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After Thanksgiving day, comes `Black Friday`.
It is a very exciting day for both retail owners and shoppers for both physical and online stores.
This is the day whereby prices drop to all most 20% of it`s normal price thus causing frenzy among shoppers.

Black Friday has a long history. It started as a mark of the beginning of Christmas season where people are starting to shop for Christmas presents. Years later, a financial crisis took event on that day thus the Wall street named it `Black Friday`.

By the time the 1980’s rolled around, retailers reformed the term into a positive one, and most people saw this as an opportunity to create profit. However, overtime Black Friday has stretched out into the Thanksgiving holiday, as retailers would start opening their doors earlier to allow customers to frantically buy their products. This has caused some safety issues, as crowds of people would flood stores to get their items, causing chaos at times.

How to celebrate Black Friday, you may ask? Go shop!

November is a much awaited month in the Kingdom of Thailand.
The Thai people celebrates two beautiful festivals on this month: the Loy Krathong (Festival of Lights) and the Yi Peng Lantern Festival. Both festivals take place on the full moon of the 12th Lunar calendar.

Loy Krathong is a festival whereby people releases small illuminated boats, `krathong`, in rivers, lakes or canals as a symbol of releasing their sorrows and bad luck of the past year. This also symbolizes the joy, gratitude in anticipation of the new year or the `new beginning`.

Yi Peng is a festival whereby people releases illuminated lanterns, `khom loi`, in the night sky. The same as Loy Krathong, the releasing of the `khom loi` symbolizes the release of negativity and the anticipation of new beginnings. It also symbolizes the mark of seasons, as Thailand moves from rainy and wet season to dry and cooler months.

Generally, Loy Krathong is celebrated in the metropolis and in the southern Thailand while Yi Peng is celebrated in the northern parts of Thailand. This year, Loy Krathong will be held on the 27th and 28th day of November whilst Yi Peng will be on the 28th of November.

Time to dress up in costumes and decorate homes in spooky themes. You may even go around trick-or-treating or give yourselves a good fright, because Everyone... it`s Halloween!

You may have asked how Halloween came to be?

Well, Halloween began in Ireland. It is a Gaelic Festival of Samhain, a day which marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of Winter. It was believed that during this day, the boundary between the living and the dead is too thin that spirits of the dead can return to the mortal world and can live amongst us. To ward off these spirits, the Celts would light bonfires, wear masks and costumes to confuse the spirits, and offer sacrifices to their gods.

As Christianity spreads all over Europe, the Catholic Church incorporated these pagan traditions into their own. Like, November 1st was declared All Saints’ Day, a day to honor all of the saints, and October 31st was designated as All Hallows’ Eve, a time to remember the dead.

These celebrations eventually evolved into the modern holiday of Halloween, which is now celebrated in many countries around the world.

October 27th is National Black Cat Day!
It is a day to celebrate black cats and raise awareness about them.
Black cats have a reputation for being bad luck and because of this many people avoid them, but did you know that black cats can make great companions?

In some parts of the world, black cats are actually good luck!
For example In Scotland, it is believed that placing black kittens on your porch will attract positive events and prevent misfortune. In Early America, they believed that black cats had magical powers in their bones, which attracted power and good fortune.

What do you think about black cats?

Developmental Language Disorder or DLD is when a child or young adult has difficulty understanding language and speaking.

DLD Awareness Day is all about giving those who have a language disorder a voice, helping educate the public about this term and helping raise awareness about speech disorders in everyday life.

How to celebrate this day?

Give thanks to the speech and language therapists who work diligently to improve children’s speech abilities throughout their younger years.
Spread awareness by printing out posters, handing out fact sheets, and spreading awareness of the term on social media.
Help donate to help support the campaign, sign up to become an ambassador and host an event at your local public school.
If you know a child or someone who has had a speech disorder, inform them about this term and support them by showing acceptance and appreciation for them as people.

Did you know that October 17th is the birthday of the famous American rapper Eminem?
He is perhaps one of the most famous modern rappers.
Have you heard of him?

Rap is a genre of music popular in many parts of the world.
Today`s challenge is for you to think of famous rappers in Japan!
Be sure to talk to your Amity teachers about music and your favorite artists too!

Today, the world celebrates Mental Health day.
It is a day whereby people acknowledge the importance of talking about one`s mental challenges and issues which are neglected by the ever, fast paced world.
From anger to anxiety and depression to disorders like bipolar and schizophrenia, people are encourage to talk about their perception and their `feelings` towards these things. This is to educate people, to encourage help seeking behaviours and to eliminate the stigma around mental health.

How do we maintain good mental health? Try these ideas!

Start talking about your feelings. Talk about your feelings to your trusted person, may it be a family, a friend or a health care professional.
Eat healthy, stay active and fit. What we consume and what we do with our body generates a big impact to our mental health through the neurotransmitters that activates our brain.
Stay connected. Get a hobby, join an organization or stay connected with your treasured friends and family. Nothing beats belonging to a group of people who thinks and feels a lot like you.

Let`s learn some vocabulary we can use during Fall!

1. Leaves
In fall, the leaves change color and fall to the ground.

2. Pumpkin
A pumpkin is a fall vegetable often enjoyed in October.

3. School
Students return to school at the start of fall.

4. Sweater
The weather is slowly becoming cooler so we can start to wear sweaters.

5. Autumn
Autumn is another way of saying fall!

Rhinoceroses are brilliant beasts known for their awesome, giant horns that grow from their snouts – hence the name “rhinoceros', meaning “nose horn”. Rhinoceroses are large animals that weigh 3 to 5 tons. They are about 8 to 13 feet (2.5 to 4 meters) long. Rhinos are herbivores which means they mainly feed on plants. Black rhinos are the oldest group of mammals, making them living fossils. Did you know that when a rhino is startled it can stampede up to 30 miles per hour!

As far back as the early 1990s, the crisis related to rhinos in Africa, particularly the black rhinos in Zimbabwe, became well known and people began to be concerned.
In 2010, most people did not know just how close the planet was coming to the total extinction of this majestic species.

So critical and dire was the condition of the species that less than 30,000 rhinos were alive in the world at that time. It was because of this that the WWF-South Africa announced World Rhino Day with the desire to save the world’s remaining rhinos, an effort that grew to be an unprecedented success.

Celebrating World Rhino Day starts by people deciding to educate themselves on the plight of rhinoceros in the modern world. In this way, people can figure out what actions they can take to help save those that remain.

Here are ways to celebrate saving the world`s 'rhinoses'.

Learn More About Rhino-Friendly Organizations.
You can read about saving these mammals from reputable organizations like, World Wildlife Federation (WWF), Save the Rhino International, and International Rhino Foundation.

Adopt an Orphan Rhino.
You can adopt an orphan baby rhino through Helping Rhinos Organization. Adoption participation is a minimal cost per month or year, and those who want to adopt can choose which baby rhino they want to help support. Adoption comes with a certificate with the name, photo, and fact sheet of the adopted rhino.

Share with Family and Friends about Rhinos.
Throw a little party or get-together in honor of Rhino Day where guests can be educated on the worries about the future for Rhinos. Help guests understand what they can do to help promote the cause, and perhaps take some donations to send to organizations, or encourage guests to consider adopting one of the orphan rhinos.

Yesterday, September 18th, was Respect for the Aged Day!
This is a holiday celebrated in Japan in which people pay respect to and celebrate their elders.
Many communities throw parties to honour their elders and offer special gifts to bring even more longevity to their lives.

How did you celebrate Respect for the Aged Day?
Don`t forget to remind your grandparents how special they are to you!