New Year's Eve traditions

Around the world people celebrate the New Year with traditions from their country, traditions of religious celebrations, costume parties, and parades.

GOOD LUCK TRADITIONS

Many countries have traditions that they believe will bring good luck for the new year. In Puerto Rico children enjoy throwing pails of water out the window at midnight. Some believe that this rids their home of any evil spirits!

In Spain when the clock strikes midnight the people eat 12 grapes. One grape for every stroke of the clock to represent each month in the year. Each grape is said to bring good luck in the new year.

Switzerland believes good luck comes from letting a drop of cream land on the floor New Years Day. While in France people eat a stack of pancakes for luck and good health. Belgium farmers wish their animals a Happy New Year for blessings.

Armenian women cook a special bread for their family. The bread is kneaded with luck and good wishes pressed into the dough before it is cooked.

In Northern Portugal children go caroling from home to home and are given treats and coins. They sing old songs or "Janeiro's" which is said to bring good luck.

Romanians had a tradition of listening to hear if the farm animals talked on New Years Day. If the animals talked it was considered bad luck so they are relived when they do not hear any talking animals.

In Bolivia families make beautiful little wood or straw dolls to hang outside their homes to bring good luck.

Go on reading HERE

Mr Bean

Mr. Bean was a British comedy television series of 14 episodes. The first episode was broadcast on 1 January 1990 and the final episode, "Hair by Mr. Bean of London", on 25 August, 1996. During its five year run the series gained large UK audience figures, and has been the recipient of a number of international awards.
Mr Bean was played by Rowan Atkinson, an English comedian, actor and writer.

Watch “Merry Christmas Mr. Bean” (1992). Have fun!

Christmas

How do people feel about Christmas?

Listen and read.

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Listening by ELLLO, a free online listening resource of over 1,000 listening activities designed especially for ESL and EFL students and teachers. Most listening activities include images, an interactive quiz, transcript of the audio and downloadable MP3.

Christmas

It is that time of the year again! This period just before Christmas has a special magic. Children write letters to Santa telling him what they would like him to bring them. We decorate our homes with Christmas trees and stockings. We set up a crib. We prepare a special dinner for our family and friends. And, of course, we do our Christmas shopping.
To learn about traditions around the world visit: www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm

Christmas has always been one of the major festivals of the year nearly all over the word. We celebrate the birth of Jesus but why do people give each other presents on Christmas day? This tradition seems to have started with the gifts that the Three Wise Men brought to Jesus. They gave him gold, myrrh and frankincense. However, the habit of exchanging gifts started in the 1800s.

See the following sites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Magi
http://www.donnasholidaysentiments.com/wisemen.html

Small children believe that their presents are brought by Santa Claus (also called Father Christmas or Saint Nicholas). He is a very kind man who lives near the North Pole. He travels through the sky on a sledge which is pulled by reindeer and loaded with presents. He is dressed in a red-ermine-trimmed suit and wears an elf-like cap.

If you want to know more about Santa, have a look at http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=38

Is cooking a problem? Chicken and salad again?! NO!!! Why don’t we try some traditional Christmas recipes this year? Visit this inspiring site http://allrecipes.com/recipes/holiday-cooking/christmas/main.aspx

Remember your friends. I’m sure they would like to get an e-card from you. Try this site:
http://www.123greetings.com/events/christmas/

http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/festivals-christmas.htm (Christmas vocabulary)

Merry Christmas!

Till next post!

Halloween

The origin of Halloween dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, Lord of the Dead. The Celtics feared Samhain and in order to please him the Druids made sacrifices to the gods. October 31st marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celtic people believed that the spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies. They wore costumes during the Samhain festival. The purpose of the costumes was to frighten the spirits. They also put out their best food offerings on the doorstep to please them.
Nowadays Halloween is very popular in different countries. Adults and children dress up as creatures from the underworld (e.g., ghosts, zombies, witches, mummies, skeletons, werewolves and demons.).
A common symbol of Halloween is the Jack-O-Lantern, which is a carved pumpkin with a lit candle inside. It can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack.

