April events around the world - 'Friends, Romans, Countrymen'

What a busy month, humorous and serious. It started on April 1st which was April Fool's Day and Easter Monday.

Ramadan dates 2024 and 2025

Ramadan ended April 9th 2024.  However, Ramadan is not in April in 2025. In 2025 it will be from Feb until March for 30 days. Travellers may wish to travel before the date of the start to reach Muslim countries and areas to enjoy evening meals with the family or street markets, or to avoid Muslim countries on these dates if you wish to visit Muslim restaurants. In some Muslim countries and areas you will find other restaurants open to foreigners, eg Chinese restaurants open to Westerners in Malaysia - look for the red lanterns and lights on.

Varied Celebrations & Commemorations

April has brought us Shakespeare and St George's Day in England, Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand, and Earth Day worldwide.

Earth Day

Monday April 22nd was Earth Day. 

Harrovians Toastmasters International speakers' training and leadership club in Harrow was celebrating its 21st anniversary. Inflatable globes decorated with maps depicting the world were on stage. 

Costco Cake Catering

We had a birthday cake which was ordered from Costco on Saturday and delivered on Monday. The icing was delicious. The cost was about seventeen pounds for a large cake.

Guest of Honour, Mayor Harrow

The club had invited the Mayor of Harrow to speak, and his wife the mayoress. The mayor was dressed in red. He entertainingly told us that a little girl aged about six had mistakenly though he was Santa Claus and asked him for a present. She assured him that she had been very good.

Left: The mayor of Harrow, Ramji Chauhan. 

Centre: Toastmasters International, UK South, Club Growth Director, Mo Dawodu.

Right: Angela Lansbury, member of Harrovians Toastmasters Club since 2004.

If you wish to read about the early days of Harrovians, I wrote an account of it which you can buy from lulu.com

Shakespeare & St George

Tuesday 23rd April, all day and every year on the 3rd, is St George's Day. It is also Shakespeare's birthday. A chance to celebrate with quotations from Shakespeare.  

The red cross on white is familiar to football supporters who know the England team's insignia.

ANZAC

Thursday 24th is Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand. Marches start at dawn in Australia. 

Field of Remembrance, Australia. Photo from Wikipedia.

The Anzac Field of Remembrance is wooden crosses for those who lost their lives, planted by the War Widows' Guild, in St Andrews Church, Sydney, Australia. Other events include playing of the sound of the Last Post. Events take place worldwide, Malaysia, Tasmania, Canada, UK.

Decorations on memorials and gravestones in cemeteries in New Zealand. Wiki.

Gallipoli, Turkey. Wikipedia.

Anzac Cove, Turkey. Wikipedia.

Hobart Cenotaph, Tasmania, Australia.

Sabah, Malaysia.

PASSOVER MEALS

Monday 22nd and 23rd this year (following a Jewish calendar with changing days) are Passover or Seder night for the UK Jewish community. In Israel, religious events take place on one day, but in the diaspora they last two days to be sure to align with the time the event is celebrated in Jerusalem.

Jesus's Last Supper was a Passover meal, commemorating the angel of death passing over the houses of Hebrew slaves when a plague swept over Egypt. 

The Discovery Channel programme investigating suggested that wet weather turned mouldy the stored wheat or grain. The wheat was eaten by the richer Egyptians. They gave double portions to the older firstborn son, hence the deaths of their firstborn. 

This food poisoning was known in the USA in a previous century as the cause of St Vitus's dance.  The spring cleaning by finishing up last year's old flour before stocking up with the new season's harvest accounts for the unleavened matzah eaten by Jews and the lent fast including pancake day to use up old flour.

If you have a meeting of a club any time in April you could choose any these events as your theme.

April 20th was Chinese Language Day.

