Welcome to our series sharing Unique Holidays: June 30th, 2022. If I had published this yeasterday like I should have it would have been the last day of the month. Instead today is July 1st my mom’s birthday. As we celebrate her birthday Charlie and I will be going swimming and while outside we will be watching for Meteor’s. Would you like to join us?
If your like me then your hoping the Weather calls for clear, moonless skies tonight because it is Meteor Watch Day, a time to look to the skies for Meteor Showers. I wonder if you will be lucky enough to see Meteors streaking across the night sky?
Meteors are also called “Shooting Stars” or “Fallen Stars”. Meteors are space dust and Ice that enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Meteors can be as small as specks of dust. As Meteors enter the atmosphere at high speeds, they burn up, producing light as they streak across the night sky. Sometimes, you see Meteors streak across the sky and disappear at the horizon. Other times, Meteors end suddenly, burn out right before our eyes.
Seeing a shooting star is a sign of good luck and with a little luck, you can see a Meteor just about any night of the year. But, the best times to see Meteors are during a Meteor Shower. Did you know there are a number of Meteor showers each year. The best annual show is the Perseid Meteor shower each August.
National Handshake Day – last Thursday in June
Today is National Handshake Day which celebrates the handshake in all of its forms. Including a way of greeting, and in business where professionals around the world, “seal the deal” with a handshake, prior to putting the agreement into writing.
People have been shaking hands for thousands of years. Did you know a form of shaking hands dates back to at least 5,000 B.C. when Roman soldiers and medieval knights would shake hands, to check the forearms of their opponents for daggers or hidden weapons. Handshakes are used around the world upon meeting or greeting someone. Handshakes are a universal sign of friendship. There are countless examples of the use of a warm handshake to disarm wary adversaries or end feuds and battles. Native Americans incorporate the handshake in “blood brother” rituals.
All Kinds of Handshakes
Is there a right way or a wrong way to shake hands? I don’t think so but you may feel differently. What I will admit is there certainly is a wide variety of handshaking styles.
In Western culture, a strong, firm handshake is the most common. In business, the professional handshake consists of one to two pumps, with a firm, hard grip. A Handshake generally indicates a strong, positive, successful and determined individual. In a variation of this, the “military” handshake is quite similar, adding a vice grip like squeeze displaying the strength of the individual. Outside of business, a handshake with the ladies is usually quite light and almost dainty. With that said, a woman in business, may well pride herself in a strong, firm shake of the hand. Other hand shake variations include the “wild pump”, with fast and excessive shaking of hands. Lets not forget the wimpy or fishy shake. Not all cultures prefer the firm handshake. For example, in Asian culture, a light handshake is the norm.
Clubs and societies have historically had their “secret” handshakes consisting of any number of twists and moves in contact with open or closed hands, elbow or forearm contacts. When it comes to secret handshakes, kids are very creative.
More recent times have brought newer forms of handshakes, or ways of greeting. Including the high fives, low fives and the fairly recent “fist bumps”. At the advent of COVID-19 Coronavirus in early 2020, the “elbow bump” substituted for handshakes or other forms of greeting to minimize physical contact and the spread of Covid.
The History and Origin of National Handshake Day:
This holiday was created by Miryam Roddy of Brody Professional Development in Jenkintown, PA. which was created around 2005.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
