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World Cup fans – Photos from World Cup 2010 in South Africa – MSN Football – MSN UK
Brightest and best supporter images from South Africa
Jasan’s Life http://jasan1.spaces.live.com/
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Holydays: History of Christmas
Christmas is one of the most important festivals of Christianity, along with Easter and Pentecost, which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. This feast is celebrated on December 25 by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, and some other Protestant Churches and the Romanian Orthodox Church, and Jan. 7 in other Orthodox churches, as they did not accept the reforms made to the Julian calendar, to spend our current schedule, called the Gregorian. English speakers use the word Christmas, which means “mass of the Christ.” In some Germanic languages, such as German, the holiday is called Weihnachten, which means “night of blessing.” The festivities of Christmas are proposed, as its name suggests, celebrate the nativity (or birth) of Jesus of Nazareth in this world. More about Christmas
Currently, Christmas is a celebration more profane than religious. It’s time for big business and exchanging gifts, meetings and fa
mily dinner’s. In the West celebrated the Rooster’s Mass in churches and cathedrals. In Latin America, rooted in Catholic tradition, especially the celebrated Christmas Eve (December 24) with a family dinner to be prepared for a variety of dishes, desserts and traditional beverages. It is also custom to attend the Rooster’s Mass and holding with fireworks. In Mexico, Christmas Eve is the culmination of a celebration that lasts nine days which is called "las Posadas". They start on December 16 and commemorating the journey of Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter before the birth of Jesus. More about “las Posadas”
Traditional elements of Christmas
v Christmas Tree: The tradition of adorning the Christmas tree seems that began in Germany and Scandinavia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, spreading later to other European countries. It’s a conifer tree decorated with color ornaments, bright ribbons, stars, lights…etc.
v The Christmas Dinner: Consists of a feast at midnight, in honor of the birth of Christ, which took place at that time, so similar to the Jewish feast of Passover. Traditionally we eat turkey, cod and other dishes, depending on the venue or the traditions of the family.
v Christmas Nativity: Consist of the representation of the birth of Jesus, through a model of Bethlehem and its environs, where the main figures are the stable where Jesus was born, the Holy Family, animals and shepherds, the three wise men and a star with a trail that too often placed at the top of the Christmas tree. More about Christmas Nativity
v Crown Advent: It is a crown made based branches of cypress or pine tied with a red ribbon in which are placed four candles are usually red which marked the four Sundays of Advent before Christmas Day.
v The carols: There are songs or songs alluding to the birth of Christ or the Holy Family. Sing and hear carols
v Flower of Christmas Eve: A flower of Mexican origin for decorative use.
v The Posadas: These are a series of festivities that recall the route from St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary to reach Bethlehem. These celebrations take place from 16 to Dec. 24 in Mexico and Latin America. More about Las Posadas
v The Piñatas: It consists of an earthenware pot decorated with picks and chopped paper or cardboard figures decorated with colored paper, both filled with candy, fruit and sometimes toys and confetti, which breaks in each of the days of Posadas.
Links of interest
Apart from the Christian origins of Christmas, this festival has been mixing its religious character in the tradition of family life
, largely due to the popularity of this celebration and marketing.
It is from the nineteenth century when Christmas starts to take hold with the character it has today, because in this century became popular the habit of exchanging gifts, was created to Santa Claus and Christmas cards. Habits that over time the marketing (especially American) would use Christmas to expand the world by giving a character other than religious, and with topics that have little or nothing to do with the traditional Christmas celebration. Send free Christmas cards
sources:
"Navidad." Wikipedia, La enciclopedia libre. 9 dic 2008, 19:24 UTC. 10 dic 2008, 01:36 <http://es.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Navidad&oldid=22358410>.
