Every year on March 12, specialists of the penal system of the Russian Ministry of Justice celebrate their professional holiday. The founding year of the holiday is 2010. The system called the penal system can be called penitentiary. The Latin term is translated as “repentance.” Professionals involved in it have to work with a restless contingent. These are citizens who broke the law and now must be held accountable. Simply put, they are criminals. Therefore, employees of penal institutions spent a long time in the department of another law enforcement agency, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, along with the police. The decision to reform the organization of the state in 1993 marked the transition of those who implement punishments to the authority of the Ministry of Justice. The date chosen as a holiday was March 12, in honor of the command of Emperor Alexander the Second Liberator. The monarch, on that spring day in 1879, signed a decree requiring the creation of a prison department. This law enforcement agency predetermined the beginning of the formation of the Russian penitentiary system. Moreover, the institution of execution of punishments began as a single one throughout the country - first an empire, then an independent republic, then a republic within a union, and now a federation. The state has assumed the functions of maintaining order before. Their beginnings are described in the Code of Laws, collections of codes of laws of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. But, if then the state punished on the principle of edification and intimidation, fined, put on trial, condemned and executed, now specialists of the penitentiary authorities strive to return erring citizens to the structures of a full-fledged society with full-time employment. Ideally, completely repentant. At the same time, workers implementing punishments for crimes risk their lives. During the celebration, in addition to receptions, concerts and award presentations, specialists from the penal system of the Russian Ministry of Justice pay tribute to the memory of colleagues who died in the line of duty. After all, their professional calling includes preventing any violations of the law, which is associated with imminent dangers.

A state of depression and apathy, hopeless melancholy and boredom are most often observed in the off-season. “Now it’s my time: I don’t like spring; I find the thaw boring; the stench, the dirt - I’m sick in the spring,” wrote A.S. Pushkin. Due to the long-term lack of sun and warmth in winter, many people, especially melancholic people, feel despondent in March. Melancholy and apathy suppress creativity and prevent us from enjoying life, which is actively manifested in nature - in murmuring streams, buds on trees, rooks flying across the sky, returning from warm countries. For a long time in England, melancholy and spleen were considered signs of a fatal disease, because... often led to suicide. Therefore, the inhabitants of Foggy Albion, in despondency and spiritual devastation, sought salvation from doctors. Hypochondria in the dictionary of V.I. Dahl is defined as gloomy thoughts from which the world is not kind, and is illustrated by the saying: “It sounds like an Englishman in a spleen.” The fashion for the “illness” of British aristocrats, the pose of a disappointed individualist burdened with global grief, was introduced by Byron. Metaphysical fear and sadness were familiar to the heroes of famous novels by Russian writers - Onegin, Oblomov, Pechorin and other characters. Depression is a feature of the Russian mentality. This emotion of inescapable sadness, causeless melancholy, concentration on internal experiences is potentially dangerous for the soul; it is not for nothing that despondency is considered a sin. Kruchina, Russian gloom and stern thoughtfulness, is not, unlike spleen, a consequence of satiety with life. But in terms of the degree of negative impact on a person’s state of mind, it is no different from the English disease. Therefore, March 12 is celebrated as the Day of the Prohibition of Dejection. It is proposed to overcome melancholy and hopelessness in various ways. In his 1989 essay “In Praise of Boredom,” the poet I. Brodsky invites a person who has been attacked by apathy, emptiness and depression to show humility and experience this state to the fullest. You should give in to despondency, plunge to the very bottom of your experiences, and allow yourself to be overwhelmed by negative emotions. Brodsky is convinced that only in this way, through the comprehension of boredom in all its unsightly manifestations, can one be cured of spleen and achieve mental balance. Psychologists recommend that melancholic people and people who are prone to depression try to analyze their experiences and find the cause of the spring blues. After conducting an audit, a person, as a rule, is surprised to find no compelling reasons for tearfulness, melancholy and apathy. Dejection is most often explained by changes in hormonal levels in the spring, a deficiency of vitamins and minerals, and other objective factors that are easily eliminated. This funny holiday, celebrated on March 12, encourages people not to give up in the fight against languor, depression and apathy. Ahead is a hot and sunny summer, which will give joy and lightness, mental comfort and balance. To do this, it is enough to stop thinking about the bad, banning despondency, melancholy and blues.

