Kevin Gower

YOU know who gets texts from blokes, ignores them and it only makes them want me more? Me over here, a licensed plumber. Need him hungry for you, girls? Do this: 

Don’t respond to messages too quickly

You can’t be answering immediately. Makes you seem cheap. They have to be reminded they need you more than you need them. And go ahead and tease a little. Men like mystery. Make them wait in all night then send a last-minute text saying you’ve got another job that’s gone long but you’ll try to get to them sometime later this month. They love that.

Never let him know what you’re thinking

Keep him on his toes. Seem friendly, then give them the silent treatment. Say you’re nipping down Screwfix for a part then don’t come back for two days. Act like it’s no big deal it being a Sunday, then casually drop in that it’s double-time with a call-out fee once they’re committed.

Let him chase you

Set times you don’t show up for, book in dates you’re no intention of making, and when he’s had enough that’s when you reach out with a 750-word WhatsApp message revealing you’ve been going through some personal stuff lately but it’s over now and you are ready to make this work. Then don’t turn up again.

Reinforce that you have all the power

He can complain, he can vent, he can say ‘I thought we’d agreed this’ and ‘I don’t think I’m getting what I wanted’ but remember you have the power tools and the power. He’s completely dependent on you and he knows it. If you walk out now he’s completely f**ked. If he threatens to find someone else? You know how tough it is out there. He won’t.

Go bloody crazy on his pipes

Finally, give him the payoff. Show him you know your way around a pipe like nobody he’s ever let get down on their knees and see what’s flowing. Service good and bloody hard until he’s gasping with delight, then quote for six days’ work.

Liberia’s history is quite unique amongst other African nations. It began as a settlement of the American Colonization Society who believed black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States. This meant that Liberia didn’t have the struggle from Independence that marks the history of many African nations in the 20th century.

However, when the settlers arrived, the land wasn’t uninhabited, and the relationship between the new arrivals and the indigenous people would come to define the history of this west African nation.

Liberia had enjoyed a period of stability and prosperity under the leadership of William Tubman, who was president from 1944 until 1971. Though an Americo-Liberian, he had the respect of all Liberians.

After Tubman died in 1971, his Vice President, William Tolbert became President.

Though Tolbert enacted some democratic reforms, he never had the same reverence as Tubman and his attempts to balance the Americo-Liberian and the indigenous Liberians were hampered by a fall in the price of rubber in the 1970s, reducing the income in a key sector of the economy.

When Tolbert’s government increased the price of rice, the opposition party, the Progressive Alliance of Liberia (PAL) called for a peaceful demonstration in Monrovia. The demonstration turned into race riots with many people being killed.

As a result, Tolbert banned the PAL and had its leadership arrested on charges of treason, which would prove to be a fateful and fatal move.

On the morning of April 12th 1980, 17 non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Armed Forces of Liberia led by Master Sergeant Samuel Doe launched a coup d’état. The group entered the Presidential palace and killed Tolbert, whose body was dumped into a mass grave together with 26 other victims of the coup.

A MOTHER is gripped by a new live-action reality show which she is binge-watching via the streaming service of her kitchen window.

Mary, not her real name, could not get into Made in Chelsea or The Only Way is Essex, but has found herself riveted to the squabbles about trellises and hanging baskets that drop every day in her neighbour’s back garden.

She said: “I missed the first few seasons but the plot’s easy enough to pick up. And thanks to the second-screen-friendly dialogue I can even scroll on my phone at the same time.

“Basically, it’s about this suburban middle-class family who are coming to terms with their pointless existence via horticulture. Not only is it unmissable, there are no ads.

“It’s impossible to only watch one episode. Just when I’m about to see what’s on the telly, the conversation switches from the ivy that needs trimming to their daughter’s bulimia. I can’t walk away from a cliffhanger like that.

“The only downside is that nobody else watches it, so I can’t talk to anyone about the plot twists. I’m trying to get my friend Helen to give it a go by saying it’s like Ground Force meets Bridgerton.”

