Halloween evolved from cultural and religious practices. The Ancient Celts believed that when summer turned to winter, or when the days had less daylight, the border between this world and the otherworld became thin, allowing spirits to pass between the world. To stop this from happening, they lit fires and wore costumes and masks for disguise and to ward them off.  This festival was called Samhain, and is derived or from Old Irish and means “Summers End”

Ancient Britons also held a similar festival.

All Saints Day is a Catholic holiday, and was made in part to honour martyrs and the dead in the 7th century. Prior ro All Saints Day, many people used to honour the dead by holding rituals, not too disimilar to the Ancient Celts. This angered the Catholic Church who created All Saints Day to disuade people from practising in what they saw as an unholy ceromony.

In the nineteenth century, the festival had less religious and cultural significance and became more fun, with children taking part in such  past times as trick or treat.

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Hangman is a word game based on trying to work out a hidden word before the player guessing the word is hung from the gallows!  It is a game for two players.

To play the game you will need

A Pen/Pencil
Paper

The Rules

One player thinks of a word, and writes down dashes to indicate what the word is.  So the word “Computer”, would be _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.  Note the number of dashes corresponds to the number of letters in the word.

The second player now tries to guess a letter of the word.  So should they guess “O”, the other player than inserts where that letter would go.  _ O _ _ _ _ _ _.  If the player had guessed incorrectly, say “Y”, then the other player would draw the first part of the gallows, and write down the letter “Y”, so the other player knows that is not part of the word.  This continues until either the word is guessed or the other player is hung!

In our example, the word is “Animal”.

Guess 1 “B”

Incorrect, fist line is drawn

Letters guessed B

Guess 2 “F”

Incorrect, second line of the gallows is drawn!

Letters guessed B,F

Guess 3 “A”

Correct, the letters “A” are inserted into the word.

Letters guessed B,F

Guess 4 “E”

Incorrect, the roof on the gallows is drawn.

Letters guessed B,F,E

Guess 5 “M”

Correct, a good guess

Letters guessed B,F,E,

Guess 6 “C”,

Incorrect

Letters guessed B,F,E,C,

Guess 7 “D”

Incorrect

Letters guessed B,F,E,C,D

Guess 8 “I”

Correct

Letters guessed B,F,E,C,D

Guess 9 “G” Guess 10 “Z”

Incorrect

Letters guessed B,F,E,C,D,G,Z

Guess 10 “P”

Incorrect

Letters guessed B,F,E,C,D,G,Z,P,

Guess 11 “K”

Incorrect

Letters guessed B,F,E,C,D,G,Z,P,K

Guess 12 “L”

Correct, maybe they wont be executed!  Just one letter to get.

Letters guessed B,F,E,C,D,G,Z,P,K

Guess 13 “Q”

Incorrect, oh no, one more wrong guess and it is curtains!

Letters guessed B,F,E,C,D,G,Z,P,K,Q

Guess 14 “Y”

Incorrect, oh no they have been hung!

Letters guessed B,F,E,C,D,G,Z,P,K,Q,Y

As the guessing player did not discover the hidden word, he or she has been hung and subsequently lost the game, had the player discovered the word before the last line was drawn they would have won.

Tactics

The most commonly used letters that comprise words in the English language are, e-t-a-o-i-n-s-h-r-d-l-u.  If you are the guessing player try guessing these letters first.  If you are thinking of the word, then try and use words that do not use them too much, or try a very short word that uses unusual letters, such as “Jazz”.

Hangman, the other meaning!

A Hangman was an executioner appointed by The State, (The leader of a country) to carry out executions on its behalf.  Mostly, the executions were performed as a  punishment for a crime, but it has also been used in other ways too  None of which were very nice.  Execution is still performed in some countries.

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Battleships is a game for two players, and can easily be played with a pencil and paper.  The most important piece of equipment you will need however, is your mind!
A knowledge of navel tactics is not necessary, but may prove useful.

You will need:

Pen/Pencil

Paper

How to play.

Each player draws a 10 x 10 grid and labels the vertical A-H, and the horizontal 1-10.  Each player draws this grid twice, one is to record the position of their own ships, and one to record the squares they have targeted throughout the game.

You should have a grid like the one shown below, to save time, you can print it by clicking here. Print it using your browsers print option.  It will open in a new window.

Each player has a fleet at his or her command, and this fleet is comprised of the following.

Aircraft Carrier – 5 squares

Battleship – 4 Squares

Cruiser – 3 Squares

Submarine – 3 Squares

Destroyer – 2 Squares.

