| March 20, 2008 | - Francisco Duque III, the Philippine Secretary of Health, encouraged Roman Catholic worshippers who planned on flaying the skin off their backs or crucifying themselves on Easter to get a tetanus shot first and to use clean whips and nails.
| Source:
Daily Telegraph
|
| December 4, 2007 | - A new poll showed the very rich were planning to spend an average of $10,000 on their pets for Christmas.
| Source 1:
WP
Source 2:
AFP via Raw Story
|
| September 22, 2007 | -
Israel, a few days before Yom Kippur, declared that the Gaza Strip is now a “hostile entity,” and the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (who is under investigation for corruption) announced a collective-punishment plan that includes “limiting the transfer of goods to the Gaza Strip, cutting back fuel and electricity, and restricting the movement of people to and from the Strip.” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum condemned Israel's “criminal, terrorist Zionist actions.”
| Source 1:
BBC News
Source 2:
BBC News
Source 3:
ABC News
|
| July 14, 2007 | - The French celebrated Bastille Day.
| Source:
BBC
|
| February 21, 2007 | - Residents of New Orleans celebrated Mardi Gras with brass bands, parades of Zulu warriors and Day-Glo feathered Indians, vats of gumbo, and pounds of turkey necks and pigs' feet. “It's back, y'all,” Mayor Ray Nagin exclaimed. “It's back!”
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| February 19, 2007 | - Thousands of spectators at the Rose Monday parade in Mainz, Germany, watched a float of President Bush being spanked by the Statue of Liberty.
| Source:
Yahoo News
|
| January 10, 2007 | - Members of the Baker's Dozen, an all-male Yale
a cappella group recuperating from injuries they suffered when a gang of prep school students attacked them on New Year's Eve, were asked by police to return to San Francisco to identify their assailants. “The kids are scared shitless,” said a father of one of the singers.
| Source:
San Francisco Chronicle
|
| January 5, 2007 | - A woman watching New Year's fireworks in Florida avoided serious injury when a shot fired into the air glanced off the golden strap of her “very cheap” brassiere.
| Source:
AP via Yahoo! News
|
| January 1, 2007 | - Concerns about terrorism prompted Governor Jim Gibbons of Nevada to take his oath shortly after midnight on New Year's despite the admitted absence of any known threat.
| Source:
AP via San Diego Union-Tribune
|
| December 10, 2006 | -
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport removed fourteen Christmas trees after a local rabbi threatened a lawsuit if officials did not add an eight-foot menorah to the arrangement.
| Source:
Seattle Times
|
| December 7, 2006 | - A Christmas party in Dublin was canceled after Gus, a camel starring in Santa's Magical Animal Kingdom Show, got drunk on Guinness and ate all the mince pies.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| December 5, 2006 | - A mother in South Carolina had her son arrested for playing with his Christmas present early.
| Source:
Canadian Press via Breitbart
|
| December 4, 2006 | - A forty-three-foot-tall Swedish straw Christmas
goat was doused with flame-retardant chemicals so that only its hooves could be burned.
| Source:
Associated Press via nj.com
|
| November 1, 2006 | - In Aurora, Colorado, chubby girls robbed younger children of their trick-or-treating
candy.
| Source:
ABC 7 Denver
|
| November 1, 2006 | - A New Hampshire
orthodontist bought back local kids' Halloween candy for two dollars per pound.
| Source:
WSBTV Atlanta
|
| October 31, 2006 | - A French
newspaper declared the death of Halloween.
| Source:
Reuters via Yahoo! News
|
| October 28, 2006 | - The city of Madison, Wisconsin, announced that its Halloween festivities will be a success if the police are not compelled to pepper-spray angry mobs of drunken residents.
| Source:
CNN
|
| October 19, 2006 | -
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan collapsed from fasting during Ramadan. His security staff rushed him unconscious to the hospital and accidentally locked him in his car; they fought for ten minutes to break the car's reinforced windows with a sledgehammer and chisel.
| Source:
AFP via New York Times
|
| August 7, 2006 | - America Online released the search query data of 658,000 people to the Web, then pulled the information because it could be used to violate user privacy. User 88112, for instance, searched for “christian beliefs and sex outside of marrigae” and “penis abnormalities in children,” while user 843043 searched for “fungal meningitis and coma” and “easter
cookie recipe for jesus' suffering.” “This,” said an AOL representative, “was a screw up.”
