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Sunday 30 March 2014

Children

CHILDREN IN HISTORY

It was the custom for ancient Egyptian children to have their hair shaved off, leaving just a single lock on the side of the head. This stopped kids getting lice and nits.

Ancient Greek teacher and philosopher wrote over 2,500 years ago: "Children nowadays are self-indulgent; they gobble up sweets and prefer gossip to exercise. They have terrible manners, they argue with their parents, they are contemptuous of authority and have little respect for their teachers."

Children of Anglo-Saxons had to be tough to survive. To test their courage they were placed on a sloping roof or the bough of a tree. Laughter meant life; crying brought instant death.

The year after his father Pope Alexander VI had been elected to the papacy, the 18-month-old Cesare Borgia was made a cardinal.

The saint and reformer Teresa of Ávila (1515-82) ran away from home at the age of 7 with her brother Rodrigo to convert the infidel Muslims and achieve early martyrdom.

The average woman in 17th-century America gave birth to 13 children.

Moulay Ismail ibn Sharif (1634– March 22, 1727), second ruler of the Moroccan Alaouite dynasty,
 is alleged to have fathered a total of 867 children, including 525 sons and 342 daughters. It is estimated that he had 2,000 concubines. This is widely considered to be the record number of offspring that can be verified.

Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif

Kate Greenaway's charming illustrations for children's books in the 19th century were responsible for a popular dress worn by little girls. The hero of Little Lord Fauntleroy, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, wore curls and velvet suits, which became the fashion for small boys.

‘Last shake o’ the bag’ was Victorian slang for ‘youngest child’.

Charles Spurgeon had been out preaching, and someone asked him how it went. He said that two and a half people had become Christians. They said, ‘Oh, that’s two adults and a child?’ He said, “No, two children and an adult. A child has the whole of its life to give to God. That is the beauty of getting saved when you are a kid. I’m glad I was.”

Until 1913, children in America could legally be sent by parcel post.

Child labor in the United States was largely ended by a photographer named Lewis Wickes Hine. n 1908 Hine became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), and over the next decade, Hine documented child labor, with focus on the use of child labor in the Carolina Piedmont. He took child laborers photos at eye level to humanize and personalize each child. Hine captured nearly identical pictures across the country to show lawmakers this was a systemic problem.

Turkey became the first country to celebrate Children's Day as a national holiday in 1927.

Jackie Coogan (October 26, 1914 – March 1, 1984) was one of the first globally recognized child movie stars, after playing Charlie Chaplin’s irascible companion in The Kid at the age of five. In 1938, he sued his mother and stepfather for squandering his $4 million fortune. It led to the Coogan Law, which put all child earnings into court-administered trust funds.

Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan in The Kid

When six-year-old Etan Patz disappeared from the street just two blocks away from his New York City home on May 25, 1979, it prompted an international search for the child, and caused  U.S. President Ronald Reagan to designate May 25th as National Missing Children's Day in 1983.

In 2004 the average child engaged in team games or other activities likely to work up a sweat 1.5 times a week. Children in the 1970s did so 3.2 times a week.

The number of children forced into underage labor is estimated to be around 150 million. If they were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world.

CHILDREN'S DAY

Children's Day is a commemorative date celebrated annually in honor of children, whose date of observance varies by country. World Children's Day is celebrated on November 20 to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children's welfare. November 20th is an important date as it is the date in 1959 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. 

India celebrates Children's Day on November 14th, exactly 9 months after Valentines Day.

Children performing for Independence Day, Alwar district, Rajasthan, India

Children's Day is a Japanese national holiday which takes place annually on May 5 and is the final celebration in Golden Week. Until 1948, Children's Day in Japan was known as Boys' Day while Girls' Day was celebrated on March 3. It was renamed when the government decreed the holiday should celebrate the happiness of all children and express gratitude toward mothers.

Since 1950, Children's Day has been celebrated on June 1 in most Communist and post-Communist countries. In Poland it coincides with the beginning of meteorological summer and it is usually treated as a special day, free from lessons, as it takes place near the end of the school year. In Romania children often receive presents from parents and other family members.

FUN CHILDREN FACTS

In the late 1940s, the parents of Byrds guitarist Roger McGuinn wrote a bestselling book, which was a satire of Baby And Child Care, Dr Spock's famed child-rearing manual. McGuinn recalled to Mojo: "It was called Parents Can't Win and it was based on their experiences trying to raise me using child psychology and how it backfired all the time. It was considered very topical and sold well."

Twelfth Night is the only Shakespeare play that does not contain the words “child” or “children”. 

The average child will have grown to half his or her final adult height by the age of two.

Children grow faster in the springtime.

The average four year old child asks four hundred questions a day.

Half the world’s population is under the age of 20.

Twenty-six per cent of the world’s population are under 15.

On current trends, by 2050, Africa will be home to two in five of the world’s children.

One in four of all Chinese children (61 million) have parents who work in the cities and return home only infrequently. Around 70 per cent of these children don’t see their parents even once a year.

'Children’ is one of only three words in modern English which are plurals formed by adding the old suffix -en. The others are 'brethren' and 'oxen.'

Of the 16 children (10 boys and 6 girls) born to Eliza and Michel LeBlanc from Canada, all were baptised with a Christian name beginning with the letter E. They were Edith (b. 22 Dec 1941), Edouard (b. 2 Feb 1943), Edgar (b. 12 May 1944), Everard  (b. 22 May 1945), Edna  (b. 19 Jan 1947), Emery (b. 5 Aug 1948), Eymard (b. 25 Oct 1949), Eva  (b. 14 July 1951) Edouina (b. 17 Feb 1953), Emeline (22 June 1954), Emile (b. 10 Aug 1955), Eldon (b. 19 July 1957), Ezard (b. 21 Oct 1958), Elie (b. 16 May 1960), Eliane (b. 18 July 1962) and Etienne (b. 19 June 1965).

It is illegal for children in Tokyo to make noise when playing — the legal decibel level city-wide is the same as a library's.

Sources Would You Believe This Too, Daily Express, Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc.

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