St. Andrew's Day 2018

St. Andrew has been Scotland’s patron saint since the country declared its independence in 1320. Relics of the martyred disciple have been enshrined in a Scottish monastery since the eighth century, making the town of St. Andrews a destination for pilgrimages. The blue and white “saltire” design on the Scottish flag is known as St. Andrew’s Cross.

Today’s Doodle commemorates this national holiday with Scotland’s national flower the thistle. Legend has it that in the 13th century an invading army of Vikings tried to sneak into the country barefoot—until they stumbled onto a thorny patch of thistles, alerting the Scottish clansmen who turned them away. Scotland’s affinity for thistles is also represented by The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, the highest honor the nation can confer on any individual.

A celebration of Scottish culture, St. Andrew’s Day is a time for family and friends to come together for an old-fashioned gathering known as a cèilidh featuring storytelling, hearty Scottish food, traditional music, and step dancing. The holiday marks the start of Scottish winter festival season, kicking off this year with three days of music and film festivals, museum programs, and a torchlight parade through the streets of Glasgow. Scotland is also encouraging fairness, inclusivity and all manner of good works with its #MakeSomeonesDay campaign, carrying on Andrew’s saintly legacy.

Latha fèill Anndrais sona dhuibh, Alba! →Happy Saint Andrew’s Day, Scotland!

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Celebrating 400º of Murillo

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo painted historical and religious scenes, portraits, and still lifes in oil and fresco during the golden era of Spanish art. Known for his dramatic lighting, radiant color palette, and versatility, Murillo brought to life a wide range of subjects, from the grandeur of his Immaculate Conception to the casual grace of Two Women at a Window.

Although his exact birthdate is unknown, he was baptized on New Year’s Day 1618 in Seville’s Church of St. Mary Magdalen and lived in Seville most of his life. Studying with the accomplished painter Juan del Castillo, a relative on his mother’s side of the family, Murillo would eventually surpass his master and be considered the head of what became known as the “Sevillian School” of the Baroque era.

Renowned for his Independent spirit, Murillo cultivated his own style of painting, incorporating Flemish and Venetian influences and evolving throughout his career. During two extended trips to Madrid, he was introduced to Diego Velázquez and exposed to works by Venetian and Flemish masters, which deeply influenced his own work. In turn, Murillo’s paintings would go on to influence such future masters as Thomas Gainsborough and Jean-Baptiste Greuze.

In honor of his 400th anniversary, a series of major exhibitions celebrating Murillo’s work is opening at Seville’s Museum of Fine Arts, bringing home the artist’s work from renowned collections all over the world. Guided tours, concerts, and other cultural activities combine to make this the “Year of Murillo.”

Happy Anniversary, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo!

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Teachers' Day (Spain) 2018

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Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita’s 132nd Birthday

“The reason why I so much enjoy being friends with cats is that they have two different characters: a wild side and a domestic side. This is what makes them interesting,” said Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita. “A cat’s a wild animal, and I like that.”

Born in Tokyo on this day in 1886, Foujita, the son of a Japanese army general,dreamed of becoming a painter in Europe. After graduating from art school in Japan, he relocated to France in 1913, where he befriended various School of Paris luminaries such as Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, and even studied dance with Isadora Duncan.

Foujita’s first solo exhibition at the prestigious Gallery Chéron in June 1917 sold out quickly. The exhibition consisted of watercolors painted with a fine brush in a distinctive style that blended Eastern and Western influences and finished with a silvery wash.

Celebrated during his lifetime, Foujita received international awards and prominent commissions. His 1930 Book of Cats, featuring 20 etched plate drawings, became one of the most popular cat books ever published. Today, his work can be seen in Kyoto’s National Museum of Modern Art before rotating to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris in early 2019.

In 2011 his estate established the Foujita Foundation which carries on his legacy by the supporting artistic projects of young people experiencing difficulties from an interdisciplinary approach while encouraging educational development, cultural openness, and personal fulfillment.

Happy Birthday, Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita!

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Fe del Mundo’s 107th Birthday

“I’m glad that I have been very much involved in the care of children, and that I have been relevant to them,” says Filipina physician Fe del Mundo. “They are the most outstanding feature in my life.”

Born in Manilla on this day in 1911, del Mundo was inspired to study medicine by her older sister who did not herself live to realize her dream of becoming a doctor. Also known as “The Angel of Santo Tomas,” del Mundo devoted her life to child healthcare and revolutionized pediatric medicine in the process.

