The early March holidays.

Today’s session of the  GABFEST club (at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) started with the presentation of the book display “America’s first ladies”.
The session was dedicated to the early March holidays.
The main holiday for Ukrainians is the 8th of March, the International Women’s Day which is a public holiday in Ukraine. 

Our American friends PC volunteers Kathryn and Samantha asked the club members to explain the nature of this holiday and the Ukrainian traditions of celebration. All the present shared their family traditions of honoring women. We talked about the history of the holiday, the Ukrainian corporate culture in its celebration, the adverse effect on Ukrainian flora endangered species, etc.
March, 09 is also the Barbie doll birthday. In 1959 the first Barbie doll was shown at the New York toy fair. It was introduced by “Mattel” Company and became one of the greatest toy manufacturing successes ever. Barbie was invented by Ruth Handler who adapted her from an earlier German doll called Lilli.  She was named after Ruth's daughter Barbara and billed as "New For '59, The Barbie Doll: A Shapely Teenage Fashion Model Price $3.00."
Thus was born the Barbie doll phenomenon which is certainly one of the greatest success stories. Prior to Barbie nearly all children's dolls were child dolls rather than adult figures. Barbie changed all this. Barbie soon became a collectors doll and was avidly sought after by adult collectors. Some dolls are worth up to $8000. We have watched a video about the Barbie doll manufacturing and discussed the good and bad things about Barbie phenomenon. To round up the discussion we have talked about our own collectible items.
The session was very educational to all and introduced new names to the Club members.

Have a look at more pictures, please