Embedded Files
October / November 2023
October / November 2023
Explore the Vibrant World of Day of the Dead on Google Arts & Culture!
Dive into the rich cultural heritage of Mexico's Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) with Google Arts & Culture!
🎉 Discover the artistry: Immerse yourself in stunning visuals, from intricately decorated ofrendas (altars) to vibrant papel picado (paper cutouts).
📚 Learn the history: Uncover the fascinating origins and significance of this centuries-old tradition that celebrates the lives of loved ones who have passed away.
🌺 Explore the traditions: Delve into the diverse regional customs and rituals that make each Day of the Dead celebration unique.
💀 Meet the artists: Get to know the talented artists behind the colorful calavera (sugar skull) designs and captivating Catrina figurines.
🔗 Access the Day of the Dead section on Google Arts & Culture to enrich your understanding of this beautiful and meaningful celebration. It's a valuable resource for students, teachers, and anyone curious about world cultures.
Click here to start your journey into the world of Day of the Dead today!
Embark on a virtual tour of the fascinating Museo de la Muerte (Museum of Death) through Google Arts & Culture!
🪦 Explore the exhibits: Wander through the museum's captivating displays, featuring a diverse collection of artifacts, artwork, and historical relics related to the concept of death.
🌟 Discover the cultural significance: Gain insights into how different cultures around the world perceive and commemorate death, from ancient rituals to modern practices.
🎨 Art and symbolism: Uncover the artistic expressions that stem from our fascination with mortality, including striking calacas (skeletons) and intricate sugar skull art.
🧐 Educational insights: This virtual tour is an excellent resource for students and educators interested in anthropology, art history, and cultural studies.
🌐 Access the Museo de la Muerte on Google Arts & Culture to explore the intriguing realm of death and its cultural nuances. It's a unique experience that can enhance your understanding of this universal theme.
Visit to start your virtual tour of the Museo de la Muerte today!
March / April 2023
March / April 2023
9 Facts That Will Inspire You To Take Action On International Women’s Day
9 Facts That Will Inspire You To Take Action On International Women’s Day
Here are 9 facts about issues facing women and girls around the world that will inspire you to take action this March 8 on International Women’s Day:
1. An extra year of education can help a girl earn 15-25% more as an adult.
2. Educated mothers are more than twice as likely to send their children to school.
3. 130 million girls are out of school worldwide, and 11 million girls might not return to school after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted their education.
4. Girls who complete secondary school are 3x less likely to become child brides.
5. Globally, there are 750 million women and girls who were married before they turned 18.
6. At least 117 countries and territories still have no laws to protect girls from child marriage.
7. Domestic violence—just one form of gender-based violence—is costlier than warfare, with a worldwide annual cost of $8 trillion.
8. In 49 countries, there is no specific law against domestic violence.
9. Women make nearly 20% less than men, and they won’t reach pay equity with men until 2059 if the slow pace of progress on the pay gap persists.
In a nutshell
In a nutshell
Kurzgesagt
Kurzgesagt
Kurzgesagt -German for “In a nutshell“ is a Munich-based YouTube channel and animation studio with a unique perspective on design, color, and storytelling. They are engaged in information design projects of all kind but are best known for their distinctive animation videos. They want their work to raise awareness for topics from the fields of science, space, technology, biology, history, and philosophy with the goal is to inspire people to learn – and we believe humor and a good story to tell are just as important as straight facts.
We invite you to visit their YouTube Chanel by clicking here or checking some examples below.
Here you have a couple of their videos:
Here you have a couple of their videos:
January / February 2023
January / February 2023
Women have contributed to America’s most defining moments—times that shaped constitutional rights, yielded scientific breakthroughs, created the symbols of our nation. Yet a diversity of women’s stories has not been widely told. To create a more equitable America, the Smithsonian is researching, disseminating, and amplifying the histories of American women through its American Women’s History Initiative in preparation for the future Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. The Smithsonian wants the role of women in American history to be well-known, accurate, acknowledged, and empowering.
With a digital-first mission and focus, the Smithsonian amplifies a diversity of women’s voices in a new museum and throughout the Smithsonian’s museums, research centers, cultural heritage affiliates, and anywhere people are online. Through these efforts we reach millions of people in Washington, D.C., across the nation, and around the world.
