There has been quite a talk lately here on island about the international woman day, which falls on the 8th of March. It all started with Alyssa’s idea of hosting a woman night’s potluck at our house that night. After the invitations were sent to the women, guys started to talk about it. There is not a men’s day on island, even if Liz correctly said that for that, there is already the super bowl (the super bowl is something very American in which there is a rugby –I think- game, and ALL the men sit in front of the TV watching it, eating using special TV trays and drinking for hours). So they organized poker night, and very kindly they sort of waited for us to be over with our meeting. It was a nice though i guess, but women at the party really wondered why. 
The night went well, but I cannot repeat what was said and done in our house (with the exception of Amity’s cherry, because it was just too funny!). Mainly, if you are a woman, you know, if you are men, you do not want to know! The message for you though, if you are a men, is "you are probably not coming back home with flowers enough time". I believe you do not want to argue against this... I tried but the women totally have a good point here!
Amity’s cherry on top of the cake came when she casually drove her truck off a little wall in the parking lot. The truck’s bed was sitting on the edge of the wall meanwhile the back tires were suspended in the air. NO PANIC, woman at work. The situation looked very funny, “this is what woman due when guys are not around, you know… drive cars off cliffs…”, but fixing the problem has never been so easy. In fact, my cheap bookshelves are made from bricks and wood tables… and they offered us all was needed to fix the problem. We carried the brick just like the 7 dwarf of Snow-white and set them behind the suspended tire and made a ramp to get more traction. Once we could get the bed of the truck off the edge of the wall, we were able to built another ramp to get back up on the road. EASY!
In fact, my cheap bookshelves are made from bricks and wood tables… and they offered us all was needed to fix the problem. We carried the brick just like the 7 dwarf of Snow-white and set them behind the suspended tire and made a ramp to get more traction.(the pics: Amity at the end of the line of brick, me with the new ramp, and then driving off).
So, in American Samoa apparently we celebrated by eating good food, chatting, having fun with trucks and bricks, and catching up with our man at home!Somebody asked me how we celebrate woman’s night in Italy. ) I have sweet memories of skipping school and going to Spanish steps in Rome and getting Mimosa flowers (see picture underneath) from tons of guys… One of my very favorite days of the year! I found this in Internet, and I thought it was very very very interesting! I hope you enjoy it too!
Festa della Donna (International Women's Day) -- March 8: In Ancient Roman times, the year ended with February, and, in fact the Latin name of that month, Ferbruarius Mensis, meant something like "month of cleansing or finishing up" in preparation for the new year. February was followed by several intercalary days to get the calendar back on track, and then the new year began on March 1, which was also the first day of spring (primo vere). March 8 was one of the first of the springtime festae, a day sacred to Ariadne, whom Thesius had abandoned on the Island of Naxos after promising to marry her if she helped him slay her father's pet Minotaur. Seduced and abandoned, she was a prototype for ancient Mediterranean womanhood. She later married Bacchus, but that was a whole new adventure.
Before the Second World War, Women's Day had been celebrated on different days in early March in several Italian cities. In 1945, the Union of Italian Women decided to hold all celebrations and commemorations on March 8. However appropriate it would have been, they didn't have Ariadne in mind. In fact they were memorializing two events outside of Italy: a March 8, 1857, strike by women garment workers in New York, which led to the formation two years later of the first women's union in the United States, and a strike by Russian women calling for "bread and peace" on March 8, 1917 (February 23 on the old Russian calendar but March 8 in the rest of the world.)
Authorities don't agree how or why, but the custom started in Italy -- some sources say in Rome in 1946 -- of men giving their wives, mothers, daughters, and other women friends sprigs of bright yellow Mimosa flowers on March 8. Women have since also started to give Mimosa to each other. The flowers are intended as a sign of respect for the women and also an expression of solidarity with the women in their support for oppressed women worldwide.
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