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ORIGIN OF THE CELEBRATION Section: Festival The start of the New Year has been celebrated in China for more than 3,000 years. New Year was a time when the farmers gave thanks for the harvest and prayed to the gods for a good harvest in the coming year. This was the one period in the busy farming year when there was time to have a celebration and when the family could get together, relax, and be merry. Chinese New Year begins with a New Moon. The Lunar Year is calculated from the time it takes for the Moon to travel around the Earth, while the Western (Gregorian) calendar is based on the time it takes for the Earth to circle the Sun. The orbits of the Moon bear no relation to the time it takes for the Earth to go around the Sun, which is why the Chinese Lunar New Year is celebrated on a different date each year. In China the New Year was renamed the Spring Festival, in 1911, when the Western calendar was officially accepted in China. However, it is still commonly known around the world as the Chinese New Year. Chinese years are named after one of twelve animals. These have been used in the same order to name the years since the sixth century A.D. Each animal is said to have its own personality and emotions, which are present in people born within its year. ~~~~~~~~By Sarah Moyse This article is copyrighted. All rights reserved.Source: Chinese New Year (0-7613-0374-X)

RELIGIONS AND RITUALS Section: Festival Although the New Year celebration is not mainly a religious one, many Chinese will visit a temple at this time of the year to make an offering to the Buddha or to the gods in the hope of making the New Year a good one. Ancestors and gods are honored with ceremonies in the home around a family altar decorated with flowers. Incense and candles are burned at the altar. At important family banquets the ancestors may be recognized as "spiritual guests" and first offered food that is afterward eaten with the meal. The Chinese have three main systems of ideas that are important to them: Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Although these systems are very different, many Chinese follow some or all of the rituals associated with them just to be safe. Confucius lived in the fifth century B.C. and spoke about the value of good behavior in private life and in government. He said that politeness, honesty, courage, and loyalty were what made good people. He believed in self-development through education and thought that people gain in wisdom as they grow older. It is part of the Confucian tradition to honor parents and ancestors.

Daoism comes from the teachings of Laozi, who lived at the same time as Confucius. His book, the Dao De Jing (The Way and Its Power), describes the way (dao means "way") to live at peace with nature so as not to upset natural balances. The Way involves balance between opposite forces. They are called yin and yang. While yin is dark and female, yang is the opposite, being light and male. When yin and yang are balanced, there is perfect harmony with nature. Unlike Confucianism and Daoism, which started in China, Buddhism came from India and is based on the teachings of the Buddha -- a holy man. Buddha taught that people need to let go of earthly desires and become fully aware of what they are doing in the present. Buddhists believe that after death each soul moves on to another body, which may be animal or human. What one is chosen for in the next life depends on how good or bad the person has been in this life. The Chinese also pray to other gods, holding the view that the more gods who can look after them the better. The important ones are the Kitchen God, who watches the family in the home, the Jade Emperor, who is the most important god in heaven, the God of Wealth, who determines how wealthy people are, and the Door Gods. ~~~~~~~~By Sarah Moyse This article is copyrighted. All rights reserved.Source: Chinese New Year (0-7613-0374-X)

We can trace this historic American Christian tradition to the year 1623. After the harvest crops were gathered in November 1623, Governor William Bradford of the 1620 Pilgrim Colony, "Plymouth Plantation" in Plymouth, Massachusetts proclaimed: "All ye Pilgrims with your wives and little ones, do gather at the Meeting House, on the hill… there to listen to the pastor, and render Thanksgiving to the Almighty God for all His blessings."

Thursday, the 19th day of February, 1795 was thus set aside by George Washington as a National Day of Thanksgiving. Many years later, on October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, by Act of Congress, an annual National Day of Thanksgiving "on the last Thursday of November, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens." In this Thanksgiving proclamation, our 16th President says that it is…

So it is that on Thanksgiving Day each year, Americans give thanks to Almighty God for all His blessings and mercies toward us throughout the year.