We invite you to join us in exploring the untold stories of American women. Click here to see the exhibition
Political Constitution of the United Mexican States
Political Constitution of the United Mexican States
On February 5, 1917, the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States was promulgated by the Constituent Congress. The content of this Constitution has been reformed more than 200 times. This Constitution eliminated the reelection of the President of the Republic and the position of Vice President.
The first properly Mexican constitution was that of 1824, since it ruled out all kinds of foreign legislation and proclaimed the absolute exercise of sovereignty. Subsequently, the Constitution of 1857 was a fundamental element in the national defense against the French invasion and the empire of Maximilian of Habsburg, and it remained in force until 1917.
In 1910 the Mexican Revolution began and in 1916, Venustiano Carranza, in his capacity as the first chief of the Constitutionalist Army, in charge of the Executive Power, summoned Congress to present a project of reforms to the Constitution of 1857. The document underwent great modifications to adjust to the new social reality of the country.
Thus, the current Magna Carta was promulgated on February 5, 1917, at the Teatro de la República in the city of Querétaro, which managed to unite the revolutionary ideals of the Mexican people. It included principles of social reforms and rights in favor of workers and peasants. In addition, it was formulated to govern all Mexicans without distinction of race, creed, social or political condition, since freedom of thought and belief was dictated in it.
February ephemeris
February ephemeris
February 1, 1895: Alfonso Caso, a great Mexican archaeologist, was born in Mexico City.
February 2, 1832: the insurgent Ignacio López Rayón dies in Mexico City.
February 5, 1857: the Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States is promulgated.
February 9, 1913: the armed movement against the government of Francisco I. Madero begins.
February 14, 1831: General Vicente Guerrero is shot in Cuilápam, Oaxaca.
February 19, 1818: Gabino Barreda, doctor, philosopher, and politician, was born in the city of Puebla.
February 21, 1821: the eleven times president of Mexico, Antonio López de Santa Anna, is born in Xalapa, Veracruz.
February 24: the Mexican flag is raised for the first time.
February 28, 1882: José Vasconcelos, the first Secretary of Public Education, is born.
November / December 2022
November / December 2022
This fall marks the 30th anniversary of the popular series The Magic Tree House and Goosebumps, and the United States Library of Congress celebrates it with its authors: Mary Pope Osborne and R. L. Stine.
R.L. Stine and Mary Pope Osborne were writing for older children when they were approached by their respective publishers about starting a series for the 7-12 age group. Each of them had reservations, as this was not their usual target audience. Thirty years later, the Goosebumps and Magic Tree House books have been translated into more than thirty languages. Stine has published over two hundred books under the Goosebumps umbrella. Mary Pope Osborne is not far behind. There are over a hundred Magic Tree House titles in print. Its popularity also spawned a companion nonfiction series, Magic Tree House Fact Tracker, written by Osborne's husband, Will Osborne, and her sister, Natalie Pope Boyce.
Throughout their careers, Osborne and Stine have become advocates for literacy. Osborne donated more than a million of her books to underserved schools.
We invite you to enjoy these videos of their participation in the 2012 National Book Festival!
NOT AN OSTRICH: & OTHER IMAGES FROM AMERICA’S LIBRARY
online Exhibition
NOT AN OSTRICH: & OTHER IMAGES FROM AMERICA’S LIBRARY
online Exhibition
Organized by the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles and drawn from the photography collections of the Library of Congress, presents a taste of this institution’s spectacular holdings of more than 14 million photographs. Selected images reproduced for this online exhibition were made between 1839 and today. They trace the evolution of photography, from daguerreotypes and other early processes to contemporary digital technology.
Not an Ostrich includes famous pictures, famous subjects, and famous photographers. Many of the images capture glorious moments in our history, some are entertaining or even absurd, and others are deeply troubling. Some photos will give you new perspectives on celebrated places, faces, and events, while still others will literally open your eyes to unfamiliar moments in American culture and history.
You can visit this online exhibition at:
https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/images-from-americas-library/about-this-exhibition/
September / October 2022
September / October 2022
Berlin's Museumsinsel, or Museum Island is a grand work of art: five world-famous museum buildings from the time of the Prussian rulers, form an exciting ensemble that was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 1999. Since 1830, this island in the middle of the River Spree has been home to some of the most important museums and galleries in Germany, covering almost every era of history.
The Museum Island is also home to the world-famous bust of Nefertiti, which is over 3,000 years old.
