Maldives Edition
World Pocket Notebook Day leads today's complete edition for Maldives.
Daily Edition
Official observances, world days, local context, and everyday celebrations for people who need something worth reading, sharing, or talking about today.
A day for lists, sketches, phone numbers, recipes, reminders, ideas, and the old power of writing something down.
The cowry shell is the symbol of the Maldives' ancient wealth. For over a thousand years, the Maldives was the world's primary source of cowry shells (Monetaria moneta), which were used as currency across Africa, South Asia, and China. Arab traders called the Maldives "Dibajat" (the cowry islands), and Chinese merchants called them "Liu Shan" (the flowing-cowry islands). The shells were harvested from the reef, sorted by size, and shipped out in odi vessels to markets as far as Mali, where cowry shells were the official currency until the 19th century. The Maldivian cowry trade was so extensive that the shells have been found in archaeological sites from Scandinavia to Vietnam. The shells were also used as currency within the Maldives, and the word "boli" (cowry) is still used in Dhivehi to mean "money" or "coin." Cowry Shell Heritage Day celebrates this history with exhibitions at the National Museum, educational programs about the Indian Ocean trade, and the distribution of cowry shells to schoolchildren as a connection to the past.