Neighbour Kelly, not her real name, said: “Mary’s obsessive viewing habits are disturbing. But we are nicking her WiFi and using her Disney+ account, so it’s a fair trade.”

The Battle of Rivas took place in Rivas, Nicaragua between the army lead by William Walker and Costa Rica’s army led by President Juan Rafael Mora Porras, General José Joaquín Mora Porras, and General Jose Maria Cañas. 

Walker was an American who had assumed control of Nicaragua and was amassing troops and consolidating his power in the region. Alarmed by his actions, Costa Rica declared war on Walker. 

Walker’s army was on the run after two battles with the Costa Rican army, when on April 11th 1856, they were confronted with nearly 700 Costa Rican troops in Rivas. 

The two armies were fighting each other in a grueling and bloody battle for over nine hours without either side gaining any decisive advantage, when Juan Santamaría, a Costa Rican drummer boy from Alajuela, volunteered to burn down the “El Mesón de Guerra”, a building, in which Walker’s troops where gathered. The son of a single mother, Santamaria volunteered for the charge, with the condition that someone would look after his mother if he died.

Santamaria threw a torch onto the thatched roof of Walker’s stronghold, causing it to catch fire and his troops to flee. While he was successful in his mission and his actions enabled the Costa Ricans to win the battle, Santamaria was then killed by sniper fire. 

His heroics were the defining factor in the Costa Rican victory at Rivas. For his sacrifice, he became recognised as a National Hero of Costa Rica.

Juan Santamaria is a household name in Costa Rica. He is considered a national hero and his legacy still endures well over a century after his death. A statue, famous paintings, literature, and even an airport bear his name The country’s main international airport is named after him, the Aeropuerto Internacional Juan Santamaría, though it is more commonly known as the San Jose airport (SJO).

THE long-held suspicion that it is impossible for women and women to have genuine friendships has been proved by researchers. 

A study which included peer-reviews of bitchy WhatsApps, lab measurements of subtle, withering comments about each other’s wardrobes and longitudinal studies concluded that women are incapable of friendship with women.

Professor Ronny, of the Institute for Studies, said: “What was a popular theory is now a scientific fact. Disagree and you’re as deluded as a flat-Earther.

“Women may all appear to be close confidants to the untrained, male eye. Look closer and you’ll see even the closest of friendships is a long war motivated by fiery hatred and a refusal to concede superiority. And if they’re actual sisters even more so.

“Resentment runs through everything women do. Hen parties are a calculated humiliation ritual. Weddings only exist to establish dominance over their closest enemies. Even their slumber party pillow-fights are just a controlled release of physical rage.

“Compare this to how well women get on with men. Often their friendship blossoms into ill-judged sex and occasionally marriage. After which they stop talking, but still.”

Woman Helen Archer said: “Who did they do this study on? I bet it was Emily, that f**king bitch.”

The first ceremony takes place on Good Friday where the “Epitafios”, an imitation of the Christ’s funeral bier, is decorated with many flowers by the local women. The “Epitafios” is then paraded through the streets of the villages or the neighbourhoods of the cities.

In some areas of Greece such as Crete, the ceremony is also accompanied by the burning of effigies of Judas Iscariot.

A great celebration also takes places on the Saturday, for Christ’s triumphant return. At the stroke of midnight, all the lights of the churches are put out to symbolise the darkness which enveloped Christ as He passed through the underworld. Then a priest appears holding aloft a lighted taper and chanting “Avto to Fos… “(This is the Light…) and uses the Holy flame to light the candles of nearby worshippers. These worshippers then share their Light with their neighbours, until the entire church and the courtyard is illuminated by the candlelight.

After midnight, the families and friends meet to eat the “Mayeretsa”, a soup made from lamb tripe, rice, dill and lemon. The rest of the lamb will be roasted on Sunday morning for the lunch, with wines and dances.

This festival is of great importance across all of Greece but some place are notable for their Easter celebrations: Hydra, Corfu, Pyrgi on Chios, Olymbos on Karpathos and St John’s monastery on Patmos.

