I ran an online club meeting with the theme of seasonal celebrations for my public speaking group Online Dynamic.
I wore a red santa hat with white edging. This is recognized in many if not most countries of the world.
I wore the same hat yesterday at the physical meeting of HOD club.
I used the seasonal hat again in an online poster
Promoting our next HOD meeting, combined with a party and party food.
Online for Online Dynamic, an Indian lady who splits her tie between Mumbai and Dubai said she thought that Christmas was celebrated everywhere the same as England. With Christmas trees. And an angel on top. And parcels containing gifts underneath. And Christmas pudding containing alcohol. She lived near a Catholic church in Mumbai. She said it was very jolly at Christmas time. Christmas markets. And on the evening of the 25th.
I was able to show her things which we have in England which she has no previously encountered. Christmas crackers.
In Russia, which was not religious and banned religion under Communism, instead of Father Christmas, they had Grandfather Snow wearing blue with white.
In Korea they have had Christmas markets and carols starting for two months before Christmas. My Chinese friend, Mike, asks me, 'Do you have carols in England? Is everybody Christian?
The census has statistics on this sort of question. You also hear more news from surveys done by the local council.
I now have plenty of new thoughts and material for a speech about Christmas round the world for our HOD Christmas party and the weekly Online Dynamic meetings.
When I lived in the USA I was astonished and impressed by the number of museums which had relics of Elvis. you did not need to go to the place where he lived and died, Graceland, to see things related to him, cars, clothes, guitars. When I went to a stand at the World Travel Market in London, which used to be open to the public, at least on some days, then when it got busier, reduced to trade only, I met a toruist board rep who alerted me to the idea that Elvis might have a Jewish ancestor. Elvis had a star of David, magen David in Hebrew, on the left of his mother's gravestone, and was the Sabbath goy, the non Jewish person who turns on the light, most importantly the cooer, on the Sabbath when Jews, and their employed live-in servants, are supposed to be resting.
However, I finally found the details and debate in an article on the Who Do You Think You Are magazine, which you can subscribe to and read and buy back issues online. This article seems to be free online, perhaps as a come on - very effective. It gives details of how much time and effort can go into research and what to look for.
One of the most interesting additional facts for me was how widespread the six pointed star is. Regonized and used by many religions in additional to Judaism, others before, after, and alongside, or far away.
I first saw a star of David on a non-Jewish building in India.
Where can you see the six pointed star?
1 Israel and worldwide: In blue on the flag of Israel.
2 USA Engraved on the left of the gravestone of Elvis Presley's mother. On Synagogues.
3 India On a big building in Mumbia (formerly Bombay)
4 Singapore On the front of the synagogues and on buildings built by Jews in previous centuries.
Where can you see Elvis sites?
1 Birthplace Tupelo and Elvis Museum, Tupelo, Mississippi, USA
Photo by Ron Cogswell, in Wikipedia, article on Elvis Tupelo, Mississippi, USA. Birthplace museum.
2 Graceland, USA
3 Hollwood Walk of Fame, Los Angeles, California, USA
Elvis Sites - Here are my favourites: Memphis, Tennessee, USA Sun studio (museum, hourly tours led by a musician, photo spots, food). Graceland and Gravesite in Graceland.
Elvis Sites Websites http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2013/aug/17/top-10-elvis-presley-memphis-attractions graceland.com http://travelblog.viator.com/11-sights-and-tours-perfect-for-the-elvis-fan/ http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/elvis-sites.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Hawaii His pink Cadillac is in Graceland. Read about his cars and Australia connections here: http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvis_presleys_1955_pink_cadillac.shtml
Where is street art which you can see for free - or join a walking tour for a small fee or donation in good weather? The places which spring to my mind are:
UK London's Amy Winehouse trail and Camden; Brixton; Croydon. Bristol and Banksy.
Brixton mural from Wikipedia.
Big Splash, on Glenelg Road (London, SW2) by Christine Thomas, assisted by Dave Bangs and Diana Leary – 1985.
Iemanja75 (talk) LeticiaGolubov 10:56, 15 March 2010 (UTC) - self-made.
BRAZIL Rio de Janeiro's slums or favelas transformed in rainbow colours.
