International Coffee Day takes place on October 1 every year. Making the daily journey from tropical Africa to the breakfast mugs of households all over the world, coffee beans have been scattered all over the world for more than 600 years, and their preparation for consuming is a great example of metamorphosis. Humanity has been preparing coffee for many presentations: drinks, candies, medicine, and some ancient civilizations even used it as currency! No matter how you take it, coffee can energize you, warm you up, refresh you, keep you awake, and even catch you up with your loved ones.
HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL COFFEE DAY
According to historical records, Coffee is originally from Ethiopia, and its discovery in Africa comes with an interesting story. Around the 700s AD, a herd of goats started acting strangely, almost as if they were dancing. Their owner, Kaldi, discovered that they were eating a sort of red bean and concluded that was the cause of their behavior. Kaldi decided to share his findings with a monk who required something that could help him to stay awake all night as he prayed; but another story claims that the monk refused and threw the beans into the fire and the pleasing aroma that came from it was just wonderful.
Suddenly, coffee made its way through the north into Yemen in the 15 Century where the beans arrived by the name “Mocha.” Shortly after, they became well known in Egypt, Persia, and Turkey as “wine of Araby” and coffee houses started to open by the name of “Schools of the Wise.”
Next, Arabia became the gatekeeper for coffee, and these beans began a large-scale coffee farming in Southern India. In 1560 coffee made its way through Europe and quickly became popular, until Pope Clement VIII decided that the drink must be satanic. Under inspection, he gave into the glory of the beverage by baptism and declared it a Christian drink. As the 1600s rolled on and coffee houses sprung up all over Europe, the beans followed the wave of colonization and found themselves in America.
Finally, after a long time among humanity in 2014, The “International Coffee Organization” declared October 1, as International Coffee Day, an occasion to celebrate coffee as a beverage and raise awareness for the plight of the coffee growers.
World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development is annually held on May 21 to help people learn about the importance of cultural diversity and harmony.
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