THANKSGIVING

THANKSGIVING DAY is the 4th Thursday of November. This is the most important CELEBRATION in the US.It's even more important than CHRISTMAS since this is a Christian celebration and not everybody in the country are Christians. On THANKSGIVING DAY, People in the US have a long weekend and travel to meet their families. They eat ROAST TURKEY.
This celebration started a long time ago when the PILGRIMS who had come from England collected the 1st HARVEST and decided to gather together and invite the Indians who had helped them to survive to have a meal together.
Here are a couple of PILGRIM SQUIRRELS, which I bought in Williamstown in 1993. They are SALT & PEPPER SHAKERS.  You can buy anything related to THANKSGIVING in all the shops in the country these days.

If you want to have more information about this celebration, check the Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

This website is very interesting to know more about the PILGRIMS:

THE PILGRIMS

And the following video explains very clearly this celebration: 

THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS

GUY FAWKES NIGHT

Today is GUY FAWKES NIGHT. It's a festival celebrated in Britain. It's also called BONFIRE NIGHT, CRACKER NIGHT AND FIREWORKS NIGHT. As you can imagine, there are bonfires and fireworks in many places. This festival commemorates the failure of the GUNPOWDER PLOT. In 1605 a group of Catholics tried to blow up Westminster Palace and kill King James I. Guy Fawkes was of of those men. Nowadays people make cloth "Guys" and burn them in the bonfires. Children also carry "Guys" with them and go out asking for "a penny for the Guy". They also say this rhyme:

"Remember remember the 5th of November
Gunpowder Treason &Plot
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot"

HALLOWEEN ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN

Activity for Sergio & his friends: Tomorrow is Halloween. Have you made a Jack O'Lantern this year?. Here are some links you can click to do activities related to Halloween.
Enjoy them:
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/halloween/

http://bogglesworldesl.com/halloween_worksheets.htm

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/halloween.htm

A BLOG TO RECOMMEND: HALLOWEEN RECIPES

Some Mums at my children' school have done a fantastic blog called "Estudiando con ellos". which is helping me to work with my son at home. Today I've seen a great post with recipes for Halloween written by Marivi. Have a look at it. It's worthwhile:

http://estudiandoconellos2013.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Halloween

Happy Halloween!!!

HALLOWEEN

HALLOWEEN is an important CELEBRATION in English speaking countries. It's celebrated on the night of October the 31st. It has a Celtic origin.The Celts used to celebrate the end of the Summer on a festival called Samhain. The word Halloween  comes from the expression All Hallows Eve, which means the day before the dead. Then it was associated to the Christian celebration of All Saints' Day, which is on November the 1st.

The Irish and Scottish immigrants took the celebration to the United States, where it became so popular and now with the globalization it is EVEN celebrated in Spain. People only want to have fun so it is a great excuse for that.

How do people celebrate Halloween? Well, children are the protagonists. They wear HORROR COSTUMES related to the dead and witchcraft: GHOSTS, SKELETONS, WITCHES, VAMPIRES. In the evening they go out in groups and play TRICK OR TREAT. People give them sweets otherwise the children will play a trick on them!

People decorate their houses with a JACK O'LANTERN, which is an empty PUMPKIN with a candle inside. In fact there are Jack O'Lanterns and other decorations everywhere. Not only in homes but in shops & the streets. You can see BLACK CATS, BATS and orange PUMPKINS all around.

Adults also go to parties at night and they wear costumes too.

Children eat CANDY APPLES. People also make PUMPKIN PIES and PUMPKIN BREAD, which are delicious.

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!

JAVIER REVERTE'S SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Javier Reverte is a Spanish journalist and writer. He loves travelling and his travel books have given him fame and good reviews but he also writes novels, poems, scripts for TV and short essays.

He was born in Madrid in 1944. He studied journalism and philosophy. He has worked as a journalist and newspaper correspondent for over 20 years.

He considers himself as a writer who travels. He loves travelling as a passion and he has travelled widely and deeply all over the world. In his books  he describes his experiences as a traveller together with a careful analysis of the history of the places he visits. He also gives the readers information about the lives of unforgettable travellers and explorers. His narrative is fresh and vivid. The reader can feel the heat of Africa, the cold of the North Pole, the sound of the sea from a ship. Among his travel books we can  highlight Trilogía de Africa (El sueño de Africa, Vagabundo en Africa and Los caminos perdidos de Africa), El corazón de Ulises ( a trip to Greece, Turkey and Egypt), La Aventura de viajar, El río de la desolación (a trip on the Amazon river), El río de la luz ( a trip in Alaska and Canada rafting the Yukon river), En mares salvajes ( a trip to the Artic Ocean crossing the Northwest Passage). Colinas que arden, lagos de fuego (Africa, again), which I have enjoyed too.
His last travel book that has been published is Canta Irlanda, which is a book that reflects the personality and the poetry of Ireland wonderfully. I think that we both have in common the love for Ireland.

He has also written novels such as the Trilogía de Centroamérica, Muerte a destiempo, La noche detenida, Todos los sueños del mundo, Venga a nosotros tu reino, Barrio Cero (superb!), La canción de Mbama (magical). He has been awarded with several literature prizes.

If I had another life, I'd like to be a travel writer like him with his skill for getting the reader in the place and make us travel with our imagination, which is an interesting way of travelling, too.