One of the Christmas traditions they have here in Britain is making Christingles! The Children's Society first introduced christingles to The Church of England in 1968 and from then on it was one of the most popular traditions for families and church communities in Britain.
It is supposed to symbolise the Christian Faith. Here is what all of the things that make up the Christingle symbolize:
The orange - represents the world
The red ribbon - symbolizes the love and blood of Christ
The dried fruits and sweets - symbols of god's creation
The lit candle - symbolizes Jesus, the light of the world
One of the fun things about Christingles is that you can supposedly eat it when you're done. =) If you want to try to make a christingle it's actually pretty easy! Here are directions to make the christingles:
Take an orange and fasten a piece of red tape or ribbon around the middle.
Cut a small cross in the top of the orange and lay a square of silver foil (75 mm/3" square) over it.
Place a wax candle on top of the foil and wedge it firmly into the orange (the foil catches the hot wax).
Load four tooth picks with raisins, marshmallows, or pretty much whatever you want and insert them around the base of the candle.
So now that you know how to make Christingles, maybe next Christmas you can bring an English tradition into your home. =)
This past week we had the good fortune of being invited by our Muslim friends to their community centre for dinner. When we arrived at the centre there were about ten students ranging in age from sixteen to midd twenties who had come to eat dinner with us. They were students of the Imam, or what we would call the paster, who volunteer at the centre. They have many programs at the centre such as a nursery school, sport clubs, radio station, a youth centre where kinds can hang out, a study centre where kinds can study the quran, and they also publish a magazine. The students were all very nice and we had a good time visiting with them.
Before dinner we were invited to come and watch one of their prayers. It was very interesting.
They have to go through the cycle of kneeling to the ground for prayer five time and they pray five different times each day. They explained the reason they kneel to the ground during prayer is because it symbolizes that before god we are like dust. During the prayer time women will usually be in the very back row praying or they will pray in a different room. When I was there, there was only one women there and she was in the back row.
After the prayer we all went into the other room to eat. The meal was very good! The Imam's wife had prepared the meal and it was called chicken korma. Here is a picture of kind of what it looked like:
I did not bring my camera to the meal because I wasn't sure if it would be rude or not so I did not take this picture.
During the meal we all had a lot of time to talk and learn about each other. The Muslim students wanted to learn about us as much as we wanted to learn about them. We found out that our religion and their religion are more similar then they are different. We also found out we had a lot more in than we had differences. I wish that more events like this were happening all over the world so that we could eliminate a lot of the negative thinking about Muslims and we could eliminate any negative thoughts they may have about Christians. I think this dinner was a good start and I also think I will have to get the recipe for this delicious meal.
Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603. Under her rule, English Catholics had been persecuted because Elizabeth was a protestant. The Catholics hoped that the next in line for the throne, James I, would be more accepting of their religion because he had a Catholic mother. Unfortunately for the Catholics, James turned out to be even less tolerant of the Catholics than Elizabeth. This led to a group of 13 young men getting together to discus what they were going to do about it.
They finally decided that violence was the only way. Their plan was to get a bunch of gun powder and put in in the cellar of the Parliament and blow Parliament up. By doing this they would kill the king, maybe the Prince of Wales, and the Members of Parliament who were making life difficult for the Catholics. Today we would call this group of men terrorists or extremists because they chose violence as the solution to their problem.
As the group worked on the plot it became clear that innocent people would get killed in the attack including some people who even fought for more rights of Catholics. Some of the people in the group started to have second thoughts. One of them even sent a letter to one of his friends in Parliament telling him to stay away from Parliament on November 5th. This letter reached the King and the King's forces made plans to stop the group from blowing up the Parliament. Guy Fawkes, who was in the cellar with the gun powder when the king's men arrived, was caught and tortured. He was then executed along with the other members of the plot.
To celebrate the foiled gun powder plot, every 5th of November people get together and light a bonfire and set off fireworks! The bonfire will usually have an effigy of Guy Fawkes in the middle of the fire symbolizing the burning of Guy Fawkes and the other members of the gun powder plot on the stake.
I actually got invited to one of these bonfires! It was really fun! Here are some pictures.
You may not be able to see this very well but if you look closely, you can see the little effigies we put in the fire.
During the bonfire we all got some sparklers and played with them. It was the second time I have ever played with sparklers! It scared me when it almost got to the end because I didn't know what I was supposed to do. =)
After the bonfire we went up into the bell tower at the church to watch the fireworks! This is a picture of us on the bell tower. We could see tons of fireworks from up there!
