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Mar 20, 2019
Nowruz 2019
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...2702592-2x.jpg
At the precise moment the sun crosses the equator, signalling the spring equinox, millions of families all around the world will come together and welcome Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
The 13-day season of festivities that begins on the first day of Farvardin—the first month of the Iranian Hijri calendar—is an ancient celebration that symbolizes nature’s cycle of rebirth and rejuvenation.
Preparations for Nowruz often begin weeks in advance with a thorough house-cleaning, and many children are gifted new clothing or money from older relatives. On the Wednesday before Nowruz you can find people jumping over public bonfires to cleanse for the new year, as well as children going door to door banging on pots with spoons to ask for candy. Families also put together their haftseen table, a household altar holding items symbolizing the spirit of the season. According to tradition, seven items beginning with the number S are arranged on the table, each with its own significance:
—Seeb [apple], for beauty
—Seer [garlic], for health
—Serkeh [vinegar], for patience
—Sonbol [hyacinth], for spring
—Samanu [sweet pudding], for fertility
—Sabzeh [sprouts], for rebirth
—Sekkeh [coins], for prosperity
Some families also include sumac for the sunrise and senjed [Lotus fruit], for love. Additional items, such as a mirror for reflection, and a goldfish in a bowl to represent life are often included as well as sweets and fruits. On the 13th day of Nowruz the haftseen is taken down and families enjoy a meal of sabzi polo mahi [seasoned rice with fish] before casting the sabzeh [sprouts] into fresh flowing water to symbolize letting go of all baggage and misfortune from the previous year
Eide Shoma Mobarak! [Happy Nowruz!]
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Mar 27, 2012
Mies van der Rohe's 126th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ob...CADkw5EOQ=s660
Mies van der Rohe's architecture was the backdrop of my childhood. I grew up in downtown Chicago in the 1970s and 80s, and several friends lived in apartment buildings designed by Mies. In addition, Myron Goldsmith [one of Mies' students and associates], his wife and kids, were close friends of my family. For me, Mies wasn't precious or intellectual or challenging or even "modern;" his buildings were just places where people raised kids, worked at interesting jobs, and taught. As I grew older, I wondered why he lacked the public awareness and embrace of an architect like Frank Lloyd Wright.
Now, even though I have a more sophisticated knowledge of Mies' designs, I am a fan because of what his designs engage and inspire. Moving through them takes me past industrial materials and spare forms, and yields color, a relationship with nature, and vibrant interaction in the universal spaces.
Mies built S. R. Crown Hall, featured in today's Google Doodle, as a "home for ideas and adventures." Since its completion in 1956, it has been home to IIT's College of Architecture and has inspired students, lectures, dances, art exhibitions, and more. It is a lab for creation, which is fitting because the structure itself was a lab for Mies' breakthrough in the use of glass and steel-he defied expectations and proved his genius by using steel frames to hang a ceiling, rather than using supportive columns. The result was a revolutionary clear-span structure, 120 by 220 by 18 feet high, the premiere enclosed universal space.
Since assuming my role as Director of the Mies van der Rohe Society, I am in awe of what this space provokes. In 2006, we hosted an exhibition of mid-century Marimekko textiles and products. Visitors thought the building and the fabrics were so fresh and so now, they couldn't believe it had all been designed decades earlier. Four years later, we showed the largest-ever exhibition of Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds, a light-filled room for 1,000 helium-filled reflective balloons to interact with people of all ages. And every summer we host a day for hundreds of families to sprawl on the floor and use Legos to build their own creations.
The skyscrapers, wide-open lobbies, exterior plazas, and spare-but-useful living plans that define today's major cities are possible because of Mies and his "less is more" philosophy. Come visit S. R. Crown Hall, take a tour of the campus he designed for Illinois Institute of Technology, and have your own adventure in Mies' space.
Posted by Justine Jentes, Director of the Mies van der Rohe Society
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March 27, 2015
Tashiro Furukawa’s 170th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xb...Ky5HF02Eg=s660
To celebrate Tashiro Furukawa's 170th birthday, students sign "Google" in both his original sign language, and the modern fingerspelling it evolved into.
Tashiro Furukawa was a pioneer in blind and deaf education in Japan. He was a schoolteacher whose many contributions to education included opening the Blind and Deaf School in 1878, which is still opened to students to this day.
For this doodle I wanted to focus on his accomplishments in educational field. I explored the idea of showing him in the classroom teaching or interacting with students.
http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/wnf...Nvzqg23_Rcg=s0
One of my first thoughts was that it could be fun and engaging to animate hands signing. There were very few references online for the original sign language, but we were lucky to receive a lot of help and information from researcher Kishi Hiromi at the Kyoto Prefectural School for the Visually Impaired.
http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Qf_...sivfN0rd8mO=s0
To help differentiate them, the hands showing the original signs are wearing kimonos as students originally did, and the modern signs are wearing modern uniforms. Also included are the wooden plates Furukawa created, as a tool for educating the blind.
http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/59V...Z97GE6mOnag=s0
We decided on this idea not only because it was more engaging, but because it references the history of deaf and blind education, which started about 170 years ago.
Posted by Olivia When, Doodler
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Mar 23, 2012
Juan Gris' 125th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3A...h39vUfaVg=s660
José Victoriano González-Pérez, better known as Juan Gris, was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic genre Cubism, his works are among the movement's most distinctive.