Attempts to limit the freedom of expression of people and media representatives by the ruling circles of countries and their power structures have been made throughout the history of mankind. The Vatican at various times banned the books of Giordano Bruno, Spinoza, Balzac, Sartre and Hugo, the Russian Orthodox Church - Radishchev, Leskov, Belinsky and Leo Tolstoy, who was anathema by decision of the Holy Synod. In totalitarian states, censorship is one of the ways to spread ideology and maintain power by the ruling elite. In the age of modern technology, they are trying to limit the freedom of dissemination of information transmitted via the Internet by imposing bans on the network. The fight against dissent and censorship on the World Wide Web is a way for the state to protect its interests. Restrictions on the dissemination of information, according to authorities, help to secure the lives of citizens - to protect them from manifestations of terrorism and extremism. However, representatives of various international organizations do not agree with these statements, who believe that the bans interfere with the existence of freedom of speech - the cornerstone of democracy. On their initiative, World Day Against Cybercensorship is celebrated annually on March 12th. World Day Against Cyber ​​Censorship was first held in 2008, when representatives of Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders approached the management of Google Inc., Yahoo! And Microsoft Corporation. The creators of the holiday offered to support their initiative to combat censorship in the virtual space. The event was aimed at supporting the Internet, where freedom of speech and self-expression should not be violated. Representatives of digital media, journalists and bloggers began to fight cyber censorship long before the establishment of World Day Against Cyber ​​Censorship. Thus, in 2006, the List of Enemies of the Free Internet was compiled. It included 13 countries in which news and other information shared online were censored and users were subject to repression. The list includes Belarus, Vietnam, Iran, Burma (Myanmar), Egypt, China, Cuba, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Syria, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Lists of enemies of the Internet are compiled by Reporters Without Borders every year. Online free speech activists have established their own prize, the Netizen Prize, which is awarded to cyber dissidents. It's no secret that digital media reporters and bloggers are subject to persecution, arrest and repression by the state. The annual award rewards the courage of journalists and their selfless fight for freedom of speech and the transmission of information on the Internet. Movement activists call on leading web systems at least once a year, on March 12, to abandon censorship in search filters, blocking sites and other measures against existing platforms. These events are aimed at eradicating prohibitions and restrictions on the freedom of information transmission on the Internet.

Planetary transits, eclipses, solar flares, magnetic storms and other phenomena affect the living and inanimate nature of the Earth. The spring equinox is the most important astronomical phenomenon, therefore, on March 20, Earth Day is celebrated annually at the initiative of the UN. Natural and artificial events of varying degrees of importance constantly occur in space. Observations of them allow us to better study the upper layers of the atmosphere, the heliosphere of the star and interplanetary space. In honor of scientific research of two celestial bodies, an unusual Sun-Earth Day was established. Sun-Earth Day was first held in 2000. The holiday appeared on the calendar on the initiative of NASA and the European Space Agency. The purpose of the celebration is to provide as much information as possible about the events and processes occurring in space that are associated with the Earth and the Sun. In honor of the holiday, which has a floating date, programs dedicated to this topic are broadcast on television, training and educational events are held, open days in museums, etc. Sun-Earth Day is usually timed to coincide with some major event. Thus, in 2005, the theme for its holding was “Ancient observatories: eternal knowledge.” Many of these ancient structures have been preserved in South America. Scientists from the USA, Mexico, Ecuador and other countries spoke about the exploration of the Moon and Sun, stars and planets by ancient civilizations. In honor of the holiday, discussions, online broadcasts of lectures and excursions to the observatory were held. In 2015, Sun-Earth Day was celebrated on March 12 in honor of the launch of the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS). The launch vehicle was launched from Cape Canaveral with the goal of tetrahedral formation of a group of satellites in orbit. The mission helped scientists study the turbulence of the Earth's magnetosphere, study the possibility of accelerating the movement of electrons in the planet's magnetic field and the interaction of the solar wind with it. NASA has approved a mission dedicated to studying the nature and characteristics of turbulence in space plasma. The next program, Multi-slit Solar Explorer, will study the heating of the solar corona using breakthrough spectroscopy techniques. Auroral Reconstruction CubeSwarm - Earth's magnetosphere, space weather dynamics, particles of which pass through the ionosphere and thermosphere. The Solaris mission is designed to reveal the mystery of the Sun's poles. Their image is planned to be obtained in 2025 using the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter technical device. Observing the constantly changing space environment helps people better understand the processes occurring in the Universe. Research makes it possible to obtain important information to ensure the safety of astronauts, satellites and other equipment launched into Earth orbit. Sun-Earth Day is dedicated to these and other aspects of the work of NASA scientists.

