In\u00a0\u00a0parts of China and Japan, a day known as\u00a0Zen Day\u00a0<\/em>has come up to inspire people by quotations from Buddhist, Zen or Taoist classical works.<\/p>\n Internationally, there are several days pertaining to various aspects of human life, our environment and our cosmos. Some of these are the World Health Day <\/em>celebrated on April 7; the\u00a0Earth Day (<\/em>April 22), World Blood Donation Day (June 14), etc. On the cosmic level, we celebrate for a week. What are the days of the week? In French as well as in Hindi language the days (starting from Moon) are called:<\/p>\n Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi, Samedi <\/em>and Dimanche.<\/em><\/p>\n These are the planets that go around the Sun or the Earth (Moon \u2014 Lundi<\/em>):<\/p>\n Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn <\/em>and finally Sun.<\/em><\/p>\n One of the latest Day is the\u00a0Yoga Day<\/em>\u00a0that had been proposed by India and accepted without any dissent by the UN in December 2014. This has been observed worldwide from the next year \u2014 on 21 June\u00a0\u00a0\u2014 the longest day in the northern Hemisphere. Yoga is credited for improving body and mental health. Many yoga centres have come up to foster people\u2019s health and well-being on a regular basis.<\/p>\n There are some other days that are customarily celebrated in many parts of the world. One is\u00a0April Fool\u2019s Day<\/em>.\u00a0Two others are\u00a0Good Friday <\/em>and\u00a0Easter Sunday<\/em>\u00a0that have religious significance.\u00a0\u00a0Of course\u00a0Christmas\u00a0<\/em>on 25 December is celebrated with\u00a0great gusto and joy.\u00a0Churches and several institutions are lit up in many countries to celebrate the occasion. Even a few days before it, there are joyful mini occasions to celebrate the festival such as gifting toys and candy to children by Santa Claus who is also known as\u00a0Father Christmas.<\/em><\/p>\n Most countries have their own religious festivals that are observed with joy and happiness. In India, Buddha Poornima\u00a0<\/em>is celebrated on the full moon day in May.\u00a0The Hindu God\u00a0Lord Ram<\/em>\u2019s\u00a0return to his palace after an exile of 14 years is celebrated as\u00a0Diwali<\/em>\u00a0(festival of lights) not only in India but in other countries also. The day varies according to the lunar calendar but usually occurs in November.<\/p>\n Another day that is being popularised is\u00a0Friendship Day\u00a0<\/em>on 1 August. However, this day and some other such occasions are more of WhatsApp\u00a0origin rather than promoting\u00a0real happiness among people. While rich and well to do persons send messages on their smart phones, poor people in many Asian and African countries continue to remain dejected, unhappy and marginalised. One wonders about such days.<\/p>\n To end on a positive note:\u00a0Monday<\/em>\u00a0is a special day for TMS<\/em> and its Editor. He has to bring out the TMS Digest<\/em> after reviewing scores of articles and poems over the past week.<\/p>\n Hail to you, ACS Rosa!<\/p>\n ______________________________________________<\/p>\n There are so many days to celebrate and to ruminate. Many days have been approved by the UN or other international bodies such as the WHO. But some are local to some countries for example, in India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":166069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ravi-P.-Bhatia-150x150-1-e1596524021103.jpg\")
<\/a><\/em>Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, an<\/em> educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, <\/em>A Garland of Ideas\u2014Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi.<\/em> ravipbhatia@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"