“Que es la Navidad?.”Espacio de Memo. 10 dic 2008 http://jasan1spanish.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!49BF390D536D7A69!345.entry
“Vamos! a romper piñata”.Espacio de Memo. 10 dic 2008 http://jasan1spanish.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!49BF390D536D7A69!351.entry
“That it is Christmas?”Jasan’s Life. 10 dic.2008 http://jasan1.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!FCE4363F5CFE3E4C!574.entry
Technorati Tags: xmas,christmas,navidad,jasan,jasanone,espacio de memo,jasan’s life,posadas,santa+claus,nativity,christmas+tree
In the United States, Thanksgiving is a four day weekend which usually marks a pause in school and college calendars. Families and friends gather for a reunion, a day of thanks, and a festive meal.
Thanksgiving meals are traditionally family events where certain kinds of food are served. First and foremost, turkey is the featured item in most Thanksgiving feasts (so much so that Thanksgiving is sometimes facetiously referred
to as "Turkey Day"). Stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn, turnips, yams and pumpkin pie are commonly associated with Thanksgiving dinner. Often guests bring food items or help with cooking in the kitchen as part of a happy, communal meal. In keeping with the holiday theme of giving thanks, during the socializing or meal, people talk about what they are thankful for or tell about experiences during the past year which have caused them to feel grateful.
History
The Pilgrims who sailed to America were originally members of the English Separatist Church. Before going to America they had fled to Holland to escape religious persecution. Although, in Holland, they enjoyed more religious tolerance, but they eventually became disillusioned with the Dutch way of life. In the hope of a better life in, they took the help of a London stock company to move out to America. Most of those making this trip aboard the Mayflower were non-Separatists. Only about one-third of the original colonists were Separatists.
They reached Plymouth in 1620. There, they had to face a terrible winter. Around 46 of the original 102 had died by the next fall. But fortune turned in their favor and the harvest of the next year was bumper. And the remaining colonists decided to celebrate with a feast — including 91 Indians who had helped the Pilgrims survive their first year. It is believed that the Pilgrims would not have made it through the year without the help of the natives. The feast was more of a traditional English harvest festival than a true "thanksgiving" observance. It lasted three days. Governor William Bradford sent "four men fowling" after wild ducks and geese. It is not certain that wild turkey was part of their feast. However, it is certain that they had venison. The term "turkey" was used by the Pilgrims to mean any sort of wild fowl.
Another modern staple at almost every Thanksgiving table is pumpkin pie. But it is unlikely that the first feast included that treat. The supply of flour had been long diminished, so there was no bread or pastries of any kind. However, they did eat boiled pumpkin, and they produced a type of fried bread from their corn crop. There was also no milk, cider, potatoes, or butter. There was no domestic cattle for dairy products, and the newly-discovered potato was still considered by many Europeans to be poisonous. But the feast did include fish, berries, watercress, lobster, dried fruit, clams, venison, and plums. This "thanksgiving" feast was not repeated the following year. But in 1623, during a severe drought, the pilgrims gathered in a prayer service, praying for rain. When a long, steady rain followed the very next day, Governor Bradford proclaimed another day of Thanksgiving, again inviting their Indian friends. It wasn’t until June of 1676 that another Day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed.
On June 20, 1676, the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, held a meeting to determine how best to express thanks for the good fortune that had seen their community securely established. By unanimous vote they instructed Edward Rawson, the clerk, to proclaim June 29 as a day of thanksgiving. It is notable that this thanksgiving celebration probably did not include the Indians, as the celebration was meant partly to be in recognition of the colonists’ recent victory over the "heathen natives". October of 1777 marked the first time that all 13 colonies joined in a thanksgiving celebration. It also commemorated the patriotic victory over the British at Saratoga. But it was a one-time affair.
George Washington proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789, although some were opposed to it. There was discord among the colonies, many feeling the hardships of a few Pilgrims did not warrant a national holiday. And later, President Thomas Jefferson scoffed at the idea of having a day of thanksgiving. It was Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor, whose efforts eventually led to what we recognize as Thanksgiving. Hale wrote many editorials championing her cause in her Boston Ladies’ Magazine, and later, in Godey’s Lady’s Book. Finally, after a 40-year campaign of writing editorials and letters to governors and presidents, Hale’s obsession became a reality when, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving was proclaimed by every president after Lincoln. The date was changed a couple of times, most recently by Franklin Roosevelt, who set it up one week to the next-to-last Thursday in order to create a longer Christmas shopping season. Public uproar against this decision caused the president to move Thanksgiving back to its original date two years later. And in 1941, Thanksgiving was finally sanctioned by Congress as a legal holiday, as the fourth Thursday in November.