A gifted student who became the first woman admitted to Harvard Medical School, del Mundo returned home after completing her studies in the U.S. During World War II, she set up a hospice where she treated more than 400 children and later became director of a government hospital. Frustrated with the bureaucracy, she eventually sold her house and belongings to finance the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines. Del Mundo lived on the second floor of the Children's Medical Center in Quezon City, making early morning rounds until she was 99 years old, even in a wheelchair.

When she wasn’t treating patients she was teaching students, publishing important research in medical journals, and authoring a definitive ‘Textbook of Pediatrics.’ She established the Institute of Maternal and Child Health to train doctors and nurses, and became the first woman to be conferred the title National Scientist of the Philippines and received many awards for her outstanding service to humankind.

Happy Birthday, Fe del Mundo!

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Indonesia National Day & Teachers' Day 2018

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Teachers' Day (Turkey) 2018

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Taiwan Elections 2018

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Charles-Michel de l'Épée’s 306th Birthday

Today’s Doodle honors the Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée, a French educator who founded the first public school for the deaf. Dispelling the misconception that people with impaired hearing were incapable of learning, Épée developed a visual method that became the blueprint for the teaching of the deaf in France and that changed countless lives at a time when many deaf people were discriminated against.

"Every deaf-mute sent to us already has a language," he wrote. "He is thoroughly in the habit of using it, and understands others who do. With it he expresses his needs, desires, doubts, pains, and so on, and makes no mistakes when others express themselves likewise.”

Born in Versailles on this day in 1712, Épée was the son of an architect who studied theology and law before devoting his life to serving the poor. He began tutoring two deaf sisters who lived in the slums of Paris and who communicated through their own sign language. In 1760, he used his own inheritance to found the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris, a school for the deaf that was open to all regardless of their ability to pay.

The French National Assembly eventually recognized him as a "Benefactor of Humanity" and asserted the rights of deaf people under France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. His school went on to receive government funding and remains open to this day renamed as Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris.

Happy Birthday, Charles-Michel de l'Épée!

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Mestre Bimba’s 119th Birthday

A blend of martial arts, acrobatics, dance, and music, Capoeira has been practiced in Brazil for hundreds of years. Today’s Doodle celebrates Manuel dos Reis Machado, or Mestre Bimba, the master who legitimized capoeira and founded the world’s first school to promote this Afro-Brazilian martial arts style.

Mestre Bimba was born in Salvador, the capital of Bahia, on this day in 1899 as the youngest of 25 children and son of a batuque champion, another Brazilian fighting game. His parents named him Manuel dos Reis Machado, but everyone called him Bimba. He worked various odd jobs – longshoreman, carpenter, and coal miner – before dedicating his life to his real passion of capoeira.

Developed by former slaves, Capoeira was outlawed by the Brazilian government for many years. “In those days, when capoeira was spoken of, it was in whispers,” Bimba recalled. “Those who learned capoeira only thought about becoming criminals.”

As studying martial arts was forbidden by law, music was added to disguise the powerful fighting techniques as dance moves. Developing his own style, known as capoeira regional, Mestre Bimba instituted a strict set of rules and a dress code. In 1928 he was invited to demonstrate his style of capoeira for Getulio Vargas, then president of Brazil. The President was so impressed that he gave Mestre Bimba the go-ahead to open the first capoeira school in his hometown of Salvador, giving this unique martial art a new sense of legitimacy. In 2014 capoeira was recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, which hailed it as one of the most expressive popular manifestations of the Brazilian culture.

Happy Birthday, Mestre Bimba!

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Nikolai Nosov’s 110th Birthday

Blending fairy tales, fantasy, and science fiction, Nikolai Nosov wrote children’s literature whose playful prose delivered powerful insights into human nature. His short stories like “Alive Hat,” “Cucumbers,” and “Miraculous Trousers,” and a humorous trilogy of novels about the misadventures of a very small boy named Neznaika (whose name translates as “Know-Nothing” in English) made Nosov a favorite of young readers all over Russia and beyond.

Born on this day in 1908 in Kiev, Ukraine, Nosov attended the Moscow Institute of Cinematography and worked as a producer of animated educational films before he began publishing fiction, often in popular children’s magazines like Murzilka. In 1952 his endearing novel Vitya Maleev at School and at Home was awarded the Stalin Prize, the Soviet Union’s state award, elevating his profile as a writer considerably. The book was later adapted into a comic film called Two Friends.

In 1954 he published the first volume of the Neznaika trilogy—in both Russian and Ukrainian—with two subsequent novels in the series appearing in 1958 and 1967. Set within a town in fairyland populated by tiny people called “Mites” who are “no bigger than a pine cone,” the action centers around an impulsive and easily distracted boy whose belief that he knows everything is always getting him into trouble. In 1969, Nosov won a new literary prize for his trilogy, which has since been adapted into numerous film versions, endearing his characters to countless generations of readers as parents who grew up on Neznaika grow up and the books to their own children.