| Source:
eWeek
|
| April 19, 2006 | - In Toluca, Mexico, a priest admitted to strangling and dismembering his pregnant lover after Easter mass.
| Source:
MSNBC
|
| January 29, 2006 | - A firecracker explosion killed 16 people during a New Year celebration in China.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| December 31, 2005 | - The New Year was postponed by one second to accommodate for the slowing rotation of the earth.
| Source:
The Scotsman
|
| December 25, 2005 | - Americans had spent $18.48 billion on gift cards this holiday season.
| Source:
USA Today
|
| December 24, 2005 | - President George W. Bush called nine U.S. servicemen and servicewomen and wished them a Merry Christmas.
| Source:
AP
|
| December 23, 2005 | - Authorities in Vienna, Austria, determined that people dressed as devils can legally smack the rear ends of strangers on Christmas.
| Source:
Local Government International Bureau
|
| December 23, 2005 | - In Warren, Michigan, a 14-year-old boy allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl in a church bathroom during a Christmas play.
| Source:
WXYZ.com
|
| December 19, 2005 | - For the second time this year, someone stole the life-sized Jesus from a nativity scene in Cincinnati, Ohio, although this time they left behind baby Jesus's leg.
| Source:
The Canton Rep
|
| December 9, 2005 | - At least eight American megachurches planned to cancel their Sunday services on Christmas day.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| December 9, 2005 | - The office of the Governor of Georgia issued a press release to announce the lighting of a holiday tree; a half-hour later the office announced that the tree was “in fact a Christmas tree.”
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| December 7, 2005 | -
Christmas activists were upset to receive White House greeting cards that wished them a happy “holiday season” instead of a Merry Christmas.
| Source:
The Washington Post
|
| December 4, 2005 | - There was a shortage of Santas in Perth, Australia; current Santas said that the risk of litigation was too great. “Once upon a time you'd walk through the mall saying ‘Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas’,” said Santa John Gomez, “but now you say nothing.”
| Source:
The Daily Telegraph
|
| December 4, 2005 | - In Gavle, Sweden, vandals burned a huge straw Christmas
goat.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| November 30, 2005 | - The White House put up nearly 600 feet of garland and erected an 18-and-a-half-foot fir tree decorated with tulips and azaleas in honor of this year's Christmas theme, “All Things Bright and Beautiful.”
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| November 24, 2005 | - At the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade, the M&M's Chocolate Candies balloon knocked parts of a street lamp onto a woman and child. Both were briefly hospitalized. “We should be thankful,” said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, “none were more seriously hurt.”
| Source:
AP
|
| November 22, 2005 | -
President Bush issued pardons to two turkeys, which were then sent to Disneyland to serve as grand marshals at a parade. “The granting of the turkey pardon,” said the President, “is not a responsibility that I take lightly.” The turkeys, Marshmallow and Yam, earned their pardons when they beat out Democracy and Freedom in an online poll.
| Source:
The White House
|
| November 5, 2005 | -
U.S. and Iraqi forces launched Operation Al Hajip Elfulathi (Steel Curtain) in Husaybah, a town on Iraq's Syrian border that serves as a transit point and staging area for militants. The offensive began on the third day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan. “Instead of having my family for a picnic in an amusement park,” said a refugee named Omar Obaidi, “I am taking them out of the town, walking and expecting death every moment.” A statement promising retaliation for the offensive, purported to be from Al Qaeda, was posted on a local mosque. In Baquba the spokesman for the Iraqi National Dialogue Council was shot five times.
| Source:
The Washington Post
|
| October 30, 2005 | -
Hugo Chavez called on the people of Venezuela to stop celebrating Halloween, and said the holiday was the United States' way of "putting fear into other nations."
| Source:
BBC News
|
| October 28, 2005 | - In Delaware the body of a woman who hanged herself from a tree was pulled down after people realized she was not a decoration.
| Source:
CNN
|
| October 25, 2005 | - In Turkey 20 people were each fined $75.53 for using the letters "Q" and "W" during a Kurdish new year celebration.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| October 10, 2005 | - Americans celebrated Columbus Day, except in Berkeley, California, where they celebrated Indigenous People's Day.
| Source:
LA Times
|
| April 20, 2005 | - The zookeepers in Ramat Gan, Israel, fed their gorillas
kosher matzo crackers for Passover.
