Christmas Card Day : DECEMBER 9TH

Just a few decades ago, sending Christmas cards through the mail was a holiday "must".

The History of Christmas Cards

The custom of sending Christmas cards was started in the UK in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. He was a civil servant (Government worker) who had helped set-up the new 'Public Record Office' (now called the Post Office), where he was an Assistant Keeper, and wondered how it could be used more by ordinary people.

Sir Henry had the idea of Christmas Cards with his friend John Horsley, who was an artist. They designed the first card and sold them for 1 shilling each. (That is only 5p or 8 cents today(!), but in those days it was worth much much more.) The card had three panels. The outer two panels showed people caring for the poor and in the center panel was a family having a large Christmas dinner! Some people didn't like the card because it showed a child being given a glass of wine! About 1000 (or it might have been less!) were printed and sold. They are now very rare and cost thousands of Pounds or Dollars to buy now!

The first postal service that ordinary people could use was started in 1840 when the first 'Penny Post' public postal deliveries began (Sit Henry Cole helped to introduce the Penny Post). Before that, only very rich people could afford to send anything in the post. The new Post Office was able to offer a Penny stamp because new railways were being built. These could carry much more post than the horse and carriage that had been used before. Also, trains could go a lot faster. Cards became even more popular in the UK when they could be posted in an unsealed envelope for one halfpenny - half the price of an ordinary letter.

As printing methods improved, Christmas cards became much more popular and were produced in large numbers from about 1860. In 1870 the cost of sending a post card, and also Christmas cards, dropped to half a penny. This meant even more people were able to send cards.

An engraved card by the artist William Egley, who illustrated some of Charles Dickens's books, is on display in the British Museum. By the early 1900s, the custom had spread over Europe and had become especially popular in Germany.

The first cards usually had pictures of the Nativity scene on them. In late Victorian times, robins (an English bird) and snow-scenes became popular. In those times the postmen were nicknamed 'Robin Postmen' because of the red uniforms they wore. Snow-scenes were popular because they reminded people of the very bad winter that happened in the UK in 1836.

Christmas Cards appeared in the United States of America in the late 1840s, but were very expensive and most people couldn't afford them. It 1875, Louis Prang, a printer who was originally from German but who had also worked on early cards in the UK, started mass producing cards so more people could afford to buy them. Mr Prang's first cards featured flowers, plants, and children. In 1915, John C. Hall and two of his brothers created Hallmark Cards, who are still one of the biggest card makers today!

In the 1910s and 1920s, home made cards became popular. They were often unusual shapes and had things such as foil and ribbon on them. These were usually too delicate to send through the post and were given by hand.

Nowadays, cards have all sorts of pictures on them: jokes, winter pictures,Santa Claus or romantic scenes of life in past times. Charities often sell their own Christmas Cards as a way raising money at Christmas.

It was a great success: over four million were sold in the first year! Soon Sweden and Norway adopted the custom and then it spread all over Europe and to America.

How to Celebrate?

Send out your holiday and Christmas cards.
Make your own cards – your recipients will appreciate a handmade card.
If you don’t have time to send in physical cards, what about sending e-cards?
Don’t celebrate Christmas or the holidays? Why not send out New Year cards instead?

C.S.Lewis
Who is C.S. Lewis?

Few authors of fantasy literature are as beloved as C.S. Lewis, born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on November 29, 1898. Time magazine has listed the first of his Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, as one of the top 100 English language novels written in the twentieth century. Time had earlier confirmed Lewis’s stature as a writer of international renown when it featured him on its cover in September 1947.

But then, Time was merely affirming what millions of readers then and now understood: Lewis was a writer whose gifts gave his books an enduring appeal. Unforgettable characters, places and prose that stir the imagination and heart. The world of Narnia is one to which readers return again and again. It evokes a magic all its own.

At first glance Lewis was, perhaps, an unlikely person to have crafted such highly regarded works of fantasy. A brilliant academic, he was educated at Oxford University, and returned there following service in World War I to become a Fellow and Tutor of English Literature at Magdalen College. Later, in 1954, he was appointed to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge University.

But Lewis had loved fantasy literature since his early years, and was then deeply influenced by his reading of George MacDonald’s great imaginative tale Phantastes. “I knew that I had crossed a great frontier,” he would later write.

Still earlier, as a boy, he had created Boxen—an imaginary world where animals talked and had adventures. As an adult, Lewis’s scholarly studies were steeped in chivalric literature and medieval legends. Lastly, he was highly favored in that he had a decades-long friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien, the creator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. There were other influences upon him, but these aspects of his life proved crucial catalysts for him to pen the Chronicles of Narnia.