The Altes Museum (Old Museum) with architecture reminiscent of a Greek temple opening in 1830, historically significant collections and artworks were made accessible to the general public. After the second world war, Museum Island was a landscape of ruins, the Neues Museum in particular was almost completely destroyed.
The reconstruction and renovation of the Neues Museum took a total of ten years. A sensitive approach to the old building and the traces of war, combined with ultra-modern conversions, resulted in an exciting, unusual architectural style that has not lost its authentic character. Since the spectacular reopening in 2009, the building has housed selected exhibits from the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, the Museum of Prehistory and Early History and the Collection of Classical Antiquities.
May / June 2022
May / June 2022
The Origin of Mother’s Day: 5 Surprising Facts About the Holiday
The Origin of Mother’s Day: 5 Surprising Facts About the Holiday
These days, Mother's Day is all about greeting cards and flowers — but the history is more complex than you might know.
For many people, Mother’s Day is simply a joyous occasion each May, a time to spend with our children and our mothers — marked by flowers, cards, and maybe some mimosas over brunch. So you might be surprised to learn that its cheerful greeting card messages belie a much darker, more complicated origin story. In fact, Mother’s Day traces its roots back to wartime traumas, and includes plenty of controversy. Here are five surprising facts you may not have known about Mother’s Day and its complex origins.
1) Mother’s Day officially began as a tribute to one woman.
Anna Reeves Jarvis is most often credited with founding Mother’s Day. After her mother Ann (pictured here) died on May 9, 1905, Jarvis set out to create a day that would honor her and moms as a group. She began the movement in West Virginia, which prides itself on hosting the first official Mother's Day celebration three years later at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, according to CNN. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Jarvis' idea as a national holiday to be celebrated each second Sunday in May.
2) But before that, Mother’s Day started as an anti-war movement
Although Jarvis is widely credited as the holiday’s founder, others had floated the idea earlier — with a different agenda in mind, according to National Geographic. The poet and author Julia Ward Howe (pictured here) had aimed to promote a Mothers’ Peace Day decades before. For her and the antiwar activists who agreed with her position — including Jarvis’ own mother — the idea of Mother’s Day should spread unity across the globe in the wake of so much trauma following the Civil War in America and Franco-Prussian War in Europe.
These early attempts to create a cohesive peace-focused Mother’s Day eventually receded when the other concept took hold.
3) Mother’s Day is a $25 billion commercial holiday.
These days, Mother’s Day is a $25 billion holiday in America, with those who celebrate spending about $200 on mom, according to National Retail Federation data published in 2019.
More people buy flowers for Mother’s Day than any other time of year except during the Christmas and Hanukkah season. Gift givers spend more than $5 billion on jewelry alone, and nearly another $5 billion on that special outing. Then there’s $843 million on cards, and $2.6 billion each on flowers and gift certificates, according to the data.
4) Jarvis died regretting her idea for this very reason.
Commercialism is the exact opposite of what Jarvis (pictured here) would have wanted: In her lifetime, she went after florists’ aggressive marketing, eventually facing arrests for public disturbances, according to CNN. She also railed against first Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for interpreting Mother’s Day inclusively as a way to promote the wellbeing of women and children at large. She didn’t even believe in organizations using the occasion as a way to raise funds for charity; she didn’t trust the purity of their efforts and saw them as profiteering off the holiday.
“To have Mother’s Day, the burdensome, wasteful, expensive gift day that Christmas and other special days have become, is not our pleasure,” she said in 1920, according to Nat Geo.
Jarvis herself never profited from her idea. In 1948, at the age of 84, she died penniless — having used all her money to fight the holiday’s commercialization — in a sanitarium.
5) The white carnation is the official Mother’s Day flower.
The white carnation became the official flower of the holiday shortly after Jarvis’ own mother died. On May 10, 1908 — three years after that loss — Jarvis sent 500 white carnations to Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in her mother’s honor for that first Mother’s Day celebration, according to Time.
Jarvis compared that flower’s shape and life cycle to a mother’s love. “The carnation does not drop its petals, but hugs them to its heart as it dies, and so too, mothers hug their children to their hearts, their mother love never dying,” she said in a 1927 interview, cited in Nat Geo.
Reference:
Dubin, A. (April 13, 2020). The Origin of Mother’s Day: 5 Surprising Facts About the Holiday.
