Friday 23 July 2021

INGERA AND DORO WAT

 

Injera is a traditional Ethiopian Christmas dish which is a type of bread in the form of a sourdough pancake.

The main meal is Doro Wat, which is a spicy chicken stew, served in beautifully decorated Baskets, with which the Injera serves as both plate and fork when it is used to scoop up the Wat.

LUCINA

 

Lucina is celebrated as the Sun goddess in Sweden but is in fact a combination of Norse goddess Freyr and the Christian martyr St Lucia. Young girls dress up to represent Lucina by wearing white gowns and on their heads evergreen wreaths with candles in them. The lighted candles, eight in all, supposedly represent the equinoxes, solstices and the points in between.

The young Lucina girls give out cookies on the streets at dawn to celebrate Lucina's
act of sharing food with the needy.

Thursday 22 July 2021

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – MISTER NOËL (2005)

 

Tom (Sam Page) is the guy who can find the perfect gift for that special someone, that’s his business and he’s very good at it, and he is in very great demand especially at Christmas which is why he is known by his nickname “Mr. Christmas”

He is very good at what he does due to his ability to determine the perfect Christmas gift to fir a person's personality.

 

When Tom’s good friend Paul (Sam Guinan-Nyhart) comes to him asking for help in finding a gift for his girlfriend, Jenny (Tara Holt) , Mr. Christmas finds himself in a bit of trouble. The more he learns about Jenny during his research, the more he likes her, and the guiltier he feels being caught between his heart and his best friend.

And With Christmas rapidly approaching, Tom dreads his encroaching deadline as it will mean an end to his time with Jenny and perhaps an end to his only chance at being with his one true love.

FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS CAROL # 31 GAUDETTE

 

Gaudette

Written by Bell, Andy / Clarke, Vince / Traditional

Gaudete, gaudete
Christus est natus
Ex Maria Virgine
Gaudete

Tempus adest gratiae
Hoc quod optabamus
Carmina laetitiae
Devote reddamus

Deus homo factus est
Natura mirante
Mundus renovatus est
A Christo regnante

Ezechielis porta
Clausa pertransitur
Unde Lux est orta
Salus invenitur

Ergo nostra contio
Psallat iam in lustro
Benedicat Domino
Salus Regi nostro

THE GIFT OF CHRISTMAS

 

In an Ethiopian Christmas gift giving plays a very small part in the festivities.

Ethiopian Children will receive a present but it is something very simple and is more often or not an item of clothing.

IT HAPPENED ON DECEMBER 21ST

 

1163 Hurricane hits villages in Holland and Friesland, causing devastating floods

1582 Flanders adopts Gregorian calendar

1620 The Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock

1835 HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin aboard sails into the Bay of Islands New Zealand

1864 General Sherman conquers Savannah
1898 Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium
1910 An Explosion in a coal mine in Hulton England kills 344 mine workers
1912 Denmark, Norway and Sweden declare neutrality in the Comende war
1913 The 1st 32 clue crossword puzzle was printed in New York World
1919 J Edgar Hoover deported anarchist and feminist Emma Goldman to Russia
1923 Nepal changes from British protectorate to an independent nation
1925 Eisenstein's movie the battleship Potemkin premieres in Moscow
1933 20th century Fox signs Shirley Temple aged 5 to a studio contract

1937 Snow White the 1st feature length color and sound cartoon premiered
1941 German submarine U-567 sinks

1946 Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life," premiered

1946 An Earthquake in Southern Japan, kills 1,086
1948 State of Eire formerly called the Irish Free State declared its independence

1951 Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement

1954 Dr Sam Sheppard's wife Marilyn is murdered and the Dr is accused of the crime

1958 Charles De Gaulle wins 7 year term as 1st President of 5th Rep of France

1959 10th largest snowfall in New York City’s history 13.7"
1966 U.S.S.R. launches Luna 13 for soft-landing in Oceanus Procellarum

1968 Apollo 8 (Borman, Lovell & Anders) the 1st manned Moon voyage launched
1971 UN Security Council chooses Kurt Waldheim as 4th secretary General

1975 Madagascar adopts constitution

1976 UN General Assembly passes a resolution declaring 1979  the Year of Child
1978 Police in Des Plaines Illinois arrest John Wayne Gacy, Jr. for murder
1979 Zimbabwe adopts constitution
1988 NY bound Pan Am jumbo jet explodes over Lockerbie Scotland all 258 aboard die

1989 Dan Quayle sends out 30,000 Xmas cards with the word beacon spelled beakon
1991 Soviet Union formally dissolves 11 of 12 republics sign treaty forming Commonwealth of Independent States
1991 95 ticket holders share in the Madrid Spain $1.3 billion lottery

1992 Dutch DC-10 caught fire on landing at Faro Airport Portugal, 56 die

1994 Bomb goes off on #4 train on Fulton Street station New York City

Wednesday 21 July 2021

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – MISTLETOE AND MELODY (2015)

Mistletoe and Melody, is the story of a fashion designer, Kristin Parson (Lacey Chabert), who sells her house in LA, and with her daughter Emily (Fina Strazza), she moves to the town, where she used to live as a child.

In Silver Falls, Ohio, she meets a music teacher Danny Collier (Brennan Elliott), who had a crush on her when they were a kids, and now that he is Emily’s music teacher he finds that he still does, and that’s where the story really starts.

This is singer Mariah Carey's directorial movie debut and it’s a delight, it’s a gift of music transporting people back to another time and place where they find their truest feelings.

It's a great movie, Mariah Carey, did a good job as the nightmare parent Melissa McKean-Atkinson, and as a director.

Lacey Chabert is one of my favourite actresses and the chemistry between her and Brennan Elliott is magical, but for me the star of the film was Fina Strazza as Emily.