Children's literature week thirteen

Popcorn as decoration on Christmas tree

Decorating a Christmas tree usually involves spools of electric Christmas lights, store-bought and homemade ornaments, with a star or angel resting at the top. Yet these traditions are a result of modern conveniences. When Christmas Trees first rose to prominence in the United States, they were often decorated with fruits and other items. From this, a tradition of stringing popcorn and cranberries into a garland that wrapped around the tree was born.

So the question is – why was fruit originally put on the tree? Here is a little Christmas tree history.

Before Christianity became the dominant religion in Europe, many pagan rituals involved having a live evergreen tree or branch in the home. The reasons varied and included wishes of prosperity and luck with the harvest. In medieval Germany (around 1500), full pine trees were brought into the home to celebrate the Name Day of Adam and Eve (December 24th). The families would decorate the tree with apples in honor of the two. These trees were called Paradise Trees, in reference to where Adam and Eve met.

Over time, Paradise Trees evolved into Christmas trees, a tradition mostly only celebrated in Germany. In the 18th and 19th centuries when many Germans immigrated to the United States, they would sometimes bring the tradition with them. However it was viewed as a foreign custom and didn’t quite catch on in America. That is until Christmas 1848.

The Queen of England, Queen Victoria was married to a German, Prince Albert. In the winter of 1848, Queen Victoria asked to have a Christmas tree put up for the holiday as it was something Prince Albert had as a child for Christmas. Soon the story of the Royal Christmas Tree was published in the newspapers with an illustration depicting the tree in the palace, and the tradition spread throughout Europe and over to North America.

So again, how did popcorn end up on our Christmas trees? While its origins are not completely known, the art of stringing popcorn on a tree most likely came from the fact that when Christmas trees first became widespread, people didn’t have much to decorate them with. They borrowed from the German tradition of putting fruit on the trees and because cranberries are harvested through November, it’s most likely that they were strung with popcorn as they were still in season.

Christmas tree

Christmas play: 胡桃鉗/ Christmas Carol/ The gift of the Magi (by O.Henry)

The Nutcracker 胡桃鉗

The Nutcracker (Russian: Щелкунчик, Балет-феерия / Shchelkunchik, Balet-feyeriya; French: Casse-Noisette, ballet-féerie) is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Although the original production was not a success, the 20-minute suite that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was. However, the complete Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s, and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season, especially in North America.

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. A Christmas Carol tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation into a gentler, kindlier man after visitations by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.

The gift of the Magi

"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story, written by O. Henry (a pen name for William Sydney Porter), about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been a popular one for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time.

The Gift of the Magi   by O. Henry

O. Henry is known for his "twist endings," and the ending of "The Gift of the Magi" is probably the most famous of them all. At the end of the story Della cuts and sells her hair to buy Jim a chain for his watch, and Jim sells his watch to buy Della combs for her hair. Here we have a classic case of irony. The determination to find the perfect gift leads each character to make a sacrifice; that sacrifice makes each gift useless. The result is the exact opposite of what Jim and Della intended. What makes this ending so bittersweet is that it only comes about because they acted on their intentions: their gifts wouldn't have been useless if they hadn't given up their prize possessions. And since we follow only Della in the story, we don't know what has happened until the very end, during the exchange itself. It's the sudden, unexpected irony, which only strikes at the very end that makes the ending a twist.

The magi

The magi, as you know, were wise men – wonderfully wise men – who brought gifts to the new-born King of the Jews. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the Magi.

Song

What child is this

What child is this, who, laid to rest,

On Mary's lap is sleeping?

Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,

While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King,

Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:

Haste, haste to bring Him laud,

The babe, the son of Mary.

Why lies He in such mean estate,

Where ox and ass are feeding?

Good Christians, fear, for sinners here

The silent Word is pleading.

Nails, spears shall pierce him through,

the cross he bore for me, for you.

Hail, hail[冰雹] the Word made flesh,

the Babe, the Son of Mary.

So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh,

Come, peasant, king, to own him.

The King of kings salvation brings,

Let loving hearts enthrone him.

Raise, raise a song on high,

The virgin sings her lullaby

Joy, joy for Christ is born,

The babe, the Son of Mary.

This, this is Christ the King,

Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:

Haste, haste to bring Him laud,

The babe, the son of Mary.

Frame story

is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories. The frame story leads readers from a first story into another, smaller one (or several ones) within it.

--The Decameron十日談--Florance escape from Black Death  

by:Josh Groban

The Decameron (Italian: Decameron [deˈkaːmeron; dekameˈrɔn; dekameˈron] or Decamerone [dekameˈroːne]), subtitled Prince Galehaut (Old Italian: Prencipe Galeotto [ˈprentʃipe ɡaleˈɔtto; ˈprɛntʃipe]), is a collection of novellas by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). The book is structured as a frame story containing 100 tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men sheltering in a secluded villa just outside Florence to escape the Black Death, which was afflicting the city.

Marshmallow

is a sugar-based confection that, in its modern form, typically consists of sugar, water and gelatin which is whipped to a spongy consistency, molded into small cylindrical pieces, and coated with corn starch. Some marshmallow recipes call for eggs. This confection is the modern version of a medicinal confection made from Althaea officinalis, the marshmallow plant.