Scientists know more than 60 varieties of pineapple - "Giant Q", "Monte Lirio", "Queen", "Singapore", "Sweet Cayenne" and others. March 12 is World Pineapple Day. The fiber-rich fruit pulp contains a daily dose of vitamin C and up to 75% of the norm for manganese. Regular use of this gift of tropical nature helps strengthen the nervous and immune systems, improve the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, reduce blood viscosity and cleanse the walls of blood vessels.

The life of a modern person cannot be imagined without the use of computer technology. Viruses and bad system codes often lead to “glitches,” which in professional slang mean a failure in a program. So, in February 2003, due to erroneous computer operation, the London police, insurance companies, ambulance service and other organizations received notification of the death of 8,500 St. Mary's Mercy Hospital. Fortunately, all these people were alive - the message turned out to be a bug. It was not until the beginning of March that the computer systems were established. This is how a funny holiday appeared - Computer Glitch Day. According to another version, the reason for organizing an unusual celebration was the release on March 12, 2009 of an unfinished update for the Windows system. It paralyzed the work of many firms and enterprises. Programmers who spent all day struggling with multiple pop-ups were in great demand. The solution to the problem was a complete rollback of operating system updates. This event became the reason for celebrating March 12, Computer Glitch Day. Not all bugs are the result of programmers' mistakes. Amateurs and professionals working in the field of IT technologies have come up with many viruses that specifically infect with malware. Trojan programs create problems for the computer user: they send them to non-existent sites, destroy data stored on disk, collect email addresses for subsequent spam, and steal other data. Viruses appeared in the era of MC-DOS. Thus, DOS.Plane displayed on the computer screen an image of an airplane from which a paratrooper takes off, destroying files at the moment of landing. Markt DOS drew an image of a skull and formatted computer disks. Boot.Pingpong didn't destroy anything, but it did display a ping pong game on the screen. The Elvira virus is the creation of a French programmer who worked under the nickname Spanksa. The malware copied the opening credits from the Star Wars movie, which was actually a love letter to a friend. The "Dazed" virus also appeared in the "Stone Age" of the computer era. It is directly related to the term “glitch” - hallucinations that are observed after taking alcohol and drugs. "Dazed" affected the first versions of the DOS system through the disk drive. The computer virus was first noticed in 1988 in New Zealand. Its original version did not cause much harm to the user, because... resulted in a message appearing on the screen: "Your computer is high. Legalize marijuana." The unusual holiday, celebrated on March 12, was created to draw attention to PC failures - software errors made by developers and other bugs. Computer Glitch Day is widely celebrated by system administrators, programmers and other professionals who have the necessary skills and are ready to troubleshoot problems of any complexity in the operation of equipment.

As you know, fresh air, pure oxygen is the merit of plants and greenery on our planet. Thanks to the peculiarities of their structure, trees purify the air on the planet from carbon dioxide, dust and other pollutants and give the inhabitants of the Earth fresh, pure oxygen. This is understood as nowhere else in China. Thus, thanks to the revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, a special Tree Planting Day was established in China in 1981, in which every adult resident of the country is obliged to take part. This man fought, among other things, for greening the country - on his initiative, residents of the PRC organized actions to plant green spaces. Since then, it has been established at the legislative level that any citizen from 11 to 60 years of age is obliged to plant at least three trees a year. And if for some reason this is impossible, he must do other work that helps preserve greenery in his state - he can plant flowers, water and cultivate existing plants, and so on. It must be said that the people of China approached such an initiative quite responsibly. And today, since the advent of Arbor Day, more than 50 billion seedlings have been planted in China. About 500 million Chinese take part in this event every year. It’s no wonder that China is famous for its magnificent scale, grandiose in quantitative characteristics of the plants and gardens represented in them. Designers from China are improving the vegetation around private homes, in parks and squares all over the world. After all, the ability to love and appreciate nature, trees, plants is inherent in every resident of this country from childhood. This initiative is widely used in America and Taiwan. You need to understand that when using the Earth's resources, you must not forget to repay your debt to it. After all, its resources are finite and are not replenished at such a rapid pace as they are used. Wood plays a big role in human life - in addition to the fact that it gives us oxygen, we use wood as a building material, paper and furniture are made from wood, dry wood is used all over the world as a means of heating a room. The Chinese understand better than anyone the importance and timeliness of Arbor Day. After all, every day like this brings the country millions of new young seedlings. Of course, not everyone takes root - but with proper care for each planted tree, the percentage of favorable growth from it into an adult, useful tree only increases. Thus, the residents of this prosperous country are addressing the shortage of certain raw materials. Arbor Day in China is celebrated annually on March 12th.

