Winter Holidays around the Globe

Tết(Tết Nguyen Dan) is a celebration of rebirth and is Vietnam’s version of the Lunar New Year.It marks the first day of the New Year according to the moon and will begin January 25, 2020. The most important aspect of Tết is being with family and focusing on blessings, good luck, and honoring ancestors.

Hanukkah (or “Chanukah”) is an eight-day Jewish celebration also known as The Festival of Lights. It is, according to the religious text,  the Talmud , a miraculous event. During the rededication of the temple in…

Orangutans: What Makes Them So Unique?

Orangutans make up not just one but species of ape and are, sadly, very rare as they are an endangered species. “Orangutan” literally means “person of the forest.” They can live up to fifty years in the wild and mostly travel by swinging from tree to tree. “Flanged” males have what is called a “throat sac” that enables them to make very loud noises or “long calls.” Humans and orangutans have 97% DNA in common.

Appearance

Male orangutans may have what are called “flanges” (padded cheeks) and,…

The world’s oceans have trash troubles…and it’s getting worse. Just this spring a dead whale was found washed up on a beach in the Philippines. Scientists were curious and wanted to know why the whale died. What they learned made them very sad, and then angry. What did they find?

100 pounds of plastic in its stomach.

Eighty-eight pounds of that plastic were just plastic shopping bags, like the kind you see in grocery stores. As terrible as this sounds, the whale’s death is not the only death happening in the sea. Right now, scientists…