Easter Holiday

Easter (Greek: Πάσχα, Pascha) is the most important religious feast (festa religiosa) in the Christian liturgical year. Christians believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead three days after his crucifixion, and celebrate this resurrection on Easter Day or Easter Sunday[ (also Resurrection Day or Resurrection Sunday), two days after Good Friday (Sexta-Feira Santa). The chronology of his death and resurrection is variously estimated between the years 26 and 36 A.D.

.
Easter also refers to the season of the church year called Eastertide or the Easter Season. Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day but now officially lasts for the fifty days until Pentecost. The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week or the Octave of Easter. Easter also marks the end of Lent, a season of prayer (orações) and penance (penitência).

.
Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. Easter falls at some point between late March and late April each year (early April to early May in Eastern Christianity), following the cycle of the moon. After several centuries of disagreement, all churches accepted the computation of the Alexandrian Church (now the Coptic Church) that Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon, which is the first moon whose 14th day (the ecclesiastic "full moon") is on or after March 21 (the ecclesiastic "vernal equinox").
Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover not only for much of its symbolism but also for its position in the calendar.

.
Many cultural elements, such as the Easter Bunny, have become part of the holiday's modern celebrations, and those aspects are often celebrated by many Christians and non-Christians alike.

.
Lights, candles (velas) and bonfires (fogueiras) mark celebrations in many countries. Roman Catholics often put the candles in the church out on Good Friday (Sexta-Feira Santa) and light them again with the Pascal Candle or Easter Candle, on Easter Day.

Eggs are a symbol of the new life that returns to nature at Easter Time. The custom of exchanging eggs began long before Easter was celebrated. It was a custom of the Egyptians and the Persians. They exchanged eggs decorated in Spring colors. They believed Earth hatched from an egg which contributed to this custom. Early Christians used red colored eggs to symbolize the Resurrection. In England they began writing messages and dates on their eggs and exchanging them with friends and loved ones. In the 1800's, candied eggs were made. They were open on one end and a scene was put inside. They were used as table centerpieces.

.

Rabbits symbolized new life and rebirth in ancient Egypt. They considered it a symbol of the moon as the moon determines the date of Easter. The Easter Bunny's visit is based upon a German Legend. The legend goes that a poor woman decorated eggs for her children to find during a famine. At the moment they found them, they looked up to see a big bunny hopping away.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a United States holiday marking the birth date of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., observed on the third Monday of January each year, around the time of King's birthday, January 15. It is one of four United States federal holidays to commemorate an individual person.

.
King was the chief spokesman of the nonviolent civil rights movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. He was assassinated in 1968.

.
The campaign for a federal holiday in King's honor began soon after his assassination. Ronald Regan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed in 1986. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2006.

.
Opposition to Honoring Dr King
America had only honored two individuals with national holidays - George Washington and Christopher Columbus and many felt there were more worthy people. A senator from Georgia even denounced Dr. King as a communist.

.
Others feared the King Holiday was meant as a way to make up to African-Americans for slavery. Senator Bob Dole pointed out to those critics '"I suggest they hurry back to their pocket calculators and estimate the cost of 300 years of slavery, followed by a century or more of economic, political and social exclusion and discrimination".

.
Senator Jesse Helms (Rep-North Carolina) led the opposition to the bill and questioned whether MKL was important enough to receive such an honor.
.
The King Center and the Song "Happy Birthday" from Stevie Wonder

While congress couldn’t decide, many African-Americans celebrated Dr King’s birthday themselves anyway. The King Center turned to support from the general public. Stevie Wonder wrote and released the single "Happy Birthday" to popularize the campaign in 1980. Six million signatures were collected for a petition to Congress to pass the law, termed by a 2006 article in The Nation as "the largest petition in favor of an issue in U.S. history.

.
20 January 2009 - Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama
This year Martin Luther King Day will set the scene for the historic presidential inauguration on 20 January 2009.

.
Maybe the realization of Dr King's dream is beginning.

THANKSGIVING DAY IN THE UNITED STATES

.

Day is celebrated with lot of fervor and merry-making in America. Celebrated on the fourth Thursday in the month of November every year, it is a time for communal thanksgiving, feeling gratitude, lavish feasts. It is a time to remember the pilgrims. The original pilgrims celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks. The feast popularly known as the 'First Thanksgiving Day Feast' was held as a gesture of thanks to almighty God . It was celebrated in the year 1621. After the United States gained independence, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate.

.

