LIGHT YOUR JACK O'LANTERN AT HALLOWEEN NIGHT!!!

As Halloween is at the back of the corner, let's talk about the most popular Halloween symbol ever: THE JACK O'LANTERN

1.DO YOU REALLY KNOW WHERE THIS TRADITION COMES FROM??

It comes from an old celtic legend "Stingy Jack", Stingy Jack or Jack of the Lantern is a mythical character whose story started several centuries ago in Ireland , there lived a drunkard known as "Jack the Smith". Jack was known as a deceiver, manipulator. On a fateful night, the devil overheard the tale of Jack's bad actions. Unconvinced (and envious) of the rumors, the devil went to find out for himself whether the story was true or not.

Typical of Jack, he was drunk and wandering through the countryside at night and he found a body with a strange face, it was the Devil, Jack realised it was his end, so he begged the devil to let him drink beer before departing to hell, the Devil accepted and took Jack to the local pub and they drank together.

Jackdid not want to pay, so asked the devil to transform himself into a silver coin and the devil did so. Jack put the coin into his pocket where he also had a cricifix which prevented the devil from scaping.

The devil was forced to leave Jack's soul free for ten years in exchange of his freedom.

Ten years later they met again, as the devil prepared to take him to the underworld, Jack asked if he could have one apple because he was hungry. Foolishly the devil once again agreed to this request. As the devil climbed up the branches of a nearby apple tree, Jack surrounded its base with crucifixes, so the devil could not go down from the tree.

As Jack did before, he demanded that his soul never be taken by the devil into hell. The devil agreed and refused to take Jack's soul to hell.

Some years later Jack died, he was not allowed in heaven because he had been a bad person all his life long, and as the devil promised his soul could never be taken into hell.

From that day on until eternity's end, Jack is doomed to roam the world between the planes of good and evil, with only an ember inside a hollowed turnip.

This story was brought to America by irish inmigrants who believed that ghosts and souls abandoned their tombs in order to visit the earth in Halloween, they used turnips in order to frighten ghosts. When they arrived to America they found that pumkins were common there and easier to use than  turnips, so they substituted the turnips and began to use pumpkins as the symbol of the condemned soul of Jack who wanders until the end of timje the earth,.....

Here you have the tale of Stingy Jack on video:

2.THE ART OF PUMPKIN CARVING:

Carving a pumkin has become an art for so many people, watch the following videos and see what can you do with a pumkin!!!

 Go to this link and you will see other incredible Jack o'lanterns creations  :

http://enpundit.com/probably-the-best-pumpkin-carvings-you-will-ever-see/

Do you want to know how to do a 3D pumpkin? watch this video!!!

ENJOY YOUR HALLOWEEN NIGHT.....

Halloween Countdowns at WiddlyTinks.com

COLUMBUS DAY (OCTOBER)

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

On the second Monday of October Americans celebrate Columbus Day to remember Christopher Columbus voyage to America in 1492.

Columbus was born in Genoa in 1451, in his time it was believed that the world was flat, but Columbus believed it was round.

He moved to Portugal when he was 23, he wanted to go to India, China and Japan by sailing west. If the world was round it was possible.



But he needed money, ships and men, so he asked the kings of Portugal, France and England but he got no help.

Finally the king Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of "Spain" decided to help him.
They gave him three ships: the Santa María, the Niña (whose real name was Santa Clara) and the Pinta.
On the 3rd of August they left Spain.

They finally arrived to the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas on 12 October 1492.
Even though he discovered a new continent, Columbus died without being conscious of it, he made other 3 trips to America, and died poor and forgotten in Valladolid on May 1506.

CELEBRATING COLUMBUS DAY IN THE USA

The USA is usally know as the melting pot, due to its huge number of inmigrants coming from different countries around the world, amongst them the Italian people who celebrate the life and discoveries of  Christopher Columbus since 1792.
Since then, Columbus Day is considered a national holiday in the US, and many Americans celebrate it with colourful parades.