On March 12 (February 27, old style), according to the folk calendar, Prokop Perezimny is celebrated, sometimes also called the Road Destroyer. The name of the day partly comes from the name of St. Procopius Decapolitus, revered by the Orthodox Church on this date. The monk was from the Decapolitan country, located near Lake Galilee. Tired of the bustle of life, Procopius chose the path of a monk. He spent his life in frequent prayer and fasting. Trying to resist the iconoclast emperor in destroying icons, the monk was imprisoned. After the death of the ruler, Procopius was released, returning to his monastery, he was engaged in good deeds. At Prokop Perezimny, the weather was truly becoming spring-like: the sun was heating up more and more, melting the snow. The situation with roads was especially difficult. The snow roads compacted for sledding turned into a muddy mess. That is why the date received the name Roadbreaker, meaning breaking of roads. Residents of Prokop Perezimny tried to postpone long-distance travel. When going out on a sleigh, there was a risk that the snow would finally turn into water, and it would be impossible to get back. In such cases, travelers took with them both sleighs and carts, but even with such equipment it was difficult to get through the muddy roads. Before the trip, we watched the drop: the more abundantly the water flows, the more dangerous it is to hit the road. But the day was considered good for hunting. True, the hunters were afraid to see a hare crossing their path, because such a sign foreshadowed bad luck. We also went fishing. The ice on the reservoirs melted, the water rose, and it became impossible to cross the river crossing. In general, the day of Prokop Perezimny was devoted to household work. Residents prepared tools for field work and took out seeds for planting. In the evening we heated the bathhouse and took a steam bath. Looking at the upper branches of the willow, the final arrival of spring was determined. If the buds on the tops of the heads begin to open, it means that it will only get warmer and the frosts will not return. In this case, the first seeds began to be sown in the plots. Snowdrops appearing from under the snow meant the beginning of arable work.

Flirting - second day of Maslenitsa

Orthodox holidays on March 12:

On March 12, every non-leap year, the feast day of Procopius Decapolitus is celebrated. The great confessor was born in the 8th century AD. in the Decapolis, or Decapolis in the Middle East (“deca” - ten, “polis” - city). Already in his youth, Procopius began to serve the Lord, strictly observing fasts and reading prayers, asceticism in one of the monasteries in Constantinople. He achieved high purity and spiritual zeal for the Lord, and was known and revered among other ascetics. In 717, Leo III the Isaurian came to rule the Byzantine Empire. The years of iconoclasm began. The new emperor considered the veneration of icons to be idolatry. In his opinion, excessive worship of images undermined imperial power. Shrines were subjected to severe tests: icons were burned, mosaics and frescoes were destroyed. Many Christians suffered during those difficult years by rejecting heresy. The fearless Procopius stood up to defend the icons. He boldly denounced the acts of the atheists, the errors of heretics, and condemned the desecration of holy images. Leo III the Isaurian ordered the saint to be subjected to cruel torture. The confessor was captured along with his friend Vasily, his body was planed with metal tools, he was scourged, and tortured. But in terrible torment, both holy monks did not renounce their convictions about the holiness of icons. After physical torture, Basil and Procopius were thrown into a stinking prison to die. According to God's providence, the saints endured the torment with dignity. In 741, the emperor died and the prisoners were released. Procopius Decapolis continued his righteous life, confessing Jesus Christ, observing strict fasts and prayerful deeds. He guided many sinners to the right path. The monk departed to the Kingdom of Heaven at a very old age. Basil the Confessor lived for 10 years after imprisonment and died a natural death. Saints are often depicted together in icons. Basil is venerated the day after the celebration of the feast day of St. Procopius - March 13 (February 28, old style).