New Year Celebrated in Different Religions

   All is quiet on New Year's Day
           A world in white gets underway...




New Year is all about new beginning, new desires and new thoughts. All religions celebrate New Year as per their own traditions and customs but the enthusiasm is same. 
The celebrations differ from culture to culture.
The beginning of a new year cannot come and go without some sort of celebration. 
In some cultures, there are rituals that honor the year that lapsed and customs that welcome the coming year, specifically auspicious prayers in hopes of receiving a bestowal of blessings.


Christian New Year

Christian or Gregorian New Year falls on January 1st. Countries following the Gregorian Calendar celebrate the New Year on this date.

New Year traditions create a sense of responsibility and also ties an emotional bond of togetherness, belief and faith. traditions are being followed with immense devotion and joy by the people of Christian community. 

Hindu New Year

Hindu New Year is celebrated according to the Hindu Lunar Calendar- Panchanga. The popular name of the Hindu New Year is Vikram Samvat. This era of Vikram Samvat began in 57 BC. To correspond with the solar calendar, 57 years are subtracted from the Hindu Year. Thus, the New Year begin with the first day of Kartik Maas following Deepawali Amaavasya.

Multifarious religions are practiced in India and so are the celebrations of various festivals. Hindu New Year is celebrated with gaiety and pomp all over India. Verve of the festival can be seen mostly among the people of North India and Gujarat. New Year in Southern India also emphasize the Hindu New Year but the date and New Year traditions vary:

 - Punjab : New year starts on 13th April.
 - Assam : New year starts on 14th or 15th of April.
 - Bengal : New year starts on 14th or 15th April.
 - Gujarat : New Year starts on Karthik Shukla Pratipada.
 - Kerala : New year starts in the month of Medam (on the day when the Sun enters in the constellation Leo).
 - Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka : New Year falls on Chaitra Shuddha Prathipade.
 - Sikkim : New Year starts on 18th day of the 10th month of the Tibetan Lunar Calendar.
 - Maharashtra : New Year starts in the month of Chaitra
 - Tamil Nadu : New year starts on 13th or 14th of April.

People light oil lamps and decorate the house with auspicious flowers those with the color like pink, red, purple or yellow. Rangoli design is also an attractive part of New Year decorations. Indians get up early in the morning, take bath and wear new clothes. They bring home deities of Goddess Laxmi (Goddess of wealth) and Lord Ganesha. Prayers are offered and prasad is distributed among the family members. At the time of New Year, gifts and sweets are exchanged with each other. People consider this festival to be an auspicious time to begin New Year

Islamic New Year

Islam has a lunar based calendar with 354 days. The New Year date also changes every year as the Islamic Calendar is 11 days shorter than the solar calendar. Maal Hijra or Islamic New Year is celebrated on the first day of Muharram (first Islamic month). The word Muharram also means respect. It is more of a cultural event than a New Year celebration. People welcome the New Year with peace and prayers.

New Year celebrated by Muslims is not a gala affair rather it's a quite and sober celebration. People gather in mosques and dargahs to offer special prayers. Muslims celebrate this day to pay homage to Prophet Muhammad. The most important part is to tell the hijra (Muhammad's flight from Medina to Mecca). This story is also broadcast on radio. Maal Hijra or the Islamic New Year is spent on reflecting how one's leading his or her life and their own mortality.

Shia Muslims do not take part in New Year activities. They commemorate the Battle of Karbala and observe it as a month of mourning. This commemoration ends on the tenth day of Muharram called Ashurah. Similarly, Sunni Muslims do not take part in the New Year traditions as on this day first Caliph Abu Bakr died.

Jewish New Year

New Year for Jewish people is the most important event. Month of September and October (according to the Gregorian calender) are for welcoming the New Year. Everybody is in high spirits and mood of the festival. Festival celebrations begin with Rosh Hashanah and ends with Yom Kippur.

The origin of Jewish New Year can be traced from the holy Bible which is celebrated over a thousand years. The Jewish New Year takes place in the month of Tishri that are months of September and October according to the Gregorian calender.

It is a 10 day long celebration. It begins at the sundown of first day and lasts till sundown of the tenth day. Rosh Hashanah is celebrated the first two days. It means New Year according to the Jewish tradition. Following all traditions, Yom Kippur is celebrated on the tenth day of Tishri. And the time between these two days is called Shabbat Shuva.

Celtic New Year

According to the Celtic mythology, Samhain or Celtic New Year was a gap in time. During this gap period, 'Our World' and 'Otherworld' came together and thought that the dead could return to warm themselves at the places theylived.

