Felices Fiestas

La adoración de los pastores. Murillo

Sirva esta entrada para desear a todos los componentes de la comunidad educativa del I.E.S. Nuestra Señora de la Victoria un merecido descanso durante estos días, nuestros mejores deseos para el próximo año y unas felices fiestas.

Ready for Christmas?

In Spain, Christmas starts with the biggest draw of Spanish National lottery on December 22^nd.. Everybody try their luck with the lottery tickets because the first prize is three million euros, so if you hold a tenth, you win 300,000 euros.

The Christmas decorations were hung in the main streets on December 8th and this year, to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide in the fight against climate change and the Global warming, energy-saving bulbs have been used. There are huge Christmas trees everywhere and you can visit Nativities in the churches of Málaga.

Now is the season for sending Christmas cards, singing Christmas carols, meeting friends and family and going shopping to get everything ready on time.

Families gather round the table on Christmas Eve and eat delicacies like giant prawns, turkey, lamb, suckling pig, salmon, red bream, and all kind of seafood. The desert is always made up of hard and soft nougat, chocolate and mantecados.

In Spain, the King speaks to the nation on tv, whereas in England, people listen to the Queen’s speech after lunch on the 25^th. Then, the children hang up a sock for Father Christmas in the Christmas tree and some families go to midnight mass after dinner.

Another big public holiday is New Year's Eve. Everyone gets dressed up to the nines and go to parties to eat the Lucky grapes. You eat one grape for each stroke of the clock and toast the new year with cider or cava.

The final Xmas celebration is the Kings’ Day Eve. Children have already given their letters to the royal postman, or to the royal page, and go to the parade of the three kings to pick the sweets that a page throws from the carriage. That night all the children eat a piece of King's Day cake, it is a cake with glace fruit that represents rubies and emeralds, before going to bed wondering “what are the three wise men going to bring me? I hope it's not a lump of coal”. And they get up early thinking “I’ve been very good this year, so there will be many gifts”

Finally there comes the January slope. People struggle to get to the end of the month and, though being broken, go shopping to take advantage of the sales.

I hope you have learnt all the vocabulary you need to talk about Christmas in English, you can use an on line dictionary to translate the green words.

May the new year bring you peace and prosperity

December 8, the day John Lennon was murdered

John Lennon was a member of one of the world's most successful group ever: The Beatles. But he will always be remembered as someone who educated us all to the idea of world peace.

Together with his wife Yoko Ono, he attempted to transform the world through non-musical means until he was assassinated on December 8, 1980 by a gunman outside his apartment building in Manhattan.

"Give Peace A Chance" or "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)", with an embarrassingly simple message: "War is over if you want it" are two of his most famous songs.

But it is "Imagine" his greatest legacy. An extraordinarily simple song, with a combination of that simplicity and the timeless lyrics that make it one of the finest songs of the century.

Acabemos con las lágrimas

La violencia de género es una dramática realidad que nos asalta todos los días desde los medios de comunicación. A veces, lamentablemente, está muy cerca de nosotros. Y a todos nos puede afectar. No hay matices por grupos sociales, nivel económico, origen o cultura. Por eso, cualquier iniciativa contra esa violencia debe de ser bienvenida. En el Instituto tenemos una asignatura optativa -Cambios Sociales y Nuevas Relaciones de Género- que aborda este tema de manera directa. También es lugar de reflexión en Educación para la Ciudadanía. Y, por supuesto, cabe en cualquier clase de tutoría. Las actividades pueden ser muchas y algunas con mucho ritmo. Os propongo aquí que aprendáis y cantéis ese "himno" que Huecco y Hanna han grabado con la colaboración de populares personajes del cine y la televisión. Para ello os añado el videoclip correspondiente. Vosotros os encargáis de buscar la letra en la red.

The British Constitution

A constitution is a set of laws on how a country is governed. Though in Spain we have a written Constitution, this is not like that for all countries in the civilized world. Thus Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand or Israel do not have such fixed, written constitutions.

Let's try to understand the process followed in a country with an unwritten constitution to ensure that the law is upheld.

The British Constitution is unwritten in one single document, unlike the constitution in America or the proposed European Constitution, and as such, is referred to as an uncodified constitution in the sense that there is no single document that can be classed as Britain's constitution. The British Constitution can be found in a variety of documents:

• Acts of Parliament

• Treaties

• EU law

• Common Law

• Royal Prerogative

• Works of authority

• Conventions

A key element to understand these uncodified constitutions is the definition of convention as an accepted way in which things are done. They are not written down in law but tend to be old, established practices – the way they have always been done. Though these conventions are not set in legal stone, their very existence over the years has invariably lead to the smooth operation of government. For example, it is a convention that the queen will accept the legislation passed by the government, or it is accepted that a departmental minister will resign if he/she loses the confidence of the House of Commons (i.e. within their own party). Conventions can be changed, as they have no legal status. But they tend to be tolerated as they allow the system to work.

Because it can be modified by an ordinary act of Parliament , the British constitution is often termed flexible. This enables Britain to react quickly to any constitutional emergency. But, on the other hand, this means it requires a considerable amount of study and probably a degree in politics or law to fully understand how Britain is governed.

As you can see, even in matters that you may have considered basic to a democratic system, we are not all the same.