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Easter facts
  • The first Easter baskets were made to imitate bird’s nests
  • The custom of giving eggs at Easter time has been traced back to Egyptians where the egg was a symbol of life
  • Each year witnesses the making of nearly 90 million chocolate bunnies
  • In medieval times a festival of egg-throwing was held in church, during which the priest would throw a hard-boiled egg to one of the choir boys. It was then tossed from one choir boy to the next and whoever held the egg when the clock struck 12 was the winner and retained the egg
  • Painting eggs is called Pysanka
  • Americans celebrate Easter with a large Easter egg hunt on the White House Lawn
  • 76% of people prefer to eat the ears off the easter bunny chocolate first
  • The myth of the Easter Bunny, as he is currently portrayed today, actually dates back to an old German tale about a woman who used to decorate eggs and leave them for her children to find. This story was based in a time when a famine was plaguing the land; therefore the eggs were considered a valuable and surprising gift. It is reported that as her children found the eggs they saw a bunny rabbit hopping away. Naturally, the children thought the bunny had left the eggs for them
  • According to Bede, the English monastic historian, the English word Easter comes from the Anglo-Saxon name for the month of April, which was known as “Eostremonath” in the AngloSaxon tongue and since Pascha was most often celebrated in Eostremonath, the English Christians began calling it “Easter”. Bede also notes that the month was named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess Esostre. Rituals related to the goddess Eostre focus on new beginnings, symbolized by the Easter egg, and fertility, which is symbolized by the hare (or Easter bunny)

numeral facts
  • The digits 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 are known as Arabic numerals but were originally defined by Indian mathematicians
  • The symbols for 1, 4 and 6 were accepted first. The symbols for 2, 7 and 9 were only accepted 100 years later

Texas facts
  • Texas is the only state in the US that allows its residents to vote from space
  • In Texas, you can be legally married by publicly introducing a person as your  husband or wife 3 times
  • Texas is the only state in the USA to maintain a secession clause in their agreement with the federal government.  Texas can declare its independence and become a sovereign nation simply by enacting the provision.
  • Despite what Texans want to believe, the previous fact is false, since the original treaty negotiations (which would have supported a secession clause) were ditched in favor of a more traditional annexation agreement
  • Texans still proudly insist their state is the largest in the Union, even when confronted by Alaska’s massive size.  They justify their claim using the metric, “useful parts of the place accessible by pickup truck.”

morning breath facts
  • morning breath is caused by millions of bactria in your mouth feeding off dead cells

anagram facts
  • The word anagram has no anagram

Fuel / Petrol facts
  • Americans spend almost $1 billion on petrol every 24 hours
  • In Venezuela, fuel costs $0.02. Thats right, 2 cents
  • The highest fuel price is in the Netherlands. They have a 158% fuel tax making it $2.56 a litre
  • The highest fuel tax in the world is in the UK - a whooping 188%
  • In Iran, when fuel prices went up to 15 cents a litre, a lynch mob went across Tehran torching gas stations

fire alarm facts
  • in 2008, Japan invented a silent wasabi fire alarm that wafts wasabi vapour. In a test, 93% of occupants woke up within 2 minutes.

South Africa facts
  • Half of the world’s gold is produced in South Africa
  • It is a custom for South Africans to name their babies the first thing that comes to mind after birth
  • South Africa boasts more (6) Nobel prize winners than Mexico (3), China (1) and India (2) put together
  • In South Africa,  @ is called “aapstert” wich means a “monkey’s tail”
  • In South Africa, termites are often roasted and eaten by the handful, like pretzels or popcorn

Harry Potter facts
  • Hagrid is said to be twice the height of a human but in the films he is mentioned to be 8 feet 6 inches.
  • Hermione’s cat Crookshanks is no ordinary cat as he is half-kneazle. Kneazles are intelligent cat-like creatures who can sniff out suspicious characters and if a kneazle takes a liking to a witch or wizard, they make for excellent pets.
  • Members of the Order of the Pheonix are the only wizards who know how to communicate using their patronuses. A wizard’s patronus is the individual’s unique spirit guardian and is effective in use against the dark arts.
  • Dementors don’t breed. They grow where there’s decay, like fungus.
  • The tattoos on Sirius Black’s body are borrowed from Russian prison gangs. These are to identify a person as one to be feared and respected.
  • The command that makes the Dark Mark (the mark of the Dark Lord) appear is “Morsmorde” which appropriately means ‘take a bite out of death in French.
  • Harry’s middle name is James, Hermione’s is Jane and Ron’s is unfortunately, Bilius.
  • Garden gnomes are considered to be pests in the wizarding community because they eat the roots of plants and make little piles of earth, very much like moles.
  • The ghost Nearly-Headless Nick was beheaded because a botched dentistry job. He was trying to straighten Lady Grieve’s teeth but instead she sprouted a tusk.
  • Dumbledore has a scar in the shape of the London Underground above his knee.
  • The secret code Arthur Weasley must dial into a telephone keypad to access the Ministry of Magic is 62442. The letters underneath those numbers on a standard phone spell out the word ‘magic’.
  • You can only see a thestral when you can appreciate what death really means. This is why Harry could not see them until he witnessed the death of Cedric Diggory.
  • The original snitch used in early Quidditch matches was actually a fat bird called a snidget. When some wizards thought this to be too cruel, the wizard Bowman Wright invented the Golden Snitch.
  • Hogwarts’ school motto is ‘Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus’ which is Latin for ‘Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon’.
  • Harry Potter, JK Rowling and the actor Daniel Radcliffe all share the same birthday – July 31st

Homosexuality, Gay facts
  • There are over 400 known animals that engage in homosexual practices
  • Male lions will engage in same sex practices until they encounter a mixed pride
  • Many cheetah brotherhoods only allow male members
  • Male Orang Utans can retract their penises to create a cavity for other males to penetrate
  • Rhesus Macaques and the Big Horn Sheep are one of the few animals that has anal sex
  • River dolphines are known to insert their penis into the blowhole of another male’s head

chiropractor facts
  • Chiropractic was founded by a “magnetic healer”
  • At one stage, the founder of chiropractic (Daniel Palmer) considered turning it into a religion
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