It may be difficult to imagine, but Picasso had artists that he admired. Perhaps most notable among them was Juan Gris, a close friend, though – according to an account in Gertrude Stein's book, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, he was also "... the only person whom Picasso wished away." Well, the doodle team is very happy that Picasso did not get his wish!
For Gris' doodle, I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to play more with abstract shapes, and reinterpreting familiar objects in the cubist language. This is not something I've had a lot of experience doing, as my formal art training involved learning to draw more representationally. To say the least, it was quite a liberating experience to try something new!
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March 23, 2017
Hassan Fathy’s 117th Birthday
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Today's Doodle celebrates Hassan Fathy, an Egyptian architect known for pioneering new methods, respecting tradition, and valuing all walks of life. Fathy is known to be a poet, musician, and inventor, but he spent his life's work in architecture, after training in Cairo.
At the beginning of his career, Fathy focused on teaching architecture to others, but soon began to take on architectural projects of his own. He was convinced that Egypt could look to its past to create a valuable future. He researched ancient methods of building, and began working with traditional materials like mud and earth. He made use of traditional structures as well, relying on archways for strong support and malqaf, or windcatchers, which take in natural ventilation through open windows and direct air throughout a home.
Beyond preserving Egypt's architectural legacy, Fathy trusted in the power of community to look after itself. He trained community members to create their own materials from scratch and build their own structures, so that they would be able to sustain their homes long after Fathy was gone. In this way, he was invested in more than building homes - he was building communities. For his ambitious New Gourna project in Luxor, he built diverse homes with the understanding that different families would have different needs. He also built a theater, school, market, and mosque, since a community is based on more than houses. His work in Egypt and beyond inspired others all over the world to find innovative ways to respect their local traditions and resources.
Today’s Doodle honors Fathy’s legacy on what would have been his 117th birthday. In the Doodle, see if you can find the traditional adobe process, a woman planting shrubs, geese and cows, and Hassan Fathy himself shaking hands with a member of his community!
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January 11, 2018
Alan Paton’s 115th Birthday
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“Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear.”
South African author and activist Alan Paton introduced the world to life in pre-Apartheid South Africa, fearlessly speaking out against racial segregation in person and through his books, and propagating universal franchise and non-violence.
Born in the Natal province [[present day KwaZulu-Natal), the young Paton was subjected to extensive corporal punishment, which led to his lifelong opposition to any form of authoritarianism and physical punishment. Later, as administrator of the Diepkloof Reformatory for young black African offenders, he developed a controversial but compassionate system of reform that included open dormitories, work outside the prison walls, and home visitations.
After the Second World War, Paton toured correctional reform facilities across the world, during which time he started to write Cry, the Beloved Country. The book was published in 1948 — ironically the very year in which apartheid was formally institutionalized, beginning four decades of racial segregation in South Africa. His magnum opus is a moving tale of racial injustice, human suffering, and redemption, as two fathers come to terms with the loss of their sons — one an accidental murder and the other, his unfortunate victim.
Today’s Doodle depicts Paton on a train ride [[on which he allegedly gained inspiration to write Cry, the Beloved Country) and celebrates the 115th birthday of a visionary who did much to fight for basic human principles of love, non-violence, and equality.
Happy Birthday, Alan Paton!
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February 22, 2019
Steve Irwin’s 57th Birthday
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zLValIrjf4
Today’s slideshow Doodle celebrates and explores the life and legacy of wildlife conservationist and television personality Steve Irwin, who inherited a love of large reptiles early on in life and shared it with the world through his work at the Australia Zoo and his popular TV series The Crocodile Hunter. Irwin and his family dedicated their lives to the preservation and appreciation of earth’s wildlife and wild places.
Born in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia on this day in 1962, Irwin was raised by Lyn and Bob Irwin, who gave him an eleven-foot python for his sixth birthday. He named the snake Fred. During the early 1970s, the Irwins moved to the Sunshine Coast in the Australian State of Queensland and opened Beerwah Reptile Park.
Learning to wrestle crocodiles since the age of nine, Irwin volunteered with Queensland's East Coast Crocodile Management Program, helping to capture and relocate endangered saltwater crocodiles—the largest of all living reptiles—to protect them from being harmed. He was involved in all aspects of managing his family’s park, which was renamed Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, and eventually the Australia Zoo.
Soon after he took over management of the park, Irwin met his future wife Terri who was visiting the zoo. They spent their honeymoon capturing crocs, and the footage they shot became the first episode of The Crocodile Hunter, which grew into a runaway hit show seen in more than 100 countries by over 500 million people.
Thanks to the show, Irwin’s enthusiasm for saving endangered [and dangerous] animals quickly became as popular as his one-word catchphrase “Crikey!” It was also a family effort— while Steve and Terri hosted the show together, their children Bindi and Robert became fixtures on the show as well.
In 2001, the Australian government awarded Irwin the Centenary Medal for a lifetime of service, and in 2004 he was nominated for Australian of the Year. Among his many accomplishments was the discovery of a new species of snapping turtle, which was named Elseya irwini in his honor. In 2018 he was also posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Today, Irwin's legacy lives on through his family’s continued animal conservation work and with the celebration of Steve Irwin Day each November 15, an international celebration of wildlife, family, and fun including fundraising events to benefit the Australia Zoo’s Wildlife Warriors program.
