Travel

Carnivals Around the World

You might have heard of the carnival in Rio, but did you know that there are carnivals around the world – from Germany to Greece, USA to Italy?

Millie Slavidou explains where Carnival comes from on her blog

Long before the advent of Christianity, people held celebrations at this time of year. In Germany, they once looked forward to sending Hel, the goddess of the underworld, back down to her abode so they could herald the coming of the spring. In Greece, it was a time to worship the god Dionysus. With the arrival of Christianity, the celebrations continued, but changed in nature, gradually becoming more and more linked to the new religion. The Carnival is held in the period before the start of Lent, and Lent is the time when good Christians were supposed to fast, to abstain from meat 

In the UK, we don’t celebrate Carnival, but we do prepare for Lent – that is what Pancake Day is all about, after all. Traditionally, pancakes were made to use up the eggs, fat, and butter, that were not to be eaten during Lent!

Take a trip around the world with us, to find out how other countries celebrate Carnival!

Read More...

Art & History

The First Computer Programmers

Girls are told, all the time, that there are things they can’t do because, well, they’re girls. I’m here to tell you: it’s not true.
Let me tell you about a girl I know.

Read More...

Art & History

Prehistoric Art

When we visit art galleries or learn about art in school, we tend to think of paintings on canvas, sculpture or photographs.  Often these will be clearly recognisable as people or objects like food and flowers, and we can relate to them as familiar in some way.
Art and pictures have been around ever since people first were recognised as human by historians, in pre-historic times.  Prehistoric simply means history which dates before written accounts are available to study.  The earliest humans did not have writing with which they could communicate and this means that art and pictures were even more important to them.

Read More...

Sports

Stories From The Stables – Sam

This is first of a series of Stories From The Stables, by Carolyn Ward.
I fell off, honest 

Learning to ride is a fabulous hobby.  It can be pricey, but you can borrow a hat and crop from most stables, and start off in trousers and strong shoes.  It is great exercise, very exciting, and teaches respect for animals, balance, and correct posture.

When I was very young I rode at Stourton Stables, a children’s riding school where the ponies were mostly grumpy and had to be separated in the fields for fear of kicking each other to pieces.

Oh, happy riding lesson days. Hours spent in icy pouring rain, in snow, in fog, and even more rarely; in lovely sunshine.  The best riding times of year for me were spring and autumn, before and after the major insect season.

Read More...