Where does the word shampoo come from?
Shampoo is the Hindi/Urdu word chāmpo for a head massage with oil.
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Five ways Dickens expanded the English language
After Shakespeare, Charles Dickens has been the writer who most expanded the vocabulary we use.
What does Auld Lang Syne mean?
I llustration to Robert Burns' poem Auld Lang Syne by J.M. Wright and Edward Scriven . Auld Lang Syne is from the Scots language.
What is Hogmanay?
Fireworks at Edinburgh Castle. Photo by Chris Flexen on Unsplash Hogmanay is the very distinctive Scottish celebration of New Years’s Eve.
Three Christmas songs that do not mention Christmas?
'picture print by Currier and Ives' mentioned in Sleigh Ride Several of the very best 'Christmas songs' make no specific reference to the festival itself.
Most popular Christmas poem in the English language?
Free printable "A Visit from St. Nicholas", also known as "The Night Before Christmas" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously in 1823. It is generally attributed to Clement Clarke Moore. What is "arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American" has helped to fix the figure of Santa Claus in the popular imagination. In one of his last recordings, Louis Armstrong beautifully evokes the childhood he never experienced. Take it away, Sachmo.
Why Boxing Day?
The 26th of December is the Feast of Stephen (the first Christian martyr) and is referred to in the carol Good King Wenceslas. In the church calendar, St Stephen's Day is associated with alms: collecting money for the poor In England, parish churches would alms boxes would be brought into the church during December. They alms boxes would then be broken open on Stephen's Day . Pepys refers to this in his diary entry for 19 December 1663. Thence by coach to my shoemaker’s and paid all there, and gave something to the boys’ box against Christmas Workers' Holiday The day also became associated with recreational and sporting events. These included chaotic 'football' matches between villages. By the Nineteenth Century this had evolved into a secular festival for workers. The name Boxing Day was made official in the 1830s and became a public holiday in the 1880s. In Catholic Ireland there are distinct traditions associated with 'Stephen's ...