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Feb 26, 2019
Antonio Rivas Mercado’s 166th Birthday
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An icon of Mexican architecture, Antonio Rivas Mercado left an indelible mark all over Mexico during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After extensive training in Europe, he returned home where he restored historic haciendas and government buildings, and taught at the National School of Fine Arts. He also designed such landmarks as the iconic Monumento a la Independencia aka “El Ángel,” [The Angel] in downtown Mexico City, which is depicted in today's Doodle by Mexican guest artist Elena Boils.
Born in Tepic, the capital of Nayarit, on this day in 1853, Mercado was sent by his parents to study in Europe, sailing by himself at age eleven. After graduating from England’s Jesuit College of Stonyhurst, he traveled to Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and at the Sorbonne.
Returning to Mexico in 1879, Mercado undertook important restorations such as the Hacienda de Tecajete in the State of Hidalgo and the facade of the City Hall in Mexico City. Mercado was known for a distinctly eclectic style, as seen in his designs for the Juárez de Guanajuato Theater, built between 1892 and 1903, which combines a neoclassical exterior with Neo-Moorish interior.
Mercado made a lasting impact as director of the National School of Fine Arts of Mexico City, where he separated the Architecture and Civil Engineering curriculum into two separate disciplines. His legacy lives on through his home in Mexico City’s Colonia Guerrero—also the home of his daughter, writer and patron of the arts Antonieta—which was restored and opened to the public.
Feliz cumpleaños, Antonio Rivas Mercado!
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July 29, 2019
Celebrating Chiune Sugihara
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“There was no other way,” said Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who was stationed in Lithuania shortly before the outbreak of World War II. On this day in 1940, Sugihara began issuing transit visas to thousands of Jewish refugees, defying direct orders from his supervisors to help the refugees escape via Japan.
“I told the Ministry of Foreign Affairs it was a matter of humanity,” he recalled years later. “I did not care if I lost my job.”
Soon after Jewish families began lining up outside his official residence, pleading for documents to allow them safe passage via Japan to the Dutch island of Curacao, he sent three messages to Tokyo requesting permission, all of which was forcefully rejected. “Absolutely not to be issued any traveler not holding firm end visa with guaranteed departure ex Japan,” read the cable from the foreign ministry. “No exceptions.”
After much soul-searching, Sugihara threw caution to the winds, writing thousands of visas night and day until “my fingers were calloused and every joint from my wrist to my shoulder ached.” His wife supported his risky decision, massaging his tired hands each night so he could keep going until the last minutes of his train leaving Lithuania, handing out visas to Jews at the platform.
Upon returning to Japan, Sugihara paid the price for disobeying orders. His promising foreign service career came to an end, and he struggled to support his family. He received little recognition for his sacrifice until one of the people he saved, now an Israeli diplomat, managed to find him in 1968. A tree was planted in his honor at the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, and Chiune Sugihara was declared "Righteous Among Nations." Memorials in Lithuania and Yaotsu, Japan pay tribute to Sugihara and his heroic endeavors that saved untold thousands of lives.
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Jul 30, 2019
Muthulakshmi Reddi’s 133rd Birthday
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Bangalore-based guest artist Archana Sreenivasan, celebrates the Indian educator, lawmaker, surgeon, and reformer Muthulakshmi Reddi. Constantly breaking down barriers throughout her life, Reddi was a trailblazer who devoted herself to public health and the battle against gender inequality, transforming the lives of countless people—especially young girls.
Born on this day in 1883 in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Reddi became the first female student admitted to prestigious Indian institutions, the first woman to work as a surgeon in a government hospital, and the first female legislator in the history of British India.
As a young girl, Reddi resisted her parents’ plan for an early arranged marriage, convincing them she deserved an education. After passing her exams, she attended Maharaja College, formerly an all-boys school. Despite threats of students pulling out from the school, she won a scholarship, graduated with honors, and went on to be the first female student at Madras Medical College.
Reddi later gave up her medical practice to join the Madras Legislative Council, where she worked to raise the legal age of marriage and combatted exploitation of girls.
In 1914, she married a doctor named Sundara Reddi on the understanding that he treat her as an equal. Working for the upliftment of women and battling gender inequality, she supported Gandhi’s efforts for Indian independence.
After losing a sister to cancer, she launched the Adayar Cancer Institute in 1954. One of the most respected oncology centers in the world, it treats some 80,000 patients each year. In recognition of her service to her country, in 1956, Reddi was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.
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July 30, 2011
Giorgio Vasari's 500th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/fr...oAk59a_ng=s660
Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, best known for his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing, and the basis for biographies of several Renaissance artists, including Leonardo da Vinci. Vasari designed the Tomb of Michelangelo in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence that was completed in 1578. Based on Vasari's text in print about Giotto's new manner of painting as a rinascita [rebirth], author Jules Michelet in his Histoire de France [1835] suggested adoption of Vasari's concept, using the term Renaissance [rebirth, in French] to distinguish the cultural change. The term was adopted thereafter in historiography and still is in use today.
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April 4, 2018
2018 Commonwealth Games
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The 2018 Commonwealth Games are officially underway on Australia’s Gold Coast. Over the next two weeks, thousands of athletes from 70 Commonwealth countries and territories will compete in 18 sports and 7 para-sports. Today’s Doodle jumps right into the action as one of the Google “Os” takes us through various sports in the Games, including boxing, lawn bowls, para-cycling, and netball.
