Happy Birthday to Vanuatu!

People performing a welcome ceremony. *Photo from Wikipedia November 3 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Federated States of Micronesia from the United States in 1986. The history of the modern Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is one of settlement by Micronesians; colonization by Spain, Germany, and Japan; United Nations trusteeship under United States-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands; and gradual independence beginning with the ratification of a sovereign constitution in 1979. The FSM signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States, which entered into force on November 3, 1986, marking Micronesia’s emergence from trusteeship

Downtown Nukuʻalofa. Nukuʻalofa is the capital of Tonga. *Photo from Wikipedia June 4 is Tonga’s Emancipation Day or Independence Day, commemorates the abolition of serfdom in Tonga in 1862, and the independence of Tonga from the British protectorate in 1970. Tonga became known in the West as the “Friendly Islands” because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773. He arrived at the time of the ʻinasi festival, the yearly donation of the First Fruits to the Tuʻi Tonga (the islands’ paramount chief) and so received an invitation to the festivities. According to

Dancers in traditional costume. *Photo from Wikipedia August 17 is Independence Day, celebrates the proclamation of Indonesia’s independence from Japan in 1945. The earliest evidence of Islamised populations in Indonesia dates to the 13th century in northern Sumatra; other Indonesian areas gradually adopted Islam which became the dominant religion in Java and Sumatra by the end of the 16th century. For the most part, Islam overlaid and mixed with existing cultural and religious influences. Europeans such as the Portuguese arrived in Indonesia from the 16th century seeking to monopolize the sources of valuable nutmeg, cloves, and cubeb pepper in Maluku.