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Social Studies
Halloween
October 31, Halloween is one of the more popular holidays for children. What child wouldn't want to dress up as a monster or fairy and score a bag of candy in the process?
The traditional Halloween
Halloween is the last night of October and it used to be thought the most enchanted night of the year. It was the night when witches and evil spirits came back on earth to weave their magic spells. Superstitious people kept up many strange old customs in an effort to keep these evil influences away.
Easter egg
PARIS – The custom of offering Easter eggs, whether chocolate or hard-boiled and colored, dates back well beyond the early years of Christianity to the most ancient of pagan traditions.The egg has fascinated mankind from time immemorial and in the lore of many civilizations the world itself came into being from a mysterious cosmic egg.
The enchanting legend of the Kalevala, Finland's sacred book of yore, relates how Iltamara, the mother of water, was sleeping at the bottom of the boundless ocean. She stirred in her sleep and a knee emerged from the waves like an island.
THE ANCIENT ROME
Rome is the capital city of Italy and of the Lazio region, as well as the country's largest and most populous city. The metropolitan area has a population of about 4 million. It is located in the central-western portion of the Italian peninsula, where the river Aniene joins the Tiber.
The city of Rome was founded by the twins Romulus and Remus on April 21, 753 BC, and archaeological evidence supports the theory that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built in the area of the future Roman Forum, coalescing into a city in the 8th century BC.
Thanksgiving Day
A legal holiday in all states, territories and possessions of the United States by annual proclamation of the President and governors of the states. “Of all the holidays observed in this country, there is none so distinctively American as Thanksgiving. It is a legacy of the Pilgrims, cherished because of the traditions that surround it”.
"The origin of the day is attributed to Governor Bradford of Plymouth colony. On Dec 21, 1620, the Pilgrims landed on the bleak coast of New England and passed the winter with great suffering and privation. In the spring seed was sown and its growth was watched with great anxiety, for on the result depends the lives of the colonists.
The secret of the cat in ancient Egypt
Unlike some other animals, the cat was not primarily associated with an important local deity at the beginning of Egyptian time. It never attained a truly elected 'official' status which would have enabled it to become a full member of the divine community encountered on the walls of Egyptian temples. But in spite of all this, the cat's popularity eventually surpassed that of any other animal and reached far beyond Egypt's boundaries.
The earliest feline cat goddess recorded was called Mafdet and is described in the Pyramid Texts as killing a serpent with her claws. But the most famous cat goddesses in the world, first revered by the ancient Egyptians were Bastet (also known as Bast, Pasch, Ubasti) and the lion-headed Sekhmet.