10th october: World Mental Health Day

World Mental Health Day (10 October) is an international day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma. It was first celebrated in 1992 at the initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, a global mental health organization with members and contacts in more than 150 countries. This day, each October, thousands of supporters come to celebrate this annual awareness program to bring attention to mental illness and its major effects on peoples’ lives worldwide. In some countries this day is part of an awareness week, such as Mental Health Week in Australia.

World Mental Health Day was celebrated for the first time on October 10, 1992 at the initiative of Deputy Secretary General Richard Hunter. Up until 1994, the day had no specific theme other than general promoting mental health advocacy and educating the public.

In 1994 World Mental Health Day was celebrated with a theme for the first time at the suggestion of then Secretary General Eugene Brody. The theme was “Improving the Quality of Mental Health Services throughout the World.”

World Mental Health Day is supported by WHO through raising awareness on mental health issues using its strong relationships with the Ministries of health and civil society organizations across the globe. WHO also supports with developing technical and communication material.

10th october: World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty is an alliance of NGOs, bar associations, local bodies and unions whose aim is to strengthen the international anti-death penalty movement. The World Coalition lobbies international organisations and States, organises international events and facilitates the creation and development of national and regional coalitions against the death penalty.

It was created in Rome on 13 May 2002 and has established 10 October as the date of the annual World Day Against the Death Penalty in 2003.

Ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics the World Coalition handed over a petition to Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong. The petition was signed by 256,000 people of 23 countries and called on Chinese President Hu Jintao to grant a moratorium on executions.

Screens are journeys of our wings …

Illustration of Pawel Kuczynski

The TVs, the diagrams of our mobile phones and our PCs are absolutely powerful means that allow us to travel with our eyes but I take off our wings … because often everything that is transmitted deprives us of freedom of thought or it takes away the desire to go out and discover little things that, put together, can make a difference

The fuel of books

In an increasingly globalized and social world, exiling from perverse reality is increasingly difficult and books remain one of the few means to refuel one’s mind. Although books are also the creation of authors who have influential ideas and methods, reading is increasingly interpretable in its own way and this gives it as one of the few means by which to form one’s own ideas

World Teachers’ Day

World Teachers’ Day, also known as International Teachers Day, is an international day held annually on October 5. Established in 1994, it commemorates the signing of the 1966 UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, which is a standard-setting instrument that addresses the status and situations of teachers around the world. This recommendation outlines standards relating to education personnel policy, recruitment, and initial training as well as the continuing education of teachers, their employment, and working conditions. World Teachers’ Day aims to focus on “appreciating, assessing and improving the educators of the world” and to provide an opportunity to consider issues related to teachers and teaching.

To celebrate World Teachers’ Day, the UNESCO and Education International (EI) mounts a campaign each year to help give the world better understanding of teachers and the role they play in the development of students and society. They partner with the private sector such as media organizations to achieve this purpose. The campaign focus on different themes for every year. For instance, “Empowering Teachers” is the theme for 2017. This was the year World Teachers’ Day commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 1997 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel, bringing the sometimes-neglected area of teaching personnel at Higher Education institutions into the conversation about the status of teachers.

For 2018, the UNESCO adopted the theme: “The right to education means the right to a qualified teacher.” It commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and serves as a reminder that the right to education cannot be realized without trained and qualified teachers.

The UNESCO cites that everyone can help by celebrating the profession, by generating awareness about teacher issues and by ensuring that teacher respect is part of the natural order of things. Schools and students, for instance, prepare an occasion for teachers during this day. More than 100 countries commemorate World Teachers’ Day and each holds its own celebrations such as the case of India, which has been commemorating Teachers’ Day every 5th September.

As the day usually falls during Australian school holidays, Australian states and territories celebrate on the last Friday of October each year instead. In 2020, it will be celebrated on Friday 30 October.

🎵 Ligabue – La ragazza dei tuoi sogni

🎵 David Guetta & Sia – Let’s Love

L Y R I C

Let’s love, let’s love
Let’s love, let’s love
Let’s love

I will never leave your side, my love
Standing right beside you is enough
Count on me if you feel any pain
Call to me I’ll run to you again

You can count on me, and I can count on you
You show up, I got you, ah
And I’ll keep showing up for you

So take my hand, don’t be afraid
This too shall pass, this too shall pass
We’ll get through it all together
We’ll get through it all together
I swear you’re safe, this too shall pass
This too shall pass, this too shall pass
And we’ll get through it all together
We’ll get through it all together

Let’s love, let’s love
Let’s love, let’s love
Let’s love, let’s love
And we’ll get through it all together
We’ll get through it all together
Let’s love