Happy Birthday, Nikolai Nosov!

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Valdemar Poulsen’s 148th Birthday

Today’s Doodle celebrates Valdemar Poulsen, a Danish engineer whose innovations made magnetic sound recording and long-range radio transmission possible. Many modern conveniences, from telephone answering machines to cassettes, even VHS tapes and floppy disks, used the basic technology that he developed by stringing a steel piano wire at a slight angle between two walls. By sliding an electromagnet down the wire he was able to record sound using a microphone and play it back through a telephone earpiece.

Born in Copenhagen on this day in 1869, Poulsen studied medicine for a time before joining the Copenhagen Telephone Company as a technician. During his time he invented the telegraphone—or telegrafon in Danish–– and was awarded a patent. The cylindrical electromagnetic phonograph was capable of recording up to thirty minutes of speech. In 1900 he showed off his device at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, where he recorded the voice of Austrian emperor Francis Joseph—still the earliest surviving magnetic recording. After winning a Grand Prix in Paris, he founded the American Telegraphone Company, but sales were sluggish as the device was truly ahead of its time.

That same year brought another breakthrough, a “singing arc” radio that would transmit up to 150 miles. Subsequent improvements of this design, capable of reaching 2,500 miles, were eventually used by the U.S. Navy.

Although he dropped out of medical school, Poulsen was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Leipzig. He was also a Fellow of the Danish Academy of Technical Science and the Swedish Institute for Engineering Research, and won the Gold Medal of the Royal Danish Society of Science and the Danish Government Medal of Merit. A stamp was issued in his honor and the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences established an annual award in his name.

Happy Birthday, Valdemar Poulsen!

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Teachers' Day (Costa Rica) 2018

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Thanksgiving 2018

For almost 400 years, Americans across the country have gathered with family and friends on the last Thursday in November for a harvest season feast. It’s a time of many traditions, including the preparation of Thanksgiving staples like turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, as well as a time of reflection and appreciation for all of life’s blessings.

Today’s Doodle aims to capture the spirit of the day and hopes to be a grate reminder that blessings can come in all shapes and sizes—even mouse-sized ones!

Happy Thanksgiving 2018!

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Lebanon Independence Day 2018

Situated by the Mediterranean, Lebanon contains a multitude of cultures and topographies, from the snow-capped peaks of Mount Lebanon to the sunny beaches of Tripoli. Archaeological evidence of civilization here dates back to 4000 B.C., passing through the Phoenician, Roman, and Ottoman empires.

Today’s Doodle depicts the Lebanese flag in celebration of the nation’s 75th Independence Day, when the Republic of Lebanon asserted its sovereignty after more than 20 years of French rule. The red on the flag represents the country’s sacrifices while achieving independence, the white refers to peace, purity and the peaks of Lebanon’s mountains, while the tree in the middle, symbolizing eternity and prosperity, is a cedar, which has been associated with this nation since Biblical times. Ever since 1979, November 21 has been designated Lebanese Flag Day, encouraging young people to learn more about the message of unity contained within the flag’s design.

The place where this flag was first raised, on November 11, 1943, formerly the private residence of Hussein El Halabi, is now considered a historic site. Two years later Lebanon was recognized as a member of the Arab League as well as a founding member of the United Nations. Today’s celebrations of the nation’s independence will center around the capital city of Beirut with a grand parade, laying of memorial wreaths, and a presidential address.

Happy Independence Day, Lebanon!

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Loy Krathong 2018

Today’s Google celebrates Loy Krathong, Thailand’s festival of lights. On the night of the full moon in the 12th lunar month of the traditional Thai calendar, Thailand celebrates the end of rain season with this ritual. The word “loy” means to float, while “krathongs” are small baskets traditionally made from banana tree wood and carefully folded banana leaves, each containing sticks of incense, candles, and an offering of a few coins for the water goddess. It’s also customary to include locks of hair and fingernail clippings to symbolize letting go of the past and any unhappy feelings.

According to legend, the festival was originated by Nang Noppamas, consort to a king. Beauty pageants in her honor remain a traditional part of Loy Krathong celebrations. Others insist that the tradition was inspired by the Khom Loy festival, a Buddhist ritual giving thanks to Ganga, the Goddess of Water. Similar full moon festivals are celebrated at this time of year throughout the region.

In the city of Sukhothai, celebrants flock to the banks of the Yom river, floating their krathongs by the ancient temple in Sukhothai Historical Park. In Bangkok it’s the Chao Phraya River, and in Tak it’s the Ping. Wherever you celebrate, Loy Krathong is a joyous occasion with beautiful lights on the water, fireworks and lanterns in the sky, and a song in the air.

