Today is another Friday installment of a new series for the Global Voice Blog. At the end of each week we will be posting a Cultural Quick Tip to promote broader thinking on the company and individual levels. These tips, along with their accompanying action steps, are meant to encourage everyone to work more effectively in a diverse workplace.

Cultural Quick Tip #12: 

Fasting and Religious Observance

Many faiths adhere to strict fasting guidelines. For example, during Ramandan – the ninth month of the Islamic calendar – Muslims abstain from food and water during the daylight hours and alcohol and tobacco completely.

Similarly, the Baha’i undertake a 19 day fast each March in preparation for their New Year holiday. During this time, followers refrain from food and drink between sunrise and sunset.

During Lent, a 40 day period leading up to Easter, many Christians may choose to give something up such as tobacco, chocolate, or alcohol. During times of religious observance, be sensitive to any fasting colleagues, and try not to hold meetings when people want to return home and break their fast.

Action Step:

Be aware of dates when people may be fasting when scheduling work flow and company events.

If you are interested in more quick tips, please visit our website for more information on the book 101 Cultural Quick Tips for the Workplace at: http://www.culturecoach.biz/CCI%20Store/ccistore.html

Trends Map of Twitter Tags from the Northeast US and Southern Canada

As we have been taking a small break this week to write some more original content for the blog, I thought it would be fun to post a link one of the Culture Coach Team Members found that has been a source of great fun and insight into this vast world.

http://trendsmap.com/

Trends Map is a website that reads through tweets in 10 languages (and growing by the months), and organizes the most popular hash tags and key terms. It takes this data and conveniently maps it on a picture of the globe with the corresponding trending tags. If you see a tag you like, you can click on it and see the tweets in real time. You can even zoom in and see more specific tags for smaller cities and regions.

I have found this website to not only be extremely interesting, but also really useful in keeping up with global events.

The Significance of Lag B’omer

For Jews across the word, but particularly for those in Israel, May 10 is the date in 2012 to celebrate the minor Jewish holiday of Lag B’omer and the mystery surrounding its many significances. On the Hebrew calendar it is always the 33^rd day of the Count of Omer, which starts on Passover and continues until Shavuot, the next major Jewish Holiday exactly 7 weeks apart.

Multiple families spend the night next to a bonfire in Israel for Lag B'omer (Photo by Katherine Martinelli via Flickr)

The Meaning and History of Lag B’omer

The meaning behind the holiday is a source of confusion for Jews as there area number of stories linked to the date. For some, it is inherently tied to a 1st century sage known as Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai who is given credit for writing the Zohar, the principle work that is found in the Kabbalah, the Jewish book of mysticism. He is believed to be the first teacher of the dimension and the date of his passing also happens to fall on this date.

For others, the Talmud tells of a story that Lag B’omer is a day of mourning for a plague that befell upon many of the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva, which occurred during the Counting of the Omer and eventually ceased on this date. Story has it that many of the students died from the plague sent by God because “they did not show proper respect to one another” [Yevamot:62:2].

Still, there is a third connection to the holiday in conjunction with the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the second century. Romans had decreed that Jews could not celebrate a new month with a bonfire. When the sovereign state of Israel was temporarily restored for a two year period afterwards, the date of Lag B’omer would come to commemorate the date of this important freedom.

Kids gather scraps of wood in a Jerusalem neighborhood for the bonfire on Lag B'omer (Photo by Craig Heimburger)

Customs & Traditions of Lag B’omer

For weeks and months before Lag B’Omer, children will gather scraps of wood around their homes for the traditional bonfire. While conservative Jews often criticize the meaning of the bonfire, it nonetheless represents the light that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai brought into the world upon teaching the Zohar to his students. For many, it is the appropriate time to take a pilgrimage to his final resting place in the village of Meron in Northern Israel where a 24 hour period of festivities in held in his honor. Lag B’omer is also a popular time for Israeli’s to travel to Djerba, an island off the coast of Tunisia, where the oldest synagogue still stands.

