Thread:61Storm/@comment-29709319-20181110010804/@comment-29709319-20181228020633

December 28th: National Chocolate Candy Day, National Card Playing Day, Holy Innocents Day, and Pledge of Allegiance Day.

🍫🍬National Chocolate Candy Day! The word “chocolate” comes from the word “xocoatl” or “chocolatl”. Mayan “school” means hot or bitter, and the Aztec “atl” means water. Chocolate is made from the cacao plant. Before it was ever made into a sweet candy, it was ground into a beverage. In ruling class society, the beverage was used for medical purposes. Chocolate Facts: In 1828 technology was invented that allowed chocolate to be produced into a solid form. In 1828, thanks to the invention of Dutch chemist Coenraad Van Houten, we can enjoy chocolate in the form we have today. His hydraulic press made it possible to remove the cocoa butter from the cacao-producing a powder opening the way for the first chocolate confections. In 1847 cocoa butter, cocoa powder and sugar were combined by British chocolate company J.S. Fry & Sons to produce the first edible chocolate bar. Whitman’s produced their first box of chocolate. The invention of the conching machine by Rodolphe Lindt in 1879 ushered in mass production of the creamy treat. The first chocolate Easter egg was made sometime in the early 19th century. In 1875 John Cadbury introduced his first chocolate egg. Hershey Chocolate company designed a specific chocolate bar for the U.S. Army. The D ration bar was included in the emergency rations and in the packs of soldiers when the Allied troops stormed the beach of Normandy on D-Day. On the average an American consumes 12 pounds of chocolate each year.

🎴National Card Playing Day! In the 9th century, the Chinese began developing games using money and other paper objects. These early playing cards bear no resemblance to the sturdier European playing cards that developed a few centuries later. Card games spread around the world in a variety of shapes and styles. From the elaborate Mamluk designs of Egypt to the appearance of the first playing cards during the Early Renaissance in Europe, the decks were divided into four suits of coins, cups, swords and sticks or batons. It is from these four suits that today’s modern decks of playing cards developed. Theories range how the suits converted to hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs. One theory suggests the suits represent the different classes of the era – clergy, aristocracy, military and peasantry. In India, the ten suited card game of Ganjifa became popular during the Moghul period. Traditionally, artists hand paint a stunning scene on each of the 120 cards in the deck. A standard pack of cards may be used for playing a variety of card games, with varying elements of skill and chance, some of which are played for money. Some of the top card games include Spades, Poker, Solitaire, Spite and Malice, Hearts, Spoons, Gin Rummy, Ridge, Black Jack and Texas Hold’em. Of course, there are thousands of card games, some of which are regional favorites.

👦Holy Innocents Day (also referred to as Childermas) commemorates the massacre of male children at Bethlehem by King Herod’s order (Matthew 2:16). Also known as the Feast of the Holy Innocents, this day is observed in the Western churches on December 28 and Eastern churches on December 29. These children are considered martyrs, Saints of God, by the Church. Upon hearing of the birth of the King of the Jews and the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy, Herod ordered the execution of all the male children in Bethlehem. While the exact date when this event occurred is uncertain, the feast has been celebrated since before the end of the fifth century.

🇺🇸Pledge of Allegiance Day! Congress formally recognized the Pledge of Allegiance on December 28, 1945. Thought to have been written by Francis Bellamy, the Pledge of Allegiance was published anonymously by a magazine for young people, The Youth’s Companion, and was written in celebration of the 400th anniversary, in 1892, of the discovery of America. The text of the pledge, as originally written and modified a bit by the National Flag Conference in 1923 and 1924, was inserted into this legislation, but without designating it as the official pledge. In its original form, it read: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” The small changes made resulted in this version: “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” The words “under God” were added by Congress on June 14, 1954, in response to the anti-Communist opinion sweeping the country during the Cold War.

Chocolate candy my favorite. I play Fairway Solitaire on my iPad, does that count? Oh, a special day for all the innocent babies. The second version of the Pledge is the one I learned in school and had to say every morning when class took up.

I love my coal. It is good. It taste like a nestle crunch bar. Yummy. The coal was part of our secret Santa game. It also came in this really cute little lunch pail along with a antique cast iron fits in the palm of your hand coal bucket, it's really cute to. You know me I love the unusual.

Sending chocolate hugs!🐶💕❄️💕.

Pssst Bixby not to worry, there's a day coming up and you can have all you want on this day. I'll give you a clue 🐷.