THE LEGEND OF ST. NICHOLAS

The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. One of the best known of the St. Nicholas stories is that he saved three poor sisters from being sold into slavery or prostitution by their father by providing them with a dowry so that they could be married. Over the course of many years, Nicholas’s popularity spread and he became known as the protector of children and sailors. His feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, December 6. This was traditionally considered a lucky day to make large purchases or to get married. By the Renaissance, St. Nicholas was the most popular saint in Europe. Even after the Protestant Reformation, when the veneration of saints began to be discouraged, St. Nicholas maintained a positive reputation, especially in Holland.

SINTER KLAAS COMES TO NEW YORK

St. Nicholas made his first inroads into American popular culture towards the end of the 18th century. In December 1773, and again in 1774, a New York newspaper reported that groups of Dutch families had gathered to honor the anniversary of his death.

The name Santa Claus evolved from Nick’s Dutch nickname, Sinter Klaas, a shortened form of Sint Nikolaas (Dutch for Saint Nicholas). In 1804, John Pintard, a member of the New York Historical Society, distributed woodcuts of St. Nicholas at the society’s annual meeting. The background of the engraving contains now-familiar Santa images including stockings filled with toys and fruit hung over a fireplace. In 1809, Washington Irving helped to popularize the Sinter Klaas stories when he referred to St. Nicholas as the patron saint of New York in his book, The History of New York. As his prominence grew, Sinter Klaas was described as everything from a “rascal” with a blue three-cornered hat, red waistcoat, and yellow stockings to a man wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a “huge pair of Flemish trunk hose.”

SHOPPING MALL SANTAS

Gift-giving, mainly centered around children, has been an important part of the Christmas celebration since the holiday’s rejuvenation in the early 19th century. Stores began to advertise Christmas shopping in 1820, and by the 1840s, newspapers were creating separate sections for holiday advertisements, which often featured images of the newly-popular Santa Claus. In 1841, thousands of children visited a Philadelphia shop to see a life-size Santa Claus model. It was only a matter of time before stores began to attract children, and their parents, with the lure of a peek at a “live” Santa Claus. In the early 1890s, the Salvation Army needed money to pay for the free Christmas meals they provided to needy families. They began dressing up unemployed men in Santa Claus suits and sending them into the streets of New York to solicit donations. Those familiar Salvation Army Santas have been ringing bells on the street corners of American cities ever since.

‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore, an Episcopal minister, wrote a long Christmas poem for his three daughters entitled “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas.” Moore’s poem, which he was initially hesitant to publish due to the frivolous nature of its subject, is largely responsible for our modern image of Santa Claus as a “right jolly old elf” with a portly figure and the supernatural ability to ascend a chimney with a mere nod of his head! Although some of Moore’s imagery was probably borrowed from other sources, his poem helped popularize the now-familiar image of a Santa Claus who flew from house to house on Christmas Eve–in “a miniature sleigh” led by eight flying reindeer–leaving presents for deserving children. “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” created a new and immediately popular American icon. In 1881, political cartoonist Thomas Nast drew on Moore’s poem to create the first likeness that matches our modern image of Santa Claus. His cartoon, which appeared in Harper’s Weekly, depicted Santa as a rotund, cheerful man with a full, white beard, holding a sack laden with toys for lucky children. It is Nast who gave Santa his bright red suit trimmed with white fur, North Pole workshop, elves, and his wife, Mrs. Claus.

A SANTA BY ANY OTHER NAME

18th-century America’s Santa Claus was not the only St. Nicholas-inspired gift-giver to make an appearance at Christmastime. Similar figures were popular all over the world. Christkind or Kris Kringle was believed to deliver presents to well-behaved Swiss and German children. Meaning “Christ child,” Christkind is an angel-like figure often accompanied by St. Nicholas on his holiday missions. In Scandinavia, a jolly elf named Jultomten was thought to deliver gifts in a sleigh drawn by goats. English legend explains that Father Christmas visits each home on Christmas Eve to fill children’s stockings with holiday treats. Pere Noel is responsible for filling the shoes of French children. In Russia, it is believed that an elderly woman named Babouschka purposely gave the wise men wrong directions to Bethlehem so that they couldn’t find Jesus. Later, she felt remorseful, but could not find the men to undo the damage. To this day, on January 5, Babouschka visits Russian children leaving gifts at their bedsides in the hope that one of them is the baby Jesus and she will be forgiven. In Italy, a similar story exists about a woman called La Befana, a kindly witch who rides a broomstick down the chimneys of Italian homes to deliver toys into the stockings of lucky children.