The Republic of Kosovo is a partially-recognized state and disputed territory at the heart of the Balkans in South-eastern Europe.

Following the collapse of Yugoslavia, ethnic tensions in Serbia erupted into to the Kosovo War in 1998.

The conflict resulted in the establishment of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo.

In November 2005, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Martti Ahtisaari to lead the Kosovo status process.

On February 17th 2008, the Kosovo assembly unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia “in full accordance with the recommendations of U.N. Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari.” It pledged to be a democratic republic and accept all the obligations under the Ahtisaari plan, including the adoption of a new constitution within 120 days.

The constitution was signed on April 7th 2008 at 13:00 local time at the national library in Pristina.

The constitution was then ratified on April 9th and came into effect on June 15th 2008.

It is the most important legal document which guarantees the basic rights and freedoms of all the citizens of the country.

AN invitation has arrived, and of course you have no intention of going. But how best to do so without offending the host who unreasonably expects your presence? Try these: 

Turn it down

The cleanest strategy for handling invites is also the most challenging. Going against every instinct to embrace your anti-social nature with a swift ‘F**k no’ is tough, so ingrained is pretending people are pleasurable to spend time with. It does eliminate uncertainty over whether you’re a fun or available person, helpful in the face of future invites.

Accept, then cancel

Allows you to experience for a moment the feeling of being a normal sociable person who wants to ‘hang out’ while not actually doing it. It’s most convincing to leave making your excuses to a week before the event while bemoaning the other commitment that has cropped up ‘out of nowhere’ and is ‘truly gutting’.

Ghost

May require moving house, changing jobs, or going no-contact with family, but worth it if you struggle communication, confrontation and the rigmarole of basic human courtesy. A straightforward blanking allows you to continue as if an invite never arrived, safe in the knowledge that the host will eventually give up trying.

Turn it down then accept

Reverse the established norm to give your host a rousing rollercoaster of emotion, then cancel again, then accept again, and before long they’ll be ignoring your texts. Quite a turnaround.

Refuse to commit

Ideal for those who want to give their prospective host the most anxiety possible, this option suspends your host in a quantum state of indecision, waiting for you to sync diaries, taking hopes you can make it at face value, eager to see if fictional competing engagements pan out. Eventually text ‘sorry, can’t make it’ an hour after the event begins.

Before the holiday begins, observant Jews will remove and discard all food with leavening (called chametz) from their households, doing a thorough job, so that not even a crumb remains. This tradition is called bedikat chametz.

In the absence of leaven, Jews will eat specially prepared unleavened bread, or matzah, on Passover. Many Jews will also eat products made with matzah “flour” – unleavened bread that has been finely ground. Matzah dates back to the Exodus, where the Jews, not having had time to wait for the dough to rise before leaving Egypt, journeyed into the desert with unleavened bread.

Passover is a family holiday and a happy one. The first night is the most important, followed by the second night. It is traditional for a Jewish family to gather on both these nights for a special dinner called a seder (literally translating as “order”, due to the very specific order of the ceremony) where the reading of the story of the Exodus from Egypt, the Haggadah retells the story of the Israelite exodus from Egypt.

At the seder, three matzohs are used. During the seder, the middle matzoh is broken in half. The smaller piece is returned to the set of matzohs while the larger piece is designated as the Afikomen, or the dessert matzoh. Two distinct customs have arisen regarding the afikomen, both of which involve the afikomen being hidden as a means of keeping the children interested in the proceedings. In one custom, a child “steals” it and the parent has to find it. If the parent can’t find it, the child is given a reward for the return of the afikomen. In the other custom the parents hide the afikomen and the children look for it at the end of the meal. If the children find it, they receive the reward.

After gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Askar Akayev became President.

In 2005, a popular uprising known as the “Tulip Revolution”, forced President Akayev’s resignation in April of that year. Opposition leaders formed a coalition, and a new government was formed under President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

On April 6th 2010, civil unrest broke out in the town of Talas after a demonstration against government corruption and increased living expenses.

