How England People Celebrate Christmas

This website tells us about Christmas day in England. The display of this website quite fascinating. I love the ornament on the left side of this website. Especially from this website we can find out the history of Christmas in England. There are also some recipes of food that can be served on Christmas day. In my opinion, this website can help to you, Christians, who will be celebrating Christmas day. In addition to getting knowledge about Christmas day in England, you can also add new recipes to serve food for the family. God job!!
If you curious about this I like to share the web: http://www.worldholidaytraditions.com/Countries/England.aspx 

And this is how the website look like.

Holiday Traditions of England "Merry Christmas"

Christmas is Britain's most popular holiday and is characterized by traditions which date back hundreds of years. Many Christmas customs which originated in Britain have been adopted in the United States.
The first ever Christmas card was posted in England in the 1840s, and the practice soon became an established part of the build-up to Christmas. Over a billion Christmas cards are now sent every year in the United Kingdom, many of them sold in aid of charities.
Christmas decorations in general have even earlier origins. Holly, ivy and mistletoe are associated with rituals going back beyond the Dark Ages. (The custom of kissing beneath a sprig of mistletoe is derived from an ancient pagan tradition.) The Christmas tree was popularized by Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who introduced one to the Royal Household in 1840. Since 1947, the country of Norway has presented Britain annually with a large Christmas tree which stands in Trafalgar Square in commemoration of Anglo-Norwegian cooperation during the Second World War.
Popular among children at Christmas time are pantomimes: song and dance dramatizations of well-known fairy tales which encourage audience participation.
Carols are often sung on Christmas Eve by groups of singers to their neighbors, and children hang a stocking on the fireplace or at the foot of their bed for Santa Claus (also named Father Christmas) to fill. Presents for the family are placed beneath the Christmas tree.
Christmas Day sees the opening of presents and many families attend Christmas services at church. Christmas dinner consists traditionally of a roast turkey, goose or chicken with stuffing and roast potatoes. This is followed by mince pies and Christmas pudding flaming with brandy, which might contain coins or lucky charms for children. (The pudding is usually prepared weeks beforehand and is customarily stirred by each member of the family as a wish is made.) Later in the day, a Christmas cake may be served - a rich baked fruit cake with marzipan, icing and sugar frosting.
The pulling of Christmas crackers often accompanies food on Christmas Day. Invented by a London baker in 1846, a cracker is a brightly colored paper tube, twisted at both ends, which contains a party hat, riddle and toy or other trinket. When it is pulled by two people it gives out a crack as its contents are dispersed.
Another traditional feature of Christmas afternoon is the Queen's Christmas Message to the nation, broadcast on radio and television.
The day after Christmas is known in Britain as Boxing Day, which takes its name from a former custom of giving a Christmas Box - a gift of money or food inside a box - to the deliverymen and tradespeople who called regularly during the year. This tradition survives in the custom of tipping the milkman, postman, dustmen and other callers of good service at Christmas time.

Read More

Getting Know More About UK

This time I would like to recommend this website because of this website we can get a lot of information about the United Kingdom.

From this website, http://www.everyculture.com/Cr-Ga/England.html we can get the information about its history, its economy, its social life, religious life and beliefs, its Government, its language and so on. I think this website is very useful. Other than presenting detailed information and clear, the order was also neat. Plus there are pictures that support information-such information. The background color is dark blue on this website also gives the impression that it is suitable for the UK. That color gives us the authoritative impression because as we know, UK is one of the advance countries. The colors give the impression of mysterious that makes this website more and make the reader curious with its contents.
The only drawbacks of this website was a monotonous appearance and less colorful. The images that contained on this website are majority black and white colored. But this shortfall can be covered by the quality of information we can get from this website. In my opinion, this is the perfect website as one of the main sources of information to add our knowledge about the English lifestyle because the information is very interesting and complete.

Read More

British Culture Marriage Tradition

I suggest this site is very informative and appeal to you if you want to know or learn about British Cultures and British Traditions, especially about Marriage

http://www.learnenglish.de/culture/marriage.htm Here, you can read some articles which will give you information about British tradition of marriage and weddings. There are four menu in the left, and also the hyperlink of them. They are Home, British Culture, English Magazine, Vocabulary, and the last is Main Menu. In Home’s  menu, includes or inform to us about wedding venue. In British Culture’s menu there are some submenu that support it, they are  April Fool, Bank Holidays, Bog Snorkeling, Bonfire Night, British elections, British Houses, British Humour, British Top Music, British Television, Christmas, Clothes, and the others about British Culture except wedding and Marriage. Besides you learn about British tradition and culture like wedding or marriage, you can also learn the vocabularies which used in the conversation or speak of British culture.

Here, there are also sponsored links, especially about Weddings, Get Married, Engagement, and Reception. It’s also has the articles about the preparation that must prepare before marriage and  the procedure of marriage, for example about the people are invited, the wedding ceremony, nice day for a white wedding, the clothing, the reception, and the cake. Additionally, there is also information about British wedding Traditions, includes : the happy couple cut the cake together, this symbolizes their first meal as husband and wife, and about honeymoon. The last, there are some poems about getting married and information about cost of getting married in the United Kingdom. I think all of them are very informative and useful to us, to know more traditions and cultures of British, especially about marriage and weddings.

Read More

English Language and Culture

This site http://learn-english.wonderhowto.com/how-to/use-polite-phrases-english-language-165562/ is about English Language and Culture. From this site we can learn how to read, speak and write in English, especially in polite or the manner in English. It is very effective’s site to learn and know about the English language and culture, because most of the people who don’t know the polite way to express them, and it can be make miss understanding when we communicate or make the relation with England.
There are four menu in this site, they are World home, How-to, Inspiration, Forum, and Creators. They make us easy to looking for the material which we need or want. In How-to menu, tells about the step by step tutorials, in Inspiration menu, show the images, videos, links and news that are not How to’s, but they sure do inspire, and the last in Forum menu, show up the community discussion.
In this site we will get some videos that explain about them, such as in How-to menu, for example, we will see the video about How to Use Polite Phrases in the English Language and also the other videos that relate to the manner in the English Language and Culture. Besides that, we also can get some articles about them.
The site feels  great, besides there are videos, there are also some images that support the contents in this site. It is easy to navigate  this site because there is the hyperlink. It is a good idea having a highlights or newest articles / videos section  right in the middle of the screen  because it is obvious, and the important information can be accessed by the reader easily.

Read More

UK – LANGUAGE, CULTURE, CUSTOMS AND ETIQUETTE

This website described about England in detail and complete. We can get a lot of useful information. Ranging from facts and statustic, british society, people and culture, british ethics and custom, etc. This website is well furnished with pictures that supports the contents of website and very interesting. Arrangement of this website is very neat and clean. We can get information in chronological and clear. I think, this website is very useful for us to get information about English lifestyle. I recommend this website to you as one of your information resources. Trust me!!

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/uk.html

Read More