Lewis and Tolkien were both members of a celebrated literary circle, The Inklings, which met at Oxford. And as Lewis’s fame grew, many people wrote to him. This opened an unexpected door of ministry, for many of his correspondents were Christians, as he was, or were interested in the truth claims of Christianity. Lewis’s correspondence also led to his meeting with the woman who would become his wife, Joy Davidman Gresham, whom he married in 1956. Their love story formed the basis of the celebrated film, Shadowlands, directed by Sir Richard Attenborough.

There are many more things that could be said about C.S. Lewis, but it is enough to say that the wonder does not end here. Visitors to his Oxford home, The Kilns, can sojourn and study in the same setting where he wrote his books. And most recently of all, in America, Lewis’s life and books have served as the inspiration for the creation of new college of the great books that bears his name. Lewis’s legacy endures, and will endure, so long as stories can capture the imagination of readers.
By Kevin Belmonte

Notable works	The Chronicles of Narnia Mere Christianity The Allegory of Love The Screwtape Letters The Space Trilogy Till We Have Faces Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

Halloween falls on October 31st each year in many parts of the world.It was originally a pagan holiday, honoring the dead. Halloween was referred to as All Hallows Eve and dates back to over 2000 years ago.All Hallows Eve is the evening before All Saints Day, which was created by Christians to convert pagans, and is celebrated on November 1st. The Catholic church honored saints on this designated day.

Shop windows turn orange and black with pumpkins, witches, broomsticks and cats; Orange is related to harvests because the end of October is the end of the harvest (the time when fruit and vegetables are collected)and black is related to death.

In our school students from 4º ESO have worked very hard to decorate our Hall with spooktacular creations....

Welcome to our Halloween Hotel of Horror

The Month of October

October is the tenth month of the year and has 31 days. It was originally the eighth month of the Roman calendar until 153 BCE.

Orange calendula, the birth flower of October.

Naming October - The Eighth Month

October is the tenth month of the year in the modern day Gregorian calendar and its predecessor, the Julian calendar. The month kept its original name from the Roman calendar in which octo means “eight” in Latin marking it the eighth month of the year.

October was named during a time when the calendar year began with March, which is why its name no longer corresponds with its placement in the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

Middle English - octobre

Latin name - October mensis - eighth month

Anglo Saxons - Winterfylleth - winter full moon

History of October

October was originally the eighth month of the Roman calendar. It always had a length of 31 days and became the tenth month of the year when King Numa Pompilius reformed the calendar and added the months of January and February around 700 BCE.

Tenth Month in the Year

October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendar and was the eighth month in the Roman calendar. It is commonly linked with the autumn season in the Northern Hemisphere and spring in the Southern Hemisphere. Its seasonal equivalent is April in the Northern Hemisphere.

October starts on the same day of the week as January in common years, but does not start on the same day of the week as any other month in leap years. October ends on the same day of the week as February every year and January in common years only.

Birth Flower and Birthstone

October's birth flower is the calendula.

The birthstone for October is the opal and it is said that the opal will crack if it is worn by someone who was not born in October.

2016-2017

We hope everyone had a very good suummer break, and that we are all ready for a wonderful year.During the 2016- 2017 school year, we will continue with our blog, expecting you all enjoy it.

AUTUMNAL EQUINOX

The Autumnal Equinox is observed annually when the sun can be seen directly overhead along the equator, marking the end of summer and beginning of fall in the Northern Hemisphere.

The autumn equinox is one of two days when all points on Earth except the polar regions see the sun rise and set at due east and due west. With few exceptions, all latitudes see almost exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 of dark.

Seasons are opposite on either side of the Equator, so the equinox in September is also known as the Autumnal (fall) equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphee, it's known as the Vernal (spring) equinox.

Equinox Local Time & Date

September Equinox in Madrid, Spain is on Thursday 22nd september 2016, 16:21

Sun Crosses Celestial Equator

The September equinox occurs the moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator – the imaginary line in the sky above Earth’s Equator – from north to south.

On any other day of the year, either the southern hemisphere or the Northern Hemisphere tilts a little towards the Sun. But on the two equinoxes, the tilt of Earth's axis is perpendicular to the Sun's rays, like the illustrations show.

Earth orbits the Sun at a slant, which is why equinoxes and solstices happen

10 Facts About the First Day of Autumn

1. It's the Second Equinox of the Year

The September equinox is on or around September 22, while the first equinox of the year, the March Equinox, takes place on or around March 21 every year. It marks the Southern Hemisphere's autumnal, or fall, equinox and the Northern Hemisphere's spring equinox.

