Resumo de Book Of Facts - Reader's Digest

CUSTOMS AND FESTIVALS-IV

GORGING BEFORE FASTING
A 1000-egg omelette is eaten on the Friday before Lent at Ponti in Italy. This feast is one of many similar traditions which are observed in Christian countries before Lent, a period of abstinence lasting for 40 days (excluding Sundays) to commemorate Christ?s time in the wilderness.
Lent formally begins on Ash Wednesday. Since Christians were traditionally forbidden meat and dairy produce during Lent, they used up these foods before-hand. Eggs and butter are often eaten on Shrove Tuesday, popularly called Pancake Day in Britain and on Mardi Grass, meaning ?Fat Tuesday?, in France. In Germany the ritual is called Fastnacht or ?Eve of the Fast?. Italy and many other Catholic countries call this feast a carnival, a word derived from the Latin phrase carnem levare, meaning ?to remove the meat?.
In such countries the carnival has developed into a boisterous festival, marked by noisy parades, dancing, fireworks, masquerades and feasting, that sometimes last for up to a fortnight. The most spectacular carnivals are at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and at New Orleans in the United States.

SPRING CLEANING
Greeks smash jugs against their front doors, crying ?Away with fleas and mice!?, while their children bang on tins and shout ?Away February, welcome March!? every March 1. According to superstition, only if the ritual is observed on this specific day will homes be rid of fleas and mice for the remainder of the year. Spring cleaning traditionally occurs in Britain and many other countries at about the same time.

SURPRISE PACKAGE
Swedish men sometimes give themselves as presents to their girlfriends at Christmas. Concealed in huge gift wrap boxes, they have themselves delivered to their girlfriends? homes. Alternatively, presents known as julklapp are sometimes elaborately disguised so that they seem much bigger than they really are. This done by placing a small present in progressively larger boxes. Each covered with paper and tightly tied with string- rather like Chinese boxes.

EIGHT-DAY WONDER
One of the most famous Jewish emblems is the seven-stemmed candelabrum (known as the menorah in Hebrew), which commemorates the seven lamps of Solomon?s Temple. But once a year Jews use a larger, nine- stemmed menorah to commemorate a victory. In 165 BC the Jewish leader Judas Maccabeus defeated the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes and occupied Jerusalem. When the Jews entered the temple they discovered that there was only enough oil left to keep the lamps lit for one day. Miraculously, however, the oil lasted for eight days, until more oil could be bought. The episode is celebrated in the eight-day Festival of Lights, called Chanukkah in Hebrew, which begins in December. On the first evening of the festival a single branch of the menorah is lit. Each subsequent evening a further branch is lit until by the end of the festival all the branches are alight. The ninth branch of the menorah is a pilot light which is kept burning throughout the festival. Special pancakes, called latkes, are also eaten and children play with a top bearing four Hebrew letters standing for the words ?a great miracle happened here?.

JUNE WEDDINGS
The popularity of June weddings is an age old tradition. It was the ancient Romans? favourite time because they believed that Juno, the goddess of marriage, would bring prosperity and happiness to all who wed in her month. The custom also has practical advantages. Marriage in June meant that the bride was likely to bear her first child in early spring, allowing her time to recover before the next harvest. As an old Scottish proverb put it: ?He?s a fool that marries at Yule. For when the corn?s to shear, the barn?s to bear?.

DUCKING THE ELEPHANT
Hindus celebrate the birthday of their elephant god, Ganesh, by parading his statue through the streets and then ducking it in a river or lake. Ganesh is depicted as a red fat man with a pot belly, four arms and an elephant head with a single tusk and he usually rides on a rat. Regarded as the remover of the obstacles, he is particularly popular with merchants, who often invoke his favour at the start of a new business enterprise. Many banks display his image outside their premises, and if ever they go bankrupt they turn his face to the wall.

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