December 28, 2014 – PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE DAY – NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CANDY DAY – NATIONAL CARD PLAYING DAY

 

                                        PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE DAY

Pledge of Allegiance Day is observed annually on December 28.
Congress formally recognized the Pledge of Allegiance on December 28, 1945.  Thought to have been written by Francis Bellamy, the Pledge of Allegiance was published anonymously by a magazine for young people, The Youth’s Companion, and was written in celebration of the 400th anniversary, in 1892, of the discovery of America.
The text of the pledge, as originally written and modified a bit by the National Flag Conference in 1923 and 1924, was inserted into this legislation, but without designating it as the official pledge. In its original form it read: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” The small changes made resulted in this version: “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
The words “under God” were added by Congress on June 14, 1954, in response to the anti-Communist opinion sweeping the country during the Cold War.
Source:  https://rhapsodyinbooks.wordpress.com/2008/12/28/december-28-1945-congress-officially-recognized-the-pledge-of-allegiance/

National Chocolate Candy Day December 28

NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CANDY DAY

National Chocolate Candy Day is celebrated annually on December 28th.
According to Wikipedia, Chocolate is a typically sweet, usually brown, food preparation of Theobroma cacao seeds, roasted and ground, often flavored, as with vanilla. It is made in the form of a liquid, paste or in a block or used as a flavoring ingredient in other sweet foods. Cacao has been cultivated by many cultures for at least three millennia in Mesoamerica. The earliest evidence of use traces to the Mokaya (Mexico and Guatemala), with evidence of chocolate beverages dating back to 1900 BC.  In fact, the majority of Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Mayans and Aztecs,  who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl /ʃoˈkolaːt͡ɬ/, a Nahuatl word meaning “bitter water”. The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste and must be fermented to develop the flavor.

National Card Playing Day December 28

NATIONAL CARD PLAYING DAY

National Card Playing Day is annually celebrated, across the United States. on December 28.
According to Wikipedia,  a playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling.
A complete set of cards is called a pack (UK English), deck (US English), or set (Universal), and the subset of cards held at one time by a player during a game is commonly called a hand. A pack of cards may be used for playing a variety of card games, with varying elements of skill and chance, some of which are played for money.
Some of the top card games include Spades, Poker, Solitaire, Spite and Malice, Hearts, Spoons, Gin Rummy, ridge, Black Jack and Texas Hold’em.  Of course there are thousands of card games, some of which are regional favorites.