Get ready to kick off the holiday season with magic and cheer! The 72nd Saint John Santa Claus Parade is just around the corner, and this year’s theme is Animated Christmas.

New Parade Route Alert! The parade will begin at the Cruise Ship Terminals on Water Street, continue along Saint Patrick Street, and then follow the traditional route across the Viaduct to Main Street North and Lansdowne Avenue.

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August 1 is Girlfriend’s Day. It is unclear whether the unknown creators of this holiday wanted it to be a day for people to honor their female friends or for them to celebrate their female romantic partners.

Either way, take this day to tell the special women in your life that they mean a lot to you, and that you love, honor, and respect them.

The term girlfriend first came into use in 1863 as a way to describe a woman’s female friend in youth. It was not until the 1920s when the word started being used as a way to describe a person’s female romantic partner.

What To Do ?

While we think that every day of the year should be your girlfriend’s day, Girlfriend’s Day is a good excuse to do something extra special for that extraordinary woman in your life. Here are some ways you can celebrate this day:

• Do something special for your partner to show them how much you care and love them. Maybe surprise your partner with a gift and dinner? Or take them out to see their favorite band perform or arrange for a romantic lunch picnic in the park.
• Don’t have a partner? Why not celebrate your girlfriends with a girls night out or a girls only party.
• Watch Girlfriends, an American sitcom that follows the lives of four friends.

FYI…

…that in the fashion world, girlfriend style refers to a type of clothing for men that is borrowed from women’s clothing?

July 31 is Uncommon Musical Instrument Awareness Day, a day to celebrate odd, rare, experimental, and well, uncommon musical instruments.

Throughout human history, musicians have tried to push the boundary of sounds and music by inventing newer and innovative ways of creating music.

This day aims to encourage people to not only learn to play some of these uncommon instruments but also to make their own contributions to the world of music by making their own musical instruments.

What To do ?

• Learn about uncommon instruments. Some examples include the Xaphoon, Daxophone, and Bowfrideaphone.
• Start learning how to play an uncommon musical instrument.

FYI…

…that the earliest recorded music instruments are about 42,000 years old? Found in a cave in Germany, these flutes were made of bird bones and mammoth ivory.

June 30 is Meteor Watch Day, a day to look up at the skies and behold the wonder of nature’s celestial fireworks, meteors.

Commonly known as shooting stars, meteors are space particles known as meteoroids that burn up with a flash of light when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Even though meteors can only be seen by the naked eye when it is dark, meteoroids enter the Earth’s atmosphere all the time. It is estimated that about 20 to 25 million meteors weighing about 100 tons in total enter the Earth’s atmosphere every day!

June 23, the anniversary of the granting of a patent to American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes in 1868 is celebrated around the world as Typewriter Day. So, take out your old typewriter from the attic, dust it and get started on your magnum opus!

A typewriter is a mechanical device that allows users to type directly on a sheet of paper. While many people had been working on different prototypes of typewriters before 1868, Christopher Latham Sholes’ typewriter was the first one to be commercially marketed. Known as the Sholes and Glidden typewriter or the Remington 1 typewriter, the device could only type uppercase letters.

Celebrated annually on June 16, Bloomsday celebrates the life and times of Irish author James Joyce.

The name and the date of this unofficial holiday come from Joyce’s epic novel, Ulysses. Published in 1922 as a novel, the book follows Leopold Bloom, an advertising agent as he goes about his day in Dublin on June 16, 1904. According to some sources, June 16, 1904 is the date when Joyce met his future wife Nora Barnacle.

On this day in 1934, this popular Walt Disney character made his debut in the cartoon short named, The Wise Little Hen.

Created by Walt Disney, Donald Duck is a short-tempered cartoon duck with human features. Considered to be one of the most popular cartoon characters of all time, he featured in hundreds of movies and was the central character in thousands of comic books.

Donald Duck comic books are especially sought after in Europe and in Scandinavian countries, where fans of the character even have a special name. They are called Donaldists!

Hst cheques available today.

Spring arrives In saint John At 2:00AM