HAPPY EASTER!

http://www.list.co.uk/article/16945-easter-eggcitement/

http://blog.jumpitz.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/happyeaster.png

WHAT IS EASTER ?Easter is the celebration of Jesus Christ's rising from the dead (His Resurrection) after His crucifixion which took place on what we now term Good Friday.Easter is usually celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon following the Vernal or Spring Equinox on March 21st. This can be any Sunday between March 22nd and April 25th. It is the most sacred of all the Christian holidays or celebrations.Christ's return (or rising) from death is called the Resurrection. According to the scriptures, Christ's tomb was empty three days after His death, which is commemorated on Good Friday. His followers saw Him and talked to Him after this. Christians therefore believe that they have the hope of a new life (an everlasting life in Heaven) after their earthly death.
WHAT IS THE HOLY WEEK ?The Holy week is the last week of Lent. It begins with the observance of Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter Sunday. The name, Palm Sunday originated from Jesus's entry in Jerusalem. The crowd laid carpets of palms on the street for Him. The Last Supper is commemorated on Holy Thursday of special week (often called Maundy Thursday) and Friday is the anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the cross. The Lenten season and Holy week end with Easter Sunday (the Resurrection of Jesus Christ).
HOW DID EASTER GET ITS NAME ?The English name "Easter" is much newer. Before Christianity in early England, the people celebrated the vernal equinox with a feast honoring Eostre, the Pagan goddess of spring. When the early English Christians wanted others to accept Christianity, they decided to use the name Easter for this holiday so that it would match the name of the old spring celebration. This made it more comfortable for other people to accept Christianity. Some believed that the word Easter came from an early German word "eostarun", meaning dawn and white. Newly baptized Christians wore white clothes as a sign of their new life on Easter.
NAMES OF EASTEREaster was called Pesach by early Christians. It is the Hebrew name for Passover. Today, the name for Easter in many cultures in Europe are similar to the word Pesah. For example :France -Paques /Spain -Pascua /Italy -Pasqua /Albania -Pashke/ Greece -Pascha /Norway -Paaske /Holland -Pasen /Sweden -Pask
EASTER EGG As Christianity spread, more familiar traditions, symbols and celebrations of spring were associated with Easter . One of the oldest spring symbols in the world is the egg. The oval shape of the egg was the same shape for a raindrop and a seed. These two were important life-giving elements. The egg itself promises new life as in spring, birds, and many other animals are hatched from eggs. In fact, the Persians, Hindus and Egyptians believed that the world began with a single egg. In ancient China, Rome and Greece, eggs were given as springtime gifts. In Polland and Russia, hours are spent on drawing intricate designs on Easter eggs. In England, members of the royal families gave each other gold-covered eggs as Easter gifts in the middle ages. The most famous Easter egg decorator was Peter Carl Faberge. He designed eggs from gold, silver and other precious gems for kings of Europe and czars of Russia. These eggs are priceless now and can only be found in museums and private collections. In early America, children decorated their eggs by using dyes made from natural materials like fruit and leave coloring.
http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Holidays/Easter/

EASTER BREAK

This is a delicious dessert recipe, and easy to do, that Dra. María Jordano has left for you all as a little gift for the Easter break!! Really mouth-watering...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCdy4vmqwx0
Any other "weight-reducing" but yummy recipes?

MORE ON CULTURAL TOURISM

Now you can tell us about your experiences on cultural tourism: special, funny, mysterious, unexpected, particular places you have been to.

For those who prefer to write about what they'd love lo visit, please do it!!!

Write a comment!!

Here's some help:

http://www.dcheritage.org/

http://www.culturaltourism.org/

www.nasaa-arts.org/artworks/ct_contents.shtml

http://www.culturaltourism.com.au/

http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=36700&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

http://www.intute.ac.uk/cgi-bin/browse.pl?id=114470

http://www.art.cfa.cmu.edu/environment/galleries-and-cultural-life

The Orient Express reaches the end of the line...

pic 1 thecreme.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/train-crazy/

pic 2 viajemosentren.com

The Orient Express reaches the end of the line...

