Interesting Facts – Amazing Facts, Random Facts and Funny Facts

What is a light year?

Rather confusingly, a light year is actually a measurement of distance not time.

A light year shows the distance that light travels through a year, and travels at an incredible speed of 300,000 kilometres a second. It is possible for a light year to travel around the circumference of the Earth 7.5 times per second.

light year scale - Bob King — Image Credit: Bob King & EarthSky

So one light year measures just under 10 million kilometres. On average it takes light 8.3 minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth.

The nearest star is 4.2 light years away and the Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest large galaxy outside our own and is about 2.5 million light years away.

The Andromeda Galaxy can actually be seen from the United Kingdom and it has looks like an elongated fuzzy blob to the naked eye.

The Hubble Telescope has detected an object in space which is believed to be around 13.2 billion light years away. In the time it’s taken the light to reach us on Earth the original object, a compact mini galaxy would no longer exist.

What is Advent?

We’ve all heard and probably had an Advent calendar sometime during our lifetime, but do you know the real reason behind the celebration of Advent?

In the religious calendar, Advent is the start of the season in which Christians/Catholics and some other religions prepare to celebrate and commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day.

The word Advent derives from the Latin phrase “Adventus Domini”, which translates to the arrival of the Lord.

The Advent season changes from year to year as it starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is also called Advent Sunday or First Sunday of Advent and Advent will always end on Christmas Eve.

Some of the traditions held in churches and homes during the Advent season are the decoration in the house of an Advent wreath furnished with four ornamental candles, many Advent wreaths include a fifth candle, and this one symbolizes the Christ candle. This candle is either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Another traditional held during the Advent season is that of an Advent calendar.

It is thought that the calendars originated from German Protestants. They would make chalk marks on doors or light candles to count the days leading up to Christmas.

Gerhard Lang is the name that is associated with being the producer of the first printed Advent calendar back in the early 1900s.

Nowadays some of the most popular advent calendars are LEGO, whom feature a range of different themes every Christmas, including the LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar, LEGO City Advent Calendar and the new favourite amongst girls, the LEGO Friends Advent Calendar.

What is Divali?

Divali is a festival of lights that marks the start of the Hindu New Year. The Hindu community celebrates this event on the 15th day of the Kartika month, and it will take place on 7th November this year.

It has many different spellings such as Diwali and Deepavali.

Rangoli decorations, such as the one shown above, are extremely popular during Diwali and are made using coloured powder or sand.

The Festival of Lights honours Rama-chandra, who was the seventh avatar (incarnation of the god Vishnu). The story told is that Rama returned to his people after 14 years of exile on this day. Whilst he was away he was said to have fought and won against the demons and the demon king, Ravana.

To celebrate Rama-chandra victory over evil, the people lit their houses to show that light beat darkness.

Also, the goddess of happiness and good fortune, named Lakshmi, is celebrated on this day. She is believed to roam the Earth and enter homes that are pure, clean, and bright. This festival significance is to show the spiritual meaning of an “awareness of an inner light”.

Lamps and fireworks are lit and homes are spring cleaned to celebrate this event, along with sweets, savouries and Divali treats and a gathering of friends and family.

The Hindu community dress in their traditional dress, with the women wearing jewellery and some have Mehendi, a form of henna decoration, painted on their palms.

Arctic Facts

Here are some interesting facts about the Arctic, which you may not be aware of.

The Arctic is located at the northernmost part of Earth and scientists often describe the Arctic as the area above the ‘Arctic Circle’.

Some of the countries that make up the Arctic are parts of Greenland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Russia, Canada, and the USA.

There are approximately four million people who live in the Arctic, and amongst these are the indigenous people of the Arctic who are called the ‘Inuits’.

The word ‘Arctic’ derives from the Greek word meaning ‘bear arktos’. This is because of the two constellations in the northern night sky, the Ursa Major (Great Bear) and Ursa Minor (Little Bear).

These constellations contain Polaris, otherwise known as the North Star.

Temperatures of -70°c have been recorded in northern Greenland.

Due to the Earth’s tilt, once a year the Arctic has a whole day of sunshine and another day of complete darkness.

It is known that glaciers in the Arctic store about 75% of the world’s fresh water.

Today’s glaciers cover around 10% of the Earth’s total land area.

Everyone thinks that a polar bears fur is white! Actually it’s transparent with a hollow core that reflects the light. This helps the polar bear to stay camouflaged by blending in to their surroundings.

Polar bears have an excellent sense of smell, they can actually sniff out prey up to 16km (10 miles) away.

They have also been known to smell a seal which is around 3 feet beneath the ice and from a distance of 1 km (0.6 miles) away.

Polar bear cubs stay with their mother for about 2 years. She teaches them the skills they need to learn about surviving in the Arctic and hunting for food.

There is one specific species that can only be found in the Arctic and that is the narwhal, which is often referred to as the ‘unicorn of the sea’.

Male narwhals have a straight tusk at the front of their head – this tusk can grow to over 3 metres in length.

What is National Grandparents Day?

Just like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, this event was created as a way to thank paternal and maternal grandparents for all their love, care and support.

Grandparents’ Day was set up by Age Concern, the United Kingdom charity that helps old age people in this country. The celebrations usually fall on the first Sunday in October and have done so annually since 2008.

National Grandparents Day — Image Credit: Askideas.com

Grandparents day was established in 1973 in America by a lady named Marian McQuade from West Virginia, who wanted to highlight the importance of senior citizens in the family.

Grandparents’ Day is celebrated at different times in different countries. America celebrates in September whilst in Poland the day is celebrated in January and has done so since 1965!

There is a national Grandparents Day song which was written by Johnny Prill and it is simply called “A Song for Grandma and Grandpa” in 2004.