Saving summer: EU proposes three-stage plan to boost tourism amid Covid-19

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 EU on Wednesday set out plans for a phased restart of travel this summer, hoping to save millions of tourism jobs threatened by the coronavirus pandemic across Europe, the world's top holiday destination.


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Saving summer: EU proposes three-stage plan to boost tourism amid Covid-19

Islam: New York City to add Muslim holidays to school calendar

New York City public schools will start observing two of Islam’s most important holidays, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing an announcement to be delivered by the city’s Mayor Bill de Blasio.


According to the newspaper, the changes to the school calendar are in line with de Blasio’s election pledge to better integrate and represent the city’s increasing Muslim population, which is estimated at between 600,000 and 1 million. New York City public schools already recognise several Jewish and Christian holidays.

In a post on Twitter prior to the announcement, de Blasio said the new policy will represent “a change that respects the diversity of our city.”

A 2008 study carried out by Columbia University showed that around 10 percent of New York City public-school children were Muslim, and that about 95 percent of Muslim children in the city attend public schools.

Note EU-Digest:  Good example - lets hope Muslim Nations with large Christian xommunities will also start observing Christmas and Easter as part of their holiday observances.

Read more: Americas - New York City to add Muslim holidays to school calendar - France 24

US Politics: 'Tis the Season for Politics to Make Us Worse - by Trevor Burrus

Politics makes us worse—and at no time more so than around the holidays.

“If I have to listen to my crazy Tea Party uncle say one more thing about Michael Brown and Ferguson, I’m going to flip over the dinner table and retreat to my childhood room to look at old issues of Seventeen.”

“What are these liberal universities doing to our son?!? I’m not sure we should let him go back there.”
“When did you get so angry at the world, Mom and Dad? Is there something that isn’t Obama’s fault?!?”

Welcome to an American holiday tradition. Apple pie now comes with a side of political yelling, especially after a few glasses of eggnog.

The problem, of course, is that “they” don’t get it. How could they? Mom and Dad’s brains might as well be directly hooked to Fox News like the humans in the Matrix. The children’s “progressive” universities are as hermetically sealed off from reality as North Korea. And don’t even get me started on Uncle Tim, whose rural worldview is a strange mixture of a fear of black helicopters and a demand for increased farm subsidies.

How can you be expected to live in the same state, let alone country, with people who vote for fascism while you are voting for freedom? When they live in a fake world created by a self-serving news media and you live in reality? It’s probably best if we just double spike the eggnog and watch A Christmas Story for the third time.

Classical liberal and libertarian principles are about providing an operating system for free and diverse people to thrive cooperatively rather than combatively, creating a Minecraft for human ingenuity and flourishing rather than a Call of Duty fight to the death. Limiting the scope of political decision-making creates a type of mutual disarmament—“I won’t try to control your education or health care if you don’t try to control mine.”

Minimal government has virtues beyond lower debt, less crowded prisons, and less militarized police. It might even save your family.

For the complete report clickon this link

Holidays and Christmas: Which European countries get the most time off over Christmas? - by George Arnett

Europe is a varied continent with plenty of different Europe has at least one statutory day off in the period between 15 December and 15 January. This includes the majority Islamic countries such as Turkey.

Who gets the most though?

The majority of countries in Europe are Christian, whether that is Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox and bearing that in mind there are four key dates to look for:

1. 25 December - Catholic/Protestant Christmas Day, which is the purported anniversary of the birth of Christ
2. New Year’s Day - in terms of the Gregorian calendar, which every single country gets as a holiday
3. 6 January - Epiphany, when Jesus was supposed to have appeared to the Magi (or three wise men)
4. 7 January - Russian Orthodox Christmas Day

Around that there are several eves and and saints’ days but those four are the bedrock of the holiday season. There are secular days too, usually related to revolutions or new declarations of statehood that happened to fall in this time of year.

Russia, the home of the eastern Orthodox church, has the most days off over the Christmas period of any European country. Every day between New Year and the day after Russian Orthodox Christmas is a holiday, giving them eight off in total.

Read more: Which European countries get the most time off over Christmas? | News | The Guardian

New Years Eve: what will people be doing?

What are you doing tonight? If you're staying home you won't be alone.