This multi-sport event started in 1930, when 11 countries from the Commonwealth of Nations sent athletes to Ontario, Canada to partake in what were then called the British Empire Games. The inaugural Games included six sports: athletics, boxing, lawn bowls, rowing, swimming and diving, and wrestling.
Though competitive by nature, the Games were meant to foster camaraderie and sportsmanship. Since 1930, they’ve taken place every four years, excluding 1942 and 1946, and have grown in teams, athletes, events, and traditions.
2018 is already setting records: this year features the largest integrated program of events and para-events, and for the first time, women will compete for the same number of medals as men.
Let the Games begin!
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April 4, 2016
Cazuza’s 58th birthday
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Like so many great rock musicians, Agenor Miranda Araújo Neto, better known as Cazuza, began his career rattling the walls of neighborhood garages. A native of Rio de Janeiro, he fell in with the fledgling rock group Barão Vermelho when a friend urged him to audition for their open lead vocalist position. After landing a song on the soundtrack for a local film, the group played at the first ever Rock in Rio music festival, and their popularity soared.
After four years with the band, Cazuza embarked on an enormously successful solo career. His music and profound lyrics were a testament to his travels in the UK and his brushes with Beat poetry in San Francisco. In 1988, Cazuza’s health declined, and in 1989 he announced that he had been living with AIDS. He continued to compose and perform despite the illness. Through his openness, charm, and advocacy, Cazuza helped ease the stigmas surrounding the LGBT and HIV-positive communities in Brazil. When he died in July of 1990, thousands lined the streets of Rio for his funeral procession.
To honor the late singer’s musical career, Doodler Helene Leroux sketched the rocker on stage in his iconic and ever-present bandana.
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April 4, 2017
Chu Ming Silveira’s 76th Birthday
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“Hello? Can you hear me?” In Brazil’s phone booths before 1971, the answer was usually, “No.” Chu Ming Silveira, an architect, answered her country’s call to design a better payphone booth. Durable yet lightweight, and inexpensive to manufacture, install, and maintain, her Orelhão has become one of the country’s most recognizable and beloved pieces of “street furniture.”
Orelhão, which is Portuguese for “big ear,” shelter callers from Brazil’s baking sun and torrential downpours, as well as a wide range of temperatures. Best of all? Callers can actually hear the person on the other end of the line. Chu Ming drew her inspiration from the shape of an egg, which provides excellent acoustics and has a pleasing natural form.
There are more than 52,000 Orelhão in Brazil today, and adaptations of Chu Ming’s design can be found in Peru, Colombia, Angola, Mozambique, and China.
Today’s Doodle pays tribute to Chu Ming’s creativity and innovation on what would have been her 76th birthday.
Doodle by Pedro Vergani
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April 4, 2020
Celebrating Hashim Khan
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Today’s Doodle celebrates legendary Pakistani squash player Hashim Khan, widely revered as one of the sport’s all-time greatest players. On this day in 1951, Khan won the British Open Squash Championships propelling him from relative obscurity to the status of an international icon.
Born in 1914, Khan was raised in Peshawar, a small village in what was then India. His father worked at a British officers’ club with squash courts where Khan apprenticed as a ballboy. Learning the ropes of the sport while on his off-hours, Khan played barefoot on the club’s rough brick courts—an early testament to his tenacity. By age 28, Khan became a squash pro and soon after, a national champion of the sport. After winning three All-of-India titles, the newly independent government of Pakistan drafted him to represent the country at the 1951 British Open.
Khan dominated during his first appearance at the British Open, considered squash’s world championship at the time, and went on to take home the grand prize. He returned to Pakistan a national hero with a million people greeting him upon his arrival. This monumental victory became the first hurrah of the Khan family’s squash dynasty. Over the next 46 years, the tournament was won 29 times by either Khan or one of his relatives, including renowned players Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan. Establishing a career that earned him a spot in the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame, Khan won seven British Opens, five British Professional Championships, three U.S. Opens, and three Canadian Opens.
Thank you, Hashim Khan, for proving that through hard work and determination, people from every background can achieve greatness.
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April 4, 2020
Senegal Independence Day 2020
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Today’s Doodle celebrates 60 years of Senegalese freedom. On this day in 1960, Senegal signed a transfer of power agreement, which led to its official recognition as an autonomous republic.
Known as the “Gateway to Africa,” Senegal commemorates its Independence Day. Depicted in the Doodle artwork, the flag of Senegal was first established the same year as the country’s sovereignty and features a green star in the middle. Green represents the nation’s religious heritage, yellow the country’s wealth of natural resources, and red represents its fight for freedom.
Happy Independence Day, Senegal!
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April 23, 2020
St. George's Day 2020
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by British guest artist Robin Davey, commemorates St. George’s Day. On the annual celebration of the patron saint, England celebrates St. George and his representation of values like bravery, integrity, and leadership.
According to legend, St. George single-handedly slew a dragon to rescue a city under siege. For centuries, he captured the English imagination; in fact, King Henry V’s veneration for St. George was even immortalized in William Shakespeare’s eponymous play about the monarch.
St. George was declared England’s patron saint in 1348, and in 1415 St. George’s Day was inaugurated as a national feast day in his honor. Today, the special day lives on as a testament to England’s culture and unique traditions through activities like morris dancing [a rural folk custom] and medieval jousting.
Happy St. George’s Day!
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April 23, 2018
St. George's Day 2018
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Each year on April 23, England celebrates St. George’s Day, in recognition of the life and lore of the country’s patron saint.