Children celebrate this day by playing with bows and arrows as symbols of the victory during the Kokhba Revolt. Others say that this children’s activity commemorates the time of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and the appearance of not a single rainbow. For Jews, the symbol of a rainbow signified that God would not bestow destruction on earth ever since it was seen after the Great flood during the time of Noah. Since the Rabbi was such a force of light in the world at the time, it is believed that God decided that no rainbows were necessary to reassure the people as long as he was present on the earth. The bows represent the rainbow shape itself, but have since been replaced with actual bows and arrows when before it was probable that it was just an arched piece of wood.

Some may also eat Carobs during this day to remember the story of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and his son surviving as outlaws from the Romans while living in a cave in Northern Israel. The carob tree was one of their sources of nourishment where it grew in front of the cave.

Weddings, haircuts, and music are permitted for the most devout Jews from Lag B’omer and onwards as it marks the end of the mourning period.

Victory Day, Ex Soviet Republics May 9

Victory Day Poster in a Shop window in Russia

From 1939 to 1945, war between Nazi Germany and the allied nations raged across several fronts around the globe. Millions of men and women died, not only on the front lines, but also from starvation and inclement living conditions in their own homes. For Russia, this day is a haunting reminder of the 25+ million citizens who died directly and indirectly from the war that raged all around them, better known to them as “The Great War”. In Central and Western European countries, the air around Victory Day, which is most cases is not a public holiday, is not solemn in nature, but rather a day to give thanks for the freedoms that they enjoy because of the sacrifices given by their soldiers.

The First Moments of Victory Day 1945

News of the final surrender began circulating in the spring of 1945 with rumors emerging from the formative conference of the United Nations in San Francisco on April 28. By the evening of May 7, the world got what they desperately hoped for: the unconditional surrender by the Nazi German forces. German radio had broadcasted that General Gustav Jodi signed the official surrender at 2.41 a.m. local time in a small schoolhouse in Rheims, France, but allied forces chose to withhold the official announcement in their respective countries for 24 hours until the signing became official the next day. Once word finally broke of the surrender, it immediately prompted jubilation across the globe with church bells being rung in many communities. Winston Churchill, Britain’s wartime Prime Minister, declared a public holiday for the following day, leading to over a million people in London alone to pour onto the streets to celebrate.

Victory Day Celebrations in London when over a million people packed Picadilly Circus to celebrate the end of the war

For the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany’s surrender on the eastern front came in a separate signing late into the night at 11 p.m. in Berlin. This secondary signing allowed Soviet government officials to be present but meant that the time zone difference made it past midnight in Moscow. Because of this, the countries of the former Soviet Union celebrate Victory Day on May 9.

Celebrations

For countries in western & central Europe, former Czechoslovakia, and the Baltic countries, the holiday is observed on May 8, with Slovakia, Czech Republic, and France observing it as a non working public holiday. The majority of the former soviet countries still continue to celebrate the day, May 9, as a public holiday, and it is often the case where the largest celebrations are had. Russia, the largest of the former Soviet Block nations, holds a large military parade in its iconic Red Square in Moscow as hundreds of thousands of onlookers watch thousands of soldiers and hundreds of military vehicles roll down the streets in an elaborate display of military might.

See a video of lasts years parade:

http://youtu.be/vhkePLsm_pU

While Victory Day in Russia is especially popular, it is a rather solemn occasion in other former Soviet countries, including Kazakhstan and Georgia, where it is more common to pay respects to the soldiers by laying wreaths/visiting the graves of those who have past, and less about current military potency of a nation.

To see exactly what has been done in the years past, here is a blog post about some of the promotions Kazakhstan does for its World War II veterans:

http://kazakhnomad.wordpress.com/tag/victory-day/

Flying Japanese Flag at Full Staff (Photo by Luis Fernandes via Wikimedia under Creative Commons)

Golden Week (Japanese: Ogata Renkyu and Ogon Shukan) is a period of several public holidays clumped together in a short time period during late April and Early May. It is a popular time for many Japanese to take time to travel, and even entire factories or office buildings will shut down for an extended amount of time, similar to European offices during the month of August, to give their employees time off.