The last day of the month April 30th, this year 2024, is the last day of Passover, April 30th is also National Child Day which encourages reading to children, national Mahjong Day which encourages you to play or learn to play mahjong, and adopt a shelter pet day and therapy animal day, and International Jazz Day. If you want to end with a sweet treat, it is also national oatmeal cookie day and bubble tea day. As Shakespeare said, or rather, wrote, All's Well That Ends Well.

Useful websites

Easter

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/members-area/kids/kids-rule-makes-and-bakes/why-do-we-eat-eggs-at-easter/

Anzac Day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_Day

https://www.timeout.com/sydney/news/our-guide-to-the-anzac-day-dawn-services-and-marches-in-sydney-042224

Shakespeare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Shakespearean_phrases

St George's Day

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13339457/thousands-brits-call-st-georges-day-bank-holiday.html

https://nationaltoday.com/april-30-holidays/

Please share links to your favourite posts.

 

Shakespeare's Influence on English - and why you should follow his trail

 

Shakespeare

Phrases we all know which come from Shakespeare:

It's all Greek to me

in a pickle

without rhyme or reason

if the truth were known

send them packing

an eyesore

more fool you

better days

fair play

I should have shown this on St George's Day.

You can see the Shakespeare theatre reproduced in London, England. Also visit Stratford-upon-Avon.

Visit England or Canada and 'All's well that ends well', as the title of Shakespeare's play says.

Canada also has Shakespeare theatre events.

Useful Websites

https://fb.watch/cDudFADMq0/

CALENDAR 2018: New Year, Valentine's, Remembrance Day, Carnival, Xmas and more

Problem
I read about events after they have started and it's too late to go. 

Answer
For next year, you and I have a calendar, listing the main holiday dates and tourist events and celebrations.

A quick reminder of October - Dec 2017.
2017 LAST QUARTER
OCT 13-15 Chocolate Show, Olympia, London, England.
Oct 31 Halloween.

NOVEMBER
Nov 5 Guy Fawkes Night (UK, especially Lewes, Sussex. Remembers Parliament saved from Guy Fawkes' Gunpowder Plot.) Fireworks all over UK, public displays. Buy tickets.

DECEMBER
Dec 22 El Gordo, big prize of the national lottery, seen on TV, announced by a choir of children.
Dec 24 Christmas Eve. Many offices and shops close lunch time.
Dec 25 Christmas Day.
Dec 26 Boxing Day UK. Sales start in shops and online.
Dec 31 New Year's Eve Worldwide, starting Australia, then Europe, then Americas. Public Fireworks in London. Buy tickets and souvenirs. Watch on TV.

CALENDAR 2018

JANUARY

January 1st  New Year's Day Parade, California, USA. Morning Concert and ballet from Vienna, Austria, televised in Europe.

January Sales. 

Jan 5th Three Kings. 

Jan 25th Burns Night . 

Jan 27th Holocaust Day. 

and Carnival in Venice Italy.

FEBRUARY: 

Chocolate month. 

Feb 13 Pancake Day. 

Feb 14 Valentine’s Day. 

MARCH

March 1st St David's Day, Wales. 

March 11 Mother's Day UK.

March 17 St Patrick's Day, Ireland. 

March 23 St George’s Day, England.

March 24 Oxford and Cambridge Boat race. 

March 30 Easter Good Friday. 

APRIL

April 1st Fools Day. Easter Sunday.

April 2 Easter Monday.

April 23 St George’s Day, England.

April 25 ANZAC Day, Australia and New Zealand.

MAY

May 1st May Day. 

JUNE

June 17 Father's Day.

JULY

July 2-15, 2018, Wimbledon. 

AUGUST

August 3-11 Eisteddfod music festival, Cardiff, Wales. 

Aug 3-25 Edinburgh Tattoo, Scotland.
Aug 9-19 Bristol Balloon Fiesta, Bristol, UK. 

Aug 22-23 Battle of the flowers, Jersey, British Channel Islands. 

SEPTEMBER 

Oktoberfest, beer tents in Munich, Germany.