Here you have some videos about New York's annual Columbus Day parade in the 5th Avenue:

Enjoy Columbus Day!!!

Songs from TV

TV , and particularly advertisments, have always been a good vehicle to promote new songs, this is the case of this song which is currently displayed on Spanish TV channels, this song mixes up Spanish and English, an interesting way of learning both languages!!

LYRICS

Voy a romper la ventana que nos separa
colarme bailando en tu casa.
Ojos azules marrones o verdes
vidas en bares de cielos celestes
somos millones y te sigo y me sumo
seamos ciudadanos de un lugar llamado mundo.

I will meet you in the city
what is there about the stars?
in the moonlight we’re all pretty cos’ it paints over the stars
We should put on the sun,
we are citizens of all you can see,
we’ve got nothing but time
you find everything you didn’t do (x2)
Standing right in front of you

Ciudadanos de este mundo.
Compañeros al andar.
Cada día una aventura,
caminamos al compás.

Hoy todo lo que pienso todo lo que hago todo lo que canto es tuyo
Hoy todo lo que dices todo lo que tocas todo lo que crees es suyo
Hoy solo damos sueños solo que sonrías solo que no frunzas el ceño.
Solo somos uno, somos ciudadanos de un lugar llamado mundo.

we should put on the sun
we are citizens of all you can see,
we’ve got nothing but time
you find everything you didn’t do
Standing right in front of you

THE STORY OF THE SONG

SINGERS:

JAMIE CULLUM born in Essex (England) jazz and pop singer and pianist

NITA: Spanish singer from the Spanish duet FUEL FANDANGO

FRANK T: Franklin Tshimini Nsombolay,  born in the Republic of Congo, is a rap producer and a radio presenter, he lives in Spain since he was two years old.

CARLOS SADNESS: singer and composer from Barcelona.

THE VIDEO IS A PART OF SAN MIGUEL'S BEER 2012 PROMOTION AND WAS RECORDED IN LONDON AND BARCELONA WITH SINGERS FROM DIFFERNT COUNTRIES, IN THIS WAY IT TEACHES US THAT FRONTIERS DO NOT EXIST, "WE ARE CITIZENS DE UN LUGAR LLAMADO MUNDO"

IT WILL BE RELEASED SOON AS A COMERCIAL SONG DUE TO ITS SUCCESS. LISTEN TO IT AND WATCH THE VIDEO ON TV!!

St Patrick's Day

WELCOME TO IRELAND!!!

IRISH FLAG COLOURS:

GREEN=CATHOLICS (REPUBLIC OF IRELAND)

ORANGE=PROTESTANTS (NOTHERN IRELAND-UK)

WHITE=PEACE BETWEEN BOTH

1.AND WHERE IS IRELAND?

2. WHO WAS ST.PATRICK?

St.Patrick was born in Scotland in 385 A.D., at the age of 16 he was made prisioner by some Irish raiders and spent 6 years in captivity, he finally escaped and returned home.

He became a priest. One night he had a dream about God, in this dream he was told to teach people about God.

As priest he was sent back to Ireland and he started to convert Irish people to Christianity. He was familiar with the Irish culture so he used Irish symbols in his teachings.

For example he used the sun (an Irish symbol) in a  cross:

He used shamrocks to talk about the Trinity:



He died in March 17th 461 A.D. This date is used to celebrate St.Patrick's Day not only in Ireland but in the USA as well, since many Irish people emigrated to the States a long time ago, in fact the first parade took place in New York in 1762.

It is said that St.Patricks drove all the snakes away from Ireland, but it is just a symbol the snakes represent the pagans he converted to Christianity.

3. LEPRECHAUNS

They are creatures coming from the celtic tradition. They mended fairies' shoes. They don't have anything to do with St. Patrick's celebration but they were introduced into this Irish celebration by a Walt Disney movie and they became popular.

Thay have a pot of gold and they use rainbows to move from one place to another.

