Teaching & Learning
"Stay hungry. Stay foolish." Steve Jobs, from The Whole Earth Catalog
Tuesday, 1 April 2025
Monday, 17 March 2025
Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
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St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, the
saint's religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth
century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1,000
years. On St. Patrick's Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent,
Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate
in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were
waived and people would dance, drink and feast--on the traditional meal of Irish
bacon and cabbage.
Saint Patrick, who lived during the fifth century, is
the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland. Born in Roman Britain, he was
kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16. He later escaped,
but returned to Ireland and was credited with bringing Christianity to its
people. In the centuries following Patrick's death (believed to have been on
March 17, 461), the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained
in the Irish culture.
Since around the
ninth or 10th century, people in Ireland have been observing the Roman Catholic
feast day of St. Patrick on March 17. Interestingly, however, the first parade
held to honor St. Patrick's Day took place not in Ireland but in the United
States. On March 17, 1762, Irish soldiers serving in the English military
marched through New York City. Along with their music, the parade helped the
soldiers reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as with fellow Irishmen
serving in the English army.
Tradition
Originally, the
colour associated with Saint Patrick was blue. Over the years the colour green
and its association with Saint Patrick's day grew. Green ribbons and shamrocks
were worn in celebration of St Patrick's Day as early as the 17th century. Saint
Patrick is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the
Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish, and the wearing and display of shamrocks and
shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the day. In the
1798 rebellion, to make a political statement, Irish soldiers wore full green
uniforms on 17 March in hopes of catching public attention. The phrase
"the wearing of the green", meaning to wear a shamrock on one's
clothing, derives from a song of the same name.
St. Patrick's Day around the World
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Sydney Opera House lit up for St. Patrick's Day @ Wikipedia |
Today, people of all backgrounds celebrate St.
Patrick's Day, especially throughout the United States, Canada and Australia.
Although North America is home to the largest productions, St. Patrick's Day is
celebrated in many other locations far from Ireland, including Japan, Singapore
and Russia.
In modern-day
Ireland, St. Patrick's Day was traditionally been a religious occasion. In
fact, up until the 1970s, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17.
Beginning in 1995, however, the Irish government began a national campaign to
use interest in St. Patrick's Day to drive tourism and showcase Ireland and
Irish culture to the rest of the world. Today, approximately 1 million people
annually take part in Ireland 's St. Patrick's Festival in Dublin, a multi-day
celebration featuring parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions and
fireworks shows.
Saturday, 8 March 2025
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Wednesday, 1 January 2025
New Year's Eve Fireworks 2024
Do enjoy the most special fireworks of them all.
HAPPY NEW YEAR... with health, love and peace!
Tuesday, 24 December 2024
Have yourself a very Merry Christmas!
Oh my love
We've had
our share of tears
Oh my
friends
We've had
our hopes and fears
Oh my
friends
It's been a
long hard year
But now
it's Christmas
Yes, it's
Christmas
Thank God
it's Christmas
The moon
and stars seem awful cold and bright
Let's hope
The snow
will make this Christmas right
My friend
the world
Will share
this special night
Because
it's Christmas
Yes it's
Christmas
Thank God
it's Christmas
For
One
Night...
To all our
readers and visitors, the warmest wishes of a very
MERRY
CHRISTMAS, this year, every year!
Thursday, 19 December 2024
The History of Christmas Carols
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Credits: Vlad Vasnetsov por Pixabay |
The act of traveling to different homes comes from a different tradition altogether, albeit a similarly ancient one. In England, the word wassail — derived from the Old Norse ves heill meaning "be well, and in good health" — came to mean the wishing of good fortune on your neighbors. No one is quite sure when the custom began, but it did give us the song, "Here We Come-A-Wassailing" — sung as carolers wished good cheer to their neighbors in hopes of getting a gift in return. ("A Wassailing" also evolved into the popular "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" — its last verse, "Bring us some figgy pudding" stems from the wassailers' original intent.)
The two traditions of singing and visiting first merged in Victorian England, as church carols began to merge with Christian folk music. At that time, it was far from a Christmas tradition; festivals like May Day were deemed worthy of caroling, too, but the repertoire as well as early records of this are pretty unclear. In the 19th Century, as Christmas became more commercialized and popular, publishers began churning out anthologies of carols, many which were ancient hymns, also circulating them in broadsheets.
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Credits: Karen Arnold por Pixabay |
Many of our today's most popular carols date to this period. Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern published in London by British lawyer William B. Sandys in 1833, was the first to print "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "The First Noel" and "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing." "Joy to the World" first appeared in the Anglican Church hymnalHymns Ancient and Modern in 1861. Composed by Isaac Watts, known as the "father of Englsh hymnody", the song actually wasn't written exclusively for singing at Christmastime. Charles Wesley's "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" was originally "Hark! How All The Welkin Rings!" (Welkin means sky or heaven, and came to mean making a loud sound.)
The Oxford Book of Carols, first published in 1928, was a landmark book that combined medieval carols, folk songs and Christmas songs from around the world, publishing 201 of them in a 700-page volume. An updated version, the New Oxford Book of Carols, was published in 1992. Ubiquitous holiday TV ads to the contrary, American caroling is far less common than it used to be, says Bob Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University. It's not unusual to see carolers standing still in a shopping mall or churchyard, but as for the random groups of friends traipsing to your doorstep for singing, don't count on it. "You talk to most baby boomers they might have a caroling story or two," says Thompson. "Talk to anybody born after 1960 or so and it's become much less common." Simply put, times and culture have changed. "The singing of Christmas carols at a stranger's door assumes a similarity of culture among carolers and audience," says Chris Brunelle, an assistant professor of classics at St. Olaf college. With America a far more diverse and less homogenous society than it was in caroling's heyday, that's a larger assumption than many are comfortable with. Still, most of us probably agree about the egg nog.
In Time World
Saturday, 14 December 2024
Friday, 6 December 2024
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