🐶English Onomatopoeia (Animal Sounds)🐷
There are so many English words that we need to study in every lesson but one of the easiest and most fun ways to remember new words is through onomatopoeia, which means a word from a sound. Let's take a look at some animal onomatopoeia,
- Pigs say, "oink! Oink!"
- Dogs say, "woof! Woof!"
- Cats say, "meow! Meow!"
- Lions say, "roar!"
- Cows say, "moo! Moo!"
Do you know any more animal sounds? Share with us!
Christmas in Norway is spent similar to many other places in the world. Christmas eve is the time to rush around and do any last minute preparations for the big Christmas day celebration. Families also use this time to shop for gifts or are in church for a Christmas service. When the local church bell tolls five times it signals to all that Christmas day has began and many people use this period to spend time with their relatives.
Norwegian Christmas foods are a collection of cured or boiled meats and some sort of vegetable. Dessert is typically baked goods, usually some type of cookie.
Unlike most of the world that sees Christmas as a family holiday, in Japan, Christmas is actually a couples and friends holiday. The main meal served all over Japan is KFC and some decadent well- decorated Christmas cake. Children are still expected to go to cram school and different extra curricular activities and most people spend Christmas day at work. Its almost as though Christmas is a regular day.
New year is the time when families get together and visit a Shrine to usher in blessings for the coming new year.
Christmas in Italy typically begins during early December. Italy is essentially a Catholic religion based country so Christmas involves many religious aspects. Italians usually have a meat fasting on Christmas eve to purify their bodies before heading to Midnight Mass. On Christmas day families typically host a large feast featuring different pasta dishes and panettone for dessert. Panettone is a sweet bread with raisins and dusted in icing sugar.
In Spain Christmas is a very lengthy and special celebration. The festive season usually last well into the start of January.
Christmas lights and decoration are displayed as early as the end of November, major cities like Barcelona and Madrid are brightly lit with electronic Christmas lights that dazzle both children and adults alike.
Christmas festivals are bright and exciting and held throughout Spain during this time. Children run through the streets in excitement and adults are filled with merry, this is time to celebrate with family. The Spanish tradition of sharing food is very well known, the foods they prepare and serve are a sight to behold. Spanish dinner tables are filled with an assortment of seafood, roasted meats like ham, turkey or fish. They are also not stingy with the sweets and enjoy a range of desserts such as marzipan, shortbread and cake to name a few.
Every country has a unique way of celebrating Christmas, lets take a look at France. In France it is forbidden to put up the Christmas tree before Christmas Eve. France is one of the first countries to start the tradition of actually decorating Christmas trees. But trees were not popular due to the fact that it was causing mass deforestation, many places banned Christmas trees in hopes of saving French forests.
The original French Christmas tree decorations were made of natural and somewhat edible items such as candies, apples, dried cakes and nuts, often times ribbon was used to make the tree appear more festive. This later evolved into glass ornaments when harvests were poor and people no longer had access to apples.
There are two days of Christmas in Germany, the 25th and the 26th of December. For many people, Christmas Eve, on the 24th of December, has a hectic morning and families work together to clean, decorate and cook. Later on they move into festive evening part where they enjoy time together as a family. Young adults usually go out with friends after this. If Christmas Eve falls on a weekday, shops remain open until noon and tend to be packed as people rush to buy their last remaining presents or food for the festive meal. Then it’s time to decorate the Christmas tree with fairy lights and baubles, to wrap the presents and prepare the meal.
German Christmas dinner is roast goose served with potato dumplings or German potato salad and red cabbage. Dessert is some kind of sweet bread dusted with icing sugar, Christstollen is very popular during Christmas.
The reason for gift giving.
Christmas is known as the season of giving and this is evident as Christmas presents are the most important part of Christmas. The symbolism behind giving gifts comes from the Christian belief that Jesus was given gifts from three wisemen at his birth.
Each gift was precious and very expensive as a way to pay tribute to the child, I am not exactly sure how the tradition trickled down from gifts of gold and frankincense to barbies and hot wheels but the tradition is still upheld all around the world. The belief has changed over time and now gifts are given by a fictional character, Santa Clause and are used for enjoyment not as tribute.
Cookies and milk are a must on Christmas eve night. Children are taught to believe that they should leave Santa milk and cookies on Christmas eve as a thank you for giving them presents. Some parents even go as far as leaving carrots for the Reindeers.
The original story was that Santa would leave treats for children,. Many people hung up stockings around the fireplace during this time and good ole Saint Nicholas would fill them with treats, including cookies and other sweets. Over time, this tradition evolved, and instead of filling shoes with treats, people began leaving out treats for Santa Claus in the form of milk and cookies as a way of expressing their gratitude and appreciation for the gifts he would bring.
It is an adorable and quite dramatic way to teach children gratitude and appreciation.