After the reconstruction efforts of World War II, Japan passed many new laws including the Holiday Act in 1948 which saw many public holidays bunched together in a short window of time. The term “Golden Week” came into popular use at the beginning of 1950’s when an executive from a film company noticed the large spike in ticket sales during the period, leading him to coin the term in reference to “Golden Time” which was the period of the highest radio listenership in Japan.

April 29 – Showa Day, Birthday of Emperor Hirohito 

Emperor Hirohito was born on this day in 1901 and the date has been a fixed holiday since 1948 when the original Holiday Act was passed. After Emperor Hirohito’s death in 1989, the holiday continued under the name ‘Greenery Day’ until 2007 when the name of the day was applied to May 4. It is still recognized today as the beginning of Golden Week under ‘Showa Day’, referring to the era of time under which he reigned.

May 3 – Constitution Day 

Celebrates the passing of Japan’s new Constitution after World War II.

On Greenery Day, May 4, it is popular to escape into the countryside or a park and enjoy the blossoming nature. (Click her for Photo Credits)

May 4 – Greenery Day 

The Holiday Act stated that any day that fell in between two holidays would also become a holiday itself.  For example, until May 4^th was officially named Greenery Day in 2007, the public holiday on May 4th had no name but was recognized as a day of rest for the nation. It has come to be known as a day for the appreciation of nature and is meant to inspire environmental stewardship.

May 5 – Children’s Day

Kashiwa Mochi is a traditional Japanese rice cake wrapped in an oak leaf and eaten by children during Children's Day on May 5. (Photo by tatsuhiko_a via Flickr, Creative Commons)

This holiday was translated to the Gregorian calendar when Japan switched to its use in 1873 from the traditional lunar based calendar. It was normally celebrated on the 5^th day of the 5^th moon, but is now placed on the fifth day of the fifth month. Originally celebrated for just boys, the holiday Act declared the day a celebration for all children. It is traditional for parents with children to fly flags in the form of a carp (a type of fish) so that it appears that they are swimming in the wind. In the past, the day was important for the future health and success of the male children in the family.

Golden Week is a time of relaxation, and for many, a chance to get away from the cities and escape to the Japanese countryside for a few days during the beautiful springtime. Others will fly off to popular foreign tourist destinations including Hawaii, West Coast USA, Guam, and Korea.

Earlier this month, a study done by numerous British researchers at Oxford University reached the conclusion that propranolol, a drug normally used to treat common symptoms such as high blood pressure and anxiety, could also aid in combating unconscious bias. The 36 white male volunteers in the study were given either the propranolol or a placebo and asked to place positive or negative meaning words underneath photos of people of color. For those that took the anti-anxiety drug, the time it took for them to associate black faces to positive words was far quicker than those who were given the placebo, eventually leading researchers to establish that these volunteers were less unconsciously biased than their counterparts while on propranolol.

Propranolol

A closer look at how propranolol actually works shows that the drug alters nerve circuits in the brain that are associated with panic, possibly associating racism with feelings of fear, and specifically fear of the unfamiliar. Even those among us who profess not to be racist may still hold a bias on a particular social group, suggesting that racism may be something that has been socially or even biologically ingrained in our subconscious. Various other studies have also indicated that racism tends to be lessened in individuals who have higher rates of interaction with people from different social groups.