On April 7th 2010, the unrest had spread and mass anti-government protests in Bishkek turned violent, with over 84 people being killed and many hundreds injured in clashes with security forces.

A transition government took control and Bakiev fled the country soon afterwards.

The day has been a public holiday since 2016.

To mark the events of 2010, hundreds of people attend a special ceremony at a memorial site near Bishkek, including top government officials and the relatives of victims who died during the revolution. People laid wreaths and flowers and held prayers for the deceased.

Since independence, the history of this small, landlocked African country has been dominated by tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups.

The first democratic elections in June 1993, brought the Hutu, Melchoir Ndadaye to power, though he was assassinated in October of that year.

In early 1994, the parliament elected another Hutu, Cyprien Ntaryamira as President.

On April 6th 1994, Ntaryamira died in a plane crash. The private Dassault Falcon 50 jet which belonged to Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana, a fellow Hutu, was shot down while landing at Kigali International Airport, Rwanda. The plane crashed, killing both presidents. The deaths ignited the Rwandan Genocide.

President Ntaryamira Day is a solemn observance during which people reflect upon one of the most tragic events in African history.

YOUR boisterous, irrepressible dog is fun and full of character. Everyone you meet definitely feels the same way, so it’s fine to do the following:

Let him off the lead

Anyone out in a public place is thrilled to have a random dog leaping up at them and barking wildly. Parents only take their toddlers to the park in the hope of securing such a delightful animal encounter free of charge. If your dog also entertains picnicking strangers by stealing their ham sandwiches, so much the better.

Take him everywhere you go

Cafes aren’t for a relaxed catch-up with friends, which is dull. Brunch needs to be enlivened by you and your dog rocking up at the adjacent table. His incessant barking, lunges at anyone passing and rancid farts will give everyone a subject to converse on. Are those yummy mummies laughing or gagging? Laughing, obviously.

Ignore all hygiene concerns

Current dog ownership involves forgetting everything you knew about the established scientific concept of ‘germs’. Don’t worry if your pet has had a lick at the Victoria sponge you’re serving to your guests. They’ll just laugh at what a mischievous little scamp he is and definitely won’t be thinking, ‘I’m eating shitty dog arse.’

Laugh off misbehaviour as delightful

Your dog isn’t dangerous, he’s an amusingly naughty boy and has no deep-rooted psychological issues a tasty treat won’t address. Anyway, a dog who doesn’t growl and snap is like a football match without goals: boring. He was only playing. That child’s parents should stop overreacting with silly talk about stitches, police, and post-traumatic stress.

Expect friends to look after him

Don’t pay for expensive boarding kennels when you go away. They treat all dogs the same, and your dog is an individual! It will be a wonderful privilege for your friends to dogsit, which means picking up dogshit and their fitted carpet being dug up. If they’ve walked him for less than three hours it’s their fault he ate their sofa.

Put a photo of him on your Christmas cards

Christmas wouldn’t be complete for your extended family without a picture of your terrifying hound on their mantelpiece. Life’s so busy, they haven’t really had a chance to visit since you got him. This will be a lovely festive reminder of the abject fear they’re missing.

The Easter Bunny is now an established part of the Easter traditions. In Europe and America, the Easter Bunny visits the garden of children leaving chocolate eggs and treats for the children to find on Easter Egg hunts.

Rabbits and hares don’t have any direct connection to any Christian tradition and it is interesting to note that the pagan goddess, Ostara was always traditionally accompanied by a hare. The modern tradition derives from a German custom that was first recorded in the 16th century. It may seem strange for a rabbit to be laying eggs, but as eggs were part of the foods banned during Lent, then the reintroduction of eggs would have been a welcome treat, no matter how they arrived in the garden.

It was once thought that hares could give birth without conceiving, which may have made them a way of explaining the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary. It is also said that the sight of Rabbits appearing from their underground burrows is a reminder of Jesus appearing from the tomb after his resurrection on Easter morning.