| Source:
Newsday
|
| March 26, 2005 | - At a mall in Michigan, a twelve-year-old boy punched the Easter bunny in the nose.
| Source:
Boston.com
|
| March 25, 2005 | - Western Christians celebrated Easter. In the Philippines, fourteen men were crucified, one for the nineteenth time.
| Source:
The Independent
|
| March 20, 2005 | - The pope, too ill to perform Palm Sunday mass, waved an olive branch from his apartment window.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| March 8, 2005 | - The pope relinquished most of his Easter duties.
| Source:
Scotsman.com
|
| February 9, 2005 | - It was Lent.
| Source:
The Arizona Republic
|
| December 31, 2004 | -
United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan cut his Christmas holiday short to meet with world leaders about providing relief and announced that he would fly to affected countries to help organize the effort from the ground.
| Source:
Agence France-Presse
|
| December 26, 2004 | - A 9.0 magnitude earthquake created a tsunami that ravaged south and southeast Asia, as well as parts of Africa. The wave reached from Somalia and Kenya to Malaysia. Thousands of fatalities were reported in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, South India, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Three-story waves washed sunbathers into the sea, carried away snorkelers, and swallowed up Hindu ritual bathers celebrating Full Moon Day. A prison in Sumatra was torn open by the tsunami, and hundreds of inmates fled. A baby was washed from her father's arms. At least 25,000 died, and millions were displaced. Entire towns were turned into rubble. Corpses hung from trees and fences, and the rotting bodies of humans and animals threatened to pollute water supplies. It was difficult to bury the dead for lack of dry ground. The earthquake was the largest since 1964, and slightly altered the rotation of the earth.
| Source 1:
New York Timesimes
Source 2:
Wikipedia
Source 3:
New York Timesimes
Source 4:
MSNBC
Source 5:
Reuters
|
| December 25, 2004 | -
Eastern Rite, Roman, and Protestant Christian churches celebrated Christmas.
| Source:
Wikipedia
|
| December 25, 2004 | - On Christmas day, 30,000 air passengers were stranded across the United States because of a computer crash.
| Source:
Fox News
|
| December 24, 2004 | - A poll found that the best part of Christmas is family time.
| Source:
Georgetown News-Graphic
|
| December 23, 2004 | - A study found that more Americans die on Christmas and the day after New Year's than on any other day of the year.
| Source:
Yahoo News
|
| December 21, 2004 | - A study found that the terminally ill do not, as is commonly believed, hold on to life until major events, like birthdays or holidays, transpire. Rather, they simply die.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| December 10, 2004 | - England's Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents urged people attending office Christmas parties to resist photocopying body parts and dancing on desks, and to avoid flaming Christmas puddings at all costs.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| November 19, 2004 | - Web publishers were upset with the White House for denying them the right to host a Christmastime video of Barney the dog; the White House insisted that the publishers link to the video instead of hosting it themselves. Last year's video, “Barney Reloaded,” which featured Karl Rove draped in Christmas lights, brought 24 million visitors to the White House website.
| Source:
News.com
|
| April 11, 2004 | -
Children in Flint, Michigan, found two loaded pistols during an Easter egg hunt.
| Source:
Flint Journal
|
| December 27, 2003 | - At least 138 passengers died on Christmas Day when an airliner hit a building on takeoff in Cotonou, Benin, and then crashed into the sea.
| Source:
Voice of America
|
| December 25, 2003 | -
Spain foiled a Basque terrorist plot to blow up a train in Madrid's busiest station on Christmas Eve.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| December 24, 2003 | -
Mad cow disease was discovered in the United States for the first time, in a Holstein cow that was too sick to walk but was nonetheless slaughtered and sold for meat. The mad Holstein's brain and spinal column were sent to a rendering plant somewhere, possibly to be turned into dog or chicken food; there was no word on whether the cow's blood was processed to be fed to young calves as a milk supplement. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Venemen, a former lobbyist for the beef industry, insisted that even meat from a mad cow is safe to eat, and she promised to feed beef to her family for Christmas.
| Source:
Guardian, New York Times
|
| November 28, 2003 | -
President Bush showed up in Iraq for Thanksgiving wearing an Army
tracksuit; Bush stayed in the country for two and a half hours, the same amount of time spent by President Lyndon B. Johnson in Vietnam, in 1966.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| November 12, 2003 | - A judge in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, was in trouble for dressing up in blackface for Halloween.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 15, 2003 | -
In Singapore the Roman Catholic Church suspended confessions because of the SARS epidemic and declared a “general absolution” of sins for the Easter season.
