Culture Facts

What are the Seven Deadly Sins?

According to the Roman Catholic religion there are seven mortal or cardinal sins and these are listed below:

Pride
Meaning an excessive view of yourself without any regard to others.

Averice
Meaning an excessive pursuit of material possessions.

Lust
Meaning an uncontrollable passion or longing, especially in regards to sexual desires.

Envy
Means to want to have an item or gain the same experiences that others possess.

Gluttony
Means to overeat or over indulge in drink.

Anger
Means an uncontrollable feeling of hate towards another person and finally.

Sloth
Meaning excessive laziness or a failure to act and use your talents.

In 1995, the critically acclaimed feature film “Se7en“, which featured Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, graphically illustrated the seven deadly sins through the actions of a notorious serial killer.

Oktoberfest Facts

The beginning of the first Oktoberfest took place on 12th October 1810 in Munich, Germany to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.

All Munich citizens were asked to join in the celebrations at a festivity to be held in a field just outside the city gates and in honour of the newly wed princess it was named Theresienwiese (Theresia’s fields). The celebrations ended with a horse race.

In 1811, as well as the horse races an Agricultural Show was introduced, designed to boost Bavarian agriculture. The horse races, which were the oldest – and at one time – the most popular event of the festival are no longer held today. But the Agricultural Show is still held every three years during the Oktoberfest on the southern part of the festival grounds.

In the first few decades, there wasn’t a huge amount of amusements available but then in 1818, a carousel and two swings were set up.

To quench the thirst of all the vistitors to this festival various small beer stands were erected with different ales and alcohol available.

In 1896 the beer stands were replaced by beer tents and halls instead and were set up by local landlords, whilst the rest of the festival fields were a funfair. By now there was a range of carousels and other fairground rides continued to come to the site in Germany.

Today, Munich’s Oktoberfest is the largest festival of it’s kind in the world, varying the different ales, beers and largers on an international level in keeping with the 20th century.

At the foot of the Bavaria Statue, adjacent to the Huge Oktoberfest grounds there are still fairground rides like the carousels, roller coasters and lots of other hair raising rides for all ages of visitors to enjoy.

The festivities follow a program of events, which includes the Grand Entry of the Oktoberfest Landlords and Breweries, the Costume and Riflemen’s Parade, and a concert involving brass bands representing the “Wiesn”.

The Oktoberfest celebrated its 200th Anniversery in 2010, and it is only during Wars and a cholera epidemic that have briefely interrupted the yearly beer celebration.

What is Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday is considered to be a marketing ploy for online retailers to get shoppers to buy items at generously discounted prices all through the day.

This is a follow on from the ‘Black Friday’ deals but with the added benefit of not getting injured as you shop from the comfort of your home and not get pushed from pillar to post trying to grab a major bargain!

As with ‘Black Friday’, ‘Cyber Monday’ also orginated in America and occurs on the Monday following “Thanksgiving Day” which is on the last Thursday in November.

It is estimated from various credit card firms that around £7.7 million will be spent during Monday’s busiest online discount day.

And due to the shopping phenomenon some online retailers are offering a Cyber Week of offers and deals to make the most of people’s Christmas spending.

What is Black Friday?

Black Friday is the biggest shopping bonanza to be held in the run up to Christmas when retailers offer huge discounts and deals to enable customers to kick start their Christmas shopping.

It occurs on the Friday following America’s “Thanksgiving day” which in 1939 was deemed by President Roosevelt to take place on the last Thursday of November.

Black Friday originated in America. In the 1950s and 60s the Philadelphia Police Department nick named the day Black Friday due to the frenetic shoppers pushing and fighting to get their bargains – a bit like our Boxing Day sales here in the UK.

Amazon were one of the first online companies to introduce Black Friday to Britain about 4 years ago, and as everyone loves a bargain and retailers saw the benefit of higher sales before Christmas it didn’t take long for everyone to jump onto the band wagon.

Asda, who are owned by the American Company Walmart, were the first major retailer to offer in-store Black Friday deals last year and they sold 60% of their Black Friday stock within two hours!

Black Friday has taken over Britain’s Boxing and New Year’s Day sales, as the companies realised that people were more willing to spend as they were looking for offers on Christmas gifts.

What is a Sonnet?

A sonnet is a form of poetic writing. A sonnet has fourteen lines (in English) and ten syllables to each line.

Different rhyming patterns have been followed at different times. Shakespeare wrote 153 sonnets and generally ended them with a rhyming couplet.

A sonnet is almost always a complete poem and not one that can be set to music, like a ballad or lyric.

One famous sonnet used was in Romeo and Juliet, when the lovers meet for the first time and Shakespeare divided a sonnet between them.