Good Housekeeping. https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/mothers-day/g32129906
/mothers-day-origin/
By Google Arts & Culture
Irises is one of several paintings of irises by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, and one of a series of paintings he made at the Saint Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, in the last year before his death in 1890.
Though the flower's most popular depiction at the Getty Museum is in a painting by Van Gogh, irises—of which there are 1,750 species and countless varieties—can be seen across all of our collecting areas, and even pop up in our own gardens. Here we unearth the history and meaning of these dramatic and expressive plants with artworks from our galleries and the flowers found in nature.
By Google Arts & Culture
If you are a Manga fan, visit the Google Arts and Culture dedicated section. where you will find:
What is Manga, the history, a game to create your own Manga, iconic creators, Museums, and much more!
By Google Arts & Culture
An al-illustrated adventure through Europe
March / April 2022
March / April 2022
Theban tomb TT69 or tomb of Menna is located in Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Egypt, forming part of the Theban necropolis, on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Luxor.
Menna was "scribe of the fields of the Lord of the Two Lands of Upper and Lower Egypt" and "overseer of the field of Amun" during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, probably during the reign of Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III. He was buried in a tomb located at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, opposite Luxor, Egypt.
The Tomb of Menna is one of the most visited and best preserved of the small elite tombs of the 18th Dynasty in the Theban necropolis.
However, it had never been fully recorded or documented before. Constant visits over a long period and deteriorating environmental conditions had taken their toll on the beautifully painted interior.
Delve into the 2-story Tomb of Queen Manresano III, granddaughter of Khufu - the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid of Giza, the last standing wonder of the ancient world - and wife of Khafre. She found eternal rest in a double mastaba on the Giza plateau, in the cemetery located to the east of the Great Pyramid.
Her children were the chatys Duanre and Nebemajet, the princes Cheneterka and Niuserra, the princess Schepsetkau and, according to Reisner, two other daughters who remained unknown.
She outlived her husband, and died during the first year of the reign of a king, most likely Pharaoh Menkaura.
Her inscriptions on her tomb provided both the time of her death and the date of her funeral; her death must have been unexpected, and it seems that she was buried in a tomb that was prepared for her mother; also the sarcophagus seems to belong to Hetepheres II, as testified by an inscription: "I have given it (the sarcophagus) to the daughter and royal wife Meresanj". Both the sarcophagus and her mortal remains rest in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and reveal that she was a 1.54 meter tall woman who died at 50 or 55 years of age.
Click here or in the title to visit it!
January/February 2022
January/February 2022
From January 14th to February 14th
From January 14th to February 14th
MyFrenchFilmFestival.com is an unprecedented concept, designed to give visibility to the young generation of French-speaking filmmakers and to allow Internet users from all over the world to share their love for French cinema. In this twelfth edition, the festival returns with new films, new platforms, and new theatrical releases in various territories. It has shot as well as long films and the themes are:
A cinema of desire,
Bold youth,
French and furious,
Kids corner, night tales,
Troubled identities,
Voyage, voyage...
The Monterey Bay Acuarium
The Monterey Bay Acuarium
Connect again with Nature!
You can explore The Monterey Bay Aquarium site and find very interesting information about different animals like African penguins, sea otters, jellies, even sharks. The Monterey Bay Aquarium offers videos from their live cams and you can watch the life of these beautiful animals.
But the greatest thing is that you can also watch these animals in real-time through the Live Cams as if you were in the aquarium itself!
You can also see pictures and some pre-recorded videos about feeding sessions, highlight exhibitions, and other amazing stories
National News Media Literacy
National News Media Literacy
Jan 24-28 2022
Jan 24-28 2022
The third National News Literacy Week (NNLW), Jan. 24-28, builds awareness of the importance of news literacy and the role of a free press in American democracy. This annual event is presented by NLP in partnership with The E.W. Scripps Company and provides educators, students and the public with easy-to-adopt tools and tips for becoming news-literate. This year’s theme, supported by a video PSA campaign, focuses on stopping the “flood of misinformation” and includes a call to “care before you share.”
November/December 2021
November/December 2021
Our suggestions for 8 to 12 years old:
Our suggestions for 8 to 12 years old:
Age recommended: 8-12 years old
Age recommended: 8-12 years old
Perhaps you have asked yourself, what can we do individually to fight climate change? There are many actions, small and large, domestic or professionally that we can take to reduce the ecological footprint we have leave on our environment. In case these ideas have not crossed your mind, this material is an excellent starting point for a personal challenge for a more sustainable way of life.