This is a picture of me climbing up to the top of the bell tower. We had to crawl up a lot of ladders and under a lot of bells.
When I left the U.S. I really missed my two dogs, Ole and Lena. Even though I still really miss them, I have a new little friend here. When I got to England I was surprised to find out that there was a cat who sometimes would hang out around the house. I was so excited! The previous director called it Monster Cat because it was so big. I didn't know what to expect. About two weeks went past without any sign of Monster Cat. I was starting to think she wasn't going to come. Then one day I was looking out the window and I saw this huge cat going through the garden! I was so excited that I ran outside to see the cat, forgetting that cats can get scared easily. As you can guess the cat heard me, took one look and ran. It was about a week before I saw her again. The next time I saw her I let her come up to the house before I went outside. She was still very timid so I just sat with her for awhile so she could get familiar with me. After that she let me pet her. She was the softest cat I ever felt! She was very big and furry! She was a well trained and gentle cat with a really soft meow like a kitten. After awhile she was coming almost every day. My dad says he doesn't like cats but I know that's not true now because he lets me bring the cat inside our home. Here she is:
I would say she is at least two feet long. She's a big cat! I think she is a Norwegian Forest Cat. When I'm older I think this is the kind cat I want to own. =)
Every Tuesday we get a speaker to come and talk to the college students. A couple Tuesdays ago we had a speaker who talked about Islam because a lot of Muslims live in Nottingham. It was very interesting so I thought I would share it with you.
One billion people from a vast range of races, nationalities and cultures across the globe - from the southern Philippines to Nigeria - are united by their common Islamic faith. In the UK, home to 2 million Muslims, the Muslim culture has become a familiar part of everyday life in many of their great cities. In Nottingham there is a thriving Muslim community with its mosques, schools, shops and social and welfare organizations.
A Muslim is a follower of a religion called Islam. They believe in one unique and incomparable God; in the angels created by him; in the prophets sent by him; in the day of judgment (after death); in God's complete authority over human destiny and in life after death. Muslims believe in a chain of prophets starting with Adam and including Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, Elias, Jonah, John the baptist, and Jesus. But God's final message was revealed to a prophet Muhammad through Gabriel.
For Muslims, Islam isn't just a religion, but also a way of life. Islam teaches moral values such as justice, honesty, kindness, patients, and respect for others. The Quran, the sacred writings of Islam, says: "act justly. Truly God loves those who are just." (9:9) and: "and let not the hatred of others make you avoid justice. Be just: that is nearer to piety..." (5:8) and: "And likewise we have made you a middle nation (i.e. not extremists) in order that you are witnesses (for the good) over mankind" (2:143)
Muslims put a high value on family life, as illustrated by: "And be good to your parents and to relations, orphans and the needy and speak highly to mankind: and establish worship and pay the poor-due." (2:83), and: "If one or both of your parents attain old age and then do not say to them even fie! Nor repulse them, rather say to them a noble word." (17:23) The prophet Muhammad said in his farewell sermon, "The best among you are those wh are best to their wives."
Islam teaches that all faiths come from the same divine source - God. Muslims therefore believe in Jesus, Moses, David, Abraham and many other Biblical prophets. Jesus in particular has a special place in Islam. Muslims respect Christians and Jews as 'people of the book'. Since Islam teaches freedom of religion, every person is entitled to choose his religion.
A commonly asked question of non-Muslims is "Why do women have scarves to cover their heads?" Other than the fact that Allah commands it, reasons include the requirements for modesty in both men and women. Both will then be evaluated for intelligence and skill instead of looks.
Who built Stonehenge? Why did they build it? How did they build it? Why are the rocks in a circle? How are they still standing? Stonehenge is one of those sites that has been puzzling people for years. There are many legends behind the huge circle of rocks but none of them have been proven. Some say it was built for religious reasons. Others say that some giants were dancing in a field one day and were turned into stone which is why the stones are in a circle. What you believe is up to you but let's talk about what we know for sure about Stonehenge. Stonehenge is about five thousand years old and one of the top tourist destinations in the UK. The original structure of Stonehenge was believed to have looked like this all the way around with another smaller circle like this in the middle.
Today some of the rocks have kind of fallen down and some stones are believed to be missing but it's still in pretty good shape for how old it is.
