Like people and many characters and fairy-tale creatures, Santa Claus also has his own birthday. Recently it has been celebrated on November 18th. This interesting date is associated with the appearance of the first severe cold weather, when the ice on the rivers in the native land of everyone’s favorite gray-haired good fellow begins to crack. And his homeland is the city of Veliky Ustyug. On this day, which, by the way, was chosen by Russian children in 2005, fun festivities and games begin in the northern city. Veliky Ustyug itself was recognized as the homeland of the winter wizard back in 1999. As with any birthday, joyful guests come to Santa Claus. They come from different parts of the Earth. To receive numerous congratulations to your grandfather on time, there is a special box for paper letters. Warm words of wishes to the birthday boy are flying towards him from all over the world. A favorite of kids and many adults, he keeps up with life; he now has his own email, communicates on social networks and even calls other winter characters on his cell phone. Famous overseas colleagues: Finnish Joulupukki, American Santa, French Par Noel, Czech winter storyteller Mikulas, Yakut Chiskhan and many others - everyone is in a hurry to congratulate the Russian Grandfather Frost and wish him good luck on New Year's evenings and nights. On this day, people often remember the age of the hero of the occasion. It is believed to be about 2 thousand years old! Although no one knows more precisely in what year Santa Claus first appeared at the Christmas tree. On his birthday, Father Frost puts on a new embroidered fur coat and hat, which are prepared by his faithful helpers. It will still come in handy in bitter frosts. Many delegations fill the central city square. The holiday begins here, where the first New Year's lights are turned on. From here, very soon, in just over a month, the winter grandfather’s journey across Russia will begin so that New Year’s trees will shine in every city.

The national official holiday of November 18 is Latvian Independence Day, established in honor of the events of 1818, when the “Act of Independence” was signed. A day earlier, the People's Councils were created and the first provisional government was elected. November 18, 1818 went down in Latvian history as the “Day of Proclamation of the Republic of Latvia”, which was announced by Kārlis Ulmanis on behalf of the government, and which became the official name of the holiday today. Since ancient times, Latvia has been politically at the mercy of stronger entities and states - the Livonian Order, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden, the Russian Empire. A favorable situation for gaining independence arose at the end of the First World War. And although independence was declared, it was not taken into account by outside forces, namely the Soviet government and the Germans. The latter did not want to leave the conquered territory and give it to the Bolsheviks, which led to hostilities that lasted another 2 years. The RSFSR was the first to recognize the independence of the Latvians in the summer of 1920: only after a while did the Atlanta countries agree with this state of affairs. The period of freedom was relatively short - until 1940, when Germany and the USSR again began to divide spheres of influence. The Second World War brought German occupation to the territory of the republic until 1944, when Red Army troops liberated Riga. The next period of existence in the form of the Latvian SSR is today called the Soviet occupation, which lasted until 1991, when independence was gained a second time, and, as the Latvians hope, forever. Currently, on such an important patriotic holiday, what the country can be proud of is emphasized, the value of achievements, success in culture, science at the local and global level. The ceremonial part includes a parade, formation of soldiers, and then the column proceeds to the Freedom Monument. The top officials of the state lay flowers there. The statue of the Motherland at the top of the monument serves as an expression of independence, and the base of the monument tells the history of Latvia through placed sculptures and bas-reliefs from the legendary epic hero Lachplesis to the Red Riflemen. Various cultural events take place throughout the country: concerts, parties, performances, exhibitions, lectures, and other types of public events, where the main background is a special patriotism, pride in one’s nationality. This is manifested in symbolism: the capital is especially festively decorated with dark red panels with a national ornament in the form of a white stripe. Riga is an ancient city (founded in 1201), with many attractions, and on this holiday, guests of the capital will be especially interested in touching history, for example, visiting the building of the National Theater, where state sovereignty was declared in 1918. Traditional torchlight processions and colorful fireworks are a beautiful end to the holiday.

The emergence of substances that suppress the viability of harmful microorganisms has become a real breakthrough in medicine. Thanks to penicillin and other antibiotics, patients with infectious diseases have a chance to recover. The effectiveness of drugs from streptomycin, tetracycline and other groups depends on compliance with the administration requirements.

