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- 🛶 Kayaks + 🏳️🌈 Pride flags + 🌯 Lumpia + 🍝 Bolognese = 🎉💃🕺
🛶 Kayaks + 🏳️🌈 Pride flags + 🌯 Lumpia + 🍝 Bolognese = 🎉💃🕺
June is the month of celebrating! (FYI the lumpia emoji doesn't exist. Not even a spring roll.)
Stephanie Noelle Casino Esguerra
June 06, 2025
(What is this? An occasional newsletter that's 80% good news, 20% weird stuff, 100% interesting.)
June is chock-full of celebrations this month, so let’s get to PARTYING! 🎉💃🕺
It’s 🏳️🌈 Pride Month/ Launch of Pride Season 🏳️🌈 in Canada, and I’m all about celebrating people of all kinds, regardless of gender, gender expression, personal preference, identity, sexual orientation, race, religion, etc. I personally love celebrating people for how different and unique we all are; that’s what makes the human experience beautiful 👩❤️💋👩. If you’re a mostly good human, I’m celebrating you. 🎉 As I write this, I noticed that just 10 hours ago the POTUS has decided to remove Pride Month from US national monthly celebrations (😨), and I am so sorry to hear this. To all my American friends, feel free to join in on Canada’s Pride celebrations! 🇨🇦♥️ (also scroll down for a silly Pride-themed meme ️😆)
☝️Another thing: In addition to June being Pride Month, it’s also 🧡 National Indigenous History Month in Canada too! 🧡 It’s a time to recognize the history, heritage, resilience and diversity of Canada’s First Nations, Inuit and Métis people. June 21st marks National Indigenous Peoples Day, so in honour of that I’ll be sharing some cool indigenous factoids for y’all too!
☝️And another thing: June is also Italian Heritage Month, Filipino Heritage Month and Portuguese Heritage Month!! Can we PLEASE celebrate all these amazing cultures this month with some incredible delicacies from each country? 🍝🥧🍜 Because DANG these countries have some food I absolutely LURVE (pastel de nata? Osso buco? Lumpia?! Come ON!) June 27th is Canadian Multiculturalism Day, and I’m so proud to live in a country that has a day dedicated to our beautiful population. 🇨🇦♥️
What’s Good and New
📑 This week, I’m going straight to factoids because, let’s face it, all of them also count as Mostly Good news, and all of them celebrate the many cultural celebrations we have going on this month! So let’s get going on these fun facts. 💭🧠
🏳️🌈 The first Gay Pride Liberation March took place in Manhattan in 1970, on the one year anniversary of the Stonewall riots. If you don’t know what Stonewall is, PLEASE read this to better understand why we fight for cultural equality and the safety of our LGBTQ++ community. Very important!!
🏳️🌈 There are 17 different pride flags! This transgender/intersex flag made it to the emoji roster, 🏳️⚧️ but I’m waiting on all the rest to be added… ⏰
3⃣8⃣ Currently, 38 countries have legalized same-sex marriage! See the chart below for legalization timelines. That’s only 19% of the world’s countries, but hey, at least we keep seeing progress! 📈📈📈
🎯🛶 Our brilliant First Nations indigenous peoples are credited with inventing the kayak, darts, lacrosse, the original petroleum jelly, and cough syrup.
👶 📈 Indigenous peoples are the youngest population in Canada, with about 28% under 25 in 2021. It’s also the fastest-growing population in Canada, with a 9.4% growth between 2016 and 2021. I hope to see these numbers grow in the future; supporting our indigenous youth is critical to seeing a future with a strong indigenous culture.
🍝 Spaghetti bolognese is considered to be Italy’s national dish. I bet y’all thought it was pizza right? Because I did. I’d happily eat either one though because both are hella delicious.
🇮🇹 Italy has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites of ANY country! Think of the leaning tower of Pisa, the Colosseum, the Piazza del Duomo… I’ve been lucky enough to visit a few of these. 10/10 highly recommend.
🐒 The Philippines is home to the world’s smallest primate, the Tarsier. Cute, fuzzy, and weighing only a few grams, I’ve also been lucky enough to hold one in my hands! If you don’t know what Tarsiers look like, they’re like a cross between a lemur and a tiny monkey. Click here to fawn over adorable photos of these cute things.
🇵🇭🏀 The Philippines founded Asia's first basketball league, the Philippines Basketball Association, in 1975, making basketball a beloved sport in the country.
🇵🇹📚The world’s oldest book store is in Lisbon, Portugal. Bertrand Bookstore in Lisbon’s Chiado district was established in 1732! As a hard core bibliophile, I MUST visit this place at least once in my lifetime. Definitely a bucket list item!
🇵🇹 🍾 Portugal is the world’s largest cork exporter, and home to the world’s largest cork forest! Portugal provides over 70% of the world’s cork, and can produce up to 40 million cork wine stoppers per day. If you haven’t watched videos on how cork is harvested, I highly recommend. I’ve spent hours nerding out on these Insider videos, 10/10 also highly recommend.
Meme of the Week
✌️ That’s all for this week folks. I know this newsletter was text and factoid-heavy, but I hope you found it educational and entertaining, as per usual. June is a wonderful month full of commemorative events, and I hope you enjoy the many reasons to celebrate humanity this month ♥️
And I can’t say ciao without some random tips: 🧴wear your sunscreen,⛲️ stay hydrated, and ⛳️ cut your grass if you have any.
Have a beautiful week!
Your human-loving friend,
💫 Steph
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