The Celtic New Year has an important feature of 'divination of events'. They use hazel nuts and symbols of wisdom for fortune telling. There were also some other Samhain traditions which referred to the Celtic Emhain Abhlach (Paradise of Apples) where the dead ate the scared fruit and became immortal.

Celts practice many rituals for their ancestors at this time. They put food and drinks for the dead and let their house doors opened to give the dead a free passage to enter their house. But all the spirits from the Otherworld were not good. To stop the evil spirits, villagers carved images of spirit guardians onto turnips and kept these 'jack o'lanterns' in front of their doors.

In earlier times, people used to collect their harvest and slaughtered cattle for feast. There were massive bonfires and people lit the hearth fires from the village bonfire. In this way, all the families spent their time with each other dancing and chanting Celtic songs.

With the rise of Christianity, Samhain changed to Hallowmas or All Saints Day on November 1st followed by All Souls' Day on November 2nd. The Celtic New Year popularly known as Halloween's Day is celebrated with great enthusiasm by the people of West (United States, Ireland, UK, Canada etc).

 It's celebrations begin on the night of October 31st. Young people dress up like dead spirits wearing carved out pumpkins over the faces. They move around the city in strange attires and performing Halloween activities. Samhain not only marked link between the worlds but also dissolved the structure of the society for the night. Boys and girls would swap their roles, wearing each other's clothes and playing pranks on elders.

Buddhist New Year

New Year occurs on different days in different countries following Buddhism. New Year in Theravadin countries, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Lao is celebrated for three days from the first full moon day in April. 

In Mahayan countries, New Year celebrations starts on the first full moon day in January. These countries celebrate the day according to their ethnic background and culture. 

People of China, Korea and Vietnam celebrate it in the month of January or early February while Tibetans usually celebrate a month later.

New Year is the time to hope best from the coming year. People reflect upon their past and rectify all their mistakes. It is observed with same spirit and gaiety in most of the countries.  

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See you next year!

Future Continuous - Futuro Contínuo

Hello, people!
A long time ago... In a galaxy far far away... yeah, we back!

Sentiram saudades dos nossos posts?
Então, vamos aperfeiçoar nosso Inglês? 
Nosso post de hoje é sobre o Futuro Contínuo.



O future continuous é um tempo verbal utilizado para descrever ações que estarão acontecendo em algum período no futuro. Ou seja, ele descreve um fato que acontecerá num momento específico no futuro.

O future continuous é comumente usado em suposições, avisos, perguntas ou falas sobre planos para o futuro e ainda, para indicar promessas. 

Por ser um tempo verbal que expressa ações futuras, muitas vezes é acompanhado por expressões de tempo.

As mais utilizadas são: 

• tomorrow (amanhã);  
• tomorrow morning (amanhã de manhã); 
• next week (próxima semana); 
• next month (próximo mês); 
• next year (próximo ano), etc.

Exemplos:

• I will be reading this book this year. (Eu estarei lendo esse livro esse ano)
• You will be doing better when I teach you. (Você estará fazendo melhor quando eu te ensinar)
• He will be working in his office. (Ele estará trabalhando no escritório dele)

Outras formas de utilizar o future continuous:

Utiliza-se para descrever ações que estarão em andamento em um determinado período do futuro.

Exemplo: Tomorrow afternoon we will be swimming in the club. 

               (Amanhã à tarde nós vamos nadar no clube)

Utiliza-se para falar de fatos do futuro ou fazer planos para o futuro.

Exemplos:

             My teacher will be at school tomorrow. 
              (Meu professor estará na escola amanhã) – falar de fatos.

            I will be traveling next week. 
              (Eu estarei viajando na próxima semana) – fazer planos.

Forma Afirmativa (Affirmative Form)

Para a formação de frases afirmativas no future continuous utilize a seguinte fórmula :

Sujeito + simple future do verbo to be (will be) + verbo principal com –ing + complemento

Exemplo: You will be reading in the library. (Você estará lendo na biblioteca)

Forma Negativa (Negative Form)

Para construir frases negativas no future continuous acrescenta-se o “not” após o auxiliar “will”:

Sujeito + verbo auxiliar will + not + to be + verbo principal com –ing + complemento

Exemplo: You will not be reading in the library. (Você não estará lendo na biblioteca)

Obs: Lembre-se que o verbo auxiliar e o not podem aparecer na forma contraída:

Will+not: W’ont

Forma Interrogativa (Interrogative Form)

Para construir perguntas com o future continuous o verbo auxiliar will vem antes do sujeito e no início da frase:

Verbo auxiliar will + sujeito + verbo to be + verbo principal com –ing + complemento

Exemplo: Will you be reading in the library? (Você estará lendo na biblioteca?)

