A busy month ahead

By Patrick Fisher

Today marks the end of the first week of December. We all know it's a busy month, full of different holidays and important dates.

Among the holidays are Christmas Eve and Day on December 24 and 25, respectively. There's also New Year's Eve on the 31. Chanukah will be celebrated the week of December 16-23 and Kwanzaa, an African-American holiday, is the week of December 26 through January 1.

Important dates include December 7, the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and December 12, the Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, when the Virgin Mary appeared to a poor Mexican farmer.

Another important date in United States history happened this month. On December 16, 1773, a group of Massachusetts' colonists boarded British ships and proceeded to throw its cargo of tea overboard-what we know as the Boston Tea Party. It was an act of defiance to protest Britain's rule of taxation without representation that was being forced on its American colonies.

Other dates

Of course, there are other dates this month that are important in some ways. Among them is December 8, 1991, the date the Soviet Union was officially dissolved. Ironically near the end of the month (December 30) in 1922 was when the USSR was established.

Then there are the events not heard of very often. One is that December is National Tie Month. I may have to pick out one day a week or maybe a couple weeks and wear a different tie. I certainly have enough, some are very nice, some are left over from costumes and some are the type I only wear once a year. For example, I have one of Santa skiing.

A busy time

As mentioned earlier this will be a busy month, mainly because there are so many events going on. This past Sunday was the annual New Prague Area Community Christmas Concert. Tonight (Thursday) is the Parade of Lights on New Prague's Main Street, followed by the Skate with Santa at the New Prague Area Community Center.

As for me, I'll spend time this month taking care of some Christmas shopping. I have some of it done already, so I'm a little ahead of the curve than usual at this time of month. Hopefully, it won't be like some years past and I'm scrambling with one week left.