How remarkable and diverse is language!

Language is an important part of our identities.

To give us the opportunity to celebrate this the United Nations has designed the 26th of September to be a day to commemorate the learning of languages across the world.  There are over 6000 languages spoken globally, underlying rich and beautiful cultures! This day therefore celebrates the joy of learning a new language, and hence finding out about the culture behind it. Language is the gateway to cultures. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is famously quoted for saying, “those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.”

Yom Kippur is a Jewish Festival.

Yom Kippur in Israel.

Yom Kippur is the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. It means Day of Atonement and Jewish people fast for 25 hours. It is a time when Jews can make up for the wrongs of the past year and make a firm commitment to not do the same bad thing or things again. In order to apologise to God one must pray, feel remorse, and donate to charity.

The most important part of Yom Kippur is the time spent in the synagogue. Even Jews who are not particularly religious will want to attend synagogue on Yom Kippur, the only day of the year with five services. In the Yom Kippur section of the Torah the word ‘soul’ appears five times.

The Jewish believe that on Yom Kippur God seals the verdict of each person’s fate for the upcoming year.

Yom Kippur is strictly a day of rest. So strictly, in fact, that the transportation minister of Tel Aviv has threatened to withdraw funding from the city’s public bikes if they are not closed down for Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur falls each year on the 10th day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, which is 9 days after the first day of Rosh Hashanah. In the Gregorian calendar the earliest date on which Yom Kippur can fall is September 14, which happened in 1899 and will happen again in 2013. This year Yom Kippur takes place on September 25th and 26th.

Find out more about Yom Kippur.

Also in September:

UN International Literacy Day – 8th

International Day of Democracy – 15th

International Ozone Day – 16th

International Day of Peace – 21st

UN International Day of Languages – 26th

World Tourism Day – 27th

Rosh Hashana: Jewish New Year – 28th

In 1981, the UN General Assembly declared an International Day of Peace.

"Imagine all the people living life in peace." John Lennon

This coincided with the opening of the UN assembly. The day calls on all nations to observe a day of ceasefire and nonviolence worldwide. The aim is to make people honour a cessation of war and hostility.

“Peace cannot be kept by force, it can only be achieved by understanding.” Albert Einstein

If you take no other measures during the year, today, at least, you
should think about the planet and do your bit to help protect our ozone layer. In 1994, The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 16^th September each year to be the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer. This commemorates the 1987 date in which the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete The Ozone Layer was signed.

Global Competitiveness Report is an annual report published by the World Economic Forum that assesses the competitiveness landscape of 144 major and emerging world economies.

Switzerland tops the overall ranking fourth year in a row.

The report was first published in 1979. Today it is the most comprehensive method of assessing national competitiveness worldwide.

Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Professor of Economics, Columbia University, says that the Global Competitiveness Report provides a window for long-term trends, and allows countries to see the key areas where they must act if they want to better the productivity that will “determine their economic future.”

The report measures a set of institutions, policies, and factors that set the current and medium-term levels of economic prosperity in each country. The World Economic Forum brings these measures together and analyses each country’s ability to provide levels of prosperity to its citizens. Levels of prosperity also depend on how effectively a country uses its available resources.

2003-12 has been designated the ‘Literacy Decade: Education For All’
by the United Nations. Creating literate environments is essential to ensuring sustainable development, gender equality and poverty eradication. The UN believes that literacy is a human right and a means for social and human development. One in five adults is illiterate and of the illiterate population, two-thirds are women. Read about my experiences and see my photos of my time in Ghana teaching literacy to a group of engaging women.

Today is the International Day of the Disappeared, a day to remember those who have been imprisoned without their friends and families knowing where or why.

In 2008, approximately two people were announced as ‘disappeared ‘every day.

The day originates from the efforts of the Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of Detained-Disappeared, a Costa-Rican NGO founded in 1981 that officially started the fight against secret imprisonment and forced disappearances. Today, larger organizations such as Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross are also doing valuable work in this field. International Day of the Disappeared is not only a day to mourn those missing, but also to highlight the work of these NGOs, raise awareness, and to raise funds for future ventures and campaigns against secret imprisonment.

Today is the International Day Against Nuclear Testing, a day that aims to end nuclear testing around the world and promote peace and security.

The UN hopes for a nuclear-weapon-free world.

Since the first nuclear test in 1945, the world has seen over 2000 different nuclear weapons tests. Although history has shown us how devastating the impact of nuclear weapons is many world leaders still hold the belief that possessing nuclear weapons is a sign of a country’s scientific sophistication and military might. This type of ideology gives little appreciation for human life or our atmosphere and environment.

In December 2009, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a new resolution with a goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon also stated that, “A world free of nuclear weapons would be a global public good of the highest order.”

August 29^th was chosen as the date for International Day Against Nuclear Testing because it marks the day in 1991 when the world’s largest nuclear test site was closed in Kazakhstan.

London 2012 is the biggest Paralympic Games yet!

This year's Paralympics are unmissable.

4280 athletes are taking part from 166 different countries. Examples of countries competing for the first time in Paralympics are Antigua, Albania, and San Marino. Over the next 11 days the Paralympic Games will be held in 19 different venues all around London.

Many have spoken, in the media, that London 2012 is Paralympic Games “coming home.” This is because it was in London, on the day of the opening of the 1948 Summer Olympics, that the first organized event for disabled athletes was held. These first games, called the Wheelchair Games, were held for British World War II veteran patients with spinal injuries. Four years later, in 1952, in the same location, Dutch veterans participated as well, making 1952 the first year for an organised, international competition for disabled athletes. The Paralympic Games, as we know it today, was held for the first time in 1960 in Rome. This was the first year that the Paralympic Games were not solely open to war veterans. In Rome, that year, 400 athletes from 23 different countries took part.

The term Paralympic derives from the Greek word ‘para,’ which means ‘alongside.’ Paralympic refers to a competition that’s held alongside the Olympics…

Today is the International Day for the Remembrance of Slave Trade and its Abolition. This date was chosen by UNESCO to mark a night in 1791 in the island of Saint Dominic (now Dominican Republic and Haiti) when a major uprising took place which significantly contributed to the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

A purpose of this day is to highlight the shamefulness of colonial slave trade, to remember the millions of people who suffered from it, and to come to terms with the past injustice…