Did you know?

• There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. Vowels: A – pronounced ah, E--pronounced ay as in ‘hay’ I – pronounced e as in ‘hee’ O – pronounced o like in oh U – as like ‘you’ Consonants: H, K, L, M, N, P, W. • During the First World War, the punishment for homosexuality in the French army was execution. • February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. • Pogonophobia is the fear of beards. • Karaoke means “empty orchestra” in Japanese. • Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day. • When you die your hair still grows for a couple of months. • The elephant is the only animal with 4 knees. • The word “lethologica” describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want. • The first word spoken on the moon was “okay”. • Seoul, the South Korean capital, just means “the capital” in the Korean language. • Polterabend is a German pre-wedding tradition where friends and family come together for an informal party. While that may not seem odd, what they do at these parties certainly is. They break dishes, flowerpots, tiles, toilets, pretty much anything except glasses or mirrors. To symbolize working together through future difficulties, the bride and groom must clean everything up. Due to the need to replace all the broken goods, I suspect that German hardware merchants are quite fond of this custom. • To prepare for their marriage, Scottish brides-to-be must go through a very foul pre-wedding ritual. Friends of the bride take her by surprise and cover her with eggs, spoiled milk, feathers, pretty much anything disgusting. The blackened bride is then paraded around town. The purpose of this custom is to prepare the bride for marriage because after going through that, any marital problems will seem like nothing. • While most cultures mourn the loss of family members, women of the Dani tribe in Indonesia must suffer great physical pain in addition to emotional pain. When a family member dies, female relatives must cut off a segment of one of their fingers. This practice is performed to satisfy ancestral ghosts. Luckily for the Dani women, this custom is rarely practiced anymore. • The Tidong are a group of people from northern Borneo with a particularly uncomfortable wedding custom. For the 3 days and 3 nights following the wedding, both the bride and groom are prohibited from using the bathroom. That means no urinating, no defecating, and no bathing. They believe that custom will lead to a long, happy, and fertile marriage. In order to achieve this, the newlyweds are allowed to eat and drink only very small amounts and are watched very closely by family members. • You will rarely find a “6” in Cameroon phone numbers—the native language has no sound for “x.” • The first message tapped by Samuel Morse over his invention of the telegraph was: “What hath God wrought?” • The first words spoken by over Alexander Bell over the telephone were: “Watson, please come here. I want you.” Ends