3. International Days

Did you know it’s not only Equinox (when daytime and night are of approximately equal duration) today, but also International Day of Happiness!? In 2012 the United Nations declared March 20 to be the International Day of Happiness, sounds good to me.

Since I came to San Francisco – 50 days ago – many international, national and local days been celebrated. Some of them more well known than other, for example St Patricks Day. One less well known day would probably be the National Pancake Day, which a restaurant chain in the United States celebrated big time. They were raising millions of dollars to support charities while letting customers enjoy a free short stack of pancakes. In return for the pancakes, guests was asked to consider leaving a donation for local charities. The company’s goal this year was to raise $3.5 million for charity. Since the restaurant chain has 1,500 locations in the US and Canada it could mean around $2300/restaurant. And since many of the restaurants are open 24 hours a day, it implies that one restaurant would have to raise $95 per hour. Interesting? Or not.

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Enough about money, let’s talk about pancakes. No, I’m too hungry for that. Let’s talk about National Days. Lately, new National and International days have completely filled our calendars with anything from days about different syndromes and diseases, to days of remembrance of victims of war and suffering, to days dedicated to important people, to national days of jazz, books, freedom, parents, environment, yoga, cooperatives, philosophy and mountains. The list goes on and on. Some of the days really make sense; we celebrate and homage, we remember focus on important issues in our society and history. Other days seems to be more commercial concepts. The International Pancake Day is a beautiful way of raising a lot of money for important charities. But at the same time, let’s not forget what big companies want from us. These companies will – while having this campaign – earn a lot of money from customers, and at the same time get a good image. There’s nothing wrong with that in many ways, that’s the way the pancake crumbles; a company needs to have a good image to get customers. And when the company have customers they can employ more people, and the people get salaries and can buy more pancakes. It’s just this money-making society with advertisements in every corner that sometimes makes me tired! Just think of Valentines Day, who’s the winner of that day (if we can talk about winners)?

Sometimes there’s just a need for a platform to explore wonderful ideas and make people talk to each other. I guess that’s why we’re here: to get to know each other, to see each other and ourselves. And in that way, national days are useful.

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With new beautiful friends, exploring the Ethiopian cuisine.

Two weeks ago was the International Women’s Day — March 8. I’ve been celebrating this day for many years in marches and events in Sweden. I love the power when many people come together with the same mission: celebrating the achievements of women, opening our eyes to what’s actually going on in our gendered society and calling for greater equality for women and everyone regardless of skin color, origin, sexuality, body type, age, social class, economic class, etc.

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I can do it, you can do it, we can do it. Me showing my giant muscles.

In Sweden the National Day is June 6. It’s not really a big day and it wasn’t a public holiday until 2005. Our national day is nothing compared to our neighbour Norway’s. Over there, they dress up in typical Norwegian national costumes and celebrate the whole day and night. Since I’m studying in the US now I won’t be in Sweden June 6 and I won’t be here for the 4th of July either, since my visa expire. Obama tells you to go! But no worries, I celebrate other things. I actually try to celebrate every day, being grateful for so many beautiful things in this life. And one big reason to celebrate right now is being an exchange student in the USA.

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Norwegian women in national dresses.

Some weeks ago, a friend posted on Facebook about International Mother Tongue day. Since he’s from Egypt, he wrote facts about the beautiful language Arabic. One big part of being an exchange student is – for many students – to speak a language other than your mother tongue. It’s probably a language you want to improve in or learn more terms and vocabulary for your major subject at university. One of my goals for my time here is definitely to improve my English (fingers crossed). I lived in London for a few months, but lived with three Swedish girls and worked for a French boss with Italian and Finnish co-workers… you see!

To close (finally!), let me end with a question:
Which International or National or Local Days would you like to put in Your calendar to celebrate?

Kristina Hammar
kristina@hammar.se
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