According to legend, St George was born in present-day Turkey around 280 A.D.. He served as a soldier in the Roman army, rising to the rank of legatus, but was executed by the Emperor Diocletian for his Christian faith.
Popular legend also celebrates St George’s chivalry and bravery. A fearsome dragon, Ascalon, terrorized the people of a small town and demanded a daily sacrifice to allow them water for their families. One day, it was the turn of the king’s daughter to be sacrificed to the dragon, but St. George rode in on horseback, drew his sword and slayed the dragon — saving the town and the princess’s life.
Today’s Doodle depicts a group of adorable English children reenacting the legend of St. George and the dragon. The cast of characters are beloved in English folklore. You can spot St. George and his dragon, Robin Hood, and a child dressed as a lion, the symbol of bravery in medieval English heraldry. You can even see Titania and Nick Bottom, a tribute to Shakespeare whose birthday is also today!
If you find yourself in England, feast on a traditional English meal, and take in the sight of Saint George's Cross flags flying on every street. Happy St. George’s Day!
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March 21, 2019
Holi 2019
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From Bollywood films to music videos, the visual excitement of Holi has become a familiar sight: joyful revellers frolicking in the streets of India throwing handfuls of colorful powder on one another. There is a rich history behind this tradition, which is celebrated in today’s Doodle by Chennai-based artist Chaaya Prabhat.
Taking place each year, Holi is an Indian national holiday that marks the start of Spring. A time for renewal, and a reversal of the social hierarchies among ages, classes, and castes, Holi’s also known as the “festival of colors” or the “festival of love” because it marks a time for coming together and releasing old grudges. During Holi, everyone lets loose, while children are encouraged to make mischief with water balloons and squirt guns.
Festivities begin on the night before the full moon during Holika Dahan or Choti Holi, with the building of sacred bonfires. Celebrants sing and dance around the fire—some even walk across hot coals while others smear the ashes on their skin as an act of purification. Symbolizing the victory of good over evil, the fires recall the story of the demon Holika, who tried to destroy her nephew Prahlad in a fire but was burned herself.
The practice of throwing colored powder was inspired by the Hindu Lord Krishna, who loved to play pranks on the beloved gopis. After a full day of chaotic, colorful fun, everyone cleans themselves up, dresses in pure white, and pay respects to family elders and teachers, symbolically restoring order until the next Holi celebration.
Happy Holi 2019!
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March 21, 2017
Nowruz 2017
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For more than 3,000 years, people of Persian ancestry have been celebrating Nowruz, the return of spring and the start of a new year. A combination of the Persian words “now” for new and “ruz” for day, it is often celebrated at the exact moment of the vernal [spring] equinox, when the days start getting longer, and the celebrations can continue for up to two weeks.
Nowruz is a time of joyous renewal. Visits with friends and family, a clean house and new clothes, and special spring foods are traditional ways to celebrate the holiday. Perhaps the most enduring image of Nowruz is gathering together with friends and family around a bonfire. People also like to decorate with springtime flowers, like the hyacinths and tulips in today’s Doodle.
Happy Nowruz!
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October 31, 2020
Eloísa Angulo’s 101st Birthday
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Lima, Peru-based guest artist Lucía Coz, celebrates the 101st birthday of Peruvian Creole singer Eloísa Angulo, known by many as “Sovereign of the Creole Song.” A blend of Spanish, African, and native Andean influences, música criolla [Creole music] remains a vibrant symbol of the rich culture and heritage of coastal Peru, and Angulo is among the genre’s most treasured performers.
Eloísa Angulo was born on this day in 1919 in Peru’s capital city of Lima. From the time she was a child, she wanted to become a singer, and she was even known to run away from school to participate in contests held by Lima radio stations in order to make her dreams a reality.
In the early 1930s, Angulo burst onto the scene along with Margarita Cerdeña in the duo Las criollitas, which lasted some three decades. Dubbed “La criollita,” she became known for her beautiful and often humorous interpretations of songs like “Araña, ¿quién te arañó?” [“Spider, Who Scratched You?” 1972] and “El conejito” [“The Bunny,” 1972].
In addition to marking Angulo’s birthday, October 31 is observed in Peru as Día de la canción criolla [Day of the Creole Song], an annual celebration of the timeless and uniquely Peruvian art form to which Angulo dedicated her life.
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November 30, 2018
St. Andrew's Day 2018
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St. Andrew has been Scotland’s patron saint since the country declared its independence in 1320. Relics of the martyred disciple have been enshrined in a Scottish monastery since the eighth century, making the town of St. Andrews a destination for pilgrimages. The blue and white “saltire” design on the Scottish flag is known as St. Andrew’s Cross.
Today’s Doodle commemorates this national holiday with Scotland’s national flower the thistle. Legend has it that in the 13th century an invading army of Vikings tried to sneak into the country barefoot—until they stumbled onto a thorny patch of thistles, alerting the Scottish clansmen who turned them away. Scotland’s affinity for thistles is also represented by The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, the highest honor the nation can confer on any individual.
A celebration of Scottish culture, St. Andrew’s Day is a time for family and friends to come together for an old-fashioned gathering known as a cèilidh featuring storytelling, hearty Scottish food, traditional music, and step dancing. The holiday marks the start of Scottish winter festival season, kicking off this year with three days of music and film festivals, museum programs, and a torchlight parade through the streets of Glasgow. Scotland is also encouraging fairness, inclusivity and all manner of good works with its #MakeSomeonesDay campaign, carrying on Andrew’s saintly legacy.
