Christmas Quiz - Week two

Hello, lads and lasses!

This week's question is also a double one....

1.- Why do people hang up stockings at Christmas?

2.- What colour is the original Santa Claus suit? When and why did it change?

I hope that helps you win the prizes...

Beware of the Grinch that stole Christmas!

Juan Carlos Laguna.

Christmas Quiz

I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes...

Christmas is all around you, and so the feeling grows...

If anyone hasn't seen Love Actually, he or she would never understand what Christmas is about... Freezing your bottom in the snow for that special person that will buy you a pair of socks as a present to celebrate the false birth of a myth.

And now, our main feature presentation...

There will be a Christmas Quiz in class some day in December. The questions will be taken out of the 32-page handout which you can buy at the photocopier, and there will be prizes for the students with the highest number of correct answers.

As I announced in class, I will post here some of the questions for the quiz in advance, so you can have an idea of what kind of things I am going to ask. I will post one question per week, but as this announcement comes a bit late, I will reveal two of them today.

The first question is : What is the origin of the name "Christmas"?

And the second question would be: What is a Christmas Pudding? What customs and traditions are associated with it?

I will announce the date of the quiz here after the English exam on 28 November, so stay tuned!

Juan Carlos Laguna.

Christmas Card Competition

Ho, Ho , Ho, lads and lasses!

I hereby declare open the 2011 Christmas Card Competition for the 3A, 3B, 4B and 4C groups!

Here are the Terms and Conditions:

1.- Only students from these groups can hand in entries, unless the English Department extends it to all the other classes.

2.- The cards must have a maximum A4 size, with all the drawings and collages you consider appropriate (no photographs, please).

3.- All the messages must be in ENGLISH. No Spanish allowed!

4.- All the cards must have the full name and class of the author in the back.

5.- All entries are accepted from 1 December to 15 December. That means that the DEADLINE is December the Fifteenth, and not three days later!

6.- The best card of all will get a prize, and there will be two runner-ups.

Good luck!

Christmas is all around...

Hello, my students and pupils!

This post is just to announce that we will hace a few activities related to Christmas, such as a Christmas Quiz with prizes and a Christmas card competition.

I will tell you more in the next few days, so stay tuned!

See you in class...don't be late!

Juan Carlos.

Halloween Quiz: Answers.

Hello everyone!

Here are the answers to the quiz.

1.- The name Halloween comes from "All Hallows Eve" , meaning the day before All Saints Day (1 November).

2.- It didn't contain meat because it was forbidden by the Christian Church.

3.- It is a flat, round or oval cake flavoured with saffron, mixed spices and currants. They are not eaten nowadays because they used to contain coins, rings or other items with symbolic meanings.

4.- It is about 2000 years old, dating back to the time of the Celts. The Celts celebrated the end of Summer and the gathering in of the harvest with a festival called "Samhain", which took place on the night of 31 October. Even then, this date had links with ghosts and the spirit world, as on this night the Celts beleived that the boundaries between oir world and the next would weaken, allowing the souls of the dead to cross over and communicate with the living. A large part of the celebration iunvolved the building of huge bonfires, which were thought to welcome friendly spirits and ancestors, but ward off those considered dangerous. People would dress up in animal heads and skins, and burn sacrifices and gifts in thanks for the harvest.

5.- The original name for Halloween is "Samhain". It was a time for divination and the telling of fortunes. Apples feature widely in these divination techniques. For example, when bobbing for apples, a tradition that still survives until today, the first person to take a bite out of an apple would be the first to marry that year. In addition, when peeling an apple, the longer the unbroken length of peel, the longer you would be destined to live.

6.- The Christian church appears to have practised its usual policy of adopting pagan celebrations by converting Halloween into a Christian observance. By moving the old Christian festival of All Saints Day to 1 November, however they maintained the link with remembering the dead. On All Saints Day, a mass was held to honour the saints and martyrs, and this was preceded on the day before (All Hallows's Eve or Eve of All Saints (in Old English "Hallow" meant holly) by an overnight vigil. According to the early Christian church, this day also marked the release from purgatory of all souls for two days. All Souls Day, which commemorated the faithful departed, followed on 2 November. Together, the three festivals (the Eve of All Saints, All Saints Day and All Souls Day) became known as Hallowmass.