It is vitally important to the success of the game and indeed one of the fleets, that an object such as a book obscures the enemy fleet position from the opposing player.

Each player positions their ships on their own grid.    This is done by drawing around the number of boxes to represent each vessel in the fleet. For an Aircraft Carrier for example, the player would draw around 5 squares on the grid either horizontally or vertically.  This is done for each ship in the fleet.  When finished, the players will have something that looks like this.  (See Example)

Once this is done, each player takes turns to fire on the enemy fleet. To do this, they call out a grid reference, say B4. If the opposing player has positioned one of their ships on B4 they say “hit”, and put an ‘X’ or mark the square B4. If they have not put one of their ships on B4, then they say “miss”. The player that fired, should mark the square on their own enemy grid to show a hit or a miss. In our example, B4 would have hit the enemy aircraft carrier.

The game continues until all the ships in one of the fleets is sunk. The winner is the player that has at least one ship afloat once the enemy fleet has been sunk.

Another version of the game, is when a player can fire on the enemy as many times as he or her has ships in his fleet. So at the start of the game, a player calls 5 grid references. Once he or she loses a ship, they can only call out 4. Some versions of Battleships, gives the aircraft carrier the ability to fire twice. As long as the carrier isn’t sunk, it gives the player an additional grid reference to aim at.

Sea Battles

Sea battles, have become famous and pivotal moments in history.

The Battle of Trafalgar (21st October 1805) saw The British Royal Navy defeat the combined forces of The French and Spanish.  Admiral Pierre Villeneuve who commanded 33 French and Spanish ships, saw 22 of his ships sunk without a British ship being lost, despite the British Navy only having 23 ships.  Admiral Nelson, who commanded the British fleet used new tactics that had never been seen prior to the battle.  During the battle, Admiral Nelson was mortally wounded and died.  The battle confirmed that Britain could not being invaded by Napoleon, as they controlled the seas, and was a turning point in the Napoleonic wars.

The Battle of Jutland (31 May – 1 June 1916) was the largest sea battle of World War One.  During this time, The British Royal Navy’s Grand Seas Fleet was the largest in the world and was enforcing a blockade of German shipping.  This means that ships which brought supplies into Germany, could not do so without being sunk.  In an effort to break out of the blockade, The Imperial German Navy’s High Seas Fleet, under command of Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, formulated a plan to try and lure and destroy a large portion of the British Fleet and so end the blockade.  The Royal Navy however, had learned of the plan through intercepting signals.  Due to both sides making mistakes, more ships were involved in the battle than either side had planned and subsequently the largest naval battle of World War One ensued.  Both sides claimed victory at the end.  Germany because it had sunk more ships,  and Britain because it still had control of the sea.  24 ships were lost during the battle, comprising of 11 German and 13 British.

The Battle of Midway (4-7th June 1942).  Six months after Japan’s successful attack on Pearl Harbor during The Second World War, The Imperial Japanese Navy planned to destroy America’s aircraft carriers at Midway Attol, by luring the vessels into a trap.  Unbeknown to the Japanese, America had learned of Japan’s attack by breaking her codes, and thus planned a trap of her own.  During the battle, The Japanese Navy lost 4 aircraft carriers and one heavy cruiser.  America lost one aircraft carrier.  The battle was one the turning point of The Second World War, as Japan was never able to replace the ships or crew that she had lost during the battle, and control of that part of the ocean was now controlled by America, who enforced a blockade of Japan herself.  This battle confirmed that the most powerful ship at sea was no longer the battleship, but the aircraft carrier.

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Easter is a Christian festival to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Many countries around the world celebrate Easter, and every country has its own ways of doing it.  To find out more about Easter, and how it began, click here.

In Great Britain, American, Australia, Canada, and countries where English is the most common language spoken, Easter is celebrated by giving Easter eggs to friends and family, decorating eggs, rolling eggs down hills, and being visited by the Easter bunny.

America has another tradition of Egg knocking.  People play the game in pairs, and each pair knocks the tips of their eggs together.  The tip that breaks off first loses, and the loser has to give that egg to the winner.  This is played with lots of people, until two people, or one pair is left.  Imagine how many eggs one person could win!

In Bermuda, kites are flown!  Everyone in Bermuda even if they are as old as your Dad or Granny makes kites and flies them at Easter.  This represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, church bells are silent until Easter Morning, when easter eggs appear.  The bells are silent as they are “flying to Rome”, which represents Jesus Christ’s execution at the hands of the Roman Empire.  They return on Easter day bring Easter eggs, which represents his resurrection.

