Mongolia Edition
World Careful Driver Day leads today's complete edition for Mongolia.
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 buses, taxis, rideshare cars, delivery vans, trucks, bicycles, scooters, and everyone trusting strangers on the road.
The longest night of the year is celebrated with the lighting of candles and fires, and the tradition of staying up all night to watch the stars. The Mongolian winter solstice is one of the coldest nights on earth (temperatures can drop to minus 40 degrees Celsius on the steppe), and the herders bring their animals into the shelter of the winter camp (the uvs, or winter pasture). The night is also a time for storytelling, and the elders tell the epic tales of the Jangar (the Kalmyk-Mongol epic), the Geser (the Tibetan-Mongol epic), and the Secret History of the Mongols. The solstice is a reminder that the light will return, and that the Mongolians have survived the harshest winters on earth for thousands of years.
You observe the giant panda in bamboo forests, the Yangtze finless porpoise in rivers, and the Chinese alligator in wetlands across this vast country. You notice that dogs and cats are increasingly popular as pets in urban areas, though many rural families keep chickens, pigs, and ducks. ACADA celebrates the world's pets, and helps assure better care.