Happy Loy Krathong!

ลอยกระทง

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Children's Day (Multiple Countries) 2018

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Greece + Spain + Canada

Teachers' Day (Vietnam) 2018

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Morocco Independence Day 2018

Morocco's National Day marks the anniversary of the North African nation’s independence from France. King Mohammed V made an official address on November 18, 1956 declaring Morocco to be an independent state. “Today we celebrate the Feast of the Throne that links us to our glorious past and the most brilliant epochs of our civilization,” the King said, evoking “memories of glory, victory, rebirth and liberty.”

On this official holiday, also known as also known as Fete de l'Independence or Eid Al Istiqulal, government institutions and banks will close, while most shops, cafes, restaurants bazaars stay open. Preparations for the occasion begin days in advance as the flag seen in today’s Doodle—featuring a five-pointed green star, an ancient symbol on a field of red—is displayed on the streets and buildings of every city and village. 

There are parades, food vendors, and a grand reception at the Imperial Palace in Rabat. Many Moroccan people spend the day with family, reflecting on their nation’s history and aspiring to work toward a better future for themselves and their country. 

Happy National Day, Morocco!

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Latvia Independence Day 2018

Today’s Doodle commemorates the 100-year anniversary of the Republic of Latvia, home to ancient amber mines and the widest waterfall in Europe. On this day in 1918, during the aftermath of World War I, the People’s Council of this Eastern European nation declared its independence on the stage of the ornate Latvian National Theater. 

November 18 has long been a national holiday, with public and private institutions closed in honor of the occasion as the red and white flag flies proudly. Festivities begin with a ceremonial laying of flowers by heads of state at the Freedom Monument in the capital city of Riga. A parade proceeds to the 11th November embankment, where a volunteer army won the battle for independence on November 11, 1919. The celebration concludes with concerts and fireworks over the River Daugava.

In honor of the centenary, Latvians will be wearing colorful mittens in traditional patterns, a time-honored symbol of Latvian culture. Different regions of Latvia have characteristic color combinations and patterns, and distinct methods of knitting and weaving have been passed down for centuries and the cozy hand wear is a popular gift at baptisms and weddings. 

Happy Independence Day Latvia!

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Oman National Day 2018

Today’s Doodle depicts the white, green and red flag of Oman in honor of National Day, a major public holiday that gives citizens of this sultanate on the Southeastern Coast of the Persian Gulf an opportunity to celebrate their history and culture.

After more than a century of Portuguese rule, Omani forces secured the country’s independence in 1650. National Day precedes the November 18 birthday of Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, the 8th descendant of the founder of the Al Bu Sa'id dynasty. This two-day holiday is one of the most festive times of the year, marked in the capital city of Muscat by parades, fireworks, camel races, and horse shows. The culture of Oman is rich, with over 130 distinct forms of traditional music.  In many city centers musical troupes in traditional garb will play instruments from different regions of Oman, sometimes accompanied by dancing. 

Many Omanis spend this extended break from work and school traveling from larger cities to visit friends and family in their home villages to enjoy sweet Omani halwa and coffee as well as a spirit of togetherness and national pride. 

Happy National Day, Oman!

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Czechia National Day of Freedom 2018

Today Czech citizens remember the student uprising 85 years ago when young people came together to speak out against Nazi occupation. Nearly a century later their bravery inspired the start of the so-called Velvet Revolution as a memorial march in the students’ honor helped bring about the end of Communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia. Last month the central European country joined with its former federal partner Slovakia to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s creation. 

November 17 is now an official holiday, also known as National Day of Freedom. It’s a great time to reflect on the rich history of this land and the courage shown by its citizens, especially its young people, throughout this century.

Happy National Day of Freedom, Czechia!

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Slovakia National Day of Freedom 2018

Today’s Doodle celebrates Slovakia, a central European nation bordered by the Czech Republic, or Czechia, from whom Slovakia peacefully separated in 1993. 

This year Slovakia has much to celebrate. Only last month the independent nation-state commemorated the 100-year anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s creation. Today Slovakian citizens remember the student uprising 85 years ago when young people came together to speak out against Nazi occupation. More than half a century later their bravery inspired the start of the so-called Velvet Revolution as a memorial march in the students’ honor helped bring about the end of Communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia. 

November 17 is now an official holiday, also known as the National Day of Freedom. It’s a great time to reflect on the rich history of Slovakia, from the castles and cathedrals of the Middle Ages to the courage shown by its citizens, especially its young people, throughout this tumultuous century.

Happy National Day of Freedom, Slovakia!

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