Personally, I believe we all possess some form of unconscious bias whether we choose to recognize it or not. As humans, we fear the unknown.  This fear is visibly manifested in such human constructs as the segregated Chinatowns, suburbs and inner cities we see today.  These semi-closed communities can be viewed as efforts to create spaces where people can be surrounded by community members like themselves and help those people to feel comfortable with what they can outwardly associate with. Interestingly enough, Project Implicit, a collaborative effort between several universities and founded in 1998, has provided sample tests to determine your social cognition. I am particularly interested in the Race IAT (click on the link, then on ‘demonstration’), which appears to be quite similar to the test described as being given to the participants in the above study. While propranolol may be effective in reducing our fear levels associated with different social groups, we should really be taking a look at the root cause of what makes us fearful rather than taking a drug to inhibit those feeling that essentially just ‘cover up’ the problem and does not address the underlying issue.

Say no to racism. Photo by Vectorportal at flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/vectorportal/5026592624

Instead of numbing the anxiety response with drugs, we should address the root problem by taking time to think and ask ourselves questions like these:

1) What is the stimulus that is causing us/me to react this way?

2) Is my fear in response to this stimulus warranted or based on unreasoned and habitual thinking (such as bias, prejudice, or racism)?

Once you have answered these questions and recognize social behavioral patterns within yourself, you can then move forward enact a strategy that will help you change these reactions.  Some ways to help you change social patterns or ideas about people from other races include reaching out to meet people from races other than your own, reading articles and paying attention to the subconscious thoughts which you have when interacting with others. Reaching out across racial divides does not have to be something large, it could be something as small as smiling at someone or taking a seat next to a person on the subway that you would normally avoid.  While these are small first steps, they may catalyze further action on your part to challenge yourself and your assumptions.

In conclusion, I believe that if we can rationalize our fear, then we can also make a choice to break down that fear by consciously changing our negative reactions to certain groups of people. As humans one of our greatest gifts is the ability to be self aware and push the boundaries of that awareness so to make our lives and our world a bigger better place. If everyone made small personal efforts like this to better understand their own racism, society as a whole would be progressing towards healing the disease of racism, instead of just anesthetizing the symptoms.

What Being Global Really Means
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/what_being_global_really_means.html

A New Era for Global Leadership Development
http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2012/02/a-new-era-for-global-leadershi.html

ANZAC Cove Memorial in Gallipoli, Turkey

Today is ANZAC day in Australia and New Zealand, a day that marks the landing of these two nation’s soldiers on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey and the first major combat seen by both troops during World War I. ANZAC, meaning Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, is a rare example of a public remembrance day holiday celebrated by two sovereign nations. In general, it is a somber day filled with tributes to fallen soldiers from all wars, similar to Veterans’ Day in the United States, but also a time for patriotism and for appreciating the freedoms secured through history.

The decision to attack the German aligned Ottoman Empire was originally designed to capture the Dardanelles, the gateway into the Black Sea and one of the only non land routes that would allow allied troops into the area. Early on, the British generals underestimated the strength of the Turks and hastily mounted a naval attack alongside their French counterparts. The Turks quickly sank several ships and it was decided that the only way to win Istanbul and the Dardanelles was to make a mass landing near Gallipoli. The ANZACs were called upon to make the landing alongside the rest of the allied forces as they were stationed in nearby Egypt at the time. Sailing from Egypt to Turkey and arriving in the predawn hours of April 25, the

Modern Day Image of the City of Gallipoli, Turkey

ANZAC troops were ordered into small boats and went ashore, knowing that they would need to go as far inland as possible to make room for more troops coming ashore later on. However, what they did not know was that the Turkish forces were well prepared and waiting for their arrival. Under heavy fire, the ANZACS rushed ashore. To their dismay, they had landed in the wrong place and were caught off guard. At the end of the day some 2,000 ANZAC soldiers lay dead. Within the first week, some 6,000 would be among the count of the over 10,000 ANZACs that would perish in the entire 8 month campaign. In the end, it was eventually decided that the battle of Gallipoli, which was fought over the area the size of two football fields, was too costly to continue and the ANZAC troops were soon evacuated.