On Easter Sunday, the traditional meat for dinner is lamb. The lamb was a sacrifice during the Jewish Passover, and it became a symbol for Jesus. It is also seasonal as Spring lamb is particularly tender and noted for its subtle flavour.

DO you sometimes have to ensure your elderly parents attend a family event, keep a doctor’s appointment or simply come to visit? Here is the painful process step-by-step.

1. Have they remembered they’re going? No. Your inward groans begin. 

2. Discussion of weather. Yes, it could rain on the way to your car at the top of their drive. And gloves would be wise. It’s mild right now but it could suddenly turn into Hoth.

3. Use of toilet suggested. Debated for much longer than it takes to have a wee, or attempt to. Suggestion rejected.

4. They appear to be taking a long time to get ready.You go upstairs and discover they haven’t started yet. They are looking at a fly in the bedroom.

5. Putting on coats. Somehow takes seven minutes. They’ve only got two arms.

6. Actually they will go to the toilet. Urge to shout ‘For f**k’s sake!’ resisted by not wanting to give your mum the excuse to pretend to be shocked as if it’s the 1950s.

7. You point out the time. It is meaningless to them since they live in a timeless void known as ‘retirement’. 

8. Key-carrying responsibility discussed. Dad will lock the doors, but Mum will transport the house keys in her handbag. Which has also been confirmed to contain lip balm and tissues. Glad all that’s cleared up.

9. Unnecessary task performed, eg. washing-up. Yes, four unwashed mugs and two plates with scone crumbs on will be swarming with rats and cockroaches if left for two hours.

10. Door exited and locked. The stress thus far has taken six weeks off your life.

11. Check that door is locked. It is. Luckily the lock is designed not to randomly unlock itself.

12. Second check that door is locked. Sizewell B has fewer failsafe procedures.

13. Open bathroom window noticed. Dad goes back inside to prevent doll-sized burglar getting in. All previous door steps repeated.

14. Stopping on way to car. An urgent inspection of a flowerbed is required. Geraniums confirmed to exist. No further action necessary at this point.

15. Chat with neighbour. Sadly it appears Mrs Brown’s husband is still dead.

16. Seatbelt torture. The silver bit goes into the buckle clearly designed for that, so why does your dad appear to be fighting an octopus? Haven’t retracting seatbelts been around since the 1980s?

17. Journey begins. Request to go back and get travel sweets denied for 12-minute drive.

18. (If walking) Stop to look at something utterly uninteresting. Eg. unspectacular fallen branch, minor scaffolding project, the incredible coincidence of a neighbour having the same car as one of your relatives. You pray you will somehow never get old.

19. Realisation that one has forgotten their glasses.Yes, your mother failed to notice that everything had turned into a large fuzzy blob. You must return home. All progress is undone. You want to cry.

Chungmyung Day falls on one of the 24 divisions of the year and represents the sky clearing up for spring.

Traditionally the day is spent tidying up graves and doing home repairs that could not be done during the winter months.

It takes place on the same date as the Ching Ming Festival (Tomb-Sweeping Day) in China which also shares rituals about ancestor worship.

Despite the rich history of the traditions of this day, it has only been an official holiday since 2010, when Kim Jong Eun declared this day as a holiday so that the people could spend it conducting traditional rituals.

Along with New Year’s Day, Lunar New Year’s Day, Dano (May 5th) and Chuseok, Hansik is one of the five ‘folk holidays’ offically commemorated in North Korea, but are not viewed as important as Kim Jong Il’s and Kim Il Sung’s birthdays, which both are normally celebrated with three days of holidays.

MORE and more places are welcoming dogs these days, but society still has a long way to go. Here are just six of the places I should obviously be allowed to take my gorgeous little fur baby.

Restaurants

Dogs are social creatures and they love to eat, so really a restaurant is the perfect place for them. If you’ve got a problem with my dog begging, drooling and sniffing your crotch while you enjoy dinner, that sounds like a you problem. Perhaps you should eat at home so my little angel doesn’t have to experience your dog-hating.

