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Make your crackers

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Crackers

"Crackers" are very common at any festive events, especially at Christmas. They consist of a beautifully decorated cardboard cylinder containing a tissue party hat, a motto (British joke or riddle), a snap (popping device), and a small gift. At dinners and parties, crackers are used to decorate individual place settings and are usually opened prior to serving the meal. Crackers are usually shared between two individuals, one pulling on each end producing a small **BANG**. At Christmas, crackers can also decorate the tree or the stocking. You can also use crackers as welcoming gifts, invitations or gifts for special occasions such as Valentine's Day and Mother's Day.

History of Crackers

Christmas crackers were invented by Thomas Smith in 1846.
During a visit to Paris he came across the bob-bon, a sugar almond wrapped in tissue paper (with a twist either side of the centrally placed sweet). Thomas decided to try selling similarly wrapped sweets in the lead up to Christmas in England. His bon-bons sold well at Christmas but not at other times of the year.

In the early 1850s Thomas came up with the idea of including a motto with the sweet. As many of his bon-bons were bought by men to give to women, many of the mottos were simple love poems.

In about 1860, Thomas added the banger, two strips of chemically impregnated paper that made a loud noise on being pulled apart. At first these novelties were called 'cosaques', but they soon became known as 'crackers'.

Unfortunately for Thomas, his 'cracker' idea was copied by other manufactures and so he decided to replace the sweet with a surprise gift.

When Thomas died his two sons took over the business. The paper hat was added to the cracker the early 1900s and by the end of the 1930s the love poems had been replaced by jokes or limericks.

Information from http://woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/topics/index.htm

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The Origins of Halloween

The origins of Halloween go back very far, to the ancient Celts. The Celts lived in the British Isles during ancient times. They were pagans. They believed in the gods of nature.There were two important festivals on the Celtic calendar. One was called Beltane and it marked the beginning of the summer. The other was called Samhain. It marked the end of the summer on October the 31^st. Samhain was also the last day of the year on the Celtic calendar...

Samhain was the Celtic god of death. The Celts were afraid of winter because they associated it with death and evil spirits. They believed that on the night of October the 31^st ghosts came out of their tombs and the spirits of the dead returned to earth. The Celtic people made big fires and dressed in scary customs -such as: witches, ghosts and skeletons-, to frighten the spirits of evil and death. They also played games to bring good luck to the new year.

That night was also very important because the Druids predicted the future. The Druids were the Celtic priests and teachers. They were very important in the society. They practised the magic and religious rituals. Everybody respected them.

After the Roman invasion in 43 A.D. Christian rites substituted pagan rites. The Romans had a harvest festival called Pomona. Pomona was the Roman goddess of gardens and orchards. That’s why the colours of Halloween are orange and black. Orange represents the harvest and black represents death.

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