Como observado, o future continuous é um tempo verbal que é utilizado para ajudar o falante a descrever uma ação que estará acontecendo em um determinado momento do futuro.

Conseguiu entender como funciona o verbo?

Caso tenha alguma dúvida, entre em contato conosco para que possamos ajudá-lo!

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Have a nice day! See you next week with some exercises! 

Atividades de Inglês para Crianças

Hi, children!

Nesse post estamos disponibilizando algumas atividades para crianças que você poderá imprimir e garantir um aprendizado com diversão, pintando e fazendo algumas cruzadinhas!

Bons estudos!


1- Pinte os círculos de acordo com as cores indicadas




2 - Ligue os animais aos seus nomes!


3 - Preencha as etiquetas de acordo com a imagem



4 - Cruzadinhas e Caça-palavras 
















Atividade interativa com Clima e estações do ano

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See you next week!

Cleopatra - Queen of Egypt

Nesse post vamos conhecer um pouco sobre uma das mais importantes rainhas do antigo Egito, Cleópatra. 

Cleopatra was the name of the seventh queen of ancient Egypt. By far the most famous was Cleopatra VII, b. 69 BC. Her extraordinary efforts to revive Ptolemaic power through her forceful personality and political skill, and the romantic liaisons with prominent Romans that this policy involved, have been the subject of much literature, including William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra.

The daughter of PTOLEMY XII, Cleopatra became joint ruler with her younger brother PTOLEMY XIII in 51 BC. Three years later they fought each other in a civil war, during which the Roman general POMPEY THE GREAT came to Egypt and was assassinated by Ptolemy. Julius CAESAR then invaded Egypt and defeated Ptolemy, who drowned in the Nile. Cleopatra married another brother, Ptolemy XIV, but she also became Caesar's mistress and followed him to Rome, where she stayed until his assassination (44 BC).

Returning to Egypt, Cleopatra ruled with her son by Caesar, Ptolemy XV, called Caesarion, as joint king, Ptolemy XIV having been murdered on her orders. In 42 BC, when Mark ANTONY came to Egypt, she became his mistress. They planned to set up a vast kingdom to be inherited by her sons by Caesar and Antony. However, Octavian (later AUGUSTUS) defeated Antony and Cleopatra in the Battle of ACTIUM (31 BC) and pursued them to Egypt. Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra surrendered and sought to establish a relationship with Octavian. Failing, she killed herself in August of the year 30 BC, allowing herself to be bitten by an asp (cobra), the royal symbol of ancient Egypt. Her son, King Ptolemy XV, was murdered, and the Ptolemaic dynasty ended.

1- How many queens did the name Cleopatra correspond?

2- Who was the most famous of all of them?

3- Mention two literature works related to Cleopatra.

4- Did Cleopatra VII rule Egypt by herself?

5- How did her brother Ptolemy III die?

6- When did she become Mark Antony’s mistress?

7- How did the Ptolemaic dynasty end?

8- What does THEY mean in the sentence “They planned to set up…”

9- Who was murdered on Cleopatra’s orders?
a) Ptolemy XII
b) Ptolemy III
c) Ptolemy XIV
d) Ptolemy XV

RESPOSTAS

1 - Seven queens.

2 - The most famous was Cleopatra VII, born in 69 BC.

3 -  William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra.

4 -  No, Cleopatra became joint ruler with her younger brother Ptolemy XIII

5 -  He drowned in the Nile.

6 -  In 42 BC.

7 -  When Cleopatra’s son, King Ptolemy XV, was murdered, the Ptolemaic dynasty ended.

8 -  Mark Antony and Cleopatra

9 -  C

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See you next week!

Martin Luther King Jr

"... April fourth
A shout rings out
in the Memphis sky

               Free at last
               they took your life
              They could not take your pride..." 

Martin Luther King, Jr. foi um dos mais importantes líderes do Movimento pelos direitos civis contra a segregação racial e discriminação contra os Afro-americanos.  Nesse post vamos contar um pouco sobre seu legado.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement, a social movement in the United States that worked to end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans. King’s contributions to this movement continue to be felt today and inspire others to combat inequality through nonviolence. 

As the leader of the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, Martin Luther King, Jr. traversed the country in his quest for freedom. His involvement in the movement began during the bus boycotts of 1955 and was ended by an assassin's bullet in 1968.