Your child’s birthday party

I don’t have a child. I have a dog. But why should that exclude me from your infant son’s birthday festivities? My labrador may be largely untrained and absolutely enormous, but he’ll have a blast hurtling around with your two-year-old and his mates. Just tell them not to get too rowdy as he is very easily startled.

The theatre

Just because my dog doesn’t speak English doesn’t mean he can’t appreciate the magic of theatre. And yes, perhaps he will run onto the stage and try to mount the cast – but that’s just how he expresses that he enjoyed the performance. He can’t exactly clap, can he?

An intensive care ward

I can already hear the protests – ‘But I’m critically ill!’ and ‘I’m in a coma!’. Well I’m sorry, but Milo is a curious little guy and there are lots of interesting things for him to smell in here. Plus, he absolutely loves chewing all the wires and tubes. If you saw how happy he’d be gnawing on a catheter you’d think twice about excluding him from your precious ward.

A funeral

Look, I’m sorry that a large portion of your aunt’s eulogy could not be heard because my dog was barking. But it’s not his fault. He saw a squirrel outside.

A nuclear submarine

Some people think bringing a dog aboard a cramped vessel packed with weapons of mass destruction is a bad idea. They say things like ‘It’s an extreme security risk’ and ‘How did you even get on board?’ But Milo just loves to explore new places and he won’t be any bother. If he accidentally launches a Trident missile and triggers a world war while chasing a tennis ball that seems like a design fault.

At first glance, it seems a strange name for a day that marked such a terrible event as a crucifixion, but when we look at the origin of the name it becomes clearer… or it would if there was one origin that people could agree on. As it stands, you can take your pick from the following:

• Some say it comes from the use of “Good” as an adjective applied to the day, which is an Old English synonym for “holy.”
• Others believe it stems from a corruption of the word “God,” in much the same way that “Good Bye” comes from the phrase “God be with ye.” So the name may be derived from ‘God’s Friday’.
• Undoubtedly most Christians perceive the day as “good” because the message of Easter is of Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the devil. Indeed, the New Testament is also known as the Gospel, which is Greek for ‘Good News’.

Also, it also worth noting that this confusion over the name is mainly confined to Western European and North American Christians. Eastern Orthodox Christians call it “Great and Holy Friday. Around the rest of the world, it’s known as Holy Friday in most Latin nations, ‘Great Friday’ by the Slavic peoples, “Friday of Mourning” in Germany and “Long Friday” in Norway.

The Malvinas Islands are probably better known in the English-speaking world by their British name, the Falklands.

The holiday is a tribute to Argentina’s fallen soldiers in the Falklands War, which began with the Argentine occupation of the Islands on April 2nd 1982.

The war lasted 74 days, with 255 British and 649 Argentine soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and three civilian Falklanders killed.

Malvinas Day was first introduced in 2001. It replaced the June 10th “Sovereignty over Malvinas Islands” Day, which until then had commemorated the appointment of Luis Vernet as governor of the Islands by Buenos Aires in 1832.

The Argentine government is continuing with its efforts to identify the remains of all it’s fallen troops on the islands. Speaking at the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the 649 fallen soldiers on April 2nd 2019, Secretary for Human Rights Claudio Avruj said “this… …is a very important and emotional event, which adds to the valuable and significant work carried out by the humanitarian mission to identify our Malvinas heroes”.

LONDON is the most dangerous place in the country according to your mother who last visited in 1981 for the Royal Wedding. This is what she thinks happens there:

Your phone will get stolen

Every resident of London has their phone stolen by youths on e-bikes at least five times a day. It’s in the Mail. Statistically, that means your phone will be snatched within 28 seconds of getting off the train then twice again before lunch. You’d be much better visiting somewhere safer, like Banbury or Dubai.

You’ll encounter a migrant

Not that there’s anything wrong with migrants, of course. They’re perfectly welcome to seek refuge in London so long as they stay there. It’s just they sell vapes and aren’t qualified to cut hair and I don’t understand why they can’t be migrants in their own country. It would save them the trouble of crossing the Channel.

