The new year is thought of as a time to celebrate, and people often hope that the new year will bring good changes in their lives, and more happiness or better luck. Some people make special promises about improving their behaviour or stopping bad habits, called New Year’s resolutions. People usually promise to do things such as lose weight, or stop smoking, but most people do not manage to succeed with their resolutions for very long.
Times Square is a large square (a broad, open area, with buildings on all sides) in New York City, close to many theatres. Each year there is a big New Year's Eve celebration in Time Square, and at midnight a large red ball is lowered down a building to show that the New Year has begun.
Some holidays are known around the world - Christmas, New Year's Day, Easter. Some are strictly religious observances - Rosh Hashanah, Eid-ul-Fitr, Ascension Day. Others are specific to individual nations - Waitangi Day, Bastille Day, Australia Day. But in the United States, they have some unique Hallmark holidays that are not widely observed by anyone other than greeting card companies. Some are even acknowledged by the federal government as nationally proclaimed holidays, but this does not guarantee increased recognition by society. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States.
Valentine's Day is a holiday that happens on February 14. It is the day of the year when lovers show their love to each other. This can be done by giving flowers, chocolates or Valentine's cards. Love notes can be given to one another. These notes are called valentines.
Legend
It is believed that the "valentine" was the first greeting card.
Manufactured Valentine cards didn't appear until the end of the nineteenth century.
Symbols Found on Valentines
Whether you are intentionally single on Valentine's Day or you have recently ended a relationship, there are plenty of fun and entertaining ways to spend your Valentine's Day. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that it's not all about the candy, card and flowers that bombard us all in the retail world.
In response to the huge push by retailers for people to buy all of their candy, flowers and greeting cards February 15 has been declared Singles Awareness Day. This is the day that all of the single people can proudly stand up and show that it is OKAY to be single!
Activities
Date of celebration
Majorca is a Spanish island in the West Meditarranean Sea, the largest of the Balearic Islands, which is very popular with tourists. In The UK it is often thought of as a place where many people go for inexpensive holidays. Some British people think that parts of the island have been spoiled, because there are many new buildings and places of entertainment for tourists.
Hogmanay is the Scottish name for New Year's Eve and the parties and celebrating that take place on that night.
A clambake is an outdoor party, especially a seashore outing where clams and fish and other foods are usually cooked on heated rocks covered by seaweed. A clam is a shellfish with two shells joined together, used as food. Seaweed is the term applied to any of various plants growing in the sea, especially marine algae.
The Ritz is a large, very expensive hotel named after the original Swiss owner, César Ritz. Several large cities including London and Paris have Ritz hotels.
Rtiz crackers are a type of cracker (= thin biscuit) sold in boxes in the US and UK. They are designed to be eaten on their own or with a topping. They are circular in shape, salted lightly on one side, and have small scalloping around the edges. The crackers were named “Ritz” after the Ritz-Carlton hotels in the US because the name conjured up the image of wealth and glamour.
Cornwall, in the south-west of England, is a place which attracts tourists all the year round. It has mild weather and a spectacular coastline with beautiful bays and coves.
Kays is a jewellery company that is located all around the world. It is one of the leading jewellery brands in the world. Its slogan is "Every Kiss Begins with Kay". It is the number one jewellery store brand in the United States by sales and number of stores.
Kay Jewelers Commercials have been labelled sexist and embarrassing to women. There is one featuring a man and a woman in a log cabin. The commercial deliberately shows the woman as a weak creature: she is frightened by the storm and gasps, turning to her man for protection. The commercial has been criticized for showing an image of a woman as if, instead of being an adult, she were a six-year-old child. Kay commercials often portray women as materialistic creatures who are only interested in jewels or who need a jewel to be motivated to kiss a man.
In the UK a traditional wedding cake is a fruitcake covered with white icing. It is arranged in three levels or tiers, with the largest tier on the bottom and and the smallest tier on the top.
Bollywood Dreams
The Broadway float
Swans and roses for the Sierra Madre float
Lady FingersLadyfingers (called Savoiardi in Italian, meaning "from Savoy") are light and sweet sponge cakes roughly shaped like a large, fat finger.
Today, their most common usage is in trifles, charlottes, and tiramisu. They are typically soaked in a sugar syrup or liqeuer, such as coffee for the tiramisu dessert.
Ladyfingers originated in the late 15th century at the court of the Duchy of Savoy, and were created to mark the occasion of a visit of the King of France.
Later they were given the name Savoiardi and recognised as an "official" court biscuit. They were particularly appreciated by the young members of the court and offered to visitors as a symbol of the local cuisine.
