The cats from Kagonekoshiro (Basket Cat Blog) are ready for a holiday party! Which will keep their hat on the longest? My money is on Shiro -not only because he’s the most patient and balanced cat ever, but also because I’ve watched the video. -via Buzzfeed

Artist and musician Rhe De Ville had recorded a danceable update to her joyful holiday anthem “Happy New Year” for 2012, with a new video, too! Of course, the original is nice, too. -Thanks, Rhe!

TV Line has a schedule of Christmas movies, specials, and marathons for today through Sunday. The marathons provide relief for those who like TV but need a break from relentless holiday cheer. And you’re going to need something to do when the relatives starts getting on each other’s nerves. Link

While you’re enjoying the holidays with family and friends, remember the many people who have to work straight through because it’s necessary. ZDoggMD and Dr. Harry made a video about what Christmas is like for medical folks, to the tune of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Link -Thanks, Doc!

Does your tree need a little more  intelligence? If so, you might benefit from one (or all) of these great ornaments featuring some of the most famous women from science history.

Link Via The Mary Sue

Pleasant Holidays With The Entire Family Tea – $9.95

Are you dreading the holidays? You need the Pleasant Holidays With The Family Tea from the NeatoShop. This Darjeeling with spice tea provides just the right dose of laughter to help soothe frayed nerves.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fun Food & Drinks!

Link

Day of the Dead is a time for friends and family to come together to honor those who have passed away. The holiday dates back to the time of the Aztecs who celebrated a festival dedicated to the “Lady of the Dead.” Rituals of celebrating the deaths of ancestors have been observed by these civilizations for at least 3,000 years.

The festival that became the modern Day of the Dead fell in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, about the beginning of August, and was celebrated for an entire month. In modern times, the celebration occurs on November 1 and 2 in connection with the Catholic holidays All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2).

Read about the meaning and traditions of this holiday at IBTraveler. Link -via The Daily What

TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY. THE OFFICIAL CAPS LOCK DAY SITE LISTS OCTOBER 22 AND JUNE 28 BOTH AS CAPS LOCK DAYS. OTHERS CELEBRATE ON AUGUST 22. I DON’T KNOW WHO IS RIGHT. Agh, that is exhausting, especially since my caps lock key does not work. Link to official site. Link to Wikipedia. -via Metafilter

1)    Carefully place a dozen or more zucchini in a large, sturdy black plastic trash bag, then add a couple layers of unwanted clothing. Drive to nearest Goodwill or Salvation Army, hand over bag to nearest volunteer. Politely refuse any offered receipt. Leave quickly.

2)    Look for out of the way places which have signs posted, “Clean Fill Wanted.”

3)    Reserve 1/2 of the space in large, upright freezer, gather all available plastic containers & freezer bags. Drink a vat of your favorite caffinated beverage, in preparation for staying up round the clock to puree large quantities of zucchini. This can then be packaged neatly and artistically labeled: “For Zucchini Nut Bread Recipe.” These packages can be freely given, along with copies of recipe, to anyone on your Christmas list. [Ed. note: I solemnly promise that I will eventually post this recipe.]

Link -via the Presurfer

(Image credit: Flickr user Till Westermayer)

Independence Day is celebrated two days too late. The Second Continental Congress voted for a Declaration of Independence on July 2, prompting John Adams to write his wife, “I am apt to believe that [July 2, 1776], will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”

Adams correctly foresaw shows, games, sports, buns, bells, and bonfires—but he got the date wrong. The written document wasn’t edited and approved until the Fourth of July, and that was the date printers affixed to “broadside” announcements sent out across the land. July 2 was soon forgotten.

Learn other historic tales that were different from what you recall in this article at National Geographic News. Link

Canada Day (Fête du Canada) celebrates the formation of Canada on July first, 1867. The holiday was once known as Dominion Day, but was changed after Canada gained full independence from Britain in 1982. You can learn more about the holiday at Wikipedia. Canadian Heritage has information about the celebrations in Ottawa and other parts of the country. Link -via the Presurfer

(Image credit: Flickr member Lone Primate)

June 16th is Captain Picard Day! Captain John-Luc Picard is the commander of the USS Enterprise in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Read about the origins and the reasoning behind the holiday at Geeks Are Sexy. Link

Also enjoy some fan art at a blog set up just for the occasion called, appropriately enough, Captain Picard Day. Link

Today, it being May the 4th, is Star Wars Day! Geeks Are Sexy has a roundup of fun Star Wars entertainment to celebrate. And May the Fourth be with you. Link

On April 12th, old or useless items are thrown out of houses and burned to avoid bad luck, and on the 13th offerings are made to statues of Buddha at the local wat. The Buddha statues are then washed with perfumed water, and Buddhas from important wats are paraded through the streets where the crowds throw more water on them. The water-fight begins in earnest after this, with people dousing each other with buckets and super-soakers on the street.