4. OTHER IRISH SYMBOLS

The harp:

The harp is another well-known Irish symbol, it was used by a popular Irish beer called Guinness, later the Irish government used it as a symbol as well, both symbols are identical, except for the fact that the Guinness Harp faces left, while the official government version faces right because of copyright reasons.

5. GAELIC: A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE

GAELIC is a very ancient celtic language spoken in Ireland, it is used as a second language in the Republic of Ireland.

'I live in Ireland'="Tá mé i mo chónaí i nÉirinn"

There is a popular Irish group called The Corrs, they have some songs in Gaelic language listen how this language sounds like. It is translated into English and Spanish.

6. SOME POPULAR IRISH PEOPLE

Bram Stocker the author of  DRACULA

Oscar Wilde: the author of "The Importance of being Ernest"

Jonathan Swift: author of "Gulliver's Travels"

U2: a rock band



The Corrs



7 .SOME VIDEOS ABOUT IRELAND AND ITS PARADES IN DUBLIN CITY

HERE YOU HAVE A SHORT CARTOON MOVIE ABOUT THE STORY OF ST.PATRICK

AND ANOTHER VIDEO ABOUT ST.PATRICK'S HISTORY, REALLY INTERESTING!!

 The typical Irish dance:

8.SOME USEFUL SITES ABOUT IRELAND

DICOVER IRELAND CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE:

DISCOVER IRELAND ON THE WEB:

In Spanish: http://www.discoverireland.com/es/

In English: http://www.discoverireland.com/

FIND IRELAND IN FACEBOOK (CLICK ON THE IMAGE)

FIND THEM IN TWITTER (CLICK ON THE IMAGE)

So I wish you a:



 

DOWNLOAD THIS WORKSHEET, DO IT AND LEARN ABOUT IRELAND

86427_tsaveculture-3_mgm-33538.pdf

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

Here you have two videos about two houses in the USA with Christmas decoration synchronized to the song "Wizards of Winter", enjoy!!// Aquí teneis dos vídeos de dos casas en Estados Unidos con luces sincronizadas con la canción "magos del invierno", ¡disfrutad!

In this one  the lights are dancing to the Coke Christmas music song.// En este otro vídeo la luces van al ritmo de una canción navideña de Coca-Cola:

To have an idea about how American families decorate their houses, here you have this video where some people record what they see while travelling by car through their neighbourhood , just amazing!!!
Para que tengais una idea de cómo las familias americanas decoran sus casas, aquí teneis este vídeo que unas personas grabaron lo que veían mientras conducían en coche por su barrio, ¿¿simplemente una locura!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

WHO IS REALLY ST CLAUS??// ¿QUIÉN ES REALMENTE SANTA CLAUS??
The real St. Claus was really St.Nicholas, he lived in Turkey, he was a bishop in the
early 4th century. He helped the poor and those in need . He is a very popular saint in England where there are 400 churches of St. Nicholas. The Dutch transformed him into a Christmas gift-giver, and Dutch settlers brought the story to America where his name became the familiar Santa Claus.
In the USA the Coke company transformed him into what we have nowadays.
//El verdadero Santa Claus fue en realidad San Nicolás, vivió en Turquía, fue un obispo a principios del siglo 4º. Ayudó a los pobres y a aquellos que lo necesitaban. Es un santo muy conocido en Inglaterra donde hay cerca de 400 iglesias de San Nicolás. Los Holandeses transformaron su imagen en la de una persona que daba regalos en navidad, y los colonos holandeses que fueron a América llevaron su historia allí, donde se convirtió en el entrañable Santa Claus. Más tarde la compañía Coca-Cola lo transformó en lo que conocemos hoy en día.

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE// EL PRIMER ÁRBOL DE NAVIDAD.

