Merry Christmas Mr Bean Teacher's note; The activities in the worksheet at the bottom of this post are based on the full episode available on DVD or on y cannot be embedded here). This post contains some exercises based on the embeddable youtube clips. The answers are in the worksheet. DVD availablehere Mr Bean celebrates the traditional British Christmas: the baubles, the crackers, the nativity scene, the carols, the presents, the turkey and the mistletoe... they are all here. You are going to discuss Christmaswatch the Christmas Mr Bean episode and do some activitiesfind Christmas words in a word search exercise write the story in the past tensefind out more about the typical British Christmas and some of the Christmas things in the video. Discuss Do you celebrate Christmas? Watch clip 1 Answer the questions in the interactive exercise after you watch Did Mr Bean have any Christmas decorations? Now do exercise 1 (the answers to questions 9 and 10 are in the next clip) Watch clip 2
When is Thanksgiving? Christmas quiz Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe: Six reasons why we should celebrate Halloween - Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe Reverend J John argues today that far from being a harmless celebration, Halloween celebrates evil and trivialises death and deformity. He says it subverts messages we would usually wish to promote - such as warning children not to take sweets from strangers - and glorifies everything that is evil and unpleasant. But I am here to step in and defend Halloween as something frivolously fun that deserved to be celebrated. Here's why... 1. Halloween's origins lie in ancient customs regarding death or the praying for souls. 2. Despite Halloween seemingly being obsessed with ghosts, goblins and ghouls, it reflects modern society's fascination with all things spooky. 3. When a ghost suddenly jumps out at an unwilling victim in the latest scary movie we may scream or jump, knocking our neighbour's popcorn out of their hands. 4. Kids love spooky stuff. 5. Whilst there is some abuse of this traditional aspect of Halloween by a minority it has become a wonderful neighbourhood activity in some areas.