Vocabulary In the News: One million throng London for royal wedding

One million well-wishers thronged the streets of London yesterday for the royal wedding turning the streets into a blanket of red, white and blue. They all turned out hoping to catch a glimpse of the newlyweds who exchanged their vows at Westminster Abbey.

A jubilant crowd waiting at the palace gates were treated to a public kiss on the lips, a break with royal protocol which states that royals are not allowed to kiss publically.

To the relief of the royal family, everything went off without a hitch.

VOCABULARY
a well-wisher – someone who shares your feelings or opinions and hopes that you will be successful

to throng – to gather in large, numerous crowds

a throng – a large crowd of people

a blanket – a thick layer of something, for example snow, fog or clouds that completely covers an area

to turn out – to go somewhere to be present at an event or take part in an activity

Synonym: to show up

to catch a glimpse – to see something or someone for a moment only

to exchange vows – a set of promises that people make to each other, for example during a wedding ceremony

jubilant (adj.) – extremely happy because something good has happened

to be treated to something – to have something special done for or given to you

to treat oneself/someone to something – to do something or to give something special to yourself or someone

a treat – something special you do or buy for yourself or someone else

to go off without a hitch – to happen successfully without any problems

Synonym: with flying colours (UK)/colors (US)

11 November - Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom

(from http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Remembrance.html)

November is the time of the year when the British wear a red poppy in memory of those who sacrificed their lives for us during wars.

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month marks the signing of the Armistice, on 11th November 1918, to signal the end of World War One.

At 11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years continuous warfare.

What is Remembrance Day?

Remembrance Day is on 11 November. It is a special day set aside to remember all those men and women who were killed during the two World Wars and other conflicts. At one time the day was known as Armistice Day and was renamed Remembrance Day after the Second World War.

Remembrance Sunday is held on the second Sunday in November, which is usually the Sunday nearest to 11 November. Special services are held at war memorials and churches all over Britain.

A national ceremony takes place at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London. The Queen lays the first wreath at the Cenotaph.

Wreaths are layed beside war memorials by companies, clubs and societies. People also leave small wooden crosses by the memorials in remembrance of a family member who died in war.

The 'Last Post'

The "Last Post" is traditionally played to introduce the two minute silence in Remembrance Day ceremonies. It is usually ' played on a bugle. (In military life, 'The Last Post' marks the end of the day and the final farewell.) 

Listen to the ‘Last Post’

The sounding of "Reveille" (or, more commonly, "The Rouse"), ends the two minute silence, followed by the recitation of the "Ode of Remembrance."

Listen to ‘Reveille’

"They Shall not grow old" ("Ode of Remembrance." )

A poem called 'For the Fallen' is often read aloud during the ceremony.

For the Fallen

By Laurence Binyon

 

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children England mourns for her dead across the sea. Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal Sings sorrow up into the immortal spheres, There is music in the midst of desolation And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young, Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against the odds uncounted; They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again; They sit no more at familiar tables of home; They have no lot in our labour of the day-time; They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound, Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight, To the innermost heart of their own land they are known As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain; As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, To the end, to the end, they remain.

Poppy Day

Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day, because it is traditional to wear an artificial poppy. They are sold by the Royal British Legion, a charity dedicated to helping war veterans.

Two minute silence

At 11am on each Remembrance Sunday a two minute silence is observed at war memorials and other public spaces across the UK.

On This Day : 05 November 2010 – Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night

Slide your cursor over the words in bold to find their French translation.

Taken from : http://www.bonfirenight.net/index.php

In 1605, thirteen young men planned to blow up
the Houses of Parliament. Among them was
Guy Fawkes, Britain's most notorious traitor.

After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had been persecuted under her rule had hoped that her successor, James I, would be more tolerant of their religion. James I had, after all, had a Catholic mother. Unfortunately, James did not turn out to be more tolerant than Elizabeth and a number of young men, 13 to be exact, decided that violent action was the answer.

A small group took shape, under the leadership of Robert Catesby. Catesby felt that violent action was warranted. Indeed, the thing to do was to blow up the Houses of Parliament. In doing so, they would kill the King, maybe even the Prince of Wales, and the Members of Parliament who were making life difficult for the Catholics. Today these conspirators would be known as extremists, or terrorists.

