or something along those lines)
On December the 1th 2020, Romania celebrates its 102nd Great Union Day. This national holiday marks the unification of Transylvania, Bessarabia and Bukovina with the Romanian Kingdom in 1918.
To find out more about Great Union Day, I invite you to read last year’s article: https://lucian-hodoboc.com/happy-101th-anniversary-romania/
If you’re interested in finding out some cool facts about Romania, please watch the following video:
The Bible teaches us to love peace and to live in harmony. In the Beatitudes from The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus blessed the peacemakers and mentioned that they will be called “Sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).
This is one of the reasons why I think that everyone, and Christians in particular, should observe Conflict Resolution Day, a global event intended to promote the concept of peaceful conflict resolution.
Each Year, since 2005, the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) celebrates Conflict Resolution Day the third Thursday of October. This year it is held on October 15.
The ACR logo of the tree was designed as a symbol to celebrate growth in Conflict Resolution. The first year, start small, but, just like the tree, the seeds you plant one year, will continue to grow and blossom each year.
Conflict Resolution Day was conceived in 2005 by the ACR to:
October has become a time to promote and celebrate peaceful conflict resolution practices worldwide. Dedicated dispute resolution practitioners are helping to educate the public about mediation and other innovative conflict management processes.
Established in 1972 by the United Nations General Assembly at the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, World Environment Day is observed every year on the 5th of June.
A holiday aimed to inform people about environmental issues and offer them the opportunity to change the habits they have that are affecting the environment and work towards change, World Environmental Day has grown to become a global platform for discussions about the environment, spreading awareness of the effects of human activity.
Since its creation, World Environmental Day is celebrated in over 100 countries and each year, a theme is chosen to help draw attention to a particular concern.
The theme for 2020 is “Bio Diversity”, and will be hosted in Colombia in partnership with Germany. Colombia is one of the largest “Megadiverse” nations in the world to hold 10% of the planet’s biodiversity. Since it is part of the Amazon rain forest, Colombia ranks first in bird and orchid species diversity and second in plants, butterflies, freshwater fish, and amphibians.
You can make a difference by sharing and discussing about World Environment Day on social media.
A non-religious version of Valentine’s Day, Dragobete is a festive Romanian holiday, observed on the 24th of February, that is associated with love and the arrival of spring. Dragobete is an observance and not a national public holiday in Romania.
According to myth, Dragobete was the son of Baba Dochia (“baba” means old lady in Romanian), a woman who marks the return of spring. The day is also known as “the time when birds are betrothed” because during this time of year, birds generally build their nests and mate.
In the countryside there is an old tradition with girls and boys going into the woods to pick flowers. When they return home, the traditions says that boys were running after girls to kiss them. If the girl liked the boy she lets him kiss her. There is a saying in Romania that makes a lot of sense regarding this: “Dragobete kisses the girls” (“Dragobete pupă fete”).
Learn more about Dragobete by visiting the sites linked below:
https://rolandia.eu/en/blog/discover-romania/dragobete-celebrate-love-as-it-s-meant-to-be
It’s Christmas once again, and I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope God blesses you, your family, your friends and everything you love.
Let us take a few minutes to remember what Christmas is all about — namely, the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
