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[IceWizard]

Thusday 27 Oct 2016

Black Cat Day



Nothing is quite as elegant as a black cat—like a miniature Amazonian jaguar, they doze atop the highest point in the area, waking for several hours daily to prowl around hunting for a tasty morsel.

But black cats and kittens are often overlooked when animal shelters are looking for new homes, and can be at the shelter much longer than they should be.

So why is this?

The History of Black Cat Day

Interestingly, cats in ancient Egypt were revered highly, partly due to their ability to combat vermin such as mice, rats.

Cats of royalty were known to be dressed in golden jewelry and were allowed to eat right off their owners’ plates.

The goddess of warfare was a woman with the head of a cat named Bastet.

These days, however, black cats are often are seen as unlucky or mischievous, but not everyone knows why that is.

In Celtic mythology, it was believed that fairies could take the form of black cats, and therefore their arrival to a home or village was seen as sign of good luck.

Unfortunately, the Pilgrims that came after them were devoutly religious and fearful of anything remotely related to the pagan beliefs of their ancestors, and it was because of that fear that black cats went from being seen as the vessels of fairies to the vessels of witches and demons.

At that time it became common practice to severely punish those who kept black cats as pets, and even kill the animals themselves.

Although these days nobody really believes black cats are witches or demons in disguise anymore, they are still often seen as signs of bad luck by many people in the West.



And



Navy Day



Navy Day is the original day to celebrate the U.S. Navy, and though this celebration officially was replaced by Armed Forces Day (Third Saturday in May for the U.S.) in 1949, the celebrations of Navy Day continue on, especially within the Navy itself.

Additionally, research undertaken in the 1970s showed the ‘true’ birthday of the US Navy to be October 13th, and the date was officially changed – however, the entrenched celebration still holds sway, and October 27th is still generally celebrated instead.

History of Navy Day

The 27th October was suggested as a date to recognise the birthday of one of the Navy’s supporters who was Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897, Theodore Roosevelt.

Before 1949 the U.S. Navy would send its ships to various ports for Navy Day, with 1945 having a large celebration; the current President (President Harry S Truman) reviewed the fleet in the New York Harbour, and there are pictures of ships docked along the Hudson River for the celebrations.

Navy Day was last officially observed on October 27th 1949 when Louis A. Johnson directed that the U.S. Navy’s participation in such events would occur in May, On Armed Forces Day.

He was the secretary of the newly created Department of Defense. The Navy League was not affected by this decision as it is a Civillian Organisation, and they continued to organise events as before.