 Games are often played, such as bobbing for apples, which are placed in a basin of water. Everyone takes turns catching as many as possible using only their mouths. Another common game involves the hands-free eating of an apple hung on a string attached to the ceiling. Small children go from house to house, often in costume, demanding “trick or treat.”






 Photos: Rich Gibson , ChrisKatie

Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810 - 1865) was an English novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. Gaskell was born Elizabeth Stevenson on 29 September 1810, at 93 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. She was the eighth child of William Stevenson and his wife, Elizabeth. In 1832, she married William Gaskell, the minister at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel. They settled in Manchester and had several children: a stillborn daughter in 1833, followed by Marianne (1834), Margaret Emily (1837), Florence Elizabeth (1842), William (1844-1845), and Julia Bradford (1846). They lived in a villa in Plymouth Grove, Manchester.

Gaskell wrote lots of short stories and novels. Her best known novels are: Mary Barton (1848), Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost story writing, aided by her friend Charles Dickens. Gaskell also wrote the first biography of Charlotte Brontë.

For more information visit The Gaskell Web

You can read Mrs Gaskell’s novels and stories at Project Gutenberg

Visit LibriVox ,which is a digital library of free public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers.

Watch some BBC trailers:

Wives and Daughters (1999)

North and South (2004)



Cranford (2007)

THE PLAGUE AND THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON

During the 17th century, plagues happened all over Europe.

Plague is caused by a microbe which attacks the black rat. The fleas that live on the rat carry the disease to human beings by biting them.

London was stuck by plague in 1603, 1625 and 1665 when the most severe outbreak took place and 68,000 people died. Doctors and scientists didn’t know what caused the disease so, what did they do to stop the plague from spreading?

In London, the sick were shut up in their houses for a month and whole families died. Red crosses where painted on the doors of houses where plague had struck so as to warn passers-by. The dead were buried at night or early in the morning, when few people were about. So many people died that great pits were dug to burry the bodies together. To protect themselves against the disease, doctors wore long leather coats with hoods and gloves. They also wore a mask which was stuffed with herbs.

Rich people left the city by boat to go to the country. The poor, whose houses were crowded and dirty, suffered most. The left the city on foot or by cart but they were often turned away by villagers who were afraid of the plague.

The plague of 1665 had hardly ended when a second disaster struck. On September 2nd 1666, a great fire started in a bakery near London Bridge. Charles II ordered to pull down the houses in the path of the fire but it was useless. There was panic in the city and people fought to escape to safety across the River Thames. Four days later, the worst fire in London’s history had died down. It destroyed a large part of the city, including most of the civic buildings, old St Paul’s Cathedral, 87 churches and about 13,000 houses. It is incredible to think that only six people died.

The only good thing about the fire was that it killed off the rats which carried the plague fleas, for the plague never visited London again.

 Animation of London Skyline Before and After the Fire:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/launch_ani_fire_london.shtml

First Moon Landing 1969

The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon.
It was launched on July 16, 1969 and on July 20, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon, while Michael Collins orbited above.
President John F. Kennedy's goal was reaching the moon by the end of the 1960s. During a speech in 1961 he said: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”
Armstrong was the first one to set foot on the moon. He described the surface dust ("fine and almost like a powder"). Then he expressed: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"

Visit the following links:

Remembering Apollo 11 (News Stories in Photographs)

It' s Earth Day. Book

Click HERE and read

Easter Symbols

Easter Bunny
The Bible makes no mention of a long-eared, short-tailed creature who delivers decorated eggs to well-behaved children on Easter Sunday; nevertheless, the Easter bunny has become a prominent symbol of Christianity's most important holiday. The exact origins of this mythical mammal are unclear, but rabbits, known to be prolific procreators, are an ancient symbol of fertility and new life.

Easter Eggs
Easter is a religious holiday, but some of its customs, such as Easter eggs, are likely linked to pagan traditions. The egg, an ancient symbol of new life, has been associated with pagan festivals celebrating spring. From a Christian perspective, Easter eggs are said to represent Jesus' emergence from the tomb and resurrection. Decorating eggs for Easter is a tradition that dates back to at least the 13th century, according to some sources. One explanation for this custom is that eggs were formerly a forbidden food during the Lenten season, so people would paint and decorate them to mark the end of the period of penance and fasting, then eat them on Easter as a celebration.

