CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

REMEMBRANCE DAY- POPPY DAY

POPPY DAY

November is the time of the year when the British wear a red poppy in memory of those who sacrificed their lives for them during wars.

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month marks the signing of the Armistice, on 11th November 1918, to signal the end of World War One.

Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day after the Second World War.

Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day, because it is traditional to wear an artificial poppy. They are sold by the Royal British Legion, a charity dedicated to helping war veterans.

OSCAR WILDE

COLUMBUS DAY

What is Columbus Day all about?

Celebrated the second Monday of October, Columbus Day is day set aside to commemorate Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Americas on October 12, 1492. It is also a day to celebrate the role Italian immigrants have played in making the United States great.

How did Columbus Day become a holiday?

Three hundred years passed between Columbus's discovery of the America and the first known celebration of that discovery. In 1792, a group called the Colombian Order organized a ceremony in New York City to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the new world. After the Civil War, a group of Italian immigrants in New York organized the first real celebration of that discovery. In the years that followed, other groups of Italian immigrants did likewise.

What makes Columbus Day controversial?

Although Columbus Day continues to be a national holiday, it is not without controversy. Some biographers have described Columbus's initial mission as a quest "for gold, for God, and for glory." Yet somewhere along the way, something went tragically awry. As Columbus set his sights on the riches the New World had to offer, his professed concern for the souls of the natives seemingly vanished. First came the enslavery of native populations, then genocide. Within four years of the time Columbus set foot on San Salvadorian soil, his men had killed or exported a full third of the native population. Columbus's own journals include graphic accounts of torture and violence perpetrated against the men, women, and children who greeted him in peace. Four decades of such exploitation resulted in the culture's virtual extinction.

SESAME STREET NEWS FLASH: CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

Stonehenge and Solstices

June 21 is called the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and simultaneously the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. Around December 21 the solstices are reversed and winter begins in the northern hemisphere.

Solstice participants wait for the midsummer sun to rise over the megalithic monument of Stonehenge on June 21, on Salisbury Plain, England. Crowds gathered at the 5,000 year old stone circle to celebrate the Summer Solstice; the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

APRIL 23rd. St. GEORGE´S DAY: ENGLAND´S NATIONAL DAY

St. George is the patron saint of England. His emblem, a red cross on a white background, is the flag of England, and part of the British flag.

One of the best-known stories about St. George is his fight with a dragon.

THE LEGEND OF St. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON

A dragon lived by a lake near Silena in Libya. The monster ate two sheep each day; when there were no sheep, women were used. When a princess was to be eaten, George rode into battle against the dragon and killed it with a single blow of his lance. George then converted the local people to Christianity.

April 23rd was supposedly the day on which St. George was publicly beheaded, after a Roman emperor passed a death sentence on all Christians. He became the patron saint of England 14th century with King Edward III.

ENGLAND CELEBRATES St. GEORGE´S DAY

By tradition, April 23rd is the day for a red rose (the national flower) in the button hole.

For most people in England, St George´s Day is just an ordinary day.

ENGLAND AND St. GEORGE

April Fools' Day