See videos of Songkran and other spring celebrations at AnyTrip. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

(Image credit: Flickr user Wyndham Hollis)

Bubble Wrap {wiki} was invented in 1957. Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day is observed on the last Monday in January. There are many ways to celebrate, from enjoying LOLcats with bubble wrap to playing with virtual bubble wrap to reading all about the holiday. Link

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania’s New Year’s Eve tradition is fairly young, just like the 25 lb. illuminated Fiberglas baby Peep they’ve been lowering from a crane since 2005. If a Peep seems more in keeping with Easter, keep in mind that Just Born Inc., the company that makes the confection, is headquartered in Bethlehem and is one of the city’s major employers outside of the health care industry. A freshly-emerged baby chick is certainly a happier and more optimistic symbol of all things new than, say, a papier-mâché aspirin.

Read about a half dozen non-Times Square New Year drops at mental_floss. Link

Look! Even Bobba Fett is in the Christmas spirit, with a wrapped gift ready for Jabba the Hutt! This strange Christmas figurine also comes in a snow globe version. It’s part of a collection of 20 Geeky Christmas Decorations To Nerd Up Your Holidays at Oddee. Link

On behalf of everyone here at Neatorama, I extend our sincerest wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving! May your holiday be filled with family, friends, food, football, and fun. We owe a great big thanks to all of YOU for making this past year a success for this site! Posting may be pretty light the rest of the day. For those in other countries, once you’ve had your fill of what’s here, may I suggest you check out the extensive links at the NeatoHub.

Etsy seller merrypranxster sells handmade wrapping paper in lovely Doctor Who designs like these daleks or a floating TARDIS. But that’s not all! You’ll find gift wrap featuring the Vulcan salute, the Rebel Alliance symbol, and Cthulhu in her shop too, for an extra-geeky Christmas. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy

In the spirit of fall here in the Pacific Northwest, here is a recipe of my friend Joe’s own design! He sought to bring bacon to the dessert menu, and hunted for a pie media capable of sustaining a bacon infusion while retaining deliciousness. Pumpkin (perhaps rhubarb) is the only one he could think of. I offer this recipe to all you bacon lovers out there.

Complete directions are at Allrecipes. Link -Thanks, Peter!

(Image credit: Sunny Byrd)

International Bacon Day or Bacon Day is an unofficial observance, often celebrated on the Saturday before US Labor Day  (the first Monday of September). Some cultures, however, celebrate on December 30th, while others celebrate the day on the first Saturday in January after the new year.

Bacon day celebrations typically include social gatherings during which participants create and consume dishes containing bacon, including bacon-themed breakfasts, lunches, dinners, desserts, and drinks. Bacon Day gatherings may also include the consumption of soy bacon or turkey bacon.

How will you celebrate this auspicious occasion? Link -Thanks, Clarabelle!

It was on this date in 1867 that Canada was officially born when the Constitution Act joined three provinces into one country: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Canada province, which then split into Ontario and Quebec. It took a long time for the holiday to be recognized nationwide, first as Dominion Day and now as Canada Day. Many Canada Day events are planned in Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Victoria, and communities all over the country. Even Queen Elizabeth showed up for the party! For more information, see the official Canada Day website. Link -Thanks, Lauren!

(Image credit: Flickr user Lone Primate)

For further information, you can visit the links mentioned in the video:

The Memorial Day Foundation.

National Moment of Remembrance.

The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.

TV Tango has a list of everything special on TV for the Memorial Day holiday weekend. You wouldn’t want to miss a marathon showing of your favorite show, whether it’s The Andy Griffith Show, Spongebob Squarepants, Doctor Who, or America’s Next Top Model. There are also specials to remind us what Memorial Day is all about, with documentaries, war movies, and tributes to those who gave the last full measure. Link -via Interesting Pile

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value — you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-tohand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you — daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

The simplest way to celebrate is to carry your towel with you, which some fans do everyday. The official site has other suggestions, and a schedule of Towel Day events from all over the world. And remember: Don’t Panic! Link

(Image credit: Flickr user SiRGt)

5. Cinco de Mayo must be HUGE in Mexico! Not really. While the Batalla de Puebla helped to unify Mexico around one event, the major celebrations of Cinco de Mayo has largely been contained to the village of Puebla, about 100 miles east of Mexico City, where the original battle took place. In reality, Cinco de Mayo is much more popular in America, where citizens of Mexican descent (and those who just like a good margarita) hold festivals from sea to shining sea.