“I’ll tell you a secret, don’t tell anyone,” these are the first lines of a popular author’s song in the 80s. Big and small secrets love silence. Adults and children exchange important and not so important secrets with each other throughout their lives. The favorite pastime of Soviet girls was creating “secrets” from scraps of fabric, foil, small mirrors, candy wrappers, flowers, beads and other valuable things. This composition was placed in a hole in the ground, covered with a piece of glass, and people came to admire it without anyone noticing. In honor of the tradition of creating secrets of varying degrees of importance and meaning, a holiday was established. November 18th is the Day of Inventing Secrets. Possession of information that is inaccessible to other people brings friends and acquaintances of all ages closer together, making them like-minded people. According to this principle, Masons are accepted into the lodge, the degree of dedication of which emphasizes the depth of knowledge acquired. The secrets of the Torah and Kabbalah are accessible only to selected Jews. The Rosicrucians and the Illuminati possess classified information. The secret creates new social connections, a community of people based on interests. Politicians and diplomats, chefs and cooks, actors and musicians have professional secrets of varying degrees of importance. That is why the expression “secret of mastery” appeared. Secret knowledge gives a person status and creates a feeling of being chosen. Some secrets are invented in order to fill life with meaning, to endow everyday things with a flair of mystery. Mystery and intrigue often thrive in workplaces where members struggle to advance in their careers. Family people do not share with others the fact of having an affair on the side, women are reluctant to give contacts of a miracle cosmetologist and hairdresser, men are often not ready to admit to their friends that they have cheated on their beloved. But most of all secrets, real and fictional, funny and funny, happen in childhood. As they grow older, there are fewer of them. In the eyes of a child, the secrets of parents and other representatives of the older generation may be considered important, but in reality they are boring and uninteresting. An unusual holiday, celebrated on November 18, encourages adults to plunge into childhood and remember the plot of the cartoon, where the song of Tatyana and Sergei Nikitin sounds: They keep information about the place where the treasure is buried secret from everyone, and do not voice ambitious plans for the future. People usually don’t talk about problematic relatives, because every family has its own skeleton hidden in the closet. In honor of this funny holiday, it is customary to fantasize and burst with ideas, creating big and small secrets. Often, what you want to hide, you don’t keep your mouth shut, and a lot of things are still blurted out. Some people renew their marriage vows, while others create secrets once a year. The Day of Inventing Secrets encourages you to engage in these seemingly absurd things.

The start of a new era in the development of communications and wired communications was given in the Oval Office by J.F. Kennedy in April 1963. The US President dialed the number “1964” using the telephone buttons, thereby announcing the holding of a World Exhibition in New York with 37 participating countries. The rotating dial of the device with letters in a circle became a thing of the past when the American Bell Systems released a push-button model with tone dialing for commercial use. The new phone design was officially introduced by the company on November 18, 1963 to customers from the cities of Carnegie and Greensburg, located in Pennsylvania. This date marks the celebration of Push-button Telephone Day. An alternative to the classical model emerged in the 1880s. simultaneously with the advent of a device with a rotating dial. However, rotary-dial telephones, patented by Kansas businessman Almon Brown Stouger, became popular. In 1896, this funeral home owner invented a machine with a rotating dial to spite his business rival. His wife worked as a telephone operator, and in order to make conversations more confidential and retain clients, Strowger came up with a device that in everyday life was called “a telephone without young ladies and curses.” In the USSR, a desktop device with a disk was first installed in the Kremlin. The closed system of government and party communications was nicknamed the turntable. An automatic telephone exchange, ATS, was created by order of Lenin. because the leader of the world proletariat was interested in technical innovations. The apparatus of the party nomenklatura, which was considered very prestigious to have, was decorated with the state coat of arms. ATS-1 and ATS-2 were used only by the Kremlin elite, and ordinary citizens of the Soviet Union continued to communicate with other subscribers through telephone operators for a long time. This type of government communication has continued to this day. One of the devices on the desk of the President of the Russian Federation is a rotary telephone. Bell Systems, from its electrical engineering department that became a corporation in the late 19th century, also includes Bell Laboratories, the company that launched the first mobile service in the United States and developed the operating principle of cellular communications in 1947. The telecommunications device was produced by Motorola. The first push-button mobile phone appeared on the market in 1989. In the same year, Bell Labs implemented full-duplex communication, automatic dialing and search for a free radio channel in 3 frequency bands. For a long time the company did not want to give up its monopoly and income from the sale of landline push-button telephones. All US residents rented even heavy disk devices from Western Electric, a division of the corporation, paying both for calls and for using the devices. Without the company's permission, the subscriber had no right to connect anything to the network. Therefore, until the end of the 1970s. Americans continued to use disk drives the old fashioned way. By 1983, after the demonopolization of Bell Systems production, a mass of cheap push-button devices appeared on the US market, which became available to most citizens of the country. Today, despite the development of the Internet and cellular communications, landline telephones with touch-tone dialing are still used at home, in offices and in production. Connoisseurs of these reliable, time-tested devices with buttons instead of a rotary dialer celebrate November 18th as Push Button Phone Day.