Tribute to Native Indians

Until recently, people believed Thanksgiving Day to be a celebration of pilgrims, offering food to Indians. It however is a day marked as a gesture of thanks and gratitude to Lord Almighty for his blessings. It is also a celebration to mark the respect towards Indians for teaching the pilgrims how to cook. Pilgrims could not have survived without the help of the native Indians.

.

Time for celebrating Traditional Harvest

Thanksgiving Day is a time of festivity, family meals and reunions in America. Carved turkeys, Pumpkin Pie, Corns, Cranberry Sauce are the traditional dishes adorning the dinner tables in almost every house. A time for feasting, Thanksgiving Day epitomizes the holiday mood of people.

.

Tradition of Gifting

Thanksgiving is a time for gifting your family and friends. The day is a time to show your gratitude and respect to your elders, friends, your siblings and also your colleagues. Popular gifts include thanksgiving flowers, jewellery, baked cookie hampers, chocolate gift baskets, candy-wreaths, wine etc.

.

Black Friday and Festive Spirit

Thanksgiving Day is the official beginning of the Christmas season. USA witnesses maximum sales volume on the very next day. The following Friday after thanksgiving is famously known as 'Black Friday'. This is so, because of the standard accounting practice of writing profits in black. The ongoing festive spirit, shopping spree, helps the shopkeepers to register maximum sales and profits. The entire atmosphere during the time is euphoric; people get in a holiday mood. Families visit restaurants, amusement parks, gift each other, decorate their house etc.

.
Vocabulary:

.
Lavish: adjective more than enough, especially if expensive; very generous
Feasts: noun [C] a day on which a religious event or person is remembered and celebrated
Pilgrims: noun [C] a person who makes a journey, which is often long and difficult, to a special place for religious reasons – (Nota: neste caso não foi o motive religioso que levou os Ingleses a emigrarem para o Novo Continente mas sim os altos impostos exigidos pela Coroa).
Autumn: Same as Fall (Outono)
Harvest: noun [C or U] the time of year when crops are cut and collected from the fields, or the activity of cutting and collecting them, or the crops which are cut and collected
Lord Almighty: Forma de referir-se a Deus Todo Poderoso
Blessings: verb [T] blessed or LITERARY blest, blessed or LITERARY blest to ask for God's help and protection for someone or something, or to call or make someone or something holy
Feasting: phrasal verb LITERARY to eat a lot of good food and enjoy it very much
Siblings: noun [C] FORMAL a brother or sister
Hampers: noun [C] a large rectangular container with a lid
Witnesses: noun [C] a person who sees an event happening, especially a crime or an accident
Shopping spree: shopping much more than normal
Shopkeepers: noun [C] (US USUALLY storekeeper) a person who owns and manages a small shop
Profits: to earn money from something

The Story of Halloween

October 31st, 2008

Halloween is one of the oldest holidays with origins going back thousands of years. The holiday we know as Halloween has had many influences from many cultures over the centuries. From the Roman's Pomona Day, to the Celtic festival of Samhain, to the Christian holidays of All Saints and All Souls Days.

Hundreds of years ago in what is now Great Britain and Northern France, lived the Celts. The Celts worshipped nature and had many gods, with the sun god as their favorite. It was "he" who commanded their work and their rest times, and who made the earth beautiful and the crops grow.

The Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1st. It was celebrated every year with a festival and marked the end of the "season of the sun" and the beginning of "the season of darkness and cold."

On October 31st after the crops were all harvested and stored for the long winter the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished. The Druids, the Celtic priests, would meet in the hilltop in the dark oak forest (oak trees were considered sacred). The Druids would light new fires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals. As they danced around the the fires, the season of the sun passed and the season of darkness would begin.

When the morning arrived the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family who would then take them home to start new cooking fires. These fires would keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits.

The November 1st festival was called Samhain (pronounced "sow-en"). The festival would last for 3 days. Many people would parade in costumes made from the skins and heads of their animals. This festival would become the first Halloween.
During the first century the Romans invaded Britain. They brought with them many of their festivals and customs. One of these was the festival know as Pomona Day, named for their goddess of fruits and gardens. It was also celebrated around the 1st of November. After hundreds of years of Roman rule the customs of the Celtic's Samhain festival and the Roman Pomona Day mixed becoming 1 major fall holiday.

The next influence came with the spread of the new Christian religion throughout Europe and Britain. In the year 835 AD the Roman Catholic Church would make November 1st a church holiday to honor all the saints. This day was called All Saint's Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows. Years later the Church would make November 2nd a holy day. It was called All Souls Day and was to honor the dead. It was celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and people dressing up as saints, angels and devils.
But the spread of Christianity did not make people forget their early customs. On the eve of All Hallows, Oct. 31, people continued to celebrate the festivals of Samhain and Pomona Day. Over the years the customs from all these holidays mixed. October 31st became known as All Hallow Even, eventually All Hallow's Eve, Hallowe'en, and then - Halloween.