Also in the Netherlands and Northern Germany, Easter fires are lit on Easter Day.

In Norway, as well as decorating eggs, many people stay in mountain cabins and go cross country skiing.   They also celebrate Easter by watching detective television programmes, and magazines print detective stories where the reader can guess who the murderer was.  Milk cartons show a new detective story every year.  A detective story is a story that is about the police investigating a crime.  Every Easter, all the shops close for five days, except shops that sell food which open for one day.

In Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, many children dress as witches and knock on neighbours houses collecting chocolate.  This is not for free however, as the children have to give decorated pussy willows.  This tradition is a mixture of two traditions.  Children also decorate eggs.

Food is a big part of Easter in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, as normally a Smorgasbord, which is a meal which is made of lots of food is served.  This is often made from herrings, salmon, potatoes and egg.  Would you like a Smorgasbord?

In the Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Slovenia and Slovakia also decorate eggs for Easter.  A few Eastern European countries also have other traditions too.  Such as:

Being smacked!  With a whip!  In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the men often smack the women with a whip or pour cold water over them.  They do not hurt the woman, but instead it makes her laugh.  This is said to keep the woman looking beautiful and healthy.

Sometimes, the man does it to show he likes the woman, and in return the woman gives the man a chocolate egg.   In some parts of Slovakia, a woman can get her own back by pouring a bucket of cold water on any man she man wants to.

In Croatia and Slovenia, a basket of food is brought to the church to be blessed.

In Hungary, Transylvania, Slovakia, Kárpátalja, and Northern Serbia – Vojvodina, perfumed water is sprinkled in exchange for chocolate eggs the day after Easter.

How do you celebrate Easter?

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The story of Saint George and the Dragon.

Long ago, in the country of Libya, there was a city called Siliene.  One day, a huge and powerful Dragon made its nest in a spring, which is where the people of Siliene used to go to fetch water.  With the Dragon being in the spring, the people could only get water if they could get the Dragon to move.  Now Dragons have a huge appetite, which means they eat a lot.  So to get the Dragon to move, the people of Siliene would offer the Dragon a sheep.  When the Dragon moved to eat the sheep, the people would hurriedly get water and leave, in case the Dragon was still hungry.

If the people could not find a sheep, they would feed the Dragon a maiden.  Maiden, is an old word for a woman!  To decide which poor woman was chosen, the women would draw straws, which means each woman would choose a straw and whoever had the shortest straw, had to go and be the Dragon’s lunch!  One day, the princess drew the shortest straw, and she was marched off to be fed to the huge, hungry Dragon.

Just as she was about to be eaten, along came Saint George riding on a horse, and fought the Dragon and killed it.  The story says that he protected himself by making movements with his hand called the sign of the cross.

Things to know about legends and myths.

Legends and myths are stories that have been retold for hundreds of years.  Over time, they have changed and altered, so how we tell the story today may well have changed to how the story was told when it was first created.  Though many legends are believed to be about true people and true events, sometimes the people and the events were pretend, or made-up.  Sometimes they were based on true events, but changed slightly to make them more exciting, or to make something appear slightly different to the way they actually were.  Often they have a moral tale, which is a tale that tries to show right and wrong.

The Crusades.

Around nine hundred years ago, there were a series of wars called the Crusades.  The wars happened due to people believing that if you were not the same religion as their religion then you were wrong.  Times were a lot stricter than they are now, and many people believed in magic and witches.  For many people, religion was very important, and for someone not to be the same religion, or not to use the same church, was a terrible thing.

Christian soldiers from all over the Christian world, marched into a part of the world called the Middle East, to fight Muslim soldiers.  Muslim soldiers were known as Moors.  The Christians believed that Jerusalem which they believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, and was in the Holy Land, belonged to them.  Muslim Soldiers had captured this land sometime before. Christian soldiers wanted to drive out the Muslim soldiers from the Holy land, and reclaim it.

When Christian soldiers returned from fighting in the Middle East, the story of Saint George began to spread.

Saint George, is the patron saint of these countries.

Belgium

Brazil

Bulgaria

Canada

England

Georgia

India

Italy

Lebanon

Malta

Ossetia

Palestine

Portugal

Serbia

Spain

United States of America, where he is the patron saint of the Boy Scouts of America.