7.- Toffee apples, called candy apples in the US, apples coated with caramel or chocolate, roasted or barbecued corn-on-the-cob and porcorn. In the Us, candy corn (sweetcorn-shaped sweets made from honey, sugar fondant and corn syrup) is consumed in large quantities.

8.- Pagan Celts would leave gifts for the fairyfolk they believed wandered the countryside at Samhain and it was customary for people to go round their neighbourhoods asking for donations for the New Year feasting. People who took part in the New Year festivities would disguise themselves as the ghosts, fairies and spirits who they thought were present at that time of the year. The "Trick" part of the custom appears to have arisen in the USA in the 1930s, where Halloween became to be associated with the playing of pranks and jokes.

9.- Halloween and its more pagan traditions were first brought to the USA in the mid-1800s, when huge numbers of Irish immigrants fled to the USA following the Irish Potato Famine.

10.- People thought of this as a magical time, when the boundaries between this world and the next were dissolved. allowing the dead to return to earth, and for people to foresee their futures. It was also regarded as a time for mischief and trickery when pranks would be played and roles reversed.

And these are the results:

Victor Lauret, Class 3A: 2 correct answers.

Francisco Parra, Class 3B: 3 correct answers.

Alba Urbano, Class 4B: 8 correct answers.

Alessandra Balestrieri, Class 4B: 8 correct answers.

Laura Serrano, Class 4B: 9 correct answers.

Natalia Membribes, Class 4C Diversificación: 4 correct answers.

Antonio Pérez (whoever he is): 6 correct answers.

AND THE WINNER IS...

...

...

...

...

... LAURA SERRANO FROM CLASS 4B!

Congratulations! You will receive your prize in the first English lesson after the exam.

And to the rest of the participants, keep working because you have done a really good job!

Keep watching this space for the fabulous Christmas Quiz!!!!!!!!

Halloween horror story contest. Group 4C

Hello, boys and girls!

After a long process of very careful and deep thinking, here are the results. It has been a very tough decision, mainly due to the fact that there have only been TWO entries, but the winner will get his or her prize anyway.

I am going to copy both of them here just as they come, with only minor changes to help understanding. You are free to make any corrections in your comments, but please be respectful with your classmates.

IN THE SUN... by Yesuenesis Rodríguez Gómez

Once upon a time in a beautiful shining country there was a nice old couple who liked to live in the sun. Michael and Ada were not too old, but quite old to need some help at home.

So, thinking about it, they put an advertisement in a popular newspaper. Many women responded to the advert, but they chose a nice young Transylvanian girl in her thirties.

One day the couple got ill with flu and they asked the girl. Martha, to stay for the night.

Michael and Ada used to have a cat that disappeared in the dark outside the house.

One night with no moon, Ada was walking in the garden when she stepped on something that kept her attention, one little ear appeared from the land. She started digging and her cat was there. She screamed and screamed so Martha heard her and she came to help her.

Ada needed to have a cup of tea to relax. A night after, Michael, Ada and Martha were watching television and suddenly they heard a scratch on the door, they thought it was the wind and did not care.

Strange things started happening, one meow here, one strange small, but they did not care, they only wanted to sunbathe in the terrace.

But one raining night with full moon, (yes, it sometimes rains), the couple listened to Martha's screams, they went to see her and she confessed that she killed the cat and the spirit of the cat went every night to her bedroom and tried to attack her. She pulled her sleeves up and showed them her injuries. They were shocked, but when Michael and Ada were coming back to their bedroom in panic, something attacked them from behind, threw them to the floor and killed them.

The police found the bodies on the floor the next week.

But how many bodies? ...?

HALLOWEEN STORY by Oriana López Loureiro.

Once upon a time in a small town in the North of England there were six girls. They worked in a butcher's in the town centre. They were hard workers.

They were known as the witches sisters. During the day, they were normal girls. They went to high school in the morning, and when they finished high school, they started to work in the butcher's.

It was said in town that when a five or six year old boy went into the shop, that boy disappeared mysteriously. The witches hid the boys until the people stopped looking for the boys. Meanwhile, at nights, the witches cut the boys in small pieces because they made potions in order to be young forever.

In Halloween night, some boys disappeared because the sisters kidnapped them while they entered the butcher's to ask for sweets.

After some time, the butcher's was abandoned because the six sisters died, the new owner of the shop found human bones.

DEAD!

And the winner is...

...

...

...

...

... Oriana López Loureiro!

Congratulations! You will receive your prize in the first lesson after the English exam.