The Halloween we celebrate today includes all of these influences, Pomona Day's apples, nuts, and harvest, the Festival of Samhain's black cats, magic, evil spirits and death, and the ghosts, skeletons and skulls from All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day.

Vocabulary:
Worshipped: adjective adored, idolized, worshipped

Crops: Noun - Middle English, craw, head of a plant, yield of a field, from Old English cropp craw, head of a plant; akin to Old High German kropf goiter, craw Date: before 12th century (colheitas).
Harvested: Noun - the gathering of a ripened crop (colheita).
Hilltop: Noun - the peak of a hill
Oak: Noun - any of a genus (Quercus) of trees or shrubs of the beech family that produce acorns ; also : any of various plants related to or resembling the oaks b: the tough hard durable wood of an oak tree (Carvallho)
Ember: Noun - glowing fragment (as of coal) from a fire ; especially : one smoldering in ashes
Evil spirits: Espíritos malignos (easier translated in Portuguese…)
Fall: same as the Autumn
Bonfires: Noun - a large fire built in the open air (fogueira)
Eve: Noun - the evening or the day before a special day

FEBRUARY 18th - WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY

From: Miami-Dade County Public Schools

History of the Holiday

The original version of the holiday was in commemoration of George Washington's birthday in 1796 (the last full year of his presidency). Washington, according to the calendar that has been used since at least the mid-18th century, was born on February 22, 1732. According to the old style calendar in use back then, however, he was born on February 11. At least in 1796, many Americans celebrated his birthday on the 22nd while others marked the occasion on the 11th instead.

By the early 19th century, Washington's Birthday had taken firm root in the American experience as a bona fide national holiday. Its traditions included Birth night Balls in various regions, speeches and receptions given by prominent public figures, and a lot of revelry in taverns throughout the land. Then along came Abraham Lincoln, another revered president and fellow February baby (born on the 12th of the month). The first formal observance of his birthday took place in 1865, the year after his assassination, when both houses of Congress gathered for a memorial address. While Lincoln's Birthday did not become a federal holiday like George Washington's, it did become a legal holiday in several states.

In 1968, legislation (HR 15951) was enacted that affected several federal holidays. One of these was Washington's Birthday, the observation of which was shifted to the third Monday in February each year whether or not it fell on the 22nd. This act, which took effect in 1971, was designed to simplify the yearly calendar of holidays and give federal employees some standard three-day weekends in the process.

Apparently, while the holiday in February is still officially known as Washington's Birthday (at least according to the Office of Personnel Management), it has become popularly (and, perhaps in some cases at the state level, legally) known as "President's Day." This has made the third Monday in February a day for honoring Washington and Lincoln, as well as all the other men who have served as president.

Vocabulary

Revelry: reveling; noisy merrymaking; boisterous festivity
Revered: respected, venerated
Fellow: a person of the same class or rank; equal; peer
Gathered; reunited
Enacted: made into Law

VALENTINE'S DAY HISTORY

February 14 - Next Thursday - Valentine's Day

(Equivalent to our "Dia dos Namorados")

There are varying opinions as to the origin of Valentine's Day. Some experts state that it originated from St. Valentine, a Roman who was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity. He died on February 14, 269 A.D., the same day that had been devoted to love lotteries. Legend also says that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it "From Your Valentine". Other aspects of the story say that Saint Valentine served as a priest at the temple during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Claudius then had Valentine jailed for defying him. In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honor St. Valentine.
Gradually, February 14 became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. The date was marked by sending poems and simple gifts such as flowers. There was often a social gathering or a ball.
In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first valentine cards. Commercial valentines were introduced in the 1800's and now the date is very commercialized. The town of Loveland, Colorado, does a large post office business around February 14. The spirit of good continues as valentines are sent out with sentimental verses and children exchange valentine cards at school.

Send an e-Card to someone special at:
http://www.123greetings.com/events/valentines_day/

or for Vintage Valentine’s Day e-Cards:
http://www.cardcow.com/c/29479/holidays-valentines-day/

Although we celebrate Valentine's Day (Dia dos Namorados) in June, anytime is the right time to express your feelings to the one you love!!! So don't wait until June to do it... just click on the links to e-cards and let her/him know how special she/he is to you.