December 23

December 23, is the first day of the Andacollo Festival (Fiesta de Andacollo) – Chile, it is also the second day of winter. There are 88 more days until Spring.

The festival of the Virgin of Andacollo, one of the oldest and largest religious celebrations in Chile. The so-called Big Party, honouring the Virgin of the Rosario takes place on December for 3 days, the town is full of colour, dancing and music played by the numerous congregations and dance groups, whose main role is to be part of a parade of honour and escort the holy image during this solemn procession. During this festivity, you can see the so-called Chinese Dances declared as Immaterial Cultural World Heritage by UNESCO.

December 23 is also Queen Silvia's of Sweden’s Birthday. She has a long history of good works.   Queen Silvia established Mentor International in 1994 in collaboration with the World Health Organization. Her vision was to offer mentoring as inspiration, empowerment, and motivation for young people to make healthy life choices and view their futures more positively. Mentor's work has been recognized by the United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime, the Organization of American States, and the Council of Europe. She is now an honorary board member of the Mentor Foundation.

Her commitment to the work with dementia and the care of the elderly at the end of life is also well known and respected. On her initiative, Silviahemmet was established in Stockholm. It works to educate hospital personnel on how to work with people suffering from dementia and initiates research in the area.

She chairs the Royal Wedding Fund, which supports research in sports and athletics for disabled young people and the Queen Silvia Jubilee Fund for research on children and disability.