OCTOBER

Oct 12-21 Eurochocolate Exhibition, free entry, Perugia, Umbria, Italy. (Annual but dates vary.)

2018 Notting Hill Carnival will begin at 09:00 on

Sunday

,

26 August

and ends at 08:00 on

Monday

,

27 August

All times are in United Kingdom Time.

Oct 31 Halloween. 

NOVEMBER

Nov 5th Guy Fawkes. 

Nov 11th Remembrance Day. 

Chocolate week and Chocolate Show, UK.

International Balloon Fiesta, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

DECEMBER

Dec 24 Xmas Eve. 

Dec 25 Xmas. 

Dec 26 Boxing Day. 

Dec 31 New Year's Eve. 

******************************************
More Information From:
EVENTS
www.thechocolateshow.co.uk

TOURIST BOARDS / INFORMATION
http://www.antor.com (Association of National Tourist Organizations.)
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk
www.visitbritain.org
https://www.wikipedia.org
https://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page

COMMERCIAL SITES / BOOKINGS
https://www.booking.com/index.en
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer.

St George's Day Celebrations With Traditional Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding

Celebrate with r o a s t beef ( I had to insert spaces because the site's spell checker keeps changing r o a s t to road.
Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding is a traditional lunch all year Expect to see bunting and flags at a pub or carvery or other restaurant.
In Yorkshire the batter is often local style, plate size like a bowl to contain the beef. But in London more often you get a smaller piece of bowl shaped batter not he side which you can fill with gravy, sometimes served in a jug. It is filling food.

The Mayor of London is supporting and promoting celebrations in Trafalgar Square. So, if you'd rather look at the Trafalgar square stone lions than think of beef, that's the place.

http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/event/8726328-feast-of-st-george-in-trafalgar-square

St George's Day is also the start of British Beef week with reductions at butcher's if you want to cook your own beef.
http://www.cobbsfarmshop.co.uk/news.asp?contentID=622

See previous post on flags. Please share my posts.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, author and speaker.

St George's Day Sunday 23rd April 2017

Problem
How do you spell George and how do I remember. What to do? Where to go?

Answers
Spelling George
I keep mis-typing George and the word is highlighted by typo checkers. Easy to remember, the e is attached to the g to make a soft sound like a J.

Flying Flags
St George's Day is the day to find and dust off a St George's Day or England flag, which is a red cross on a white background, beloved by football team supporters. The flag forms part of the Union Jack. If you've spent money on a flag previously, now is the time to get more value for your money by using it again.

Where to get one? Kiosks all over London will be selling flags.

Buying Flags and Bargains
Supermarkets also stock flags, small ones for your hand, larger flags to attach to cars, big banners, and face paints. A day or two later the leftover flags will be sold off by supermarkets, at first a ten per cent reduction, then maybe more.

You can also buy flags and face make up from party shops. Party shops online have a huge selection.

How to fly flags
Most hand held flags are fixed correctly. If you are flying flags you have to fly them correctly. Make sure you hoist it all the way up. A flag at half mast is a sign of mourning, generally for the death of royalty or national tragedy. At sea an upside down (Union Jack) flag is a signal requesting help, indicating a disaster.

How do you know which was is up for a Union Jack? Ask a boy scout.

Beef Lunches
I am being emailed by restaurants offering beef lunches. Cobb Farm has sent me information.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share my posts.

St George's Day - April 23rd - in England

St George's Day is the national Day of England and the flag with the red cross on white is part of the Union Jack.

Expect flags flying in front gardens outside semi-detached houses in the London suburbs, large flags in windows, little flags to buy, and people with flags painted on their faces.

Go into the centre of London for free activities all day in Trafalgar Square - or watch on TV.


More information from:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/articles/St-Georges-Day-2015-events-and-activity-details/

https://www.google.com.sg/?client=safari#q=st+george's+day&gfe_rd=cr
http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/event/8726328-feast-of-st-george-in-trafalgar-square

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.