Super Tuesday

Super Tuesday is the term of the year, so far! Like 9/11, everyone now knows what it means. In all this excitement, I was looking around for what other epithets other days of the week have gathered so far.

Well, Monday is naturally associated with Black - Black Monday! Not because it is the first workday of the week - that's more bloody monday than a black one! There is even a small poem in Bengali - 'Sukher sonibar, sadher robibar/ Abar jalate elo, hotobhaga sombar' - the pleasures of which I shall leave to people who read Bengali. But Black Monday is more financial. The original Black Monday was 28th October 1929, a day of great stock market crash during The Great Depression. In the living memory, the same thing happened on 18th October 1987, the day is remembered for the second largest decline in the stock market history. [Wikipedia] There is another Black Monday, as recent as 21st January 2008, which saw the biggest stock market fall post-9/11.

Before I come back to Tuesday, I turned on Wednesday. Of course there is Spy Wednesday, which is the wednesday before Easter [19th March this year] to commemorate the day when Judas gave the whereabouts of Jesus. There is also Black Wednesday in Britain, referring to 16th September 1992, when the British Government of John Major was forced to withdraw the Pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, and the Treasury lost about £3 billion in the process [who cares about the Government losing money anyway!].

There is also Black Thursday, October 24, 1929, the day that really started the Great Depression. The Brits, of course, have got a different historical perspective of the Thursday, because every general election in Britain since 1935 were held on Thursdays. This is possibly because Thursdays were market days in most British towns [and still are] and also there is this practical advantage of an weekend immediately after the results are declared. But, this is just a convention - like many more things in Britain - and it isn't written anywhere or mandated.

The most famous Friday is Good Friday, but then we are talking about more recent events here. There is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in America and one of the biggest shopping days. The British call April 2, 1982 the Black Friday - when Argentine forces invaded Falklands.

Saturday is the only day still owned by a Roman God - Saturn - a distant reminder when even the English was under Colonial rule! I could not find a Black Saturday though - it seems that no one works on Saturdays and therefore no financial disasters or major political atrocities took place on Saturdays.

There is Bloody Sunday - referring to the 1972 army massacre in Derry in Northern Ireland. Super Sundays too - which refer to the day of the Super Bowl in America.

So, back to Super Tuesday, which turned out to be pretty inconclusive, on the democratic nomination at least. Half the world expected a winner - that's what elections are for - but ended up learning more about the geography and voing process in America, than who the next President could be. We almost all voted - or chosen our favourites! Now, of course, there will be a stream of sub-super tuesdays, primaries which will count more than ever, leading to the big one on March 4th. Well, I must give it out here - I am quite keen to meet the US President who is called Barak Hussain Obama!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Lord Macaulay's Speech on Indian Education: The Hoax & Some Truths

Abdicating to Taliban

India versus Bharat

When Does Business Gift Become A Bribe: A Marketing Policy Perspective

The Curious Case of Helen Goddard

The Morality of Profit

‘A World Without The Jews’: Nazi Ideology, German Imagination and The Holocaust[1]

The Road to Macaulay: Warren Hastings and Education in India

A Conversation About Kolkata in the 21st Century

The Road of Macaulay: The Development of Indian Education under British Rule

Creative Commons License

AddThis