When I went there I was really surprised at how big the stones were! It made me wonder how on earth five thousand years ago someone could have put those stones on top of one another and why they did it. Maybe some day scientists will come up with the answers to all my questions, but until then we will just have to keep wondering and coming up with more and more crazy legends that may very well be true.
Speakers Corner, on the northeast corner of Hyde Park by the Marble Arch, is a place where anyone, even you or me, could stand up and talk about whatever they want. They could talk about their religion, political view, or even just stand up and sing. There was actually a guy singing when I went there! There were about three people standing around him. The rest of the people were either standing around an American dressed in a southern preachers outfit or a Muslim talking about his religion. However, don't get the idea that the people talking are invincible. There are plenty of people around heckling the speakers.
In this picture you can see the American talking and how many people are around him either listening, video taping, or heckling him.
Nottingham has a Speakers corner too but it's obviously not as popular and only one person can be speaking at a time. I've walked past a couple of times and seen someone talking but I've never seen anyone heckling the speaker.
The Speakers Corner in London is one of my favorite things we've done in England so far and I can't wait to go back! It's just fun to stand and listen to all the people talking and heckling each other. It's definitely a must do if you go to London. =)
The Luther students are now here! They're all totally awesome and fun to hang out with! It's like having seven more sisters and one brother. =) Here they are!
Phil
Aimee and Marissa
Aubrey
Erika
Marin
Regina and Angela
The students got here in early September and we've had lots of fun travelling! Monday - Thursday the students cook dinner for us and so far the food has been really good! On Sundays we all have pizza together. I do have to say that Sundays are my favorite since I love pizza. I especially like the meat lovers pizza! It's really good! I am very much looking forward to hanging out with the students some more and can't wait to see what we're having for dinner tomorrow!
Goose Fair is a very big, super fun, and crazy fair that I have been waiting forever for and now it's finally here! It happens on the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th of October every year. Goose Fair has been going on for over 700 hundred years in Nottingham! No one really knows how Goose Fair got it's name. Some people say it comes from the hundreds of geese that were at one time driven from Lincolnshire to Norfolk to be sold in Nottingham. Whether that's true or not, know one knows but however it got its name, I like it.
When I went to Goose Fair, I was amazed at how many rides, food stands, and people there were. I even went on some rides. My favorite ride was called Cyclone. It was really fun! I don't know the name of my least favorite ride because I was too busy trying not too puke. It was bad!
All in all I did like Goose fair and wish I could go again but unfortunately I can't. Maybe one day I will come back to Nottingham and go again but until then, so long Goose Fair. I will miss you!
This is a picture of Goose Fair at night. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see it at night but I heard it was very cool.
As you can see, Goose fair was packed with people even early in the day.
There were lots of "rubbish" food stands, as the English refer to them, along the edges of the fair.
This was my favorite ride. It would jerk you around the corners and give you the illusion you were going to fall off. It would also turn you in a circle when you got to a certain point in the ride. It was really fun to ride!
This was my least favorite ride. As you can see from the picture, it even went upside-down, twirled, and went really fast... which would have been fun if I wasn't getting sick.
Lincoln is a smaller sized city in England (population 85,595) that is over flowing with history. Lincoln began as a Roman town. It was conquered by the Romans in 48 AD. Shortly after the Roman soldiers built a fort in Lincoln but by the late 1st century the people of Lincoln stopped fighting the Romans so the soldiers moved on and the fort was abandoned. A new town was created on the site and it became a settlement for retired soldiers. Roman Lincoln grew into a large and prosperous town with 6 to 8 thousand people. Roman Lincoln reached the peak of it's prosperity in the early 4th century and in the later 4th century it declined. Roman civilization was breaking down and the last of the Roman soldiers left Britain in 407 AD.
In 1068 William the Conquer built a wooden castle at Lincoln to make sure the townspeople behaved themselves. He destroyed 166 houses to make way for it. In the 12th century the castle was replaced with stone. The keep of the tower was called Lucy Tower after the Countess Lucy. This castle also had a prison where lots of people awaited trial, faced their punishment (which often was hanging), or awaited the day when they would be released. It was a harsh prison where women and men had to hide their faces and could not speak to anyone. Even in the chapel the men and women were separated and could not talk.
This is the chapel for the prisoners. If you look closely you can see the doors that separate the men from each other. Something you can't see is that the seats are slanted so that if a prisoner fell asleep they would fall right off the seat. Trust me, I tested it. ;)
This is a coffin that was at the front of the chapel. When the prison was still in use if there was a coffin at the front of chapel it meant there was a hanging that day.