Most students least favourite activity is writing. Even so, you can still score well on the tests writing section if you pay attention to the following tips.

Writing an Essay

Writing an Essay

What is the writing stage?

The writing stage is when you turn your ideas into sentences. 
Five Writing Steps:
1.   For the introduction, write the thesis statement and give some background information.
2.   Develop each supporting paragraph and make sure to follow the correct paragraph format.

3.   Write clear and simple sentences to express your meaning.
4.   Focus on the main idea of your essay.
5.   Use a dictionary to help you find additional words to express your meaning if you are allowed.

Parts of an Essay

Introduction Paragraph
What is an introduction paragraph?
The introduction paragraph is the first paragraph of your essay. 

What does it do?
It introduces the main idea of your essay. A good opening paragraph captures the interest of your reader and tells why your topic is important. 

How do I write one? 

1.    Write the thesis statement. The main idea of the essay is stated in a single sentence called the thesis statement. You must limit your entire essay to the topic you have introduced in your thesis statement. 

2.    Provide some background information about your topic. You can use interesting facts, quotations, or definitions of important terms you will use later in the essay. 

Example:

Hockey has been a part of life in Canada for over 120 years. It has evolved into an extremely popular sport watched and played by millions of Canadians. The game has gone through several changes since hockey was first played in Canada. 
Supporting Paragraphs

What are supporting paragraphs?
Supporting paragraphs make up the main body of your essay. 

What do they do?
They develop the main idea of your essay. 

How do I write them? 

1.    List the points that develop the main idea of your essay.
2.    Place each supporting point in its own paragraph.
3.    Develop each supporting point with facts, details, and examples.

To connect your supporting paragraphs, you should use special transition words. Transition words link your paragraphs together and make your essay easier to read. Use them at the beginning and end of your paragraphs. 

Examples of transition words that can help you to link your paragraphs together:

For listing different points

·         First

·         Second

·         Third

For counter examples

·         However

·         Even though

·         On the other hand

·         Nevertheless

For additional ideas

·         Another

·         In addition to

·         Related to

·         Furthermore

·         Also

To show cause and effect

·         Therefore

·         Thus

·         As a result of

·         Consequently

Like all good paragraphs, each supporting paragraph should have a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a summary sentence. 

Summary Paragraph

What is a summary paragraph?
The summary paragraph comes at the end of your essay after you have finished developing your ideas. The summary paragraph is often called a "conclusion." 

What does it do?
It summarizes or restates the main idea of the essay. You want to leave the reader with a sense that your essay is complete. 

How do I write one?

1.    Restate the strongest points of your essay that support your main idea. 
2.    Conclude your essay by restating the main idea in different words. 
3.    Give your personal opinion or suggest a plan for action. 

Example:

Overall, the changes that occurred in hockey have helped to improve the game. Hockey is faster and more exciting as a result of changes in the past 120 years. For these reasons, modern hockey is a better game than hockey in the 1890s. 

THANKSGIVING AT PLYMOUTH

In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World. After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.

Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English. Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years and tragically remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans.

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time—the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists of the historic banquet’s exact menu, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow wrote in his journal that Governor Bradford sent four men on a “fowling” mission in preparation for the event, and that the Wampanoag guests arrived bearing five deer. Historians have suggested that many of the dishes were likely prepared using traditional Native American spices and cooking methods. Because the Pilgrims had no oven and the Mayflower’s sugar supply had dwindled by the fall of 1621, the meal did not feature pies, cakes or other desserts, which have become a hallmark of contemporary celebrations..

THANKSGIVING BECOMES AN OFFICIAL HOLIDAY

Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 to mark the end of a long drought that had threatened the year’s harvest and prompted Governor Bradford to call for a religious fast. Days of fasting and thanksgiving on an annual or occasional basis became common practice in other New England settlements as well. During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress designated one or more days of thanksgiving a year, and in 1789 George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government of the United States; in it, he called upon Americans to express their gratitude for the happy conclusion to the country’s war of independence and the successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution. His successors John Adams and James Madison also designated days of thanks during their presidencies.

In 1817, New York became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day, however, and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition. In 1827, the noted magazine editor and prolific writer Sarah Josepha Hale—author, among countless other things, of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”—launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. For 36 years, she published numerous editorials and sent scores of letters to governors, senators, presidents and other politicians. Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s plan, known derisively as Franksgiving, was met with passionate opposition, and in 1941 the president reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.

THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS

In many American households, the Thanksgiving celebration has lost much of its original religious significance; instead, it now centers on cooking and sharing a bountiful meal with family and friends. Turkey, a Thanksgiving staple so ubiquitous it has become all but synonymous with the holiday, may or may not have been on offer when the Pilgrims hosted the inaugural feast in 1621. Today, however, nearly 90 percent of Americans eat the bird—whether roasted, baked or deep-fried—on Thanksgiving, according to the National Turkey Federation. Other traditional foods include stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Volunteering is a common Thanksgiving Day activity, and communities often hold food drives and host free dinners for the less fortunate.

Parades have also become an integral part of the holiday in cities and towns across the United States. Presented by Macy’s department store since 1924, New York City’s Thanksgiving Day parade is the largest and most famous, attracting some 2 to 3 million spectators along its 2.5-mile route and drawing an enormous television audience. It typically features marching bands, performers, elaborate floats conveying various celebrities and giant balloons shaped like cartoon characters.

Every year in England we celebrate bonfire night or Guy Fawkes night on the 5^th of November. If you would like to know more then read on.

History of the Gunpowder Plot & Guy Fawkes Night

Four hundred years ago, in 1605, a man called Guy Fawkes and a group of plotters attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London with barrels of gunpowder placed in the basement. They wanted to kill King James and the king’s leaders. Houses of Parliament, London Why did Guy Fawkes want to kill King James 1st and the king’s leaders? When Queen Elizabeth 1st took the throne of England she made some laws against the Roman Catholics. Guy Fawkes was one of a small group of Catholics who felt that the government was treating Roman Catholics unfairly. They hoped that King James 1st would change the laws, but he didn't. Catholics had to practice their religion in secret. There were even fines for people who didn't attend the Protestant church on Sunday or on holy days. James lst passed more laws against the Catholics when he became king. What happened - the Gungpowder Plot A group of men led by Robert Catesby, plotted to kill King James and blow up the Houses of Parliament, the place where the laws that governed England were made. Guy Fawkes was one of a group of men The plot was simple - the next time Parliament was opened by King James l, they would blow up everyone there with gunpowder. The men bought a house next door to the parliament building. The house had a cellar which went under the parliament building. They planned to put gunpowder under the house and blow up parliament and the king. Guy Fawkes Discovered Guy Fawkes was given the job to keep watch over the barrels of gunpowder and to light the fuse. On the morning of 5th November, soldiers discovered Guy hidden in the cellar and arrested him. The trail of gunpowder at his feet would never be lit. Guy Fawkes was taken to the Tower of London. He was tortured and questioned about the other plotters. To start with he didn't tell the soldiers anything about the plot. But, eventually he started to tell the truth. A Celebration In celebration of his survival, King James ordered that the people of England should have a great bonfire on the night on 5th November. The event is still commemorated annually in England on 5th November by fireworks and burning ‘guys’ (effigies) on bonfires. The searching of the cellars of Parliament before the opening of each new session, however, was not introduced until 1678.

Every year on 5th November, the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes is remembered.

Throughout England, towns and villages.... light huge bonfires, let off magnificent fireworks, burn an effigy (a homemade model of a man, like a scarecrow) and celebrate the fact the Parliament and James I were not blown sky high by Guy Fawkes.

Why do we have Guys and Fireworks on Bonfire Night?

The Guy (effigy) is made out of old clothes stuffed with paper or straw. The Guy is a reminder of Guy Fawkes.

The fireworks are a reminder of the gunpowder Guy Fawkes hid in the cellar of Parliament.

Traditional Bonfire Night Food

As well as burning effigy of Guy Fawkes, the bonfires are used to cook potatoes wrapped in foil and to heat up soup for the crowds that come to watch the fireworks

The traditional cake eaten on bonfire night is Parkin Cake, a sticky cake containing a mix of oatmeal, ginger, treacle and syrup.

Other foods include sausages cooked over the flames and marshmallows toasted in the fire.

Firework Displays

In main town and cities, torch-lit processions are also popular on this night too. The procession leads to where the bonfire and firework displays are.

Phrasal verbs, idioms and sayings for Halloween

♦ witch-hunt - to go on a witch-hunt is to try and find and punish or harass people with unpopular opinions, usually because they are said to be dangerous to others.
 

♦ skeleton in the cupboard – a skeleton in the cupboard is something that might bring shame or embarrassment to a family or person if other people know about it.  

♦ spirit away – to spirit away something or somebody (or spirit something or somebody away), is to remove something or someone from a place quickly, secretly and mysteriously.
 