Here is a video that is part of the #TendenciaAlCambio project in which different creators have collaborated and contributed knowledge to make our lifestyles more sustainable. #InCollaborationWithGoogle.
Age recommended: 8-12 years old
Age recommended: 8-12 years old
Each day we make many decisions, some of which are hard, while others are easy. We decide what to wear, to eat and do, but we also decide how to act in moral matters which are more thoughtful decisions.
Why is decision-making so tough? Maybe because once you decide, you lose something. You miss out the possible choices. Besides, many choices cannot be unmade. (PebbleGo user: jfkasq and password: school)
& Winter Holidays!
& Winter Holidays!
Holidays can be religious or secular. Religious holidays celebrate gods, saints, or spirits. Secular holidays celebrate special events or people but aren't tied to a religion. Some of the most popular Winter holidays are Christmas, Hannuka, Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year, and New Year´s Day, Learn more about holidays here!
(PebbleGo user: jfkasq and password: school)
And some more suggestions:
And some more suggestions:
The Amparo Museum is a private institution founded in memory of Amparo Rugarcía de Espinosa in 1991 by Manuel Espinosa Yglesias and his daughter Ángeles Espinosa Yglesias Rugarcía through the Amparo Foundation, with the commitment to conserve, investigate, exhibit, and disseminate pre-Hispanic art, viceregal, modern and contemporary of Mexico.
The Amparo Museum is considered one of the most important cultural and exhibition centers in Mexico. It has rooms for the exhibition of its collection of pre-Hispanic art, one of the most important in Mexico in a private institution. In addition to the collection of viceregal and 19th and 20th-century works of art, it presents a permanent program of national and international temporary exhibitions, as well as an intense program of academic, artistic, educational, and recreational activities aimed at all types of audiences.
Launched in 2009, the World Digital Library (WDL) was a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, with the support of UNESCO, and contributions from libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations around the world. The WDL sought to preserve and share some of the world’s most important cultural objects, increasing access to cultural treasures and significant historical documents to enable discovery, scholarship, and use.
After more than 10 years of operation, WDL is now celebrating its success as a world-wide collection of cross-cultural treasures by transitioning into a sustainable home for perpetual access on the Library of Congress’s main website. This transition is expected to be completed by the end of calendar year 2021, providing a view of these resources as a coherent collection, while allowing the WDL material to benefit from ongoing enhancements to the loc.gov website.
The materials collected by the WDL make it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures and significant historical documents including books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, journals, prints and photographs, sound recordings, and films.
Books, manuscripts, maps, and other primary materials on the site are presented in their original languages. More than 100 languages are represented in the WDL collection, including many lesser known and endangered languages
Hi, I am Jonas Deichmann from Germany and there is nothing I like more than going on big adventures and pushing myself to my limits. In 2017, I became the first person to cross Eurasia by human power and set the World Records for the fastest cycling across Europe and Eurasia. In 2018, I had set myself an even bigger challenge and cycled the entire length of the Americas, unsupported in a record breaking 97 days. A year later I completed my dream of cycling the world´s three big continental crossings in record speed by finishing the Cape to Cape adventure – 18.000 km from Cape North to Cape Town in 72 days.
When I am not on the bike, I work as a motivational speaker and have shared my mindset and inspirational stories with audiences around the world.
For every kilometer I run in Mexico in 2021, I would like to collect at least 1 EUR so that I can hand over at least 5,000 EUR to Oxfam when I arrive in Munich. With this fundraiser I want to provide 70 children from rural areas of Africa with a bike -and a little bit of freedom.
The Secretary of Culture of the state of Oaxaca seeks to recognize traditional knowledge, and last month awarded eight adults over 70 years of age, who have dedicated their working lives to preserving the traditional knowledge of their communities and ancestors on issues such as traditional medicine, herbalists, bonesetters, midwives, dancers, priestesses, artisan techniques, music among others.
The "Living Human Treasures" award includes a cash prize and special support to promote workshops and discussions so that the winners can share their knowledge with new generations. This awards aims to preserve the living heritage of elements of the intangible cultural heritage of the state. This award is extended to several states of the Mexican Republic, supporting specially indigenous peoples and the elderly.
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