Lil’ Wayne

83 percent of blacks call themselves Christians

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many to the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America. Historians have also recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America, including British colonists in Berkeley Plantation, Virginia. At this site near the Charles River in December of 1619, a group of British settlers led by Captain John Woodlief knelt in prayer and pledged "Thanksgiving" to God for their healthy arrival after a long voyage across the Atlantic. This event has been acknowledged by some scholars and writers as the official first Thanksgiving among European settlers on record. Whether at Plymouth, Berkeley Plantation, or throughout the Americas, celebrations of thanks have held great meaning and importance over time. The legacy of thanks, and particularly of the feast, have survived the centuries as people throughout the United States gather family, friends, and enormous amounts of food for their yearly Thanksgiving meal.

The history of Thanksgiving goes much further back than Plymouth and 1621. In fact, people across the world from every culture have been celebrating and giving thanks for thousands of years. In this country, long before English colonists arrived, Native People celebrated many different days of thanksgiving. “Strawberry Thanksgiving” and “Green Corn Thanksgiving” are just two of kinds of celebrations for the Wampanoag and other Native People. In 1621, the English colonists at Plymouth (some people call them “Pilgrims” today) had a three-day feast to celebrate their first harvest. More than 90 native Wampanoag People joined the 50 English colonists in the festivities. Historians don­t know for sure why the Wampanoag joined the gathering or what activities went on for those three days. Form the one short paragraph that was written about the celebration at the time, we know that they ate, drank, and played games. Back in England, English people celebrated the harvest by feasting and playing games in much the same way. The English did not call the 1621 event a “thanksgiving.” A day of “thanksgiving” was very different for the colonists. It was a day of prayer to thank God when something really good happened. The English actually had their first thanksgiving in the summer of 1623. On this day they gave thanks for the rain that ended a long drought.

he Pilgrims, fleeing religious persecution, sailed from England to the New World aboard the Mayflower. They stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock and began a new colony. In unfamiliar territory, they came near starvation, but the Indian Squanto appeared and taught them to plant corn and make their living from the land. Led by William Bradford and Miles Standish, they survived these difficult early days, and when they brought in the first rich harvest, they set aside a day to give thanks to God for their good fortune. The chief Massasoit and their other Native American neighbors came bringing deer and wild turkeys, and together the Indians and the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving. The vague history (more myth, really) of the first Thanksgiving presents a scenario of the encounter of New World and Old World people that existed for only a moment, if it existed at all. It involves one of the least typical, and least successful, groups of European colonizers of the North American continent. Yet Thanksgiving is an important celebration throughout the United States, and like most things central to American culture, it is complicated and multilayered.

In October 2008, Joe won an award for his flamboyant fashion at Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2008 in Guadalajara, Mexico for the "Fashionista - Male" of the year, an award given to artists recognizing their fashion and style.

. Joe has said that the rings symbolize "a promise to ourselves and to God that we'll stay pure 'till marriage,

. The brothers are all committed Evangelical Christians, their father is a former pastor, and they were homeschooled by their mother

Section: Festival The start of the New Year has been celebrated in China for more than 3,000 years. New Year was a time when the farmers gave thanks for the harvest and prayed to the gods for a good harvest in the coming year. This was the one period in the busy farming year when there was time to have a celebration and when the family could get together, relax, and be merry. Chinese New Year begins with a New Moon. The Lunar Year is calculated from the time it takes for the Moon to travel around the Earth, while the Western (Gregorian) calendar is based on the time it takes for the Earth to circle the Sun. The orbits of the Moon bear no relation to the time it takes for the Earth to go around the Sun, which is why the Chinese Lunar New Year is celebrated on a different date each year. In China the New Year was renamed the Spring Festival, in 1911, when the Western calendar was officially accepted in China. However, it is still commonly known around the world as the Chinese New Year. Chinese years are named after one of twelve animals. These have been used in the same order to name the years since the sixth century A.D. Each animal is said to have its own personality and emotions, which are present in people born within its year. ~~~~~~~~By Sarah Moyse This article is copyrighted. All rights reserved.Source: Chinese New Year (0-7613-0374-X)

Holidays are very important to the French. The French begin the year with a celebration of the Jour de l'An, which is New Year's Day. They greet each other by saying "Bonne Annee!" (Happy New Year). On January 6th there is la Fete des Rois (the Festival of the Three Kings), where people have a King's Cake. Whoever finds the special toy that has been baked into the cake gets to be king or queen for the day. In February, the French celebrate la Saint-Valentin or Valentine's Day by giving, valentines and chocolates. Also the French mark the start of Lent (a religious time when people fast) with Mardi Gras celebrations. On the 1st of April people play tricks on each other and say "Poisson d'avril!" which means "April fish!" People have little paper fishes that they cut out and try to stick on the backs of their friends that day. Easter is an important holiday in France. On the morning of Easter Sunday, most French people go to church. Afterwards, they carry home candles that have been blessed by priests. For Easter, which is called Le Pacques, omelettes, (an egg dish) are usually eaten for breakfast. People also give each other chocolate eggs and chocolate bunnies.