The most famous thing at the castle is the well known Magna Carta. The Magna Carta was signed in 1215 between the barons of medieval England and King John. "Magna Carta" is Latin and means "Great Charter". The Magna Carta was one of the most important documents of medieval England. It was signed at Runnymede near Windsor Castle. The document was a series of written promises between the king and his subjects that he would govern England and deal with it's people according to the customs of feudal law. The Magna Carta was an attempt by the barons to stop a king from abusing his power with the people of England suffering. The Magna Carta in the Castle is one of the four existing. The Magna Carta is also important to the United States because some of the rules that are in the Magna Carta are in our constitution.
In 1072, a bishop moved his seat to Lincoln from Dorchester. He built a Cathedral which was finished in 1092. The first Cathedral was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1185. It was rebuilt after 1192 but the center tower of the new cathedral collapsed in 1237. A new tower with a spire replaced it in 1311. Unfortunately the builder put it a little to far to the left so it looks kind of funny.
This is the outside of the cathedral and as you can see the middle tower is too far to the left.
This is the inside of the cathedral. The chairs are all out in this picture because there was a graduation that day.
Today Lincoln is a very popular tourist destination but not just because of the castle and cathedral. I like it because of it's monstrously steep hill. It's actually called steep hill if that tells you anything.
The hill is steeper than it looks.
On this hill there is an interesting old house sitting on a corner. This house is actually 800 years old making it the oldest domestic building in Britain! It used to be a Jewish merchant's house. It has a very decorative door and chimney. In the Middle Ages, Lincoln had a flourishing Jewish community some of whom were amongst the richest and most influential citizens of Lincoln. This Jewish house is said to be the home of Belesat de Wailingford, who was hanged for coin clipping which means he was cutting small bits off of coins because coins used to be made out of pure gold and silver.
The White Cliffs of Dover are a very famous attraction along the Southeast coast of England. They were actually voted the most popular stretch of coast line in Britain! There are many reasons for this. One reason is that on a clear day you can see 21 miles across the English channel to France! When I went there I was lucky enough to be able to see France in the distance. It was very cool!
Believe it or not England didn't used to be a an island. It used to be connected to France! England became an island about 500,000 years ago when a giant ice burg melted and made a huge gouge in the land. The water wore away at the soft chalk which now makes up The White Cliffs of Dover, making England an island. The water is still eroding The White Cliffs of Dover and 2-5cm on average are lost each year, but more than a meter can be lost in one large cliff fall. As sea levels rise the cliffs will probably retreat more quickly. There is a nice little trail going from one end of the cliff to the other that I went on. It goes right up to the edge of the cliff with no railing to keep you from falling off! While I was walking on the trail I saw a part of the cliff that looked on the verge of falling off! It was kind of scary considering that piece was part of the trail and we had to walk over it to get to the other side.
At the end of the trail there was a lighthouse called the South Foreland Lighthouse. The South Foreland Lighthouse had the very first electricity-powered lighthouse lamp! It also had the transmission of the first ship-to-shore and international radio message! That's pretty cool for one little lighthouse.
This is a picture of the very famous White Cliffs of Dover. If you look closely at the cliffs you can see the trail I was on. Scary!
This is a picture of the South Foreland Lighthouse.
I may have found the very first thing about England that I absolutely don't like. It all started September 7th. My mom was going into the kitchen to get some chocolate bannanna bread when it happened. A little, or maybe not so little, visitor came racing right up to my mom's feet! She thought it was a mouse because it was running so quickly. She screamed and jumped towards the door. However, the visitor wasn't the least bit afraid of her because it just sat there staring at us. It was then we realized that our visitor was not a mouse after all but rather the creepy, crawly, monsterous GIGANTEA!!!!!!!!!
This spider's scientific name actually is Gigantea if that tells you anything about its size. We have now seen two of them in our home! The second one I saw when I was going up the stairs to bed one night! I nearly fell down stairs upon seeing it!
This spider is a part of the Tegenaria family. It's bite is not dangerous to humans but it does penetrate the human skin. It's also the fastest spider in England! The reason we're seeing so many of them right now is because the male Gigantea spiders only come out in August and September because they are looking for a mate. The rest of the time they are hiding in basements, attics, behind cupboards, in floor boards or really any place rarely disturbed by large animals or humans.