One of the most well travelled railway routes in Europe will enjoy its final journey in December after 126 years of service. After more than a century of appearing in various guises, the Orient Express does not feature in Europe’s new schedule and the famous connection between the east and the west of Europe will run no more.

The last ever service will take place on the 12th December at one minute to nine in the morning when the westbound route arrives in the Rhine city. The Venice Simplon-Orient Express will continue to run as normal with the 1920s rolling stock, which is only used for luxury private train routes from Calais via Paris to Venice. (...)http://news.carrentals.co.uk/the-orient-express-reaches-the-end-of-the-line-3428320.html

(...)The Orient Express in question isn't the train featured in Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express - that was the Simplon Orient Express, which went from Paris Gare de Lyon to Milan and beyond - or in Graham Greene's Stamboul Train, which was the Ostend-Vienna Orient Express, travelling via Brussels. No, this is the original "Express d'Orient", operated by the Belgian Georges Nagelmackers' Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, which first set off from Paris's Gare de l'Est in October 1883, and ran between Paris and Giurgiu, a Romanian town on the Danube that had to be crossed by ferry, and whose passengers eventually reached Constantinople (as Istanbul was then known) by another train and a 14-hour sea voyage. (...)http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/holidays/holidays-by-rail/orient-express-end-of-the-line-443570.html

Drop us a line: what do you think of this articles? Have you heard about this? Did you know about The Venice Simplon-Orient Express?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

from http://www.brothersoft.com/happy-halloween-theme-202347.html

Yes, it's Halloween again. Next Saturday exactly!
Every year it is more and more popular in our country. There are parties for adults eveywhere and children also do some crafts and activities at school, at least for their English class.
You can have a look at our last's year post as well.
Give us your impressions on this: whether you like it or not, if you see it as just part of other cultures, tell us about your costume if you are going to wear it, if you know its origins, if you have found a gorgeous page about Halloween crafts, cooking or make up...
Use a search engine or a browser if you want, and read more and see pics about it.
And then, WRITE, WRITE WRITE!


And....HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

Fourth Thursday of November

Thanksgiving USA

The American Thanksgiving holiday began as a feast of thanksgiving in the early days of the American colonies almost four hundred years ago.

In 1620, a boat filled with more than one hundred people sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New World. This religious group had begun to question the beliefs of the Church of England and they wanted to separate from it. The Pilgrims settled in what is now the state of Massachusetts. Their first winter in the New World was difficult. They had arrived too late to grow many crops, and without fresh food, half the colony died from disease. The following spring the Iroquois Indians taught them how to grow corn (maize), a new food for the colonists. They showed them other crops to grow in the unfamiliar soil and how to hunt and fish.

In the autumn of 1621, bountiful crops of corn, barley, beans and pumpkins were harvested. The colonists had much to be thankful for, so a feast was planned. They invited the local Indian chief and 90 Indians. The Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game offered by the colonists. The colonists had learned how to cook cranberries and different kinds of corn and squash dishes from the Indians. To this first Thanksgiving, the Indians had even brought popcorn.

In following years, many of the original colonists celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks. After the United States became an independent country, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate. George Washington suggested the date November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. Then in 1863, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November, a different date every year. The President must proclaim that date as the official celebration.

In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt set it one week earlier. He wanted to help business by lengthening the shopping period before christmas. Congress ruled that after 1941 the 4th Thursday in November would be a federal holiday proclaimed by the President each year.

For "Symbols of Thanksgiving" and more info:
http://www.crewsnest.vispa.com/thanksgivingusa.htm

Unit 6. Cultural tourism

What's this? Could you tell me the name of this famous Spanish building in English? Imagine that you are a tourist guide and you have to tall about this monument. What would explaing to your audience? Style? History? Function? Year of construction?


Remember to write your compositions using "comments".