Holidays are very important to the French. The French begin the year with a celebration of the Jour de l'An, which is New Year's Day. They greet each other by saying "Bonne Annee!" (Happy New Year). On January 6th there is la Fete des Rois (the Festival of the Three Kings), where people have a King's Cake. Whoever finds the special toy that has been baked into the cake gets to be king or queen for the day. In February, the French celebrate la Saint-Valentin or Valentine's Day by giving, valentines and chocolates. Also the French mark the start of Lent (a religious time when people fast) with Mardi Gras celebrations. On the 1st of April people play tricks on each other and say "Poisson d'avril!" which means "April fish!" People have little paper fishes that they cut out and try to stick on the backs of their friends that day.

Thanksgiving Feast of 1621, but few realize that it was not the first festival of its kind in North America. Long before Europeans set foot in the Americas, native peoples sought to insure a good harvest with dances and rituals such as the Green Corn Dance of the Cherokees.

The first Thanksgiving service known to be held by Europeans in North America occurred on May 27, 1578 in Newfoundland, although earlier Church-type services were probably held by Spaniards in La Florida. However, for British New England, some historians believe that the Popham Colony in Maine conducted a Thanksgiving service in 1607 (see Sources: Greif, 208-209; Gould, and Hatch). In the same year, Jamestown colonists gave thanks for their safe arrival, and another service was held in 1610 when a supply ship arrived after a harsh winter. Berkley Hundred settlers held a Thanksgiving service in accordance with their charter which stated that the day of their arrival in Virginia should be observed yearly as a day of Thanksgiving, but within a few years an Indian uprising ended further services (Dabney). Thus British colonists held several Thanksgiving services in America before the Pilgrim's celebration in 1621.

In 1623, the Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts, held another day of Thanksgiving. As a drought was destroying their crops, colonists prayed and fasted for relief; the rains came a few days later. And not long after, Captain Miles Standish arrived with staples and news that a Dutch supply ship was on its way. Because of all this good fortune, colonists held a day of Thanksgiving and prayer on June 30. This 1623 festival appears to have been the origin of our Thanksgiving Day because it combined a religious and social celebration.

Why We Celebrate the New Year A legend of China recounts how people along the Yellow River Basin lived a simple, nomadic life, very content and happy. On a cold winter evening a mysterious being attacked the village and destroyed the villager's property. A village meeting was held and precautions taken to protect them from the intruder. Noting happened and people went about their daily routines. Then the mysterious being struck again, causing even greater damage to lives and property. Again, the villagers gathered and prepared for their safety. And again, nothing happened and people went about their normal activity, feeling secure and safe. But the mysterious force struck a third time, causing much loss and great fear among the villagers. An elderly scholar had studied the intrusions, watching the stars and heavenly bodies and recording their movements. He explained that the intruder came when the heavenly bodies were in a particular order and after the sun had appeared 365 times. The villagers studied this theory closely and learned that the intruder feared three things: the color red, illumination and noise. They called the intruder Nien or year. On the following 365th day, preparations were made for the return of Nien. Houses were lit with lanterns, objects were painted bright red and loud noises were made until dawn of the next day. The villagers' plan worked and the mysterious intruder did not appear. It was decided that from then on, a thanksgiving ceremony would be held every 366th evening to thank all the god for their blessings. And that the same preparations would be made for the return of Nien, scaring away the evil deeds of the spirits. Thus we celebrate the new year, chasing away evil with fireworks and celebrating with festivity and food.

known as the Laughing Jackasses of Australia

Kookaburras have a stout and compact body, short neck, rather long and pointed bill and short legs

family Kingfishers