After the second sighting of Gigantea, my dad spent an evening sealing all outside entry points into our home. Hopefully, we've seen our last sighting of this fast, monsterous looking spider so we can get back to enjoying all the other aspects of England! :-)
A little while ago I got the
chance of a lifetime to go and see William Shakespeare’s home town, Stratford Upon
Avon, take a few tours of the town, and see a few of William Shakespeare’s
plays! William Shakespeare is a very
famous play writer who lived from 1564 to 1616 in Stratford Upon Avon. Nobody knows the exact date of William Shakespeare’s
birth but they do know when he was baptized.
William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26 which is why they think he
was born April 23 because babies usually are baptized three days after they
were born.
William’s mother was Mary
Arden.William was one of eight
children.Only five of the eight
children survived until adulthood.By
the age of four or five William was enrolled at a grammar school called The
Kings New School in Stratford where he learned many of the things that helped
him become a great author.His school lasted 9 hours each day.William was taken out of The Kings New School at the age of 16 because
of his dad’s financial and social problems.Nobody really knows what happened or what William Shakespeare did between
the time when William was pulled out of school and when he became a play
writer.There are many theories but none
of them have ever been proven.What they do know is that on November 28, 1582 William Shakespeare married Anne
Hathaway.William was 18 and Anne was 26
and pregnant. They also know that one year
after they got married, they had a baby girl named Susanna and two years after
that they had twins named Judith and Hamnet.Hamnet died at age 11.
Seven years after William
Shakespeare had Judith and Hamnet, William was recognized as an actor, poet,
and play writer.His recognition
occurred when another play writer referred to him as “an upstart crow” in A
Goatsworth of Wit.A few years later
Shakespeare joined up with one of the most successful acting troupes in London,
“The Lord’s Chamberlain’s Men”.In 1599
the troupe lost the lease of the theater they performed in.Luckily, they were wealthy enough to build
their own theater across the Thames, south of London, which they called “The
Globe”.The Globe opened in July of
1599.When King James I came to the throne
in 1603, the troupe was designated by the new king as the King’s Company.
Shakespeare entertained the
people of England for another ten years until June 19, 1613, when a canon fired
from the roof of the theatre for a performance of Henry VIII set fire to the
thatch roof and burned the theater to the ground.The next spring the theatre was rebuilt in a
more modern and fairer way than before.Even though Shakespeare had invested in the rebuilding of the theatre,
he retired to the Great House of New Place in Stratford that he had purchased
in 1597, where he continued to write plays until he died in 1616 on his 52nd
birthday.
In his lifetime, William Shakespeare’s
wrote 37 plays. Even if you've never read any of Shakespeare's plays, you've definitely used words or phrases that he created. Some of these words include: watchdog, eyeball, puking, skim milk, aligator, bump, zany, rant, gloomy, gossip, caked, buzzer, critic, outbreak, hurried, and so on. Some familiar phrases are: all's well that ends well, break the ice, dead as a doornail, a dish fit for the gods, elbow room, faint hearted, for goodness' sake, knock knock! Who's their?, and so on. Shakespeare invented these words and phrases for his play when he could not find descriptive words good enough to get the the point across to the audience. In his lifetime, Shakespeare invented over 1700 words and phrases that we commonly use today.
So far I have seen three of Shakespeare's plays!The plays I saw were all very
well done and fun to watch!I can’t decide
which one is my favorite because they all had something different that I
liked!In A Comedy of Errors, the cast had set it in modern time and it was
very funny!Much Ado About Nothing was also set in modern time but they were
interactive with the crowd, which made it very fun!The final play I saw I actually got to see in
The Globe Theater while standing up because that’s what people who were
watching the play did when William Shakespeare was alive.This play was called As you Like it.I liked this
play because It was very funny and the actors were great because there were a
couple of times when really loud air plans would go by and the actors would
stop everything and look up at the sky at the exact same time because in
Shakespeare’s time they didn’t have air planes.They also did this with pigeons because they would keep landing on the
stage so the actors would scare the pigeons off by jumping next to them or
sometimes even calling them names.
This is a picture of me in The Globe Theater. As you can see there are lot's of people standing on the ground getting ready to watch the play.
As this plaque says, this is the birthplace of William Shakespeare.
This is William Shakespeare's grave. William Shakespeare wanted to be buried under the church because in William Shakespeare's time, people would sometimes dig up graves to get any valuables that might have been buried with the person.
