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By Cauly 1.) In the Ukraine, if you find a spider web in the house on Christmas morning, it is believed to be a harbinger of good luck! There once lived a woman so poor, says a Ukrainian folk tale, that she could not afford Christmas decorations for her family. One Christmas morning, she awoke to find that spiders had trimmed her children�s tree with their webs. When the morning sun shone on them, the webs turned to silver and gold. An artificial spider and web are often included in the decorations on Ukrainian Christmas trees. 2.) At Christmas, it is traditional to exchange kisses beneath the mistletoe tree. In ancient Scandinavia, mistletoe was associated with peace and friendship. That may account for the custom of "kissing beneath the mistletoe". 3). In many households, part of the fun of eating Christmas pudding is finding a trinket that predicts your fortune for the coming year. For instance, finding a coin means you will become wealthy. A ring means you will get married; while a button predicts bachelorhood. The idea of hiding something in the pudding comes from the tradition in the Middle Ages of hiding a bean in a cake that was served on Twelfth Night. Whoever found the bean became "king" for the rest of the night. |
| Interesting Facts About Chirstmas |
| 4.) Frumenty was a spiced porridge, enjoyed by both rich and poor. It was a forerunner of modern Christmas puddings. It is linked in legend to the Celtic god Dagda, who stirred a porridge made up of all the good things of the earth.
5.) In Greek legend, malicious creatures called Kallikantzaroi sometimes play troublesome pranks at Christmas time. In order to get rid of them, salt or an old shoe is burnt. The pungent burning stench drives off, or at least helps discourage, the Kallikantzaroi. Other techniques include hanging a pig�s jawbone by the door and keeping a large fire so they can�t sneak down the chimney. 6.) The poinsettia is a traditional Christmas flower. In Mexico (its original birthplace), the poinsettia is known as the "Flower of the Holy Night". |
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| 7.) Louis Prang, a Bavarian-born lithographer who came to the USA from Germany in the 19th century, popularized the sending of printed Christmas cards. He invented a way of reproducing color oil paintings, the "chromolithograph technique", and created a card with the message "Merry Christmas" as a way of showing it off.
8.) The "Urn of Fate" is part of the Christmas celebrations in many Italian households. The Urn of Fate is brought out on Christmas Eve. It holds a wrapped present for everyone. The mother tries her luck first, then the others in turn. If you get a present with your name on it, you keep it; otherwise, you put it back and try again. 9.) In Sweden, a common Christmas decoration is the Julbukk, a small figurine of a goat. It is usually made of straw. Scandinavian Christmas festivities feature a variety of straw decorations in the form of stars, angels, hearts and other shapes, as well as the Julbukk. |
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| New Library Opens A Slytherin With much fanfare and a long waiting period, finally the new library opened! Let me tell you it is WAY better then the old one. First it's much easier to navigate and find books and secondly, there is room to RP, review books, and start conversations with those of simliar tastes. I like this library as already there are 'book reviews' posted so you can see if you might be interested in reading the book, and there is no hassel of taking a book out and forgetting to return it! Its also easier to get books published and from the ones I seen there, some students put a lot of work into their books! I would suggest visiting the new library and either read a book, review a book, and make a new book to add to the all ready great collection! |
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| First Term Teaching
Professor Ripley Since Professor Lunar is having her first term teaching fulltime, I thought to ask her a few questions and gage how she is liking it so far, here are the questions and answers. ~ This is your first school term teaching, how have the students been? Well most of them have been great to me, and all of them welcomed me. So I feel very welcomed ~ Do you turn in your points weekly or bi-monthly? Erm, currently I am figuring out which way I should do it, I haven't got any homework from students, so when I get homework I will decide then. ~ What is the hardest part of teaching here? Updating the grade book I must say, I am a very forgetful person so yeah I forget sometimes to do these things ~ What is the easiest part of teaching here? Every part is easy, besides what I stated before. I love it here! ~ What advice would you give others who want to teach a class for the first time? Erm, bring lots and lots of paper to rant on. xDD |
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