Duchess is the nobility title given to the wife or widow of a duke. Duchess potatoes are mashed potatoes mixed with cream, eggs, butter, and seasonings, piped onto a baking sheet or platter, sprinkled with grated cheese, and browned in the oven. They are also called pommes de terre or duchesse potatoes.
Her name at birth was Bessie Wallis Warfield but she will be rembered as the Duchess of Windsor.
Wallis Simpson was the American divorcee for whom King Edward VIII gave up the throne of Great Britain. She met the future king (then Prince of Wales) early in the 1930s and a few years later they became lovers, though she remained married to her second husband, businessman Ernest Simpson. Matters came to a head when Edward became king in 1936. Simpson filed for divorce from her husband, but the royal family and the British government would not allow Edward to marry her. In December Edward stepped down as king, saying in a radio broadcast "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love." They were married in France on 3 June 1937, becoming the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and spent the rest of their lives in exile from England, living mainly in France and the United States. In 2003 the British government released documents showing that while she was involved with Edward in the years before he became king, Simpson also was having an affair with a London car dealer named Guy Trundle.
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were buried together on the grounds of Windsor Castle... The Duke and Duchess visited Germany in 1937 as guests of Adolf Hitler, creating the lasting impression that they were Nazi sympathizers... Her first marriage took place in 1916, to U.S. Navy pilot Earl Winfield Spencer, but barely lasted a year... She is often credited with the popular saying, "No woman can be too rich or too thin."
- Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York
The title Duke of York is a title of nobility given to the second son of the British monarch. The current Duke of York is The Prince Andrew, second son of Queen Elizabeth II. Andrew currently has no male heirs and (since his 1996 divorce) is unmarried. The wife of the Duke of York is known as the Duchess of York. Duchess of York is the principal title held by the wife of the Duke of York since the creation of the title in 1384. The title is gained with marriage alone and is forfeited upon divorce. Sarah Ferguson was duchess of York from 1986 to1996. Following their high-profile marriage and divorce, she became known as Sarah, Duchess of York (the proper address for the divorced wives of peers). In addition, she lost the style of Royal Highness as well as all other dignities related to the title of British princess. Contrary to popular belief, Sarah, Duchess of York, is not The Duchess of York for that is the title reserved for the wife of the Duke of York. She retains only the style, not the title of Duchess of York. This is to emphasize her changed status from wife to former wife of the Duke of York.
You’re sitting in the middle of class, listening to a boring discussion, and you just can’t help but yawn. A classmate who was looking at you saw you yawn, and unconsciously yawned too. Why do people yawn? And why do people yawn after seeing someone else yawn?
Hawaii is a US state in the Pacific Ocean which consists of eight main islands, known as the Hawaiian Islands. Its capital city, Honolulu, is on the island of Oahu.
Hawaiian Punch
Hawaiian shirt
A large building southwest of London, which belonged to Henry VIII and was used as a royal palace until the 18th century. It is open to the public, and there is a famous maze (= a system of narow paths, separated by tall hedges, which is difficult to find your way through.)
Coffee is especially popular in the US, where people drink it regularly. People drink coffee at work, and most companies allow their workers to have a coffee break (= a short period when you can rest and have coffee). In the both the US and the UK, people often drink coffee at the end of an evening meal. People also eat after eight mints (= milk chocolate enclosing a mint fondant) with coffee after their evening meals. Some people also believe that drinking coffee will help you become sober after you have drunk too much alcohol.
White Coffee
Many people in the US and UK enjoy dancing, and music is usually played at parties and other celebrations so that people can dance. Schools often have dances or discos for their students, and in the US most schools have a special formal dance at the end of the school year, called a prom.
Blenheim Palace is a residence near Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, built (1705–24) by the English Parliament as a national gift to John Churchill, 1st duke of Marlborough. During the War of the Spanish Succession, he had led the English to victory over the French and Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim in Germany in 1704. The palace was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, with a great deal of involvement by Nicholas Hawksmoor, and is regarded as the finest example of truly Baroque architecture in Great Britain.
Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726) was an English architect and restoration comedy writer. He designed large houses for upper class people, including Blenheim Palace, one of the best examples of the Baroque style in the UK, and Castle Howard. His plays include The Relapse and the Provok’d Wife.
In the early 18th century Queen Anne’s gardener, Henry Wise, designed the grounds of the palace in the formal style of André Le Nôtre’s famed gardens for Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles in France. Little remains of Wise’s landscaping, however, because tastes changed in the mid-18th century, and Lancelot (Capability) Brown was asked to redesign the grounds in his pastoral style of informal or seemingly natural landscapes of woods, lawns, and waterways. Sir Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace.
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