How are you?
    I'm fine.

    If I ask you what day Feb.12 is, most of you would answer it is Lincoln's Birthday. But it is also the day when I was born!! Please remember it.
    Joking aside, Feb.12 is Lincoln's Birthday, so let's read his famous speech "Gettysburg Address" today.

    "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
    Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
    But, in larger sense, we can not dedicate―we can not consecrate―we can not hallow―this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us―that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion―that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain―that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom―and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

    This is a very moving speech, isn't it? I'm proud that I was born on the same day when Abraham Lincoln was born.

    In Japan today (Feb.11) is the Foundation Day. Though February is the coldest month in the year, it is spring according to the calendar. You might think it is curious but Japanese have felt a breath of spring in the coldest days since early times.

    See you again in March!

    I hope you are getting very well.

    In Japan most of the examinations for admission to national universities take place in March. So I was a little busier than usual, but it is drawing to an end. I feel relieved.
    Not knowing what to write this month, I looked up March in Encyclopedea Americana. Let's read this today.

    "MARCH, the third month of the year, consisting of 31 days. It is named for Mars, the Roman god of war and, originally, of vegetation. In ancient Rome, March was the first month, marking the renewal of agriculture and of military campaigning. With the Gregorian calendar, adopted in 1582, January was made the first month. March's birthstone are aquamarine and bloodstone, and its zodiac signs are Pisces and Aries. The vernal equinox, heralding the start of spring, comes on March 21. Holidays around the world include:

    March 1: St.David's Day, honoring the patron saint of Wales, who founded many churches.
    March 17: St.Patrick's Day, honoring the patron saint of Ireland, with displays of the shamrock and "wearing the green."
    March 19: St.Joseph's Day in Italy, celebrated with bonfires on the eve before and acts of generosity during te day.
    March 25: Annunciation, or Lady Day, commemorating the announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would become the mother of Jesus.

    In north India at the full moon in March, bonfires inaugurate the festival of Holi, celebrating the wheat harvest. In late March, the Chinese observe Ching-Ming ("clear brightness") with rituals symbolizing fertility and honoring the dead with offerings of food and willow branches. On the last Sunday before Lent, rural Poles observe Marzanna Day, on which straw dolls representing the goddess of death are carried on sticks and drowned in streams. Similar customs of "killing" winter are observed in other northern countries."

    This is very interesting. But to my regret, Japanese Higan which means Buddhist services performed during the equinoctial week, is not mentioned though Chinese Ching-Ming is mentioned.
    We pay a visit to our grave and performed a memorial services for the departed souls of our ancestors that day.

    Then see you next month!