Posts Tagged ‘England’
History of French Fries: Are They Really French?
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF FRENCH FRIES: NATIONAL FRENCH FRY DAY uly 13th is National French Fry Day. While no one knows who began this celebration, placing it on July 13 is significant in that the important French holiday is the next day, July 14, Bastille Day. Did they originate in France, why are they called that,…
Read MoreHistory of Plough Monday: Start of the Agricultural Year
Reading Time: 2 minutesPLOUGH MONDAY: START OF THE AGRICULTURAL YEAR lough Monday signifies the traditional start of the English agricultural year, being the first Monday following the January 6th Epiphany and the attendant revelries of Twelfth Night. Like last week’s Distaff Day for women, it marked the day men returned to their regular (farm) work. How did…
Read MoreHistory of Guy Fawkes Night: How Gunpowder Mixed with Parliament
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF GUY FAWKES NIGHT For our friends across the Pond November 5th is known as “Bonfire Night” or “Guy Fawkes Night,” and across Britain, people set off fireworks, light bonfires, and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes. Historically, Guido Fawkes was an Englishman who, in popular legend, tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament…
Read MoreHistory of Amazing Grace: Abolition of the British Slave Trade, part 2
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF AMAZING GRACE, part 2: William Wilberforce As I mentioned in my first article on the History of Amazing Grace, this is the story of the lives of two men and that one song. In the first part, we discussed the life of the song’s author, John Newton. However, the 2007 film “Amazing Grace”…
Read MoreFuneral of Queen Elizabeth II: Tomorrow, from England
Reading Time: 2 minutesFUNERAL OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II As I write this from Keswick, in the north of England, on the day before the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the feeling of national mourning is palpable around me. The country grieves for the loss of their Queen, everyone’s ”gran.” One rarely passes by a shop window…
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