Go on reading: History.com

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Lucy Maud Montgomery was a Canadian autor who wrote 23 novels, 450 poems and about 500 short stories. She was born in Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island in 1874. After the death of her parents, she went to live with her maternal grandparents in Cavendish and was raised by them in a strict manner. She worked as a teacher in various island schools. For a short time in 1901 and 1902 she worked in Halifax for the newspapers Chronicle and Echo. In 1906 she became engaged to Ewan MacDonald, who was studying to be a minister. Unable to leave her grandmother, this engagement was extended until her death in 1911. During this period, Montgomery began writing Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. She had three sons, Chester Cameron Macdonald (1912-1964), (Ewan) Stuart Macdonald (1915-1982) and Hugh Alexander, who died at birth in 1914.
Montgomery died in Toronto in 1942. She was buried at the Cavendish Community Cemetery in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.
Montgomery received a number of international honours for her writing, being made a Fellow of the British Royal Society of Arts (1923), a Companion of the Order of the British Empire and a member of the Literary and Artistic Institute of France (1935).

L.M. Montgomery titles include:

- Anne of Green Gables (1908)
- Anne of Avonlea (1909)
- Kilmeny of the Orchard (1910)
- The Story Girl (1911)
- The Golden Road (1913)
- Anne of the Island (1915)
- Anne's House of Dreams (1917)
- Rainbow Valley (1919)
- Rilla of Ingleside (1921)
- Emily of New Moon (1923)
- Emily Climbs (1925)
- The Blue Castle (1926)
- Emily's Quest (1927)
- Magic for Marigold (1929)
- A Tangled Web (1931)
- Pat of Silver Bush (1932)
- Mistress Pat (1935)
- Anne of Windy Poplars (1936)
- Jane of Lantern Hill (1937)
- Anne of Ingleside (1939)
- Chronicles of Avonlea (1912)
- Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920)

Anne of Green Gables turned into one of the most popular books ever written for children. Lucy herself said about this book: “I thought girls in their teens might like it. But grandparents, school and college boys, old pioneers in the Australian bush....girls in India, missionaries in China, monks in remote monasteries, premiers of Great Britain, and red-headed people all over the world have written to me, telling me how they loved Anne and her successors.’
There have been some film adaptations of Anne of Green Gables over the years. The success of these productions inspired a television series, The Road to Avonlea, which was based on characters created by Lucy Montgomery.

Visit the unofficial webpage devoted to the Kevin Sullivan Anne of Green Gables films:

http://greengables.tripod.com/

Photo by Anne SK

You can explore Green Gables: http://www.gov.pe.ca/greengables/

Mad about Dinosaurs

Ladybird MINI - Mad About.. Dinosaurs (Reducle)

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie was born on 15th December 1890,in Devon. She is mainly remembered for her 79 detective novels but she also wrote romances under the name of Mary Westmacott. She was called the “Queen of Crime”. One billion copies of her books have been sold in English and another billion in 44 languages. She is the best-selling writer of all time.
In 1914 she married Colonel Archibald Christie and they had a daughter, Rosalind Hicks. During World War I she worked at a hospital . This job influenced her work: many of the murders in her books were carried out with poison.
After her mother’s death and her husband’s infidelity she was really depressed. So much so that, on 8th December 1926, Agatha disappeared for ten days. Her car was found abandoned. The police searched everywhere. There was an immediate uproar in the press, with speculation that Mrs Christie had been murdered or commited suicide.
Several days later, she was found in a health spa in the town of Harrogate, where she signed in under the name of Teresa Neele, the name of the woman with whom her husband had recently admitted having an affair. She claimed to have suffered amnesia due to a nervous breakdown but nobody believed this. They finally got divorced in 1928 and she married the archaeologist Max Mallowan, who was 14 years younger than her. Unluckily, it was not a happy marriage. He had many affairs, notably with Barbara Parker, whom he married in 1977, a year after Christie's death.
She was made a Dame in 1971. On 12 January 1976, she died at age 85, from natural causes. She was buried in the nearby St Mary's Churchyard in Cholsey.