| |
| February 18, 2003 | -
Hindu activists looted and burned card shops in India to protest Valentine's Day, and British police charged five men with conspiracy to kidnap a former Spice Girl.
| |
| December 31, 2002 | -
The Israeli army briefly withdrew from Bethlehem but ordered Yasir Arafat to stay away from Christmas services at the Church of the Nativity.
| |
| December 31, 2002 | -
President Charles Taylor of Liberia let murderers, including his brother-in-law, out of prison under a Christmas amnesty but refused to release rapists or prisoners of war.
| |
| December 24, 2002 | -
The Raelians, a Canadian free-love cult that has been trying to clone a human, said that a human clone baby could be born on Christmas day.
| |
| December 10, 2002 | -
McDonald's restaurants in Indonesia and India were blown up, and four movie theaters filled with families celebrating the end of Ramadan exploded simultaneously in Bangladesh, killing at least 17 and wounding hundreds.
| |
| December 10, 2002 | -
The Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency supplied 4,117 pounds of fruitcake to American troops around the world for Thanksgiving.
| |
| October 29, 2002 | -
A satellite television station in Egypt was advertising a 41-part treatment of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Russian anti-Semitic forgery; the series, called “Horse without a Horseman,” will be broadcast during Ramadan.
| |
| March 26, 2002 | -
The Catholic Church in the Philippines was appealing to followers not to crucify themselves during Holy Week, pointing out that the popular practice of nailing oneself to a cross has become more a tourist attraction than a genuine act of penance.
| |
| February 19, 2002 | -
India's Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena party demonstrated against Valentine's Day celebrations, burned greeting cards, accosted hand-holding couples, and harassed anyone else who appeared to be participating in the “market of love.” A New York man cut off his left ring finger and sent it to his ex-girlfriend as a Valentine.
| |
| January 8, 2002 | -
Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota engineered a $30 million Christmas present for Homestake Mining, a South Dakota company: the federal government, in a provision written by the company's lobbyists, will assume all legal liability for environmental damage caused by a 125-year-old Black Hills gold mine. Physicists plan to build a neutrino detector in the mine after it closes, though similar closed mines were declared federal Superfund sites.
| |
| December 25, 2001 | -
Israeli officials decided not to let Yasir Arafat attend Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem.
| |
| December 18, 2001 | - American planes dropped 46,000 pounds of cake on Afghanistan to mark the end of Ramadan.
| |
| November 27, 2001 | - Holiday tours were cancelled at the White House; “Evil knows no holiday,” explained President Bush.
| |
| October 30, 2001 | - The Belgian Pumpkin Liberation Army stole dozens of Halloween pumpkins; the group, which opposes the “improper” use of pumpkins, announced that it will use the liberated squash to make soup for the poor.
| |
| March 6, 2001 | -
British authorities cancelled all horse races because of the disease; Ireland called off St. Patrick's Day celebrations.
| |
| February 20, 2001 | - Hindu extremists ran amok in India to protest Valentine's Day, which they said undermines Indian culture.
| |
| December 26, 2000 | - Bethlehem was empty this Christmas, devoid of lights or trees or public celebrations, having been sealed off by the Israeli army.
| |
| November 21, 2000 | - Montreal experienced a series of egg and paint attacks against stores displaying Christmas decorations; responsibility was claimed by a group called No Christmas Before Its Time.
| |
| November 7, 2000 | - Anthony Dwain Lee, an actor, was shot through a glass door by Tarriel Hopper, a Los Angeles
police officer, at a Halloween party, when Hopper arrived at the party in response to a noise complaint and saw Lee, through a glass door, holding a fake gun.
| |
| September 26, 2000 | -
Pagan Appreciation Day was celebrated among witches, warlocks, Druids, and other such folk.
| |
| September 26, 2000 | - The Sons of Italy, a local civic group in Denver, Colorado, decided to call their annual Columbus Day parade the March of Italian Pride after a band of Indians, for whom Columbus is a hated symbol of their conquest, threatened to disrupt it.
| |
| August 22, 2000 | -
Kashmir's chief minister Farooq Abdullah gave a loud, rousing speech on India's
Independence Day to an empty sports arena in Srinagar; the deputy inspector of the state police said that people stayed away because they were afraid to die.
| |