The first Christmas tree is dated in the VIII century, the British missionary San Boniface wanted to show the German druids that roubles were not sacred, so he cut one, the tree fell and broke many other trees except a small abet, San Boniface thought it was a miracle, and from that moment Christian people used Christmas trees.
// El primer árbol de navidad data del siglo 8º, el misionario Británico llamado San Bonifacio quiso mostrar a los druidas alemanes que los robles no eran seres sagrados, asi que cortó un árbol que cayó y rompió otros muchos árboles excepto un pequeño abeto. San Bonifació creyó que era un milagro y desde ese momento los cristianos usan los árboles de navidad.

A CHRISTMAS TREE

ST BONIFACE

 Nowadays there are lots of Christmas trees around the world, the most popular ones are: the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square in London, and the tree in Rockefeller Center in New York.
People watch the lighting of those trees on TV, from that moment Christmas time is considered to start.
Hoy en día hay muchos árboles de navidad en todo el mundo, los más populares son: árbol de navidad en la plaza de Trafalgas (Londres) y el árbol del centro Rockefeller en Nueva York. La gente ve por televisión su iluminación, desde ese momento se considera que la navidad ha comenzado.

Rockefeller Plaza Christmas Tree Lighting 2011 (New York-USA) NBC TV:

 Trafalgar Square christmas tree installation 2011:

WHAT IS BOXING DAY?//¿QUÉ ES BOXING DAY=DÍA DE LAS CAJAS?
In England Boxing Day is celebrated on December 26th, is traditionally a time to give gifts friends and family.
In the UK Boxing Day is still a public holiday, some shops and supermarkets open nowadays, but banks and most offices remain closed.
// En Inglaterra "Boxing Day" se celebra el 26 de diciembre, es un momento en el que se dan regalos a familiares y amigos.
En el Reino Unido es un día de fiesta y aunque algunos supermercados y tiendas abren, los bancos y oficinas permanecen cerrados.

WHAT IS A CHRISTMAS CRACKER?//¿QUÉ ES UN CRAKER?
Christmas Crackers is a part of the traditional British Christmas since1847, they are
used to decorate the table at dinner.
It is a small cardboard tube covered in a brightly coloured paper. When the cracker
is 'pulled' by two people it creates a small explosion. Inside the cracker there is usually a tissue paper hat, a balloon, a very joke and a small gift. Only after opening thecracker, the meal begins.
Los crackers de navidad forman parte de las navidades británicas desde 1847, se utilizan para decorar la mesa durante la cena.
Consiste en un pequeño tubo decorado con papel de colores, cuando dos personas tiran de ambos extremos se crea una pequeña explosión. Dentro podemos encontrar un gorro de papel, un globo, un chiste y un pequeño regalo. Sólo podrá comenzar la cena o comida de navidad cuando los crackers estén abiertos.

Home made video about Christmas Crackers//Vídeo casero sobre los crakers:

http://youtu.be/b4hd1nkTc_w

WHAT IS THE TWELVE CHRISTMAS DAYS??/ ¿QUÉ SON LOS DOCE DÍAS DE NAVIDAD?

It took 12 days for the three wise men to find baby Jesus. They start the 25th December and end the 6th January. You should take out all the Christmas decorations after the 12 Christmas days or you will have bad luck.
// Los Reyes Magos tardaron 12 días en encontrar  al niño Jesús. Comienzan el 25 de diciembre y acaba el 6 de enero. Se debe retirar toda la decoración navideña después de esos 12 días o tendrás un año de mala suerte.

 There is also  Christmas Carol about it// Hay un villancico sobre ello.

OTHER POPULAR CAROLS// OTROS VILLANCICOS POPULARES:

1.SLEIGH RIDE
http://youtu.be/IsYUdWMARwA

2.FROSTY THE SNOWMAN

3.SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN:

4.RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER:



OTHER CHRISTMAS SYMBOLS//OTROS SÍMBOLOS NAVIDEÑOS:

1.FROSTY THE SNOWMAN//FROSTY EL MUÑECO DE NIEVE

RUDOLPH THE REINDEER//RUDOLPH EL RENO DE SANTA CLAUS.

so.......// asi que-----