♦ makes one’s blood boil – if something makes your blood boil, it makes you angry. 

♦ out for one’s blood / after one’s blood – to be out for someone’s blood is to be determined to get revenge.

♦ put / stick the knife in – to do or say something very unpleasant or very unkind to someone.

♦ look daggers at – to look daggers at someone, is to look at them with hatred or anger.

♦ a night owl – a night owl is someone who likes being awake and active at night.  

♦ not a cat in hell’s chance – no chance at all. 

♦ scare the pants off someone - to scare the pants off someone is to frighten them a great deal

♦ Bedlam (noun) – uproar and confusion. 

♦ freak out – to freak out is to experience strong emotions and become excited or disturbed, or very angry or very upset. 

♦ ward off – if you ward off something unpleasant, you stop it from harming you or coming near to you.

ANCIENT ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. By the 9th century the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted the older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It is widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland’s potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition.

Mnemonic

Spelling Mnemonics
Aa mnemonic is a method of remembering something. It’s a memorising technique. For example in English we remember the music notes by Every Good Boy has A Football.

Characteristic sequence of letters

• I always comes before E (but after C, E comes before I)
  

In most words like friend, field, piece,pierce, mischief, thief, tier, it is “i“ which comes before “e“. But on some words with c just before the pair of e and i, like receive, perceive, “e“ comes before “i“. This can be remembered by the following mnemonic,

I before E, except after C

But this is not always obeyed as in case of weird and weigh,weight,height,neighbor etc. and can be remembered by extending that mnemonic as given below

I before E, except after C

Or when sounded “A” as in neighbor, weigh and weight

Or when sounded like “eye” as in height

And “weird” is just weird

• Where ever there is a Q there is a U too

Most frequently u follows q. e.g.: Que, queen, question, quack, quark, quartz, quarry, quit, Pique, torque, macaque, exchequer. Hence the mnemonic:

• When two vowels go walking the first does the talking
  

For words like “oat” or “eat”, here the second letter a is silent and first letter o and e respectively are pronounced in the examples

Letters of specific syllables in a word

• BELIEVE
  

Do not believe a lie.

• SECRETARY

A secretary must keep a secret

• PRINCIPAL

The principal is your pal.

• TEACHER

There is an ache in every teacher.

• MEASUREMENT

Be sure of your measurements before you start work.

• FRIEND

A friend is always there when the end comes.

Fri the end of your friend

When Friday ends, you go out with your friends.

• SPECIAL

The CIA have special agents

• BEAUTIFUL

Big Elephants Are Ugly

• SLAUGHTER

Slaughter is laughter with an S at the beginning.

• PIECES

Pieces of a pie

• ASSUME

When you assume, you make an ass of u and me.

• SEPARATE

Always smell a rat when you spell separate

There was a farmer named Sep and one day his wife saw a rat. She yelled, “Sep! A rat – E!!!”

Distinguishing between similar words

• Difference between Advice & Advise, Practice & Practise, Licence & License etc.

Advice, Practice, Licence etc. (those with c) are nouns and Advise, Practise, License etc. are verbs.

One way of remembering this is that the word ‘noun’ comes before the word ‘verb’ in the dictionary; likewise ‘c’ comes before ‘s’, so the nouns are ‘practice,licence,advice’ and the verbs are ‘practise,license,advise’.

• Here or Hear

We hear with our ear.

• Complement and Compliment

complement adds something to make it enough

compliment puts you in the limelight

• Principle and Principal

Your principal is your pal

A rule can be called a principle

• Sculpture and Sculptor

A sculpture is a kind of picture

• Stationary and stationery

Stationery contains er and so does paper; stationary (not moving) contains ar and so does car

A for “at rest”, e for envelope

First letter mnemonics of spelling

• DIARRHOEA

Dashing In A Rush, Running Harder Or Else Accident!

Dining In A Rough Restaurant: Hurry, Otherwise Expect Accidents!

Diarrhoea Is A Really Runny Heap Of Endless Amounts

• ARITHMETIC

A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream

A Red Indian Thought He Might Eat Tulips In Class

• NECESSARY

Not Every Cat Eats Sardines (Some Are Really Yummy)

Never Eat Crisps, Eat Salad Sandwiches, And Remain Young!

• BECAUSE

Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants

Big Elephants Cause Accidents Under Small Elephants

Big Elephants Can’t Always Use Small Exits

Big Elephants Can’t Always Use Small Entrances