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Safety Tips for Candle Fire Safety Week

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Since Candle Fire Safety Week is wrapping up (runs from November 14-20), I thought I’d include a few safety reminders.  Feel free to add your own.

1.  Never leave a burning candle unattended. This means if you feel sleepy, remember to blow it out before you nod off. Also, if you’re in a hurry to leave, make sure you check to make sure you’ve left no candles lit.

2.  Keep candles away from pets and children. Both of them tend to knock things over or will try to touch hot dangerous things out of curiosity.

Once, my cat walked across our wall unit and fanned her tail right across my lit candle! A lantern would have been a better bet because it’s encased. Battery operated candles are even safer.

3.  Keep candles away from things that could cause a fire. Besides the obvious things like papers and curtains, be aware of nearby baskets, plastics or furniture. Sometimes, the flame flickers higher than you imagined it could.

4.  If the flame on your candle gets too high, blow it out! This is a sign that your wick needs trimmed to a ¼ inch and/or there’s too much of a draft in the room.

Check your fire alarms regularly fellow candle lovers, and stay safe!

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Fun Facts About Flags

Whether you celebrate Flag Day (June 14 in the United States, it honors the day in 1777 that the American flag was officially adopted) or just want to do a flag unit study, there are lots of interesting flags around the world that you can talk about.

For example, did you know there’s one flag that isn’t a rectangle? The flag of Nepal is the only national flag that isn’t quadrilateral (Switzerland and Vatican City both have flags that are square). Nepal’s flag is shaped like two stacked triangles, which represent the Himalayan Mountains, as well as the two main national religions, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Several flags feature animals, mostly lions, bears and eagles. Two flag feature dragons. The flag of Bhutan has a representation of a Druk, a mythical thunder dragon, while the flag of Wales has a Welsh dragon.

Paraguay is the only country recognized by the United Nations that has a flag that is different on the front and back. The flag has red, white and blue horizontal stripes, with the nation’s coat of arms on the front and the seal of the treasury on the back. (Oregon is the only US state with a flag that is different on the front and back. The front shows a seal with an eagle, 33 stars for its number in the union, and the words “state of Oregon” and the date it was admitted, 1859. The back has a picture of a beaver.)

The flag of Denmark, known as the Dannebrog, is the oldest continuously used flag in the world. Legend has it the flag fell from the sky during a battle in 1219 in present-day Estonia, helping the Danish to an unexpected victory. Because of that, it was adopted as the national flag and has been in use for more than 800 years. Denmark’s flag is celebrated on June 15 each year, called Valdemar’s Day after the king leading the crusade where the flag allegedly appeared.

Purple is a rare color on national flags because it was historically expensive to produce. The only flags that use it (and it’s sometimes hard to see) are Dominica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico and Spain. The Wiphala flag of Bolivia also contains purple.

There’s a fun page on Wikipedia that shows different flags arranged by design, so you can see all the tricolor flags, all the flags with stars, triangles, people and more. You can also look at flags by color.

If this has piqued your interest, maybe you’ll want to learn more about vexillology, the study of the history, design and symbolism of flags.