Praça Cantão, 2011
André Sampaio - Own work
Foto panorâmica da Praça Cantão, situado na Favela Santa Marta, em Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Esta foto foi tirada para ser incorporada ao site www.wikirio.com.br e disponibilizada ao público sem restrições.
INDIA - the Mumbai makeover, painting slum houses into street art and happy homes. (Mumbai, previously called Bombay.)
POLAND Wroclaw has a trail of tiny not even nearly knee high statues, 20-30 cm. Most are on the ground, a few higher up or even overhead.
e
23 August 2017
Source
Photographed during 2017 IFLA Conference, Wroclaw, Poland.
Author
Photographed by Bobby Bothmann.
Muzeum Poczty i Telekomunikacji, ul. Krasińskiego 1, I piętro
USA Philadelphia's mural trail
Singapore
In Singapore one of my favourite streets for colourful buildings is Waterloo Street.
Waterloo Street, Singapore, for colourful buildings. Photo by Angela Lansbury. The bright yellow of this building, with the green shutters is immediately obvious. Look up and you can see the pink of an HDB skyscraper behind on the left, and blue and white on the right. Copyright.
Where do you work or live? In the yellow building. In the pink building. In the blue building.
Over in Chinatown the traditional houses have coloured tiles and co-ordinating flowering trees. Notice the green tiles with embossed patterns. the salmon pink wash, with deeper contrasting lines. the white window shutters with the white fretwork above. the double doors are white with wavy edges and orangey salmon pink lines. The tree is green and white.
Chinatown traditional house. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Many of the modern government built housing blocks, called HDB, are in bands of colour.
If you are lucky, the block you are visiting has a different colour or design or murals of flowers so that children and adults and strangers can quickly identify it.
If the weather is bad, you might have to take a tour of the underground stations.
Singapore has art on underground stations such as Newton.
UK and London Underground
Sherlock Holmes on Baker street station underground platform. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Baker Street in London, UK, has a platform featuring Sherlock Holmes.
Who and where is this? It must be Victoria station, London, England.
Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Fun for tourists, and transform the lives of those who live there.
Fodor's travel picks 12 cities, starting with:
Dublin,
Glasgow,https://peoplemakeglasgow.com/things-to-do/city-centre-mural-trail
and several more destinations, including: Melbourne, Mexico City, New York, New Orleans, Paris and Rome. Enough to keep you busy for a year.
Author
Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several more posts on murals, at stations in London, Russia, and Singapore, plus more pieces on destinations and the weird and wacky and wonderful. Please share links to your favourite posts.
Although Canberra has been Australia's Capital City since circa 1913, the national parliament met in Melbourne, Victoria until 1927. Melbourne is Australia's 2nd most populous city (4,529,500)
Brasília is a planned city, inaugurated in 1960, and serving as the Brazilian capital since then. Rio de Janeiro, the former capital, was the capital of Brazil from 1763 until 1960 (and largest city in Brazil from 1654 to 1954). São Paulo has never been the capital, but became the most populous city in Brazil in 1954, a position it has held since then. As of the 2010 Brazilian census, Brasília is the fifth most populous city in Brazil, and the seventh largest metropolitan area.
The capital Malabo is the second largest city of Equatorial Guinea and has the specificity of being located on an island even though the country possesses mainland. It is about to be replaced by the planned city of Oyala, currently under construction.
Switzerland in its nature as a country with in every dimension decentralized political power actually doesn't have a capital (just as it doesn't have a head of state or prime minister). Bern has been designated as "federal city" with the seat of the two parliament chambers in 1848, when for the first time the independent Swiss states established standing federal authorities. Today, important federal authorities are also located in Lausanne (most notably: the Federal Supreme Court), Zürich, Lucerne, Bellinzona and St. Gallen. Until 1798, the council of the Swiss states met in various places - most frequently in Lucerne, Zürich, Baden and Frauenfeld. Between 1798 and 1803 there were three subsequent cities of government: Aarau, Luzern and Bern. Between 1815 and 1848 the meeting place of the council changed every two years between Zürich, Bern and Lucerne.
Both cities are in Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area with Taipei surrounded entirely by New Taipei, which was Taipei's suburbs before its comprehensive development.
New York was the capital 1785–1790 and the largest city in 1790 (narrowly edging out the next capital, Philadelphia, which served as capital from 1790 to 1800). Philadelphia was the nation's second-largest city when it was the capital.