To carry out their plan, the conspirators got hold of 36 barrels of gunpowder - and stored them in a cellar, just under the House of Lords.

But as the group worked on the plot , it became clear that innocent people would be hurt or killed in the attack, including some people who even fought for more rights for Catholics. Some of the plotters started having second thoughts. One of the group members even sent an anonymous letter warning his friend, Lord Monteagle, to stay away from the Parliament on November 5th. Was the letter real?

The warning letter reached the King, and the King's forces made plans to stop the conspirators.

Guy Fawkes, who was in the cellar of the parliament with the 36 barrels of gunpowder when the authorities stormed it in the early hours of November 5th, was caught, tortured and executed.

It's unclear if the conspirators would ever have been able to pull off their plan to blow up the Parliament even if they had not been betrayed. Some have suggested that the gunpowder itself was so old as to be useless. Since Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators got caught before trying to ignite the powder, we'll never know for certain.

Even for the period which was notoriously unstable, the Gunpowder Plot struck a very profound chord for the people of England. In fact, even today, the reigning monarch only enters the Parliament once a year, on what is called "the State Opening of Parliament". Prior to the Opening, and according to custom, the Yeomen of the Guard search the cellars of the Palace of Westminster. Nowadays, the Queen and Parliament still observe this tradition.

On the very night that the Gunpowder Plot was foiled, on November 5th, 1605, bonfires were set alight to celebrate the safety of the King. Since then, November 5th has become known as Bonfire Night. The event is commemorated every year with fireworks and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes on a bonfire.

Some of the English have been known to wonder, in a tongue in cheek kind of way, whether they are celebrating Fawkes' execution or honoring his attempt to do away with the government.

For 400 years, bonfires have burned
on November 5th to mark the failed Gunpowder Plot.

The tradition of Guy Fawkes-related bonfires actually began the very same year as the failed coup. The Plot was foiled in the night between the 4th and 5th of November 1605. Already on the 5th, agitated Londoners who knew little more than that their King had been saved, joyfully lit bonfires in thanksgiving. As years progressed, however, the ritual became more elaborate.

Soon, people began placing effigies onto bonfires, and fireworks were added to the celebrations. Effigies of Guy Fawkes, and sometimes those of the Pope, graced the pyres. Still today, some communities throw dummies of both Guy Fawkes and the Pope on the bonfire (and even those of a contemporary politician or two), although the gesture is seen by most as a quirky tradition, rather than an expression of hostility towards the Pope.

Preparations for Bonfire Night celebrations include making a dummy of Guy Fawkes, which is called "the Guy". Some children even keep up an old tradition of walking in the streets, carrying "the Guy" they have just made, and beg passersby for "a penny for the Guy." The kids use the money to buy fireworks for the evening festivities.

On the night itself, Guy is placed on top of the bonfire, which is then set alight; and fireworks displays fill the sky.

The extent of the celebrations and the size of the bonfire varies from one community to the next. Lewes, in the South East of England, is famous for its Bonfire Night festivities and consistently attracts thousands of people each year to participate.

Bonfire Night is not only celebrated in Britain. The tradition crossed the oceans and established itself in the British colonies during the centuries. It was actively celebrated in New England as "Pope Day" as late as the 18th century. Today, November 5th bonfires still light up in far out places like New Zealand and Newfoundland in Canada.

Taken from : http://www.bonfirenight.net/index.php

Contributed by Jane Ryder.

To watch a video from the BBC on Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot, go HERE:

Cartoon : Bonfire Nights Goes With a Bang

Cartoon by Ros Asquith of the Guardian.co.uk published on 2 November 2010.

To run a tight ship (or to run a taut ship) is a naval expression that means to manage or organize a ship or an organization in an orderly, efficient and disciplined manner.

If you keep something under lock and key, it is in a safe and protected place. This expression can also be used to say that someone is in prison.

British Culture : The Haxey Hood Game

"Hoose agen hoose, toon agen toon, if a man meets a man nok 'im doon, but doant 'ot 'im"

(This translates as: House against House, Town against Town, if a man meets a man, knock him down but don’t hurt him.)