I will never leave your side, my love
Standing right beside you is enough

You can count on me, oh, I can count on you
You show up for me, I show up for you
And I’ll keep showing up for you

So take my hand, don’t be afraid
This too shall pass, this too shall pass
We’ll get through it all together
We’ll get through it all together
I swear you’re safe, this too shall pass
This too shall pass, this too shall pass
And we’ll get through it all together
We’ll get through it all together

Let’s love, let’s love
Let’s love, let’s love
Let’s love, let’s love
We’ll get through it all together
We’ll get through it all together

Let’s love, let’s love
Let’s love, let’s love

International Day of Non-Violence

The International Day of Non-Violence is observed on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.

In January 2004, Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi had taken a proposal for an International Day of Non-Violence from a Hindi teacher in Paris teaching international students to the World Social Forum in Mumbai. The idea gradually attracted the interest of some leaders of India’s Congress Party (“Ahimsa Finds Teen Voice”, The Telegraph, Calcutta) until a Satyagraha Conference resolution in New Delhi in January 2007, initiated by Indian National Congress President and Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance Sonia Gandhi and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, called upon the United Nations to adopt the idea.

On 15 June 2007 the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish 2 October as the International Day of Non-Violence.^[2] The resolution by the General Assembly asks all members of the UN system to commemorate 2 October in “an appropriate manner and disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness”.

The United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) in New York City prepared a special cachet to commemorate this event, following a request from the Indian Ambassador at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN. The boxed pictorial cachet design was prepared by the UNPA and was limited to cancellation at UNPA’s NY location (not Geneva and Vienna). The UNPA has indicated that all outgoing UNPA mail between 2 and 31 October carried the cachet.

1th October: International Day of Older Persons

The International Day of Older Persons is observed on October 1 each year.

On December 14, 1990 the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish October 1 as the International Day of Older Persons as recorded in Resolution 45/106.^[1] The holiday was observed for the first time on October 1, 1991.^[2]

The holiday is celebrated by raising awareness about issues affecting the elderly, such as senescence and elder abuse. It is also a day to appreciate the contributions that older people make to society.

This holiday is similar to National Grandparents Day in the United States and Canada as well as Double Ninth Festival in China and Respect for the Aged Day in Japan. The observance is a focus of ageing organizations and the United Nations Programme on Ageing.

The celebration of International Day of Older Persons is done to create awareness and empathy regarding the well being of the elderly. People usually celebrate the day by spending time with their grandparents, visiting old age homes and N.G.O’s and cooking or baking for them. Some kids also give greeting cards to their elderly on this day.

26th September: European Day of Languages

The European Day of Languages is observed 26 September, as proclaimed by the Council of Europe on 6 December 2001, at the end of the European Year of Languages (2001), which had been jointly organised by the Council of Europe and the European Union.^[1] Its aim is to encourage language learning across Europe.

The general objectives of the European Day of Languages are to:

• Alert the public to the importance of language learning and diversify the range of languages learned in order to increase plurilingualism and intercultural understanding;
• Promote the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe;
• Encourage lifelong language learning in and out of school.

In keeping with these rules, people, young and old, are encouraged to take up a language, or take special pride in their existing language skills. Also, those responsible for providing access to language learning are encouraged to make it easier for people to learn a range of languages, and to support policy initiatives to promote languages. There is also emphasis on learning a language other than English.

On the occasion of the day, a range of events are organised across Europe,^[2][3] including those for children, television and radio programmes, language classes and conferences. The events are not organised by the Council of Europe or the European Union nor do they allocate special funding (i.e. apart from their existing language programmes) for the day. Member states and potential partners are given a free hand to organise activities. To coordinate the activities organised at national level, the Council of Europe asks participating countries to nominate “National Relay Persons” for the day. The national relay in the UK used to be CILT, the National Centre for Languages.^[4]

There are about 225 indigenous languages in Europe – roughly 3% of the world’s total. Most of the European languages are of Indo-European origin. Since the end of the 18th century, the most widespread language of Europe (both in terms of geography and the number of native speakers) has been Russian, which replaced French. Counting only native speakers, approximately 150 million Europeans speak Russian on a daily basis, followed by German (approx. 95 mil.), Turkish (approx. 80 mil.), English and French (each by 65 mil.), Italian ( by 60 mil.), Spanish and Polish (40 mil. each), Ukrainian (30 mil.) and Romanian (26 mil.). As far as foreign language studies are concerned, English is currently the most popular foreign language in Europe, followed by German, French, Italian, Russian and Spanish.