Did you know that...?

“Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival. (…) It is a holiday celebrated primarily in Canada and the United States. (…) The traditional "first Thanksgiving" is venerated as having occurred at the site of Plymouth Plantation, in 1621.” (1)

In the USA Thanksgiving is always celebrated on the 4th Thursday in November.

“Thanksgiving is a time for tradition and sharing. Even if they live far away, family members gather for a reunion at the house of an older relative. All give thanks together for the good things that they have.
Turkey, corn (or maize), pumpkins and cranberry sauce are symbols which represent the first Thanksgiving." (2)

To find out how Thanksgiving began and to learn about some Thanksgiving traditions visit the following sites:
http://www.crewsnest.vispa.com/thanksgivingusa.htm
http://holidays.mrdonn.org/thanksgiving.html

Text sources:
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving
(2) http://www.crewsnest.vispa.com/thanksgivingusa.htm
Image source: Norman Rockwell ("Freedom from want", 1943)

BOO! Have a spooky Hallowe'en!

In the past, people believed the souls of dead people appeared on Halloween. Halloween, or Hallowe’en, is an international holiday celebrated on October 31. On that night children dress in costumes and go from house to house asking for sweets, especially in the US and Canada - that's called "trick or treat". Other Halloween activities are ghost tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving jack-o'-lanterns, reading scary stories and watching horror movies. Irish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century.

(Adapted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/ and http://www.ldoceonline.com/)  

Check out the following site for some fun Hallowe'en activities:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-themes-halloween.htm

If you want to know more about Hallowe’en traditions and how Hallowe’en spread around the world, just visit

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

And why don't you send your friends a Hallowe'en e-card? There are plenty to choose from at 

http://www.garfield.com/cards/card_holiday_halloween.html
http://www.care2.com/send/cathallow1.html

Did you know that...?

- "In Eastern countries and in South America many people wear shoes made from old car tyres.
- In 1897 a paper maker made horseshoes from recycled paper!
- In Trinidad, West Indies, old steel oil drums are used to play the local music.
- Each milk bottle brought by the milkman in Britain can be re-used 30 times."                                 Source: Teen Time 2, Porto Editora

Just in case you're interested in learning how to make sandals from car tyres, check out the following tutorial:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Blown-Tire-Shoes/

And don't forget that you can always make something useful or artisitic from recycled materials instead of dumping them. Just allow your imagination to run wild...

Image credits: 

 http://www.ecostreet.com/blog/eco-diy/2008/03/11/eco-diy-turn-your-old-tyres-into-new-sandals/

Did you know that...?

"Scrooge McDuck or Uncle Scrooge is a fictional Scottish Glaswegian anthropomorphic duck created by Carl Barks that first appeared in Four Color Comics #178 published by Dell Comics in December, 1947.

Over the decades, Scrooge has emerged from being a mere supporting character to a major figure of the Duck universe. In 1952, he was given his own comic book series, Uncle Scrooge, which still runs today. As the character's popularity rose, he appeared in various television specials, films, and video games.

Scrooge's name is based on that of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, the main character from Charles Dickens' 1843 novel A Christmas Carol. Although never explicitly confirmed by Barks, it is theorized that Scottish industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who left his country for America at 13, served as a model for Uncle Scrooge.

Scrooge had worked his way up the financial ladder from humble immigrant roots. Born in Glasgow, Scotland he made a living shining boots, and was enraged when a ditchdigger paid him with a US dime. However, the coin inspires him to take a position as cabin boy on a Clyde cattle ship to the United States to make his fortune.

He keeps a portion of his wealth, that money he has personally earned himself, in a massive Money Bin overlooking the city of Duckburg, which he explains to his nephews, in the short Scrooge McDuck and Money, is "just petty cash.""

If you like Uncle Scrooge, then you can find more about him by visiting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrooge_McDuck

Text source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrooge_McDuck

Top image credits: "Scrooge McDuck, the Richest Duck in the World", by Carl Barks. Bottom image credits: A panel from an Uncle Scrooge comic by Jack Bradbury

Expand your vocabulary - British English vs. American English

Autumn or fall? Well, actually both words are correct when you want to refer to the "the season between summer and winter, when leaves change colour and the weather becomes cooler"(http://www.ldoceonline.com/)

However, British people say "autumn" whereas Americans usually say "fall".