NEW YEAR, NEW HOPE...

        New Year’s Day, first day of the year, January 1 in the Gregorian calendar. In the Middle Ages most European countries used the Julian calendar and observed New Year's Day on March 25, called Annunciation Day and celebrated as the occasion on which it was revealed to Mary that she would give birth to the Son of God. With the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582, Roman Catholic countries began to celebrate New Year's Day on January 1. Scotland accepted the Gregorian calendar in 1600; Germany, Denmark, and Sweden about 1700; and England in 1752. Traditionally the day has been observed as a religious feast, but in modern times the arrival of the New Year has also become an occasion for spirited celebration and the making of personal resolutions. The Jewish New Year is called Rosh Hashanah, or the Feast of Trumpets, and is prescribed by the Old Testament as a holy Sabbath. It is celebrated (generally in September) on the first and second days of Tishri. The Chinese celebrate New Year’s Day sometime between January 21 and February 19 of the Gregorian calendar. It is their most important holiday.

        New Year, new hope. Who did not know the “doomsday” controversy on January 21 last year? That really moved the whole world in making the people believe that it is true, all the tragedies that happened last year. Let us leave those bad past and foresee a beautiful future for the better. We must have new hope instead of expecting bad lucks. Remember, all NEW!!! 

christmas...

        Christmas, annual Christian holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. Most members of the Roman Catholic Church and followers of Protestantism celebrate Christmas on December 25, and many celebrate on the evening of December 24 as well. Members of most Orthodox Churches around the world also celebrate the holiday on December 25. Some Orthodox Christians in Russia, Ukraine, the Holy Land (the historic region of Palestine), and elsewhere celebrate Christmas on January 7 because they follow the Julian calendar. Members of the Armenian Church observe Christmas on January 6, following the unique custom of celebrating both the birth and baptism of Christ on the same day.

        Spanish priests introduced Roman Catholicism to the Philippines in the 16th century, and today most Filipinos observe Catholic holidays, including Christmas. The Christmas season starts December 16 with a Mass called the Misa de Gallo. Each Christmas Eve, Filipinos hold the Panunuluyan pageant, in which a couple reenacts Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter. Filipinos do not decorate the inside of their homes, but they carefully cover the outside with flags, colorful flowers, and star-shaped paper lanterns called parols. 

EQUAL RIGHTS EQUAL OPPORTUNITY: be REAL!

        “Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.” -Honoré de Balzac. This quote caught me when I was searching some facts about equal rights and equal opportunity. 

           Equal-Opportunity Policy, plan of action that spells out what constitutes unfair discrimination in order to guide employment practices. Such a policy ensures that the organization is working within the legislation on equal pay and sex and race discrimination.- these facts are some, but what really is the meaning of the word equal in our real world?

        In 1916 Alice Paul, a leader in the suffragist movement (see Woman Suffrage), founded the National Woman's Party (NWP), a political party dedicated to establishing equal rights for women. Paul viewed equality under the law as the foundation essential to full equality for women. Along with her colleagues, Paul began to work on constitutional amendments recognizing equal rights for women at both state and federal levels. In 1921 various groups, which two years before had been close allies of the NWP, fiercely opposed the NWP's proposed language banning “political, civil or legal disabilities or inequalities on account of sex, or on account of marriage unless applying alike to both sexes.” Labor organizers and others fighting for women's economic welfare believed this push for legal equality threatened legislation that had been passed to protect exploited women working in factories. While Paul was not opposed to improving oppressive conditions in industry, she and other like-minded women argued that the laws designed to protect women could be used to restrict their employment opportunities.

        Equal rights for me are supposed to be a NO DISCRIMINATION policy. A real one. No injustice acts. No unsolved crime because of the social standing of the suspects. You know a real one.