Planting trees for the future

We do not need to tell you the importance of planting trees. We need trees to provide us with food, to purify the air by releasing oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide, to provide us with timber, fuel, shelter and a countless number of other things besides beautifying our environment.

Without them, the Earth would be a barren desert. In short, we wouldn’t be able to sustain life on Earth without these green friends around us. Although we don’t need a special day or time to plant trees, the World Tree Planting Month is organised annually to remind us about the urgency of this matter.

In Sri Lanka too, the Environment and Natural Resources Ministry has organised an initiative to plant 100,000 saplings to mark this special month which began on October 15. This month-long initiative would see trees being planted all over the island, but if the project is to actually bear fruit, planting alone wouldn’t do. Proper care would have to be given to those plants so that they take root and grow. You may still be children, but planting at least one tree in your home garden or school wouldn’t be such a difficult task for you.

Remember, the survival of humankind depends on it!

International White Cane Day

There are persons in our society who are suffering from various forms of physical disabilities. Being visually handicapped is only one example. For all those people with various visual impairments, the International White Cane Day on October 15 would have been a special day.

Although the main events of the day were held on the 15th, various activities were organised by many different parties in Sri Lanka right throughout the week. Organisations like the Sri Lanka Federation of the Visually Handicapped, Sri Lanka Council for the Blind, Sri Lanka Visually Handicapped Graduates’ Association and Lions’ Club organised many events such as awareness meetings, walks, flag weeks, presentations on the significance of International White Cane Day, programmes to provide financial assistance to visually handicapped people to set up houses and self-employment projects, distribution of white canes, musical presentations and introduction of computer technology to the blind.

The white cane has been a symbol of the blind for years. However, it was late US President Lyndon B. Johnson who first proclaimed October 15 as White Cane Safety Day, in 1964. This was a milestone in the campaign led by visually impaired people to gain state as well as national recognition for the white cane.

The event was first celebrated by Sri Lanka in 1969. The day signifies the importance of the white cane as a symbol of mobility and ability for the blind.

Wash your hands properly and enjoy better health

This year saw a new international day being introduced into the calendar of world events.

The Internatioal Day on Washing of Hands, which had been declared by the World Health Organisation, was celebrated on October 15 on the theme ‘Clean Hands - Healthy Generation’. It was also launched in Sri Lanka and was observed by the public and schoolchildren.

Activities included awareness programmes conducted in 1,500 selected schools with the participation of Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) under the guidance of UNICEF, the Ministries of Health and Education and the private sector.

The PHIs visited schools around the island and demonstrated how hand-washing should be done correctly; more than one million children participated in these events. Demonstrations were also held in clinics, hospitals and tea plantations.

During the past two years, despite a decrease in the diseases which can be controlled by vaccination, there has been a marked increase in the diseases spread by water and food. These are partly linked to personal hygiene.

WHO statistics reveal that around 3.5 million children below the age of five years around the world die every year from diseases such as diarrhoea, dysentery and pneumonia.

However, in Sri Lanka, there has been a decrease in the number of deaths from the above-mentioned diseases with only a trend in vulnerability to such diseases being recorded in recent times. This too has been attributed to lack of attention paid to personal hygiene.

“We know that this single, very ordinary act of washing hands with soap can have an extraordinary impact on saving the lives of Sri Lanka’s children,” said Regional Director of UNICEF South Asia, Dan Toole.

“It is inspiring to see all our partners, teachers, politicians, and NGOs - and most importantly children themselves - put so much energy and enthusiasm into this day. We know that children can transform this day into an automatic act and this way dramatically improve the chances of their countries to reach the Millennium Development Goals.”

The Health Ministry will ensure the participation of the private sector to make this programme a success in the future.

Learn the value of saving

The last day of this month is a very special day which gives all of you an important lesson in life. This lesson would be especially relevant for your future well-being, as without it, you would find it extremely difficult to make ends meet when you are no longer dependent on your parents and earning your own income.

This lesson is on saving! The importance of October 31 to saving is that this is the day which is recognised and observed as the World Thrift Day.

Although this day has now being commercialised with the majority of promotional activities being carried out by banks, the message it gives to the public cannot be ignored. Besides the activities organised by banks, schools also organise campaigns with the participation of schoolchildren to improve public awareness on saving.

Some of the school activities organised in connection with this day are campaigns to promote savings in schools, special courses to educate children on the virtues of thrift and distribution of piggy banks (tills) and savings bank passbooks.

October 31 was declared as World Thrift Day by the International Savings Banks Institute, at the end of the first International Thrift Congress in 1924 in Milan, Italy.

It has been noted that the day must be devoted to the promotion of savings all over the world. This propaganda took the form of posters, organisation of lectures and publication of articles among many other activities.

Through the many events organised on this day, you would not only learn how saving benefits you on a personal level, but also how it heps the economy of a country.

A higher public savings rate could improve the standard of living, create employment, increase investment and contribute to economic development. This is amply demonstrated by the fact that developed countries always have a higher percentage of national savings than developing countries.

Be scared out of your wits

Some of you may have been to Halloween parties. Although this is still something of an alien concept in Sri Lanka, it is definitely catching on and taking root in the island. Halloween parties and other related events are increasingly being held in many parts of the country, though still confined to the main cities like Colombo and Kandy.

Most of you would know that Halloween is a holiday celebrated on October 31. It is celebrated in western countries such as Ireland, United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and United Kingdom and sometimes in Australia and New Zealand. In recent years, it has spread to various other parts of Western Europe.

Do you know how this holiday originated? The Halloween festival originated from the Samhain festival, celebrated by the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century, while it spread to other western countries in the late twentieth century.

The name Halloween has come from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening of/before ‘All Hallows’ Day’ or ‘All Saints’ Day’. It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints’ Day from May 13 to November 1. Although All Saints’ (Hallows’) Day is now considered to occur a day after Halloween, those days, both holidays were celebrated on the same day.

In Ireland, the name of the holiday was All Hallows’ Eve (Hallow Eve). In Irish, the festival is known as Oiche Shamhna (Night of Samhain) or Samhain; in Scottish Gaelic it is Samhainn or Samhain; Calan Gaeaf to the Welsh; Allantide to the Cornish and Hop-tu-Naa to the Manx.

Many European traditions believe that Halloween is one of the times of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is most strong.

Traditional activities that have been organised in the countries that celebrate Halloween include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties and organising and visiting ‘haunted houses’.

If you happen to be invited to one of these parties, prepare to be scared out of your wits!

Some popular Halloween characters

Frankenstein, witches, vampires, black cats, goblins, bats, mummies, ghosts, the Devil, the Mothman, thunderbird, aliens and almost all scary things are associated with this festival

How did the black cat become a symbol of Halloween?

Cats were seen walking around at night way back in time. Since cats were seen mostly at night, people thought that all cats were black. The Celts believed that cats were people turned into cats by evil powers from a witch. Since the witch was already a Halloween symbol, the black cat was made a symbol as well.

What foods are associated with Halloween?

Apples, pumpkins and candy.