So says the folks at CivicScience, a polling and data gathering firm in Pittsburgh which polled a large sample of people over the weekend.

- Some 33% of us have no plans, with 38% of us staying home tonight. Only 3% are hosting a party. Fourteen percent of us will be attending a party.

- Will we be watching TV? Some 37% say they won't be, with 35% watching a variety of New Year's Eve shows.
- And the party pooping continues. Some 64% of those polled say they have no family gathering on New Year's Day.

Read more: What are we doing New Year's Eve? Not much

Canadians value more vacation over pay hikes survey shows

An international report Wednesday found that Canadian workers would rather get an additional week's paid vacation than be paid more to do their jobs.

The Mercer consultancy report says 20 per cent of Canadians polled said the job perk they would most like to receive from employers is another week's worth of paid vacation.

Canadians were the only country in the survey — which included workers from the U.S., Britain, France, China and Brazil — who said they valued time off over more money.

Read more: Canadians value more vacation over pay hikes - Business - CBC News

Thanksgiving : From Europe came the Mayflower and the rest is history

First Thanksgiving celebration

In September 1620, a merchant ship called the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, a port on the southern coast of England. Typically, the Mayflower’s cargo was wine and dry goods, but on this trip the ship carried passengers: 102 of them, all hoping to start a new life on the other side of the Atlantic. Nearly 40 of these passengers were Protestant Separatists–they called themselves “Saints”–who hoped to establish a new church in the New World.

After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts  Bay, where the Pelgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.

Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English. Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition.

Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years and tragically remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans.

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast where God was thanked for the many blessings during the year past and he also invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. This feast became known as American’s “first Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time—the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists of the historic banquet’s exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a “fowling” mission in preparation for the event, and that the Wampanoag guests arrived bearing five deer.

Historians have suggested that many of the dishes were likely prepared using traditional Native American spices and cooking methods. Because the Pilgrims had no oven and the Mayflower’s sugar supply had dwindled by the fall of 1621, the meal did not feature pies, cakes or other desserts, which have become a hallmark of contemporary celebrations.

At one time, the turkey and the bald eagle were each considered as the national symbol of America. Benjamin Franklin was one of those who argued passionately on behalf of the turkey. Franklin felt the turkey, although "vain and silly", was a better choice than the bald eagle, whom he felt was "a coward".

That is how Thanksgiving became an American tradition.

Through the years the religious meaning of the festivity has been gradually been replaced, turning it more into a family event with family members coming together from every area of this vast country to share a Turkey dinner with all the trimmings. This year some 50 million Turkey's will end up on the dinner tables of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving. Total sales of Turkey's this year are expected to reach $4.37 billion.

Thanksgiving in America is also seen as the kick-off  for the Christmas shopping season by the commercial world, with the day after Thanksgiving "Black Friday" super sales day bonanza as the crowning  event of  a four weeks shopping frenzy ending with the Day after Christmas super sales.

EU-Digest      

Britain: Taking action to help prevent balcony incidents abroad

The British Foreign Office and ABTA - The Travel Association, have joined forces on a campaign to help prevent balcony incidents among young people in popular holiday resorts.
In Majorca and Ibiza, for instance,  two of UK’s top tourist destinations, there have been 9 cases – already matching figures for 2011, despite only being half way through the season. Most incidents involve young people between the ages of 18 and 35 and whilst not always the case, alcohol often plays a part.

Paul Abrey, Consul in the Balearics, said: “We’ve already seen some tragic cases this summer which have had devastating consequences for the individuals and families concerned.  This year there’s been a particular spike early on in the holiday season with figures already matching last year’s. Some people have fallen whilst climbing to a friend’s apartment, others have simply lost their footing after a few too many drinks and a few have deliberately jumped off aiming for the pool below. It should go without saying these practices are extremely dangerous and can cost them their life or leave them permanently disabled. Many young people also arrive without travel insurance. The FCO can’t pay medical bills and holidaymakers may end up paying out thousands for medical bills and flights back to the UK.”

ABTA predicts around 3 million young holidaymakers will head overseas this summer with Spain, Greece and Turkey favourite destinations.

Read more: Taking action to help prevent balcony incidents abroad