International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day

November 18 is Mickey Mouse Day, which is traditionally celebrated in many countries. This cartoon creature is called by many “the symbol of Hollywood.” The day was not chosen by chance. On this day in 1928, a cartoon was first released, telling the story of the life of a cute little mouse. Therefore, it was customary to celebrate Mickey Mouse's birthday on November 18th. And remember Walt Disney, its creator. Over the years, he not only created various stories, wrote scripts, but also voiced his hero. Since then, the tradition of voicing Mickey Mouse in a thin and high-pitched voice has arisen, which is so loved by children and adults. If you look at the history of this character, you can see that many scripts have been written for him. So, Mickey Mouse even managed to be a soldier, participating in barnyard wars between cats and mice. It is noteworthy that often such mini-sketches had a hidden political context. For example, in the series where Mickey Mouse appears as a soldier, the insignia of the military uniforms of different armies around the world is clearly visible. For example, the main troublemakers in the barnyard, cats, were dressed in uniforms reminiscent of German soldiers. For such politicization, cartoons with the participation of a mouse were subjected to quite serious criticism, which subsequently forced the creators to reconsider their approach. Stories featuring Mickey Mouse became more neutral, not politicized, and were purely entertaining for children. One way or another, the popularity of this drawn hero became enormous, although the path to fame was thorny. It is known that at various times cartoons featuring Mickey Mouse were banned in Germany, Italy, and Romania. Of course, this was also connected with political motives. For example, in the GDR, Mickey was associated with the imperialist States. Today, times have changed dramatically, and the mouse even has his own Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which will speak volumes about his recognition. Meanwhile, the Disney studio, having exclusive rights to this image, is quite strict in ensuring that copyrights are not violated. This also speaks of the wild popularity of the cartoon character. On this day, November 18, it is customary to watch old and new stories that appear on screens with enviable consistency. Entertainment centers mark this day with a wide range of events. One way or another, all this is aimed at popularizing Mickey Mouse. In the stories written for him, the mouse managed not only to go to war, but also to become a musician, visit the jungles of Africa, get a girlfriend, go on a long voyage on a ship, be a builder, a fireman, and, of course, get into hundreds of scrapes. Products with the image of Mickey Mouse are also traditionally popular: various books, comics, dolls, souvenirs, toys, even interior and design elements. Perhaps Mickey Mouse can be a worthy competitor to another Hollywood star, Marilyn Monroe, whose image is also used in numerous souvenirs and posters. November 18 can be called a children's holiday. In some countries, mainly in North America, the broadcast schedule is changing, and animated films created by the Disney studio are being actively broadcast. Including retro films, quite rare films that are not so easy to see on ordinary days. For example, in the 20s and 30s of the last century, many cartoons and short films with Mickey Mouse were created, which today are considered very rare. This is the golden heritage of Hollywood, so on November 18 it is customary to talk about the history of the Disney studio itself and the very interesting and eventful fate of its founder Walt Disney.

According to the folk and church calendar, the Memorial Day of Archbishop Jonah of Novgorod and Pskov is celebrated annually on November 18. Saint Jonah was born in Novgorod into a pious family, but was orphaned in early childhood and was raised by the widow Natalya Medovartseva. As a child, he was a very sickly and weak child, but the widow did everything for the development of her adopted son. Having grown up a little, he went to learn to read and write as a deacon, where he made great progress, devoting all his free time to reading books. Having reached adulthood, Jonah settled in the Oten desert, which was located far from Novgorod and was surrounded by impenetrable forests. However, despite the difficult path, many Christians attended Jonah’s services. Jonah became famous during his lifetime by organizing a shelter for orphans and widows in Novgorod, as well as for his miraculous deeds. According to one legend, an epidemic of pestilence raged in Novgorod, due to which a huge number of people died. Jonah made a religious procession to the Zverin Monastery with prayers for the end of the illness, after which the illness subsided. Jonah died in 1470, and in 1549 at the Makarievsky Council it was decided to list him as a saint. According to popular beliefs, this day was associated with the traditions of marriage and marriage. The girls not only prayed with requests to meet a good groom, but also said a prepared glass of milk with honey, which they drank in the morning. Those who wanted to get married quickly scattered coins, pins, buttons and various small handicrafts in their yards. And the guys who wanted to find a wife left the house early and carefully looked through the courtyards; no signs were left for them there. It was also believed that on this day it was possible to “dry” the groom; for this, a bare twig was pulled out of a bath broom and placed on the threshold while waiting for the beloved. As soon as the young man crossed the threshold, the twig was put away in a secluded place where it was dry and warm. The twig symbolized the guy’s love; if the twig was dry, then the girl’s lover was “drying” for her. The guys charmed the girls, catching the wind with their backs, and uttered the enchanted words; it was believed that the stronger the wind, the better the result. On this day, people also used folk signs to predict the weather. If it snowed, then the winter will be snowy and late. If there was heavy snowfall that fell unevenly, it means that next year there will be a rich harvest. The north wind spoke of the onset of imminent cold weather, but if the trees were covered with frost, there would soon be a thaw.

Orthodox holidays November 18:

Memorial Day of the Holy Martyrs Galaktion and Epistimia

Memorial Day of St. Jonah, Archbishop of Novgorod

Memorial Day of the Fathers of the Local Council of the Russian Church 1917-1918

Memorial Day of Gregory, Archbishop of Alexandria