Her characters

Miss Marple

Jane Marple was an elderly spinster from the fictitious village of St Mary Mead. She appeared in twenty short stories and twelve novels.
She was a keen observer of human nature and a very intelligent woman. She solved mysteries through observation and a few polite questions. She was not a central character, she was rather peripheral. But there was always a good male character or policemen who were more involved in the narrative.

Hercule Poirot


Hercule Poirot appeared in 30 novels and 50 short stories. He was a Belgian detective who was always neatly dressed and had a big ego. He believed that crime was not solved on evidence alone. He thought that the greatest tool for crime solving was the mind, thanks to “the little grey cells”.

Agatha loved reading mysteries and she was influenced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The most famous fictional detectives are Poirot and Holmes. There is an interesting comparison in the following link:
http://www.freewebs.com/poirot/poirotvsholmes.htm
If you like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, try this trivia: http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz1779951462030.html


Agatha Christie's centenary, celebrated by David Suchet and Joan Hickson, 1990. Contains interviews with Dame Agatha's grandson, Mathew Prichard, author H.R.F. Keating and other authors and critics.

Roman Britain

In 55 and 54 BC, Julius Caesar attacked Britain but he couldn’t take over the country. Emperor Claudius conquered Britain in AD 43. The Romans remained in Britain for 350 years. In AD 409 the Roman soldiers left Britain and three Germanic tribes (The Saxons, the Angles and the Jutes) settled there.

Roman life in BritainAll over Britain there were stone forts where the soldiers lived. Nowadays, the towns which were in the past Roman forts have names ending in “eter” (Exeter), “caster” (Lancaster), “chester” (Manchester) or “cester” (Gloucester). Apart from keeping the Britons in order, the soldiers fought against the tribes that lived in Scotland and Wales. The Picts raided the north of Britain to take the cattle away and rob farms so Emperor Hadrian tried to stop them by building a great wall which was 73 miles long from Wallsend on Tyne to Bowners near Carlisle. At intervals, there were small forts and signal towers called turrets. To connect the main forts and towns, the Romans built roads with stones and gravel and they became the main roads of modern Britain.

Photos by: Nealy-J , JochenB (Hadrian's Wall)

London was the largest town in Roman Britain and, like other towns, it was surrounded by walls. Inside the walls, there were baths, theatres and shops. Public baths were very important. They consisted of a variety of rooms at different temperatures. A visit to a bath was a social occasion as people would talk to friends, play or drink wine.


Photo by:Nicholas... (Bath)

Education

Boys and girls had a different type of education. Girls had to stay at home where their mothers taught them how to read, write and look after the house. Boys, on the other hand, had to go to school, which was very strict. They studied astronomy, history, music and the works of Greek and Latin Poets.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an internationally prominent author, speaker, politician, and activist for the New Deal coalition. She worked to enhance the status of working women, although she opposed the Equal Rights Amendment because she believed it would adversely affect women.

In the 1940s, Roosevelt was one of the co-founders of Freedom House and supported the formation of the United Nations. Roosevelt founded the UN Association of the United States in 1943 to advance support for the formation of the UN. She was a delegate to the UN General Assembly from 1945 and 1952, a job for which she was appointed by President Harry S. Truman and confirmed by the United States Senate. During her time at the United Nations she chaired the committee that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. President Truman called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.

Active in politics for the rest of her life, Roosevelt chaired the John F. Kennedy administration's ground-breaking committee which helped start second-wave feminism, the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. She was one of the most admired people of the 20th century, according to Gallup's List of Widely Admired People. She was an honorary member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority.

Go on reading HERE

(Wikipedia)

Read some of her famous quotations.

“If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault.”

“A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.”

“Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.”

“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.”

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”

“Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”

“It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.”

“I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on.”

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

“If you lose money you lose much,

If you lose friends you lose more,

If you lose faith you lose all.”

“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home—so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: The neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”

“A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all-knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity.”