More information:
http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=mini_home&mini_id=1083
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Get more from Windows 7 – top things to do after you upgrade
The Windows 7 launch is a proud moment for us at Windows Live. Windows Live delivers the software and services that make your new, or upgraded, Windows 7 PC lots of fun. So, we want to remind you to get the latest and greatest of Windows Live for your new Windows 7 PC!
We recommend the following top things to do after installing Windows 7:
1. Personalize your PC: Make your Windows 7 PC your own by pinning your favorite programs to the enhanced Windows Taskbar, to easily preview and switch between Windows. Then, customize your desktop with one of the many new themes available in Windows 7 (or easily download a new one that suits your personality), and drag your favorite gadgets where you want them on your desktop.
2. Download Windows Live Essentials – the killer apps for Windows 7: Once you have Windows 7 installed, go to download.live.com to download free programs for email, IM, movie-making, photos and more!
3. Organize your multiple email accounts in one place: Organize your multiple email accounts using Window Live Mail (including Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail Plus and Gmail) so you can receive email in one place, organized into separate folders. You can even add RSS feeds to stay up on your favorite sites and blogs.
4. Import and organize your photos: Your new operating system is a great excuse to finally organize the thousands of digital photos you’ve accumulated over the years. Windows Live Photo Gallery allows you to sort your photos easily by tags, folders or dates, then clean them up with easy editing features, including auto-fix, sharpen image, panoramic stitch, and more.
5. Make a movie in less than five minutes: Now that you have your favorite photo and video memories on your Windows 7 PC, make them into movies and slideshows that you can share on the web (including easy publishing to YouTube and Facebook) or burn onto a DVD in high definition (if your camera supports it). Windows Live Movie Maker features the simple-to-navigate Windows 7 ribbon, and time-saving features like AutoMovie that automatically turn your photos, videos and music into an impressive movie – complete with titles and transitions.
6. Snap to it! Need to compare two documents side-by-side? Snap, a new feature in Windows 7, is a quick (and fun) way to increase your productivity. Snap allows you to resize open windows simply by dragging them to the edges of your screen – left or right. Then, the window will expand vertically and fill the screen, so you can easily position windows side-by-side.
7. Shake away the clutter: Need to cut through a crowded desktop and quickly focus on a single window? With Windows 7, you can click a pane and give your mouse a shake. Voila! Every window except that one disappears. Jiggle again, and your Windows are back.
Have fun with Windows 7 🙂
– The Windows Live Team
Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, story, how-to, Essentials, Movie Maker, Photo Gallery, Mail, Hotmail, Windows 7
Are you looking for more calm satisfying experience with you daily life?
Do you get frustrated with yourself at the end of the day because you’ve gotten stressed, unfocused or agitated?
Are you tired of getting over emotional and worn out.
Whether you are experiencing one or all of these feelings here are my 5 best tips on reducing the unwanted feelings so that you will feel calm and satisfied with yourself each day.$$$
1. Catch yourself when you exhibit a feeling of behavior that you don’t like and change it.
At first you may not notice the feeling until after you have gone through it, that’s fine.
Think about how you would rather have felt.
Think about how you would rather have handled yourself. Decide how you want to do it next time.
As you continue with this process each day you will find that you will notice more easily what you are doing throughout the day.
You will begin to catch yourself earlier and earlier as you do this.
Eventually, you will be seeing yourself while you are doing it, then stop yourself.
At some point you will be able to notice before you even begin to feel and react in the undesirable way.
Here is where you will actually begin to change the way you react to the situations in your life and change your behavior.
2. Stay centered all day by refocusing throughout the day.
Develop the habit of paying attention to your mindset as the day goes on.
Several times a day, step away from what you are doing to get re-centered.
Sit down close your eyes and take several long slow deep breaths while imagining the tension washing slowly out of your body.
Notice your breathing getting slower and calmer.
Just think about your breath.
