Sunday, 21 June 2009

Father's Day, or the first day of summer?

I noticed that today Google had one of its illustrated logos on dispay showing a boy and a girl making sandcastles, so I ran my mouse over it and to my surprise it was captioned Fathers' Day.  (I will discuss the position of the apostrophe at another time.  Surely the day is for all fathers?)



In a moment of idleness, I thought to have a look to see whether google.com would have the same illustration.  One of my irritations with Google is that they insist they know better than I do about what I want and I was immediately redirected to google.fr where I found a different illustration and a different caption.

In France they are celebrating the first day of summer, and I have to say I think the UK illustration may have been intended for that originally. 

I eventually was allowed look at google.com but there was no illustration, no caption.  How odd!  I thought Fathers' Day originated in the USA.  And they surely notice summer time.

Of course, Mrs Inquisitive couldn't leave it at that and had to do a survey of a representative sample of countries and their Google pages.

Fathers' Day is illustrated in:
  • UK, 
  • Canada, 
  • Puerto Rico,
  • South Africa,
  • Philippines.
The first day of summer is marked in:
  • France
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Hungary
  • Romania

Nothing at all in:
  • The Netherlands
  • India
  • Sri Lanka
  • Belarus
  • Malaysia

And of course, I didn't think, but some countries in the southern hemisphere are marking the first day of winter:
  • New Zealand
  • Brazil
  • Australia.
I'm not entirely convinced that this is an entirely appropriate illustration either, especially for Brazil or parts of Australia.

10 comments:

  1. In spite of blogging friends in the southern hemisphere, I still find it odd that their winter starts today. Mind, today's weather here in Ireland feels rather wintry!

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  2. The longest day, the best day of the year!
    of course it's clouded over!

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Dragonstar, I know exactly what you mean. I'm pulled up short every time I hear something that reminds me of the opposite season. The weather here is no better really. I'm reliably informed by a neighbour that you will never have good weather in a year with 13 moons. I haven't counted them recently.

    @Adullamite, when is this wonderful summer going to start then? I was told it was going to be a wonderful summer by someone. Well, it's bound to be off for a couple of weeks with Wimbledon starting tomorrow.

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  4. Father's Day in Spain is always March 19th (St. Joseph's Day), so I was indeed celebrating Summer Solstice only ! Have a happy Summertime, A. !!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you Pablo, now I understand! And a happy summertime to you too!

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  6. It's a day for all fathers. Shouldn't even have an apostrophe, I say.

    It was Fathers Day (okay, "Father's Day") in South Africa too. And probably other parts of Africa as well. And the first day of winter, though, despite their southern latitude, their winters are mild.

    Just in case you wanted to update your lists.

    (google.co.za)

    Sorry.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fathers Day in Norway is in March I think, but not that much celebrated.

    Summer Solstice, however, is celebrated in Norway and no wonder; Then we in Oslo have 19 hours of daylight and I posted about last night :-)

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  8. @Relax Max, yes I saw the South Africa page (it's in my list). I looked for theirs because I wondered if they would show the singularly inappropriate snow scene, but no. I think it's pretty important that SA does mark Fathers Day, with the problems they have.

    @Renny, I can see I'm going to investigate further the traditions of Fathers' Day. I think I'd celebrate the summer solstice too, if I got 19 hours of daylight!

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Forethoughts, afterthoughts, any thoughts. Tell me.

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