Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November.

As a federal and public holiday, Thanksgiving is one of the major holidays of the year in the U.S. . 

What do people do?

Thanksgiving Day is traditionally a day for families and friends to get together for a special meal. The meal often includes a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, pumpkin pie, and vegetables. Thanksgiving Day is a time for many people to give thanks for what they have.

Thanksgiving Day parades are held in some cities and towns on or around Thanksgiving Day. Some parades or festivities also mark the opening of the Christmas shopping season. Some people have a four-day weekend so it is a popular time for trips and to visit family and friends.

Public life

Most government offices, businesses, schools and other organizations are closed on Thanksgiving Day. Many offices and businesses allow staff to have a four-day weekend so these offices and businesses are also closed on the Friday after Thanksgiving Day.. Public transit systems do not usually operate on their regular timetables.

Thanksgiving Day it is one of the busiest periods for travel in the USA. This can cause congestion and overcrowding. Seasonal parades and busy football games can cause disruption to local traffic.

Background

Thanksgiving Day has been an annual holiday in the United States since 1863. Not everyone sees Thanksgiving Day as a cause for celebration. Each year since 1970, a group of Native Americans and their supporters have staged a protest for a National Day of Mourning at Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts on Thanksgiving Day.  American Indian Heritage Day  is also observed at this time of the year.

Source: http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/thanksgiving-day

Presidential Proclamation -- Thanksgiving Day, 2013 by    Barack Obama

For more information use the links:

http://engblog.ru/thanksgiving-day
http://usapublicholidays.com/thanksgiving-day/

Alfred Nobel

On November 27, 1895 Alfred Nobel signed his will which stated that 94% of his total assets should be used to establish the Nobel  Prizes.

Alfred Nobel was  born on October 21, 1833, in Stockholm, Sweden.He was the fourth of Immanuel and Caroline Nobel’s eight children.  When Alfred was four, his father moved St. Petersburg, Russia, to take a job manufacturing explosives. The family followed him in 1842. Alfred's parents sent him to private tutors in Russia, and he quickly mastered chemistry and became fluent in English, French, German and Russian as well as his native language, Swedish.

At the age of 18 Alfred left for Paris to study chemistry, after spending a year in Paris he moved to the United States. Five years later, he returned to Russia and began working in his father's factory making military equipment. Intellectually curious, he went on to experiment with chemistry and explosives. In 1864, a deadly explosion killed his younger brother. Deeply affected, Nobel developed a safer explosive: dynamite. 

In 1888, Nobel was astonished to read his own obituary, titled The merchant of death is dead, in a French newspaper. But it was Alfred's brother Ludvig who had died. The article made Nobel apprehensive about how he would be remembered. This inspired him to change his will. Nobel established the Nobel Prizes to honor men and women for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine and literature, and for working toward peace.

Alfred Nobel was a Swedish scientist, inventor,author and pacifist.  He was a great genius who made 355 inventions, of which dynamite is the most famous. He also constructed companies and laboratories in more than 20 countries all over the world. He died on December 10, 1896, in San Remo, Italy. After taxes Nobel left 31,225,000 Swedish kronor (equivalent to 250 million U.S. dollars in 2008) to fund the Nobel Prizes.  

24 ноября - День матери

Все начинается с мамы

Всемирный день ребенка

Всемирный день ребенка 

(Universal Children's Day)

ежегодно отмечается 

20 ноября

Этот праздник был учрежден Генеральной Ассамблеей ООН еще в 1954 году, как день мирового  братства и взаимопонимания детей и посвящен деятельности, направленной на обеспечения благополучия детей во всем мире.

Именно 20 ноября в 1959 году была принята Декларация о правах ребенка, а в 1989 г. - Конвенция о правах ребенка.

В настоящее время этот день отмечается в 145 государствах всего земного шара. 

Сайт уполномоченного по правам ребенка в Санкт-Петербурге:      http://www.spbdeti.org/

Внимание:конкурс

Внимание: конкурс!

Британский Совет и компания ABBYY приглашают всех желающих принять участие в серии ноябрьских конкурсов, которые пройдут в сообществах British Council и LearnEnglish ВКонтакте и Facebook:

• https://vk.com/bclearnenglish
• https://vk.com/britishcouncil
• https://www.facebook.com/BritishCouncilRussia

Каждый четверг, начиная с 14 ноября, во всех группах будет дана информация по каждому конкурсу, в каждом из которых будут разыгрываться словари ABBYY Lingvo.

Кроме того, по итогам всех конкурсов самый активный участник получит электронную книгу Pocket Book Touch.

Guy Fawkes Night

Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November in Great Britain. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords. 


Celebrating the fact that King James I had survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires around London, and months later the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot's failure.

Watch the video and find out all about celebrating Bonfire Night in modern Britain:
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/uk-now/video-uk/bonfire-night

Source: British Council