Letter Writing Day
The end of the first full week of December seems like a good time to write a letter. Letters to Santa might be ready to mail or maybe there's a friend or relative in another time zone. Write a personal letter to send during the holiday season and reconnect with loved ones. At the very least you'll give someone an envelope to open that does not contain a bill.
Letter Writing Day may fall on Dec. 7 because of one prolific letter writer, Cicero, who died on Dec. 7, 43 B.C. He wrote many letters to his friend Atticus, according to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The orator, philosopher and lawyer Cicero is credited "introducing the art of refined letter writing to European culture," according to the University of Adelaide.
Civil Aviation Day
The United Nations loves to make proclamations. In 1994, to mark the 50th Anniversary of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N. designated Dec. 7 as Civil Aviation Day, according to the ICAO. "The purpose of the global celebration is to generate and reinforce worldwide awareness of the importance of international civil aviation in the social and economic development of States, and of the role of ICAO in promoting the safety, efficiency and regularity of international air transport." Civil Aviation Day coincides with Pearl Harbor Day.
Pearl Harbor Day
Dec. 7 is "a date that will live in infamy." Seventy years ago, on Dec. 7, 1941, at 7:55 a.m., Japanese aircraft attacked the Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. At the end of the one-hour raid, 3,000 were dead. The National Parks Service commemorates with anniversary with nearly a week of events at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, according to the NPS.
Cotton Candy Day
You can do wonderful things with sugar and heat. All that shattering (but fake) glass you may have seen during barroom brawls in old action movies was made from sugar, according to the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. It was called candy glass and when it broke it was not sharp. They boiled sugar into a syrup to make smooth panes of glass. Boiling sugar was also the early and time-consuming method used to make cotton candy, or "spun sugar," in 1769, according to Food Timeline.
This dates cotton candy back further than the 1904 Louisiana Exposition in St. Louis, often cited as the place and time where cotton candy was invented. Making and selling large quantities of cotton candy did become popular in 1897, "beginning when W.J. Morrison and J.C. Wharton patented the first electric machine for spinning sugar into edible threads," according to Food Timeline. One way to enjoy this treat during the winter months is to dress up holiday champagne with cotton candy.
