06 April - International Firewalk Day

 

International Firewalk Day takes place on the first Saturday of April every year and this year, it falls on 05April . People all throughout the world take part in activities known as “Firewalks,” which, to put it simply, involve ambling barefoot over a bed of hot stones or embers. This ritual is frequently performed as a rite of passage, as a test of a person’s courage and mental fortitude, or in religious contexts, as a proof of one’s faith. Social theorists have argued that the popularity of intense collective events such as firewalking continues to grow because they foster socialization. The social cohesion and team building they bring about make them a favorite worldwide. Whatever the reasons for engaging in firewalking, it’s clear that this discipline has captured people’s emotions and imaginations and is here to stay.

05 April - First European Discovery of Easter Island in 1722

 

Jacob Roggeveen, a Dutch explorer, indeed discovered Easter Island on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1722. He was the first European to encounter the island, which is located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Roggeveen's expedition was primarily aimed at finding Terra Australis, a hypothetical continent thought to exist in the Southern Hemisphere. Instead, he stumbled upon Easter Island, known to its indigenous inhabitants as Rapa Nui.

Since then, people have been in awe of the enormous sculptures on Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, which stand for one of the greatest sculptural traditions in history. From the time the island was colonized about 1100 AD until 1600 AD, about 800 of these sculptures, called moai, were created. The majority are still in Rapa Nui, though a few are housed at museums including the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., and the British Museum.

Moai, which are made of local basalt rock and depict the faces of ancestor chiefs, were constructed to provide protection to the local populace both in this life and the next. Although most of them are between two and ten meters tall, one incomplete moai is twenty meters tall. Usually, they stood facing outward on an ahu, or stone platform.