2. It's Time to Say Goodbye to Summer...

...in the Northern Hemisphere. Astronomically, the September equinox is the autumnal equinox, marking the end of summer and the beginning of fall (autumn). The fall season ends onDecember Solstice, when astronomical winter begins.

For meteorologists, on the other hand, fall in the Northern Hemisphere begins about three weeks before the September equinox on September 1 and ends on November 30.

3.Southern Hemisphere Welcomes Spring

The September equinox is also known as the vernal or spring equinox in the Southern Hemisphere and is considered by astronomers as the first day of spring there.

4.The Equinox is a Specific Moment...

Contrary to popular belief, equinoxes are no day-long events, even though many cultures choose to celebrate it as such. Instead, they occur at the exact moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator – the imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s Equator. At this instant, the Earth's rotational axis is neither tilted away from nor towards the Sun.

5 ...And its Date Can Vary

The equinox dates vary because of the difference between how the Gregorian calendar defines a year (365 days) and the time it actually takes for the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun (about 365 and 1/4 days). This means that each September equinox occurs about 6 hours later than the previous year's September Equinox. This eventually moves the date by a day.

6, Equal Day and Night...

The term equinox comes from the Latin words aequus, meaning equal and nox, meaning night. This has led to the conventional wisdom that everybody on Earth experiences equal day and night – 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night time – on the day of the September equinox.

7. ...But Not Quite

In reality, most places on Earth enjoy more than 12 hours of daylight on this day. This is because of two reasons: the way sunrise and sunset are defined and atmospheric refraction of sunlight.

8.Time Between Successive Moonrises Becomes Shorter

The full Moon closest to the September equinox, which is also known as Harvest Moon in the Northern Hemisphere, is astronomically special. This is because the time between one moonrise to another around this period becomes shorter.

On average, the Moon rises about 50 minutes later every day in a lunar month – the time period between two full Moons or two new Moons. Around the Harvest Moon, the time difference between two successive moonrises decreases to about 30-40 minutes for a few days.

9. Prepare for Northern Lights

As the September equinox rolls by, the chances that one can catch the aurora borealis display increases for those located at high Northern Hemisphere latitudes. According to NASA, the equinoxes are prime time for Northern Lights – geomagnetic activities are twice more likely to take place in the spring and fall time, than in the summer or winter.

10. It is Celebrated Around the World

Many cultures around the world hold feasts and celebrate festivals and holidays to mark the September equinox.

Fascinating facts that make you think twice

The world is a fascinating place, and it's full of weird and interesting facts that you might have never realized were true.
From a creature that can survive the harsh vacuum of space to the odd state sport of Maryland, you're bound to learn something that makes you think twice.

Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

A mantis shrimp can swing its claw so fast it boils the water around it and creates a flash of light.

The Spanish national anthem has no words.

Honey does not spoil. You could feasibly eat 3000 year old honey.

Dead people can get goose bumps.

A small percentage of the static you see on "dead" tv stations is left over radiation from the Big Bang. You're seeing residual effects of the Universe's creation.

The state sport of Maryland is jousting.

When we breathe through our nose, we always inhale more air from one nostril than with the other one — and this changes every 15 minutes.

If you were to remove all of the empty space from the atoms that make up every human on earth, the entire world population could fit into an apple.

The woolly mammoth was still around when the pyramids were being built.

There are more possible iterations of a game of chess than there are atoms in the known universe.

If you somehow found a way to extract all of the gold from the bubbling core of our lovely little planet, you would be able to cover all of the land in a layer of gold up to your knees.

It would take 1,200,000 mosquitoes, each sucking once, to completely drain the average human of blood.

Written language was invented independently by the Egyptians, Sumerians, Chinese, and Mayans.

To know when to mate, a male giraffe will continuously headbutt the female in the bladder until she urinates. The male then tastes the pee and that helps it determine whether the female is ovulating.

It can take a photon 40,000 years to travel from the core of the sun to the surface, but only 8 minutes to travel the rest of the way to earth.

Water bears, or Tardigrades, are typically 0.5 mm in length and can survive virtually anything. Even the vacuum of space.

Basically anything that melts can be made into glass. You just have to cool off a molten material before its molecules have time to realign into what they were before being melted.

The critically endangered Kakapo bird has a strong, pleasant, musty odour which allows predators to easily locate it. Hence, it is critically endangered.

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