CWGC Commonwealth Cemetery in Gallipoli, Turkey

One year after the battle in 1916, ANZAC day got its official name and many ceremonies and tributes were given in both countries to commemorate the service of the fallen. By 1920, New Zealand had declared the day a public holiday, with Australia following by the end of the decade depending on the state or territory. Since World War II, ANZAC day has come to symbolize the remembrance of not just only those who died during Gallipoli and World War I, but all of the military men and women who have served throughout the years.

On ANZAC day, commemoration services held at dawn are popular along with parades and other processions through the streets. Two-up, a gambling game involving two or three coins and popular with soldiers in WWI and beyond, is played in pubs and other venues across the two countries. Others will tune in to watch Australian Rules Football or Rugby matches.

2012: Sunset April 20, 2012 – Sunset May 2, 2012

Important Days: April 21 (First), April 29 (Ninth), May 2 (Twelfth)

Picture of the Baha'i Gardens in Haifa, Israel

For those of the Baha’i Faith, the 12 day Festival of Ridvan (pronounced REZ-vahn) is among the holiest of occasions on the Baha’i calendar. Beginning 32 days after the Baha’i New Year (known as Nowrooz), Ridvan starts around April 20^th and celebrates the proclamation by Baha’u'llah, the Founder of the Baha’i Faith, of His Prophethood to his companions and family prior to his banishment to Istanbul from Baghdad. The first, ninth, and twelfth days are considered especially holy, in which no work should be performed. Instead, the local Baha’i community will gather for prayer, music, reading of Baha’i writings, and to elect members for positions in the assembly.

What is Baha’i?

Baha’i is considered by its followers to be the fourth Abrahamic religion behind Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, yet far less is known about it to the general public, particularly in the West, than the other three. With more than 5 million followers, Baha’i Faith can be found in almost every country around the world and is presently among the fastest growing religions.

Baha’I Faith was founded by a Persian nobleman named Bahá’u’lláh in the middle of the 18^th century in Tehran, Iran. He left his life of royal comforts in order to preach humanity and unity to the people, proclaiming he was an independent messenger from God, but whose life and messages are similar to prophets who came before him such as Jesus, Muhammad, and Buddha. Bahá’u’lláh believed that there was only one God, and a single human race, and that it was time for humanity to come together as one under a peaceful society.

The Story of Ridvan

The Garden of Ridvan in Baghdad, Iraq, site where Bahá'u'lláh went for 12 Days to prepare for His exile to Istanbul, Turkey

The story behind the 12 day Festival of Ridvan begins with the imprisonment of Bahá’u’lláh. After the Ba’b, the leader of  Babism (religious movement stemming from Shi’a Islam followed by Bahá’u’lláh  and many others) was executed by the Persian Shah in the 19^th century, many Babis were imprisoned, including Bahá’u’lláh. While in prison, Bahá’u’lláh had a vision that called him to lead his followers, but kept this to himself until the time was right. Upon being released from prison, Bahá’u’lláh, his family, and several followers were given a month’s time to leave Tehran for Baghdad where they were being exiled by the Shah in an attempt to separate Bahá’u’lláh from the majority of his followers. However, Bahá’u’lláh and his followers were well received in Baghdad and the religion continued to grow, troubling the Shah back in Tehran, who would then conspire with the rulers of the Ottoman Empire to have Bahá’u’lláh exiled once more to Istanbul. Once word had gotten out about the impending exile, Bahá’u’lláh’s followers came to see him for the last time. This made it very difficult for him to prepare for the long journey, so he decided to take a few companions, his two oldest sons, and camp in a beautiful garden along the Tigris river for 12 days, thus marking the first 12 days of Ridvan. While there, Bahá’u’lláh announced publically to all present that he was the Promised One of all major religions, something he had known since His visions while imprisoned in Tehran but had not revealed to anyone, officially breaking from Babism and creating a new religion called Baha’I. The first, ninth, and twelfth days are important to the festival as they mark the days when he first arrived to the garden (first day), when his family came to visit him once the river finally receded and allowed for safe passage (ninth day), and the final day on which he left the garden and started his journey to Istanbul in present day Turkey (twelfth day).