Anyone with Scottish ancestry will know that 25th January is a very special day, the birthday of Scotland’s favourite son, poet and songwriter Robert Burns. This day is celebrated more widely than the official national day, St Andrew’s Day. It is known as Burns Night and all around the world, Burns Suppers are held.
You [more…]
Although birthdays and Christmas are probably the biggest celebrations in our year, many cultures around the world don’t celebrate birthdays or Christmas. The festival that is observed in the most areas of the world has got to be New Year – although not necessarily on the same date as ours.
The earliest recorded festivities for [more…]
It’s not long now until the jolly season of yuletide, when the extended family traditionally gathers together peacefully to celebrate the birth of Christ.
Nowadays, who takes any notice of tradition? It’s more often than not a season fraught with shopping for food, writing cards or racing around the shopping centre.
In fact, the stress of [more…]
It says a lot about our tendency to procrastinate that the word presently in the late 14th century meant ‘immediately, in the present time’, but by the 1560s it had relaxed into ‘soon’. In fact, soon also used to mean ‘at once’ and eventually came to mean ‘within a short time’. Anon is one [more…]
I sometimes think of the English language as a living, breathing creature that devours new words and spits out the obsolete ones. New words are added all the time, and existing words are given new meanings, which is what makes the English language so wonderfully diverse.
The word ‘gifted’ means ‘blessed’ or ‘talented’. When [more…]
When did drama first start? It’s always been a part of our lives, not just our own personal dramas but also those in literature, stage and film.
We don’t know exactly when humans first started re-enacting life stories, but the ancient Greeks were very keen on performing in public, telling stories. The Greek audience loved [more…]
Once our wonderful crossword and puzzle magazines are shipped to your door, or placed on store shelves, it’s not long before our puzzlers write in to share their thoughts and questions. Here at Lovatts, we encourage your feedback, and we love talking about our clues. I thought I’d share my findings inspired by a [more…]
There is an old legend that eagles are the only animals that can look into the sun. According to the translation of St Augustine, “The sun invigorates the eyes of eagles, but injures our own.”
It is certainly true that eagles have very special eyesight, estimated to be 4 to 8 times stronger than a [more…]
One of the great pleasures of life, I feel, is receiving a letter in the post. I mean a friendly letter of course, not a bill, a speeding fine or a sales catalogue. When I first arrived in Australia, many moons ago, phone calls were only used in case of emergencies and the post [more…]