Coincidences between Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy

 

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.

Both wives lost children while living in the White House.

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

Lincoln was shot at a theater named "Ford's".
Kennedy was shot in a car called "Lincoln"- made by Ford Motor Co.

Both Presidents were shot in the presence of their wives.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both names contain fifteen letters.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.

Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.

Both John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

.

Abraham Lincoln - Biography

John Kennedy - Biography

Easter Island

Easter Island stands 3700 kilometres West of Chile. It was discovered on Easter Sunday, 1722 by the Dutch navigator, Jacob Roggeveen. The indigenous Polynesian inhabitants, who were probably several thousand at the time of discovery, were later decimated by disease, war, and slave-raiding activities.

The most surprising sights of the island are the huge stone figures of men which are standing or lying on the ground. There are more than 600 stone men. The figures were carved from volcanic stone by early inhabitants of Easter Island. They are standing facing the middle of the island with their backs to the sea. Archaeologists suggest that the images represented important personalities who were deified after death.

The means used by islanders to transport theses enormous statues (11 m. tall) have never been satisfactorily explained. Native accounts claim that the statues were dragged with heavy rope while small round stones placed beneath the statue served as rollers.

Photo by jasonpearce

Hampton Court

Hampton Court Palace is one of the major tourist attractions in England. It is a Tudor palace situated on the left bank of the River Thames.

It was built in 1514 by Thomas Wolsey who was Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England. He was a powerful man both in the church and in the state. Unfortunately, Wolsey couldn’t enjoy the palace for a long time. King Henry VIII was very angry with him, particularly when he failed to help Henry to divorce his first queen. As he wanted to retain the king’s favour, he gave Henry the palace, but it was no good. Wolsey died in disgrace in 1530.

Henry VIII enlarged Hampton Court and lived there with five of his six wives. Two of them are said to haunt the palace: Jane Seymour, his third wife, who died after giving birth to a son, and Catherine Howard, his fifth wife, who was beheaded.

Many kings and queens lived in this palace which is now open to the public.

Hampton Court is beautifully decorated. You can see portraits, weapons and pieces of armour. Antonio Verrio, a great Italian artist, painted the ceiling of the King’s Bedroom and the King’s Staircase. The palace has got wonderful gardens. If you visit it, don’t forget the famous Maze, which was planted in the 18th century. But try not to get lost in the twisting paths with their high hedges!

ROALD DAHL

Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short story author and screenwriter. He was born in Llandaff, South Wales. During the second world war, he fought as a fighter pilot, and was badly injured when his plane crashed. As a result, he spent sixteen weeks in a German hospital. After the war, he worked in America, and soon started writing stories. He was famous as a writer for both children and adults. However, some critics considered his work too violent for children.

His most popular books include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Witches and The BFG, The Gremlins

Roald Dahl Quotes

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.
Some children are spoiled and it is not their fault, it is their parents.

Watch this video and answer the questions.
(Elementary)


1. Do Matilda's parents love her?
2. Is her father a good driver?
3. Do they pay attention to her?
4. What does her father do?
5. What can she cook?
6. What does she want?
7. Matilda’s father doesn’t want her to read books. What does he like?
8. Where does Matilda go every day?

Answers:

1. No, they don’t.
2. No, he isn’t.
3. No, they don’t.
4. He buys and sells cars.
5. She can cook pancakes.
6. She wants a book.
7. He likes watching TV.
8. She goes to the library.


Read the following story and answer the questions.
(Upper intermediate students)Lamb to the Slaughter

Was Mrs Maloney happily married? Why (not)?
What was Mr Maloney’s routine in the evening?
What did Mr Maloney announce?
Why did he say “it’s a bad time to be telling you”?
Was Mrs Maloney afraid of what would happen to her?
How does Mary Maloney create the alibi?
Do you think the murder was a crime of passion or premeditated?
Did she react in a normal way? Why (not)?

Classic Audio Stories for Children

Listen to the stories while you read the text.

GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS
(Brothers Grimm)

Click HERE

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

(Brothers Grimm)

Click HERE.

Visit Cuentos para Chicos and go on reading wonderful stories.