APRIL2012

1. Land of traditions2. Unusual customs calendar anniversaries3. Interesting to know4. Famous people

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Her reign of 60 years is the second-longest for a British monarch; only Queen Victoria has reigned longer. Her Silver and Golden Jubilees were celebrated in 1977 and 2002; her Diamond Jubilee is being celebrated during 2012. The Queen celebrates

two birthdays each year: her actual birthday is on 21 April and her official birthday is on a Saturday in June.

LAND OF TRADITIONS Queen Elizabeth II

21 April 1926Personal Flag of Queen Elizabeth

II

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary) is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms, and head of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations. In her specific role as the monarch of the United Kingdom, one of her 16 realms, she is also Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

The Queen has many different duties to perform every day. Some are public duties, such as ceremonies, receptions and visits within the United Kingdom or abroad. Other duties are carried out away from the cameras, but they are no less important. These include reading letters from the public, official papers and briefing notes; audiences with political ministers or ambassadors; and meetings with her Private Secretaries to discuss daily business and her future diary plans. Even when she is away from London, in residence at Balmoral or Sandringham, she receives official papers nearly every day of every year and remains fully briefed on matters affecting her realms. In front of the camera or away from it, The Queen's duties go on, and no two days in her life are ever the same.

The Queen's working day

Greeting The Queen However, many people wish to observe the traditional forms of greeting. For men this is a neck bow (from the head only) whilst women do a small curtsy. Other people prefer simply to shake hands in the usual way. On presentation to The Queen, the correct formal address is 'Your Majesty' and subsequently 'Ma'am’.

Unusual customs calendar anniversaries in April

1 st – April Fool’s Day2nd 1805 - Hans Christian Andersen was born in Denmark. He died in 1875. 2nd – 14th June 1982 The Falklands War. 5 th – Maundy Thursday.6 th - Good Friday6th - Robert Edwin Peary reached the North Pole in 19097th 1827 - First matches sold. 8 th – Easter Sunday8th 1973 - Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter, died aged 91. 9th 1806 - Brunel (Great Western Railway) born. 10th 1998 - The signing of the Good Friday Agreement. 12th 1606 - Union Flag became the official flag of the United Kingdom. 12th 1961 - Yuri Gagarin made the first flight into space. 14th 1931 - Highway Code first issued. 15th 1912 - R.M.S. Titanic struck an iceberg and sank. 16th 1889 - Charlie Chaplin born. 19th 1978 - Post marks were introduced in Britain by the Post Office. 21st - Queen Elizabeth II was born. 22nd - Earth Day. 23rd - St. George’s Day – Patron Saint of England and also of Scouting. 23 rd 1584/ 1613 - Shakespeare’s Birthday (1584). Also the anniversary of his death (1613). 26th 1957 - First broadcast of "The Sky at Night". 27th 1791 - Samuel Morse was born. Learn and practice Morse Code.

Facts about AprilGemstone: Diamond

Flower: Sweet PeaNo one knows for certain how April got its name, but it may have come from the Latin word

'aperire' which means 'to open'. April is, after all, the month when in the northern hemisphere buds begin to open and things start to grow again after the winter.

Eostre monath or Eastremonath was the Anglo-Saxon name for the month. The name of the Christian Festival of Easter comes from this Anglo-Saxon word.

April begins with a day of fun and jokes - April Fool's Day. No one really knows when this custom began but it has been kept for hundreds of years.

The arrival of the cuckoo is the signal that spring has come. It arrives sometime in mid April.

The cuckoo sings from St. Tiburtius' Day (14th April) to St John's Day (24th June). However in Worcestershire there is a saying that the cuckoo is never heard before Tenbury fair (April 21st), or after Pershore fair (June 26th). The difference in dates is because traditionally the bird arrives in different parts of the country during April.  

Easter is the story of Jesus' last days in Jerusalem before his death. The Easter story includes Maundy Thursday (the Last supper leading to the Eucharist), Good Friday (the day on which Jesus was crucified) and Easter Day (the day on which Jesus came back to life). It is a sad story because Jesus was killed. But the story has a very happy ending, because Jesus came back to life and visited his friends and followers once more. He did not die at all, but went back up to Heaven to be with God, his father.

Easter in BritainThis year Easter

falls on Sunday 8 AprilWhat is the Easter story?

According to Bede, the English monastic historian, the English word Easter comes from the Anglo-Saxon name for the month of April, which was known as "Eostremonath" in the Anglo-Saxon tongue and since Pascha was most often celebrated in Eostremonath, the English Christians began calling it "Easter". Bede also notes that the month was named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess Esostre.

Rituals related to the goddess Eostre focus on new beginnings, symbolized by the Easter egg, and fertility, which is symbolized by the hare (or Easter bunny).

At Easter time the British have two bank holidays (public holidays): Good Friday and Easter Monday. This means that many families can enjoy a long weekend together.

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

William Shakespeare 26 April 1564 - 23 April

1616

Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamlet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later.

William Shakespeare was buried in the church of Stratford in 1616.There is Shakespeare’s monument in Westminster Abbey.

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin was an English comic actor,

film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I. Chaplin used mime, slapstick and other visual comedy routines, and continued well into the era of the talkies, though his films decreased in frequency from the end of the 1920s. His most famous role was that of The Tramp, which he first played in the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice in 1914. From the April 1914 one-realer Twenty Minutes of Love onwards he was writing and directing most of his films, by 1916 he was also producing them, and from 1918 he was even composing the music for them. With Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, he co-founded United Artists in 1919.

16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977

Statue of Chaplin in Leicester Square, London

Chaplin was one of the most creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era. He was influenced by his predecessor, the French silent film comedian Max Linder, to whom he dedicated one of his films. His working life in entertainment spanned over 75 years, from the Victorian stage and the music hall in the United Kingdom as a child performer, until close to his death at the age of 88. His high-profile public and private life encompassed both adulation and controversy. Chaplin was identified with Left-wing politics during the McCarthy era and he was ultimately forced to resettle in Europe from 1952.  In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Chaplin the 10th greatest male

screen legend of all time.

In 2008, Martin Sieff, in a review of the book Chaplin: A Life, wrote: "Chaplin was not just 'big', he was gigantic.

George Bernard Shaw called Chaplin "the only genius to come out of the movie industry".