Try to keep from thinking about anything in particular.
It’s ok to not be actively thinking for a while!
3. Watch out for your expectations.
You are setting yourself up for failure, upset and frustration when you set too many standards as to how you think things should be.
Think about what leads you to getting upset?
Why does it upset you?
Notice that you decide how many things should be, based on your own outlook and desire.
The things others do that are not to your liking, even the things you do that don’t match your expectations.
Ask yourself, really how important is it that they be exactly that way
Ask, who am I to insist that they are that way?
Does it matter that much?
Is it worth getting myself worked up about?
Choose which expectations are really important for you to hold on to and which ones are not.
Holding on to many expectations just complicates your life, with constant judgment.
Simplify your life and reduce the stress!
4. Delegate.
This applies to your personal life as well as at work.
Most of us think of delegating as a workplace skill, but it can apply personally as well.
We are all very busy these days with our activities and duties.
Trying to fit it all in and get it all accomplished can lead to tension.
For various reasons, many of us have developed the habit of thinking we must do it all ourselves.
Take a look at your situation.
Think about it, really, how important is it that everything must be done perfectly to your standards?
Are you sure there are not other people who can assist you. Are the other people in your life pulling their weight?
Many times we get into habitual ruts that don’t need to be as they are.
Look at what has been, with the eye of reducing the pressure on yourself.
5. Accept other people as one.
As you think of yourself as different and separate from the rest of mankind, you unknowingly create thinking and behavior that separates you from others.
This kind of separate thinking leads us to think we are superior to others which leads to judgment then selfish thinking and behavior.
We are then having an internal battle with others, which brings on fear, competition and comparison, ending in frustration and anxiety.
Look to discovering how to see yourself as one with all of mankind, not as separate.
Focus on what we have in common rather that the relatively small uniqueness.
Author Bio
John Halderman is a writer, speaker and trainer, dedicated to helping people with getting real results with their personal development efforts. He supports strategies, methods, tools and information that actually bridge the gap between information and effective results. Go to www.activepersonaldevelopment.com for free information and newsletter.
Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com
I like this idea. You must check this out.
Office web apps technical preview expanding
On September 17th, we announced the start of the Office web app technical preview. Today, we are excited to share the news that the Office web apps team has decided to expand the technical preview further, and they are inviting more people to try out the Office Web Apps. The preview is still limited to users in the US and Japan.
If you missed out on signing up for the technical preview earlier, this is a great chance to get in! Check out their announcement earlier today.
For a limited time, you can sign-up for a Technical Preview account here (if you are already a part of the technical preview, this link will generate an error): http://skydrive.live.com/acceptpreview.aspx/.documents?aobrp=browse
– The Windows Live team
350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide—measured in "Parts Per Million" in our atmosphere. 350 PPM—it’s the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. read more about climate change
The science is clear: global warming is happening faster than ever and humans are responsible. Global warming is caused by releasing what are called greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The most common greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. Many of the activities we do every day like turn the lights on, cook food, or heat or cool our homes rely on energy sources like coal and oil that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. This is a major problem because global warming destabilizes the delicate balance that makes life on this planet possible. Just a few degrees in temperature can completely change the world as we know it, and threaten the lives of millions of people around the world. But don’t give up hope! You can help stop global warming by taking action here at 350.org.
We need an international agreement to reduce carbon emissions fast, and 2009 might be our best shot.
The United Nations is working on a global climate treaty, which is supposed to be completed in December of 2009 at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. But the current plans for the treaty are much too weak to get us back to safety. This treaty needs to put a high enough price on carbon that we stop using so much. It also needs to ensure poor countries a fair chance to develop.
visit the official site of Copenhagen Climate Council
This year, we can create a grassroots movement connected by the web and active all over the world.
We can hold our decision-makers accountable to producing a treaty that is strong, equitable, and grounded in the latest science. On 24 October, we’re holding a Global Day of Climate Action to do just this.
If this global movement succeeds, we can get the world on track to get back to 350 and back to climate safety. It won’t be easy, that’s why we need all the help we can get.
watch videos about 350 campaign
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