United Nations Public Service Day is observed annually on June 23. It celebrates the value and virtue of public services, emphasizes the contribution of public service in the process of development, recognizes the work of public servants, and encourages young people to pursue careers in the public sector. In 2003, the United Nations established the UN Public Service Awards (UNPSA) program, which aims to promote and reward innovation and excellence in public services. It was then reviewed in 2016 to align with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar and this year will be held on June 19. Popular in Southern China, the Dragon Boat Festival is an international event drawing a score of locals and tourists alike. To the outsider, the festival appears to be about racing dragon-shaped boats or, about ‘zongzi’ — the sweet-savory dumpling traditionally associated with the day. Not many people know that the Dragon Boat Festival is in fact a homage to a beloved poet who lived over 2,000 years ago. The festival originated as a search for his body.
National Speak in Complete Sentences Day
National Speak in Complete Sentences Day, celebrated on May 31, is a day on which we’re all expected to speak in full sentences. In grammar usage, a sentence is a linguistic expression. Traditionally speaking, it is typically defined as a string of words expressing a complete thought, or a unit that comprises a subject and a predicate. In functional linguistics, sentences are defined as units of written texts that are delimited by graphological features such as upper case letters, and sentence markers such as periods, question marks, and exclamation marks, among others. This is in contrast with a curve, which on its own is delimited by phonological features such as pitch, and markers such as pauses as well as with a clause, which is a sequence of words that represents a process continuing throughout time.