Dating back to the year 1298AD, but with its origins in Celtic sacrificial rites, The Haxey Hood Game is a northern tradition, very similar to a rough form of rugby football.

The game is held on 6 January and involves the villagers of Haxey, Westwoodside (North Lincolnshire)  and the surrounding areas. Customarily the game would involve 'smoking the fool' which entails setting fire to a pile of straw and paper around the village fool, however as it evolved into a more and more dangerous tradition, culminating in trouble reviving the fool, it was eventually banned in the 1850s.

The first part of this rough and tumble game involves throwing twelve sack hoods into the air, with the aim of getting these hoods to either of the two pubs in Haxey or to the pub in Westwoodside without being stopped.

In the late afternoon of 6 January, a leather hood is thrown into the air and scrums of men attempt to get the hood to their favourite pub. Managing to get the hood to the pub can take several hours as the teams of men fight and push to achieve their goal. The pub receiving the hood keeps it until the following year's Haxey Hood Game.

Taken from:

http://british-dark-middle-ages.suite101.com/article.cfm/tradtional_british_customs_for_month_of_january

To learn more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haxey_Hood

http://www.wheewall.com/hood/

Vocabulary In the News: Big Ben Celebrates its 150th Anniversary

http://www.france24.com/en/20090531-culture-london-clock-big-ben-anniversary-150

The world's most famous clock marks its 150th anniversary on Sunday. Big Ben, with its distinctive Gothic faces, started ticking on May 31, 1859.

AFP -  Big Ben, arguably the world's most famous clock which towers over London, marked its 150th anniversary Sunday.

The clock started ticking on May 31 1859 and has continued with only occasional interruptions for maintenance, bad weather and even bird strikes ever since.

The clock, housed in St Stephen's Tower which adjoins Britain's House of Commons, is one of the capital's most popular tourist attractions and boasts some amazing statistics.

Each of the four Gothic clock faces is seven metres wide, with a minute hand over four metres long which travels the equivalent of 190 kilometres per year.

A Latin inscription is carved beneath each one -- "Domine salvam fac Reginam nostrum Victoriam primam" which means: "O Lord, save our Queen Victoria the First." Queen Victoria was on the throne in Britain at the time.

The 96 metre-high tower which houses the clock was built as part of the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament by architects Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin following a major fire in 1843.

A competition was opened in 1846 to decide who should build the clock, but it took seven years to decide a winner.

Eventually, the winner was named as Edward Dent, who had already made a chronometer for the HMS Beagle, the ship which carried Charles Darwin on a worldwide voyage which led him to the theory of evolution.

The clock cost 2,500 pounds to build and was completed in 1854 but it was not installed until the clock tower was finished five years later.

Even then, there was a last-minute hitch -- the original cast-iron minute hands were too heavy and had to be replaced with copper ones.

The famous bell chimes -- which are used at the start of many television and radio news bulletins in Britain -- did not sound for another six weeks afterwards.

The name Big Ben originally referred to the bell in the clock tower, but has come to be used for the tower and the clock as well.

It is not entirely clear where the name Big Ben comes from -- some say refers to Sir Benjamin Hall, an MP at the time, while others claim it was after heavyweight boxer Benjamin Caunt.

VOCABULARY

amazing – extraordinaire, incroyable

boast – se vanter de

carved – gravé

cast iron – la fonte

chime – le carillon

clock face – un candran

clock tower – un beffroi

competition – un concours

copper – le cuivre

hitch – un problème, un pépin

minute hand – aiguille des minutes

sound – faire retenir, sonner

tick – faire tic-tac

tower over – se dresser au-dessus de, dominer

To learn more about Big Ben, visit Clock Tower tour at the UK Parliament’s webpage.

Internet Sites for Improving Your English: Easter in Britain from englisch-hilfen.de

Happy Easter to Everyone!!

Here’s a webpage for those learning English in Germany. On the page link I’m adding to this post, you can learn about Easter traditions in Britain. You’ll even find a recipe for hot cross buns, a Easter tradition in England.

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/texte/easter.htm

After you’ve read about British Easter traditions, explore around the site!