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HAPPY 2011!

CHRISTMAS

Since the Middle Ages the English made the calls mummings, which are representations involving masked people. These works are traditional in schools and churches in small towns. Another custom is to hang mistletoe at the top. According to tradition, couples who stand under the mistletoe must be a kiss. It is also traditional stir the christmas pudding, a traditional dessert. The mixture should be stirred on the first Sunday of Advent for each family member in an east-west to commemorate the visit of the Magi to the Infant Jesus, while you make a wish in secret. December 26th is known as Boxing Day. That day open charity boxes of the parishes so that its contents be distributed to poor families. Approaches in England one of the most anticipated dates for all the English, which is none other than Christmas. For the English Christmas is a time to be with family, enjoying good food and feel the warmth of a good fireplace. It is a moment of peace to enjoy, celebrate and see what happened a year.
In many movies we see that the Christmas tradition in England is very peculiar. Is the time of year when families gather together completely and distant relatives come home for Christmas, as nougat, and celebrate Christmas all the family. It's a very nice time of the English, but there are those who do not like this time, since everything depends on your taste.
It’s very nice be able to see distant relatives, to reunite people who were not long and that every Christmas are back together again. All that is beautiful and many families appreciate the arrival of this time of year, beyond the gifts, meals and celebrations.

A typical tradition is to do a Christmas cracker.

Christmas crackers

Christmas crackers or bon-bons are an integral part of Christmas celebrations in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. They are also popular in Ireland. A cracker consists of a cardboard tube wrapped in a brightly decorated twist of paper, making it resemble an oversized sweet-wrapper. The cracker is pulled by two people, and, much in the manner of a wishbone, the cracker splits unevenly. The split is accompanied by a small bang produced by the effect of friction on a chemically impregnated card strip (similar to that used in a cap gun).

 In one version of the tradition the person with the larger portion of cracker empties the contents from the tube and keeps them. In another each person will have their own cracker and will keep its contents regardless of whose end they were in. Typically these contents are a coloured paper hat or crown; a small toy or other trinket and a motto, a joke or piece of trivia on a small strip of paper. Crackers are often pulled before or after Christmas dinners or at parties.

There is a typical meal in UK:

Meal

In the UK's culinary present the famous Christmas pudding is a pudding made with homemade plum shape generally. Often the production of ginger cookies and various pastries popular with brandy butter, the trifle, the Christmas cake, the yule log, etc..Anglo-Saxon tradition marks the use of roasted turkey is popular as well as widespread in all countries of the Commonwealth.

Santa Claus

Santa Claus, is a figure which was derived from the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas, a historical, legendary figure who in many Western cultures, is said to bring gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24th or on his Feast Day, December 6 (Saint Nicholas Day). The legend may have part of its basis in hagiographical tales concerning the historical figure of gift giver Saint Nicholas. A nearly identical story is attributed by Greek and Byzantine folklore to Basil of Caesarea. Basil's feast day on January 1 is considered the time of exchanging gifts in Greece.

Santa Claus is the person who brings you lots of presents. Santa Claus goes for the sky with his sleigh and reindeers. He comes down for the chimney and leaves your presents under the christmas tree.

Christmas tree

The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century.The Christmas tree is traditionally brought into the home and decorated with Christmas lights (originally candles), ornaments, garlands, tinsel, and candy canes during the days around Christmas. An angel or star is placed at the top of the tree, representing the host of angels or the Star of Bethlehem from the Nativity.

From IES Torrellano we want to wish you:

Thanksgiving Day

The story of Thanksgiving is basically the story of the Pilgrims and their thankful community feast at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The Pilgrims, who set sail from Plymouth, England on a ship called the Mayflower on September 6, 1620, were bound for the resourceful 'New World'. The Mayflower was a small ship crowded with men, women and children, besides the sailors on board. Aboard were passengers comprising the 'separatists', who called themselves the "Saints", and others, whom the separatists called the "Strangers".

After land was sighted in November following 66 days of a lethal voyage, a meeting was held and an agreement of truce was worked out. It was called the Mayflower Compact. The agreement guaranteed equality among the members of the two groups. They merged together to be recognized as the "Pilgrims." They elected John Carver as their first governor. 

Although Pilgrims had first sighted the land off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, they did not settle until they arrived at a place called Plymouth. It was Captain John Smith who named the place after the English port-city in 1614 and had already settled there for over five years. And it was there that the Pilgrims finally decided to settle. Plymouth offered an excellent harbor and plenty of resources. The local Indians were also non-hostile.

But their happiness was short-lived. Ill-equipped to face the winter on this estranged place they were ravaged thoroughly. 


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Somehow they were saved by a group of local Native Americans who befriended them and helped them with food. Soon the natives taught the settlers the technique to cultivate corns and grow native vegetables, and store them for hard days. By the next winter they had raised enough crops to keep them alive. The winter came and passed by without much harm. The settlers knew they had beaten the odds and it was time to celebrate.