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Link -via the Presurfer

In the 1700s, rural Englishwomen would pin five bay leaves to their pillows—four on the corners, one in the middle—on the evening before Valentine’s Day. By doing so, it was said, they would see their future husbands in their dreams. A variation of this tradition called for women to sprinkle bay leaves with rosewater and lay them across their pillows.

Link -via Nag on the Lake

The Big Picture has photographs from all over the world illustrating the different ways people celebrate the new year. Yes, there are plenty of fireworks, but also bonfires, skits, costumes, swimming, praying, gunfire, and other customs. This picture was taken in Bhopal, India. Link -via the Presurfer

(image credit: REUTERS/Raj Patidar)

Jerry Seinfeld introduced us to Festivus, “a holiday for the rest of us,” in 1997. How much do you remember about the Seinfeld episode that started what became a well-known December holiday? That’s the challenge in today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. I scored a miserable three out of ten. You will do better! Link

September 22nd is Elephant Appreciation Day, celebrated since 1996. The official website has many suggestions for ways to celebrate the holiday, but you can use your imagination to honor elephants in your own way. Tell elephant jokes, send an ecard, watch elephant videos on YouTube, or make a donation to one of the many organizations dedicated to the care and protection of the world’s largest land mammal. Link -via mental_floss

(image credit: Flickr user Carmelo Aquilina)

For the final time, people will gather here Saturday on two closed-off blocks of Main Street to celebrate National Mustard Day. There will be free hotdogs with mustard — there’s a $10 surcharge for those who dare to request ketchup — mustard painting and music by the Poupon U Accordion Band.

The Mustard Museum draws up to 30,000 visitors a year. Link to story. Link to Mustard Day website. -via J-Walk Blog

U.S. Memorial Day

The U.S. Memorial Day was originally conceived to honor soldiers (Union soldiers, specifically) who had fallen in the Civil War, so you can see it has been a tradition for quite some time. It’s hard to say exactly where it started, because more than two dozen cities claim they originated the day, but in 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson officially declared Waterloo, N.Y., the home of Memorial Day. Although some of us forget what a solemn occasion the day is, at least one group of people remember: the soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry spend the Thursday prior to the holiday placing small American flags at the graves of more than a quarter of a million gravestones in Arlington National Cemetery. They spend the rest of the weekend patrolling the grounds to make sure each and every flag remains upright and flying.

Anzac Day

Every year on the 25th of April, Australia and New Zealand honor their soldiers – the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) – who fought in the Gallipoli Campaign of WWI. Nearly 11,000 soldiers died during the eight-month campaign (and nearly 80,000 died in the war overall). The holiday was officially declared in 1920 and ever since, people have honored some obvious traditions – memorial services, marches and events honoring veterans – and some not-so obvious ones. For instance, some people play two-up, an Australian gambling game, because it was one of the ways soldiers amused themselves. And it’s not uncommon to add a little rum to your coffee that day to honor the “gunfire breakfast” some soldiers used to warm their bellies before battle. Like the United States’ Memorial Day, Anzac Day has now broadened to honor all loved ones who have passed away and not just the soldiers.

Vimy Ridge Day

Dodenherdenking

Volkstrauertag

The German memorial day was proposed in 1919 and was meant to remember those who died in WWI. Some thought it was appropriate and others didn’t, largely due to the fact that there was a dispute over what laws the Reich could enact and what laws the states could enact. It created a lot of confusion (and probably some angry politicians), so it wasn’t really regularly celebrated until about 1934, when the Nazis declared it an official holiday. Except they mangled the meaning all around and called it Heldengedenktag, the Day of Commemoration of Heroes. It’s not a bad idea in theory, but the Nazis turned it into inappropriate (and scary) hero-worship. That version of Volkstrauertag ended in 1945, but in 1948, the country brought back the holiday with its original intent. To commemorate the occasion, two Sundays before Advent, various goverment officials from the Chancellor to the Bundespräsident give speeches and the song “Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden” (I had a comrade) is played. Photo via Reservistenverband.

And here’s the rest:

Part 2
Part 3

Video 1 Link
Video 2 Link