You’ll commit knife crime

They’re all at it: wealth managers, PR girls, Tube drivers. Everyone in London indulges in knife crime on a daily basis. Honestly, before you’ve got to Cockfosters you’ll find a big deadly blade in your coat pocket and a burning desire to use it. Do you really want to stab someone just for having the wrong postcode when you could stay here in Uttoxeter?

You’ll question your entire identity

London is a diverse, multi-cultural melting pot, and worse they think that’s normal. Even just a day trip to the Big Smoke can have you reassessing whether you’re heterosexual or need to mix race. And the evidence shows that makes property prices go through the absolute roof.

You’ll get gentrified

You as you are? Not good enough for fancy Londoners. They’ll tear down your charming, homely features and replace them with a soulless glass-and-steel construction too expensive for anyone who isn’t a finance wanker to enjoy. Bad enough, but when you come back here you’ll look terribly out-of-place and your friends will rightly bully you.

The origins of the customs of the day are shrouded in mystery. Some scholars believe it is likely to be a relic of festivities held to mark the vernal equinox. These celebrations of the first days of spring began on 25 March and ended on 2 April. Certainly, there is some evidence to suggest that 1 April was observed as a general festival in pagan Britain.

More commonly, the customs are associated with the switch to the Gregorian calendar in France during the sixteenth century.

Historically, many parts of the world celebrated 1 April as New Year’s Day – due to its relationship with the start of Spring.

France was one of the first countries to adopt 1 January as their official New Year’s Day, by decree of Charles IX in 1564. This was before the 1582 adoption of the Gregorian calendar.

The gifts and traditions which had been the feature of the 1st of April switched to January 1st. However, many people either refused to accept the change or did not hear about the news for several years. Those who still celebrated April 1 were seen as ‘fools’ by the general populace, and fair game to be the butt of pranks and tricks were known as a “poisson d’avril” or “April fish.” 

The traditions spread to England and Scotland in the eighteenth century and was brought to the American colonies by both the English and French.

In 1814, Malta had become a crown colony of the British Empire after the British had help expel occupying French forces.

Following the heroic defense of the island during World War II, King George VI had promised the Maltese people self government which they gained in 1947. This eventually led to independence from Britain in 1964 and Malta becoming a republic later that year.

British forces remained on the island until 31 March 1979, when the Defence Treaty with Britain came to an end.

The removal of British was partly financial. When the Labour government came to power in Malta in 1971, it renegotiated the the lease agreement that allowed British forces to stay on the island until 1979 at an increased rent.

This withdrawal meant that for the first time in over a thousand years, Malta had no foreign military presence on its land.

The main events of the activities commemorating this date take place at the Freedom Day Monument at Vittoriosa and at the War Memorial in Floriana. In the afternoon the Grand Harbour hosts a competitive regatta.

Spiritual Baptist is a religion that developed from similar faiths in several Caribbean countries. It combines elements of Protestant Christianity with African customs and rituals. 

The Baptist faith in Trinidad is a legacy of the Merikin community. The ‘Merikins’ were African-American refugees of the War of 1812 – freed slaves who fought for the British against the Americans during the war of 1812. Following the end of the war, the Merikins established a community in the south of Trinidad. They brought the Baptist faith, having been part of evangelical sects common in places such as Georgia and Virginia.

In 1917, practising the religion was prohibited under the Shouter Prohibition Ordinance by the British colonial government. The reason given was that the noise created their services was disturbing the peace. The ordinance was introduced by then-attorney general Sir Henry Gollam who described the way members of the faith worshipped as an “unmitigated nuisance.” Another possible reason behind the ban is that the leaders of the other established religions saw the popularity of Spirtual Baptists as a threat.

For the next 34 years, it was against the law to take part in a Shouter Baptist service or use a property for that purpose and the penalty was a fine of $240.

Spiritual Baptists are sometimes referred to as ‘shouters’, as, during services, they shout, clap, sing loudly and ring bells. During the time of the prohibition on their religion, the Spiritual Baptists dropped the name Shouter Baptists in order to gain more respect for their religion.