A patron saint is a person that who is thought of as a great person by the Christian religion, and is seen as a protector of a land or nation.  All the countries above belive that St George is their protector and was a great person.  There are many statues and paintings of Saint George in many cities around the world.  Moscow, in Russia probably has the most.  The George Cross, is the flag of England.

Who was Saint George?

Like many legends and myths, nobody is really sure who St George actually was.  He lived a long time ago and probably fought in the Crusades.  It is believed that though he fought for the Christians, he was probably born into a Muslim nation and was Muslim by birth, and was probably from Turkey.  Every year in the countries that have St George as their patron saint, have a day or celebration in his honour.  In England, this day is knows as St George’s day.

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Mother’s Day,  is only a few days away, and it is always nice to buy your mum a card on this day.  In fact, it is nicer if you make your mum a card for this day. Mum’s tend to like pretty cards, rather than pictures of your favorite toy even though it maybe pretty, or a picture of a great warrior. What
ever you decide to make or draw, it is always good to make the card colourful.

Our mums are always there to look after us. They make our meals, see that we have enough clothes, play with us, and make sure we are clean! So on this day maybe it would be a good idea to something nice for them. Maybe make them a nice drink or a meal. Get Dad to help if you can. I dare say she looks after him too.

In the UK, (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales), Mother’s Day is the fourth Sunday in Lent. This year, it falls on March 14th, so don’t worry there is still time to make something nice for Mum.

Ideas to do something nice for Mum.

You could make Mum a nice drink or meal.

You could do something that Mum normally does, like hoovering.

You could bring Mum something nice to read or eat in bed.

Let Mum have a long time in bed.

Draw Mum a nice picture.

Buy or pick some flowers for Mum (If you pick flowers make sure you are allowed to!)

Let Mum watch her favorite film on TV.

Different countries celebrate Mother’s Day at different times. In the United States of America, Mother’s Day is a national holiday. This means that nobody goes to work unless Mother’s Day a national holiday, and that Mother’s Day should be spelt with an apostrophe between the ‘r’ and the ‘s’. In grammar this is called a singular possessive, and means that something belongs to someone. So David’s toys means that the toys belongs to David. Mother’s Day means the day belongs to Mum.

The Roman’s celebrated Mother’s Day too.

The Roman Empire also celebrated Mother’s Day. They held a festival called Matronalia, which was in honour motherhood, women in general, and of the Roman goddess Juno, who was the Goddess of childbirth, and patron goddess of Rome. It is believed that mums received presents of some kind on this day.

Mother’s Day is celebrated all over the world and at different times. This tells us how important our mums are to all of us!

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For many of us Easter is a time when the Easter Bunny arrives and hides Easter eggs in our house.  Very often, our families buy Easter eggs for us, and we all have a lovely time munching on big chocolate eggs.  Sometimes these eggs are so big, they are as big as our heads!

Christian belief

Easter, did not start when the Easter Bunny came along with a basket full of eggs and clues.  Easter is a Christian festival.  This means that within the Christian religion or faith, there is a festival called Easter.

People who belong to the Christian faith, are called Christians, and many Christians believe that a man called Jesus Christ was the son of God.  Jesus Christ’s beliefs on how people should be and behave were not shared by the Roman Empire.  An empire is when land and people are ruled over by another person or country.  The Roman Empire began in Rome, which is now the capital city of Italy.  It conquered many lands through fighting.  After the land was taken over, it became part of the Roman Empire, and the land and the people would have to do as the Roman Empire wanted, and have the same beliefs.  As the Roman Empire did not like Jesus Christ’s beliefs, which were now shared by many people in many lands, they executed him by nailing him to a wooden cross and leaving him to die.

However, many Christians believe that he was brought back to life by God, and this is what the Easter festival celebrates.  Very often, the time when Jesus Christ was brought back to life is known as the resurrection.  This has all been written down in the New Testament section of the Bible.

Easter Bunny

As we know the Easter Bunny brings us lots of chocolate if we have been good.  He was first seen in Germany in the 1600s, and like Father Christmas or Santa Claus, gave out presents of chocolate eggs to children that have been good.  So make sure that you are.

In the 1800s, Easter Bunny went to America as well as Germany, and now he goes all over the world giving out chocolate eggs to all the children that have been good.

Easter Eggs

When an egg hatches, whatever is inside the egg is born.  This new life is what an Easter egg represents.  So we give each other chocolate eggs to celebrate the belief of the Christian faith that Jesus Christ received a new life from God when he was resurrected..

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