nPosted on May 3, 2019
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nLarge neighborhood crosses put up and decorated.
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nCrosses covered with flowers.
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nA cross-decorating contest!
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nThe May Cross holiday is a Catholic festival celebrated in many parts of Spain and “Latin America” or “Hispanic America.”
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nIn some coastal towns in Venezuela, not only are crosses erected and decorated, but there are huge festivals and dancing to the sound of drums on the beach all night.
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nVenezuela is located on the northern part of South America, with its coasts on the Caribbean Sea.
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nThis nation is unfortunately known for a long list of terrible situations for its people – poverty, disease, shortages, unemployment, crime, and hyperinflation. (Hyperinflation is when prices raise really really quickly, devaluing the money used in that nation.)
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nIn 2018 Venezuela’s inflation rate was more than a million percent! That means that something that used to cost a dollar, such as a small loaf of bread, now costs more than a million dollars!)
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| Cost of a single banana, above. Cost of a chicken, below. |
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n Yikes!
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nAnd THAT means that the money is pretty much worthless. Again.
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nYou see, Venezuela’s money used to be based on the bolivar. But there was so much inflation that, in early 2008, bolivares were replaced by bolivares fuertes, at a rate of 1 bolivar fuerte to 1,000 bolivares.
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nIn August of 2018 (just last year), bolivares fuertes were replaced by bolivares soberanos, at a rate of 1 bolivar soberano to 100,000 bolivares fuertes.
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| Can you imagine shopping and finding almost nothing on the shelves to buy? Gruesome shortages! |
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nHyperinflation sounds so ridiculous one might think it’s funny, but the cost of the destabilized money is people living in misery, people hungry, sometimes people starving. There are many Venezuelans who have left their homeland and are trying to find a new life and more opportunity elsewhere.
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nAlso on this date:
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World Press Freedom Day
World Press Freedom Day
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National Two Different Colored Shoes Days
National Two Different Colored Shoes Days
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nPrime Minister of Israel Golda Meir’s birthday
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nAnniversary of the first geocaching
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nKempo Kinenbi in Japan
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nConstitution Day in Poland
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nnBirthday of the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” Septima Poinsette Clark
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nPlan ahead:
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Check out my Pinterest boards for:
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nMay holidays
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nMay birthdays
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nHistorical anniversaries in May
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nAnd here are my Pinterest boards for:
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nJune holidays
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nJune birthdays
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nHistorical anniversaries in June
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