Latha fèill Anndrais sona dhuibh, Alba! →Happy Saint Andrew’s Day, Scotland!
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April 9, 2021
Clive Sullivan's 78th Birthday
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...7108700-2x.png
Today’s Doodle celebrates the 78th birthday of Welsh-born rugby winger and coach Clive Sullivan, who made history as the first Black captain of any major British sports team when he was selected to lead the country’s national side, the Great Britain national rugby league team, The Lions.
Clive Sullivan was born on this day in the Splott district of Cardiff, Wales. From a young age, he was drawn to the sport of rugby, often playing in school. By his teenage years, he had suffered various rugby-related injuries that required operations on his knees, feet, and shoulders, leading doctors to state he’d never walk normally again. However, Sullivan refused to let this hold him back and worked to overcome his childhood injuries. At just 17, his perseverance paid off when he accepted a trial for Hull Football Club, whom he impressed so much with his tremendous speed that they signed him as a professional player the very next day.
Sullivan went on to play over 350 games with Hull FC and over 200 with Hull Kingston Rovers, cementing his status as one of rugby’s most formidable opposition wingers. In 1967, he made his international debut for Great Britain, which granted him his historic captaincy in 1972. After a stint as a coach for Hull FC, the team unexpectedly called him back to compete once again as a player at the age of 39.
To honor Sullivan, a section of one of Hull’s most prominent roads was renamed Clive Sullivan Way in 1985.
Happy birthday, Clive Sullivan - Thank you for breaking barriers and opening doors for generations to come.
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October 27, 2021
Otto Wichterle's 108th Birthday
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Are you one of the estimated 140 million people around the world who wears contact lenses? Whether your answer is yes or no, the story of the Czech chemist who invented the soft contact lens—Otto Wichterle—might give you some fresh insight. Today’s Doodle celebrates Wichterle’s life and legacy on his 108th birthday.
Otto Wichterle was born on this day in 1913 in Prostĕjov, the Czech Republic [then, Austria-Hungary]. As a lover of science from his youth, Wichterle went on to earn his doctorate in organic chemistry in 1936 from the Prague Institute of Chemical Technology [ICT]. He taught as a professor at his alma mater during the 1950s while developing an absorbent and transparent gel for eye implants.
Political turmoil pushed Wichtele out of the ICT, leading him to continue refining his hydrogel development at home. In 1961, Wichterle [a glasses wearer himself] produced the first soft contact lenses with a DIY apparatus made of a child’s erector set, a bicycle light battery, a phonograph motor, and homemade glass tubing and molds. As the inventor of countless patents and a lifelong researcher, Wichterle was elected the first President of the Academy of the Czech Republic following the country’s establishment in 1993.
While Wichterle is most well-known as the inventor of contact lenses, his innovations also laid the foundation for state-of-the-art medical technologies such as “smart” biomaterials, which are used to restore human connective tissues, and bio-recognizable polymers, which have inspired a new standard for drug administration.
Happy birthday, Otto Wichterle—thanks for helping the world see eye to eye!
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October 17, 2018
Chiquinha Gonzaga’s 171st Birthday
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Born on this day in Rio de Janeiro in, 1847, Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga [famously known as Chiquinha Gonzaga] showed an affinity for music from childhood. Playing the piano by age 11, she studied music with the maestro Elias Álvares Lobo. When she was 16, her parents insisted she enter an arranged marriage, which ended after her husband insisted she devote herself either to him or to music. At a time when independent women faced major social pressure, Gonzaga sacrificed everything to follow her musical ambitions. She would go on to become the first female conductor in South America and one of the most important figures in Brazilian music history.
For a woman to make a living as a professional musician in nineteenth-century Brazil was unheard of, but Gonzaga persisted, composing 77 operettas and more than 2,000 songs. “Atraente,” published in 1881, may be her best-loved composition, ushering in a sound that would come to be known as “choro.” With her peerless piano skills and gift for improvisation, Gonzaga pioneered this upbeat blend of jazz, waltz, polka, and Afro-Brazilian beats.
On January 17, 1885, Gonzaga made her debut as a conductor with her piece, “Palhares Ribeiro, A Corte na Roça.” Despite the popularity of her music, Gonzaga faced resistance as a woman in a male-dominated business. Often performing with a group headed by her close friend, the flutist Joaquim Antônio da Silva Callado Jr., and including her son João Gualberto on clarinet, Gonzaga managed to thrive in the face of adversity, inspiring others to follow in her footsteps.
During the late 1880s Gonzaga threw her support behind the abolitionist movement, selling her sheet music to raise funds, she paid for the freedom of the enslaved musician Zé Flauta. Her 1899 Carnival march “O abre alas!” [Open Wings] was an homage to freedom. In 1917 she co-founded the artists’ rights society SBAT to ensure that songwriters received a fair share of income from their compositions.
Gonzaga’s legacy lives on as one of Brazil’s most celebrated musical legends. She broke down barriers and directly impacted the development of music in her homeland. Fittingly, Gonzaga’s birthday is now the official National Day of Brazilian Popular Music [Dia da Música Popular Brasileira].
Feliz aniversário Chiquinha Gonzaga!