As the unquestioned leader of the peaceful Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was at the same time one of the most beloved and one of the most hated men of his time. From his involvement in the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 until his untimely death in 1968, King's message of change through peaceful means added to the movement's numbers and gave it its moral strength. The legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. is embodied in these two simple words: equality and nonviolence.

King was raised in an activist family. His father was deeply influenced by Marcus Garvey’s Back to Africa Movement in the 1920s. His mother was the daughter of one of Atlanta's most influential African American ministers. As a student, King excelled. He easily moved through grade levels and entered Morehouse College, his father's alma mater, at the age of fifteen. Next, he attended Crozer Theological Seminary, where he received a Bachelor of Divinity degree. While he was pursuing his doctorate at Boston University, he met and married Coretta Scott. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1955, King accepted an appointment to the Dexter Street Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

After his organization of the bus boycott, King formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which dedicated itself to the advancement of rights for African Americans. In April 1963, King organized a protest in Birmingham, Alabama, a city King called "the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States." Since the end of World War II, there had been 60 unsolved bombings of African American churches and homes.

Boycotts, sit-ins and marches were conducted. When Bull Connor, head of the Birmingham police department, used fire hoses and dogs on the demonstrators, millions saw the images on television. King was arrested. But support came from around the nation and the world for King and his family. Later in 1963, he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to thousands in Washington, D.C.

After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, King turned his efforts to registering African American voters in the South. In 1965, he led a march in Selma, Alabama, to increase the percentage of African American voters in Alabama. Again, King was arrested. Again, the marchers faced attacks by the police. Tear gas, cattle prods, and billy clubs fell on the peaceful demonstrators. Public opinion weighed predominantly on the side of King and the protesters. Finally, President Johnson ordered the National Guard to protect the demonstrators from attack, and King was able to complete the long march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery. The action in Selma led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Early in the evening of April 4, 1968, King was shot by James Earl Ray. Spontaneous violence spread through urban areas as mourners unleashed their rage at the loss of their leader. Rioting burst forth in many American cities.

But the world never forgot his contributions. Time magazine had named him "Man of the Year" in 1963. In 1964, he won the Nobel Peace Prize and was described as "the first person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence." In 1977, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award a civilian American can earn. In the 1980s, his birthday became a national holiday, creating an annual opportunity for Americans to reflect on the two values he dedicated his life to advancing: equality and nonviolence.

Questions

1 - How did the public feel towards Martin Luther King?

     a)  He was hated because he was causing big changes in America.

     b) He was loved by everyone because he made life better for all Americans.

     c) He was both loved and hated for his new approach to race relations.

     d) Many people didin't care about the work he did

2 - What did Martin Luther King, Jr. believe made a successful protest?

    a) Nonviolent actions in places where the police supported their right to protest.

    b) Nonviolent demostrations against things he thought were unfair

    c) Whatever it took to create change

    d) By working with Bull Connor to organize demonstrations.

3 - How were protesters treated by law enfocement in Selma?

    a) They were supported for their beliefs of freedom and equality

    b) They were supported by beliefes of freedom and equality

    c) They were protected as long as they remained peaceful

    d) They were peacefully turned away by President Johnson's National Guard.

4 - How did the world respond to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death?

     a) They celebrated his values of equality and nonviolence and he received several awards.

     b) His enemes realzed they could gain power without his opposition.

     c) They reverted to violent protests out of anger over is death.

     d) The completely accepted his values of equality and nonviolence and ceased fighting.

5 - Before getting inolved in the civil rights movemet, what was Martin Luther King, Jr.'s job?

     a) Lawyer

     b) Minister

     c) Medical doctor

     d) Professor

     e) Actor

6 - What was the first major civil rights action that Martin Luther King, Jr. led?

     a) Little Rock Nine

     b) Marcho on Washington

     c) Birmingham Campaign

     d) Montgomery Bus Boycott

     e) Bloody Sunday

7 - What legislation was passed in 1964 as a result of the March on Washington?

     a) Thirteenth Amendment

     b) Disabilities Act

     c) Civil Rights Act

     d) Social Security Act

     e) Voter's Right Act

8 - What name has been given to the speech Martin Luther King, Jr. gave at the March on Washington? 

    a) One Day

    b) Washington Address

    c) We March

    d) We the People

    e) I Have a Dream

9 - How did Martin Luther King, Jr. die?

    a) He died in a car bomb

    b) He suffered a heart attack while giving a speeach

    c) He died from cancer

    d) He was shot by an assassin

    e) He died from old age in his home in Atlanta  

Respostas:

1- b), 2- a), 3- a), 4- b), 5- b), 6- d), 7- c), 8- e), 9- d)

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See you soon!