Christmas and Santa Claus

Christmas is one of the world’s biggest religious and commercial festivities. It is celebrated every year on December 25.

Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus, but since then, numerous other traditions have been mixed with the originals. The word Christmas originated as a compound meaning "Christ's Mass". "Cristes" is from Greek Christos and "mæsse" is from Latin missa (the holy mass).

Popular customs include gift-giving, decorating Christmas trees, display lights and garlands, church celebrations, sharing traditional Christmas foods (e.g. baked turkey and gingerbread cookies) with family and friends and, of course, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive.

Who was Santa Claus? Father Christmas (or 'Santa Claus') has become the face of Christmas. He is based on a real person, St. Nicholas, which explains his other name 'Santa Claus' which comes from the Dutch 'Sinterklaas'. Nicholas was a Christian leader from Myra (in modern-day Turkey) in the 4th century AD. He was very shy, and wanted to give money to poor people without them knowing about it. It is said that one day, he climbed the roof of a house and dropped a purse of money down the chimney. It landed in the stocking which a girl had put to dry by the fire! This may explain the belief that Father Christmas comes down the chimney and places gifts in children's stockings. (copied from google!)

In my country we have a similar holiday, but it’s non-religious. We celebrate it on December 31 and call it “New Year”. Santa Claus is also called different name “Grandfather Frost”. But in general we celebrate it the same way. It is a time for families, fun, and festivities! A time of family gatherings and holiday meals. A time for ornaments, gifts, decorated trees and twinkling lights.

I think Christmas is one of the biggest holiday all over the world which is loved by almost every person, especially by children and it is something more because it brings hope and happiness to people.

My plans for 2011

It is time to take a rest and think about my plans for 2011.
I have complited level 4 in ESOL, but I still have 169 hours left, so I think it is better to continue studying English on higher level course for 2 days a week in next semester.
Also I've complited Certificate III in Financial Service (Bookkeeping), so now I can move on either Certificate IV in Financial Service (Bookkeeping) or Diploma in Accounting.
Sometimes it's seems to me to much studying and I want to stop it for a while, but at the same time it's better to finish the sooner the better.

Halloween

Halloween is celebrated on the night of October 31st mostly by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting sweets.

Halloween spread across Europe over 2, 000 years ago. It was a cultural, religious and Celtic tradition celebrating the end of the harvest season. Although it was not called Halloween at first. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Druid traditions. Then later in the 7 century because of the Catholic Church's influence, it began to be celebrated as “All Saints Day” to honour all the Saints who did not have a special day of their own. So the term Halloween is from 'HALLOWMAS'. ‘Hallow’ means holy or Saint; it is the eve of the feast of ‘All Hallows’ Eve (often shortened to Hallow Eve) or "All Saints' Day". Over time the name has been shortened to Halloween. In the 19th century it was brought to North America by Irish immigrants.

In my country we don’t have such a holiday. I can only compare it to New year, because that's then all children dress-up.

About food

I'm not conservative when it comes to food, I like trying new cuisines and dishes from all over the world. I like everything: spicy, not spicy, salty, sweet and so on.
I find Australian food pretty boring, but what is good in Australia that you can find different kind of food here. And also I have to say that lamb and pies are very delicious in Australia!!!

Two-week break

It was great to have two-week holiday! I enjoyed not having to get up early each day!
The first week when the weather was good my daughter and me went to parks with our friends and enjoyed playing outside, having BBQ and just enjoyed the sun and warmth. But last week it was cold again, I didn't like it but still we went to a children's festival, to a theatre for Gruffalo kids play, to a swimming pool and caught up with a lot of our friends.
My daughter and me had very active holiday, so I didn't have much time to clean my house or do homework for my studying!!! Shame on me :))

The Stories of the Chinese Moon Festival

The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. According to traditional Chinese culture, the moon is a carrier of human emotions. The Moon Festival is full of legendary stories. One of the legends says that Lady Chang Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since and you might see her dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival. The other one is about Jade Rabbit. An empty-handed rabbit offered his own flesh, jumping into a blazing fire to cook himself, so the sages were so touched by the rabbit's sacrifice that they let him live in the Moon Palace where he became the "Jade Rabbit".

Car and Bike Expo

Last Wednesday in TAFE it was a Car and Bike Expo. My group and I enjoyed it very much. We saw many interesting cars and took a lot of photos which you can see above here. Then we got some information and brosures. Afterwards we had some BBQ sausages and chat to each other. It was very usefull!