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September 1, 2020
Celebrating Dr. Harold Moody
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...7108573-2x.jpg
Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Dublin-based guest artist Charlot Kristensen, celebrates Jamaican-born British doctor, racial equality campaigner, and founder of the U.K.'s first civil rights movement Dr. Harold Moody. On this day in 1904, Dr. Moody arrived in the U.K. from Jamaica to pursue his medical studies at King’s College London. Alongside his medical work, he dedicated his life to campaigning for racial equality and advocating against discrimination.
Harold Arundel Moody was born on October 8, 1882, in the Jamaican capital of Kingston. He received early exposure to the medical field while in secondary school through his work for his father’s pharmaceutical business. Determined to become a doctor, he left Jamaica in 1904 to study medicine in London.
Dr. Moody soon came face-to-face with rampant racism in Edwardian London. Even though he qualified to practice medicine, finished top of his class, and won numerous academic prizes, he was repeatedly refused work due to the color bar system that denied people opportunities based on race. Instead, he opened his own private medical practice in Peckham, South East London—the neighborhood that inspired the design of the buildings situated below Dr. Moody in today’s Doodle. The children depicted represent the countless impoverished youth Dr. Moody would treat free of charge, in a time before the U.K. had a National Health Service. In doing so, Dr. Moody earned a reputation as a compassionate humanitarian and philanthropist who would always help those in need.
Dr. Moody’s determination to improve the lives of those around him wasn’t limited to his medical practice—he simultaneously focused his attention on combating racial injustice as well. He founded the League of Coloured Peoples in 1931 with the mission to fight for racial equality both in the U.K. and around the world. The group pushed for change, at a government level, to combat discrimination in its many forms.
Thank you, Dr. Moody, for paving the way towards a more equal future.
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September 1, 2008
Filopimin Finos' Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/R-...O3ue9u7Qw=s660
Filopimin Finos was a Greek film producer of 186 films and the founder of Finos Film, whose first film was in 1939. He built the first sound recording device in Greece, and shot the first colour film with stereo sound. Finos died in January 1977 after suffering cancer for seven years and he left no heir.
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September 1, 2020
Aya Kōda’s 116th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by guest artist Yuko Shimizu, celebrates the 116th birthday of Japanese novelist, essayist, and feminist Aya Kōda, widely revered as one of the most luminary Japanese authors of her time. Kōda’s writing eloquently explored topics like familial relationships, gender roles, and traditional Japanese culture, and she came to be closely associated with the appearance of the kimono in her work.
Aya Kōda was born on this day in 1904 in the Japanese capital of Tokyo. Her father, Rohan Kōda, was one of Japan’s most esteemed authors, and Kōda began her writing career at age 43 with an essay about him for a literary journal.
In the 1940s and ‘50s, Kōda honed her captivating style through a series of similarly autobiographical essays that chronicled her life with the eccentric Rohan. Despite her unexpected literary success, she stopped writing for several months to work as a maid at a geisha house. Kōda’s experience among the kimono-clad women there inspired her 1955 debut novel “Nagareru” [“Flowing”], which is cited as a critical turning point in her career.
Today’s Doodle artwork depicts Kōda dressed in a kimono, a subject she examined so frequently that her first 1958-’59 essay collection featured covers made of hand-stitched kimono fabric. In the background of the Doodle artwork is the Horinji Temple found in Japan’s Nara prefecture. The Kōda family had strong ties to pagodas, and when a fire caused by lightning burnt down the original Horinji Temple in 1944, Kōda raised money that helped fund its 1970s reconstruction. Kōda went on to produce a prolific body of work, much of which can be found in her 23-volume, career-spanning collection published from 1994-’97.
Happy birthday, Aya Kōda, and thank you for sharing the fabric of Japanese culture with the world!
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Jan 6, 2021
Juliano Moreira's 149th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the Brazilian psychiatrist, scientist, professor, and social reformer Juliano Moreira. Throughout his early 20th-century career, Moreira revolutionized the treatment of people with mental illnesses in Brazil and fought tirelessly to combat scientific racism and the false linkage of mental illness to skin color.
Juliano Moreira was born on this day in 1872 in Salvador, Brazil to a mother who was a slave at an aristocratic residence. Based on his exceptional intelligence, Moreira was allowed to matriculate at the Bahia School of Medicine at just 13 years old. He earned his medical degree while he was still a teenager, and in 1896 the University of Bahia appointed him as a professor of psychiatry.
Moreira turned his attention to the treatment of mental illness, and he traveled the world to study other countries’ approaches. He gained the opportunity to apply his newfound knowledge in 1903 when he was appointed to run a national hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for patients with mental illnesses. Over nearly three decades in the position, he implemented sweeping reforms to provide a more humanistic and scientific approach to patient care. He also co-authored a 1903 law that compelled the humane treatment of people with mental illnesses in the country.
To honor Moreira’s legacy, a hospital in his hometown of Salvador was renamed the Juliano Moreira Hospital in the mid-’30s.
Happy birthday, Juliano Moreira, and thank you for your dedication to a brighter future of psychiatric care!
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January 6, 2011
Khalil Gibran's Birthday
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Gibran Khalil Gibran, usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist, also considered a philosopher although he himself rejected the title. He is best known as the author of The Prophet, which was first published in the United States in 1923 and has since become one of the best-selling books of all time, having been translated into more than 100 languages.