They celebrated it with a grand community feast wherein the friendly native Americans were also invited. It was kind of a harvest feast, the Pilgrims used to have in England. The recipes entail "corn" (wheat, by the Pilgrims usage of the word), Indian corn, barley, pumpkins and peas, "fowl" (specially "waterfowl"), deer, fish. And yes, of course the yummy wild turkey.

However, the third year was real bad when the corns got damaged. Pilgrim Governor William Bradford ordered a day of fasting and prayer, and rain happened to follow soon. To celebrate - November 29th of that year was proclaimed a day of thanksgiving. This date is believed to be the real beginning of the present Thanksgiving Day.

Though the Thanksgiving Day is presently celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every November. This date was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941). Earlier it was the last Thursday in November as was designated by the former President Abraham Lincoln. But sometimes the last Thursday would turn out to be the fifth Thursday of the month. This falls too close to the Christmas, leaving the businesses even less than a month's time to cope up with the two big festivals. Hence the change.

HALLOWEEN FACTS

             HALLOWEEN

           ancient origins 

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic

festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is

now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France,

celebrated their new year on November 1. This day

marked the end of summer and the harvest and the

beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was

often associated with human death.  On the

night of October 31st, they celebrated Samhain, when it

was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred

bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and

animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically

consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell

each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they

re-lit their fires at home, which they had extinguished

earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help

protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic

territory, and later two festivals of Roman origin were

combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of

Samhain.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into

Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV

designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honour

saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the

pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the

dead with a  church-sanctioned holiday. The

celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas

(from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints'

Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began

to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

history of the jack o'lantern

The Irish brought the tradition of the Jack O'Lantern to

America. But, the original Jack O'Lantern was not a

pumpkin. The Jack O'Lantern legend goes back hundreds

of years in Irish History. As the story goes, Stingy Jack

was a miserable, old drunk who liked to play tricks on

everyone: family, friends, his mother and even the Devil

himself. One day, he tricked the Devil into climbing up an

apple tree. Once the Devil climbed up the apple tree,

Stingy Jack hurriedly placed crosses around the trunk of

the tree. The Devil was then unable to get down the tree.

Stingy Jack made the Devil promise him not to take his

soul when he died. Once the devil promised not to take

his soul, Stingy Jack removed the crosses and let the

Devil down.

Many years later, when Jack finally died, he went to the

pearly gates of Heaven and was told by Saint Peter that he

was too mean and too cruel and had led a miserable and

worthless life on earth. He was not allowed to enter

heaven. He then went down to Hell and the Devil. The

Devil kept his promise and would not allow him to enter

Hell. Now Jack was scared and had nowhere to go but to

wander about forever in the darkness between heaven and

hell. He asked the Devil how he could leave as there was

no light. The Devil tossed him an ember from the flames

of Hell to help him light his way. Jack placed the ember in

a hollowed out Turnip, one of his favourite foods which

he always carried around with him whenever he could

steal one. For that day onward, Stingy Jack roamed the

earth without a resting place, lighting his way as he went

with his "Jack O'Lantern".

On all Hallow's eve, the Irish hollowed out Turnips,

rutabagas, gourds, potatoes and beets. They placed a light

in them to ward off evil spirits and keep Stingy Jack away.

These were the original Jack O'Lanterns. In the 1800's a

couple of waves of Irish immigrants came to America.

The Irish immigrants quickly discovered that Pumpkins

were bigger and easier to carve out. So they used

pumpkins for Jack O'Lanterns.

FIRE
Fire was very important to the Celts as it was to all early

people. In the old days people lit bonfires, to scare away

evil spirits. They believed that light had power over

darkness. In some places they used to jump over the fire

to bring good luck.

Today, we light candles in pumpkin lanterns and then put

them outside our homes to frighten away witches and

ghosts.

APPLE BOBBING (Duck-apple)

The Roman festival for remembering the dead was also in

October. During this time, the Romans remembered their

goddess, Pomona. She was the goddess of the trees and

fruits, and when the Romans came to Britain, they began

to hold these two festivals on the same day as Samhain.

Apple games probably became associated with Halloween

because of this.

We play the game bobbing for apples, in which apples are

placed in a tub or a large basin of water. The contestants,

sometimes blindfolded, must take one bite from one of the

apples without using their hands. 

DRESSING UP

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has

both European and Celtic roots. On Halloween, when it

was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world,

people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they

left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these

ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their

homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them

for fellow spirits.

TRICK OR TREAT

Halloween was a time for making mischief - many parts

of England still recognise Halloween as Mischief Night -

when children would knock on doors demanding a treat

(Trick or Treat) and people would disguise themselves as

witches and ghosts, in order to obtain food and money

from nervous householders.