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November 9, 2018
Celebrating Amanda Crowe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je2du-WEnPQ
In honor of Native American Heritage Month, today’s video Doodle celebrates Eastern Band Cherokee Indian woodcarver and educator Amanda Crowe, a prolific artist renowned for her expressive animal figures. Led by Doodler Lydia Nichols, the Doodle was created in collaboration with the Qualla Arts & Crafts Mutual as well as William “Bill” H. Crowe, Jr., woodcarver and nephew and former student of Amanda Crowe. Aside from highlighting Crowe’s own words and passion for her craft, the Doodle features high resolution imagery of Amanda’s true works housed in her homeland at Qualla Arts & Crafts Mutual, the nation’s oldest American Indian cooperative. The music is also an original composition by her nephew, Bill.
Born in 1928, Crowe was raised within the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina, which is territory owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Her artistic talent emerged early, as she began drawing and carving around the age of four. Although Crowe said she was “barely old enough to handle a knife,” she was determined to express herself. Studying with her uncle Goingback Chiltoskey, a well-known woodcarver in his own right, Crowe honed her skills, carrying her tools to school to pursue her passion for creativity and even selling her carvings as a child.
In 1946, Crowe earned a scholarship to study at the Art Institute of Chicago, expanding her vision through exposure to the world-renowned museum’s permanent collection of sculpture. She learned to work with plaster, stone, and metal, but always came back to wood as her preferred medium. “The grain challenges me to create objects in three dimensions,” she explained. “A mistake or flaw in the wood will improve your design. To me, a knot can be the best part.”
After earning her Master of Fine Arts degree, Crowe studied in Mexico with the renowned sculptor José de Creeft before returning to her homeland in the Qualla Boundary. There, she established a studio in the Paint Town community and began teaching art classes at Cherokee High School, where she would teach over 2000 students over the course of 40 years.
As many prominent American Indian artists studied under Crowe, her tutelage has been credited with fostering a resurgence of Cherokee carving. Crowe’s work can has been showcased in the High Museum in Atlanta and the Mint Museum in Charlotte in addition to private collections all over the world.
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November 9, 2012
Feng Zikai's 114th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Gj...pygQv5XCc=s660
Feng Zikai was an influential Chinese painter, pioneering manhua artist, essayist, and lay Buddhist of twentieth-century China. Born just after the First Sino-Japanese War [1894–1895] and passing away just before the end of the Cultural Revolution [1966–1976], he lived through much of the political and socio-economic turmoil that arose during the birth of modern China. Much of his literary and artistic work comments on and records the relationship between the changing political landscape and the daily lives of ordinary people. Although he is most famous for his paintings depicting children and the multi-volume collection of Buddhist-inspired art, Paintings for the Preservation of Life , Feng Zikai was a prolific artist, writer, and intellectual, who made strides in the fields of music, art, literature, philosophy, and translation.
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October 9, 2020
Mary Ann Shadd Cary’s 197th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Alberta, Canada-based guest artist Michelle Theodore, celebrates the 197th birthday of American-Canadian newspaper editor and publisher, journalist, teacher, lawyer, abolitionist, and suffragist Mary Ann Shadd Cary. Credited as the first Black female newspaper editor and publisher in North America and the second Black woman to earn a law degree in the United States, Shadd Cary is renowned as a courageous pioneer in the fight for abolition and women’s suffrage.
Mary Ann Shadd was born on this day in 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware. Her parents were dedicated abolitionists and used their home as a station on the Underground Railroad to provide a safe haven to escaped slaves. Following her graduation from a Pennsylvania boarding school, she became a teacher. Frederick Douglass published her first work in his newspaper in 1848, which was a bold call to action for the abolitionist movement.
In the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850—a major threat to Black people in the U.S.— the Shadd family moved north to Canada. It was there in 1853 that Shadd launched her historic newspaper, The Provincial Freemen, a weekly Black publication geared especially toward escaped slaves. Following her marriage, Shadd Cary moved back to the U.S. and, in 1883 earned her trailblazing law degree from Howard University.
For her invaluable contributions to Canadian history, Shadd Cary was honored by the country in 1994 as a Person of National Historic Significance.
Happy Birthday, Mary Ann Shadd Cary!
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March 19, 2016
Father's Day 2016 [Bolivia, Croatia, Italy, Spain]
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...00832-hp2x.jpg
Happy Father's Day! Today let's appreciate all fathers, and father figures who help kids start on the right foot. Doodler Kevin Laughlin created today's design.
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March 19, 2019
Father's Day 2019 [bo, hn, it, pt, es]
[Bolivia, Honduras, Italy, Portugal, Spain]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWuDzjZgsR8
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March 19, 2018
Father's Day 2018 [Bolivia, Honduras, Italy, Portugal, Spain]
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...4626176-2x.jpg
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April 23, 2021
St. George's Day 2021
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by U.K.-based guest artist Ruby Fresson, honors England’s celebration of St. George’s Day and the legend behind this special day that has captured the imagination of generations.
The legend of St. George traces its roots back to the Middle Ages when 11th-century Crusaders returned to England and shared his venerable story of valor and sacrifice. Accounts lauded St. George as a hero who rescued not only a princess but an entire city under siege from a fire-breathing dragon! Upon his valiant horseback arrival, St. George slew the dragon, a battle scene recreated in today’s Doodle artwork. Rose bushes are said to have grown across the village after the dragon’s defeat and St. George picked a fresh rose to give to the rescued princess.
Following his success, the villagers held a massive feast in St. George’s honor—a tradition which has been passed down through the ages—as has giving a rose to a loved one in some cultures.
Happy St. George’s Day!