Roasted Marshmallow

Marshmallow with hot chocolate

Novella( between short story and novel)

A novella is a work of written, fictional, narrative prose normally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. The English word "novella" derives from the Italian novella, feminine of novello, which means "new". The novella is a common literary genre in several European languages.

The novella as a literary genre began developing in the early Renaissance by the Italian and French literatura, principally Giovanni Boccaccio, author of The Decameron (1353). The Decameron featured 100 tales (novellas) told by 10 people (seven women and three men) fleeing the Black Death, by escaping from Florence to the Fiesole hills in 1348. This structure was then imitated by subsequent authors, notably the French queen Marguerite de Navarre, whose Heptaméron (1559) included 72 original French tales and was modeled after the structure of The Decameron.

The Heptameron[黑死病盛行,臉上會長東西]

is a collection of 72 short stories written in French by Marguerite of Navarre (1492–1549), published posthumously in 1558. It has the form of a frame narrative and was inspired by The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio. It was originally intended to contain one hundred stories covering ten days just as The Decameron does, but at Marguerite’s death it was only completed as far as the second story of the eighth day. Many of the stories deal with love, lust, infidelity, and other romantic and sexual matters. One was based on the life of Marguerite de La Rocque, a French noblewoman who was punished by being abandoned with her lover on an island off Quebec.

The Brothers Grimm[采風方式]

The Brothers Grimm is a 2005 adventure fantasy film directed by Terry Gilliam. The film stars Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, and Lena Headey in an exaggerated and fictitious portrait of the Brothers Grimm as traveling con-artists in French-occupied Germany, during the early 19th century. However, the brothers eventually encounter a genuine fairy tale curse which requires real courage instead of their usual bogus exorcisms.

Asian Origins of Cinderella[葉限姑娘]

Hansel and Gretel

is a well-known fairy tale of German origin, recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister kidnapped by a cannibalistic witch living deep in the forest in a house constructed of cake and confectionery. The two children save their lives by outwitting her. The tale has been adapted to various media, most notably the opera Hänsel und Gretel (1893) by Engelbert Humperdinck. Under the Aarne–Thompson classification system, "Hansel and Gretel" is classified under Class 327.

Snow White

is a nineteenth-century German fairy tale which is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection Grimms' Fairy Tales. It was titled in German: Sneewittchen (in modern orthography Schneewittchen) and numbered as Tale 53. The Grimms completed their final revision of the story in 1854. The fairy tale features such elements as the magic mirror, the poisoned apple, the glass coffin, and the characters of the evil queen and the Seven Dwarfs.

Pied Piper of Hamelin

The Pied Piper of Hamelin (German: Rattenfänger von Hameln also known as the Pan Piper, the Rat-Catcher of Hamelin) is the subject character of a legend from the town of Hamelin (Hameln), Lower Saxony, Germany. The legend dates back to the Middle Ages, the earliest references describing a piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing, who was a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizens refuse to pay for this service, he retaliates by using his instrument's magical power on their children, leading them away as he had the rats. This version of the story spread as folklore and has appeared in the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the Brothers Grimm, and Robert Browning, among others.

hare/ rabbit Hare的體型大、後腿的長度及耳朵的長度都比Rabbit要大一號

hare-- are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. Hares are classified into the same family as rabbits. They are similar in size and form to rabbits and eat the same diet. They are generally herbivorous and long-eared, they are fast runners, and they typically live solitarily or in pairs. Hare species are native to Africa, Eurasia, North America, and the Japanese archipelago.

Gustav Klimt =vienna secession

Gustav Klimt

Early in his artistic career, he was a successful painter of architectural decorations in a conventional manner. As he developed a more personal style, his work was the subject of controversy that culminated when the paintings he completed around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna were criticized as pornographic.

Klimt's 'Golden Phase' was marked by positive critical reaction and financial success. Many of his paintings from this period included gold leaf. Klimt had previously used gold in his Pallas Athene (1898) and Judith I (1901), although the works most popularly associated with this period are the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) and The Kiss (1907–08).

Klimt.jpg

The Vienna Secession

The Vienna Secession (German: Wiener Secession; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists, or Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs) was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects. The first president of the Secession was Gustav Klimt, and Rudolf von Alt was made honorary president.

Danaë golden shower

An oracle warned Danaë's father, Acrisius, that he would be killed by his grandson. As Danaë was his only child and childless herself he locked her up in a bronze room, tower, cave (take your pick) in order to prevent the prophecy from coming true. He didn't count on old Zeus getting a bit hot under the collar for her.

Zeus transformed himself, as he is so fond of doing, into a shower of gold. He came in through the roof and made a beeline for Danaë's lap. The result was the demigod hero Perseus, you may know him from such films as 'Clash of the Titans' and 'Wrath of the Titans'.

Acrisius, of course, found out and had both Danaë and her son locked in a chest and set out to sea. A very round about way of killing people if you ask me. They survived and Perseus went on to do many great and heroic things, including killing his grandfather (take that Acrisius).

魔音穿腦

Siren(fatal woman)-- Femme fatale 

ex.Salome(dance ofthe seven veils), Helen, Siren

Die Nibelungen

Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied.

Lorelei 萊茵河的女妖

The Lorelei (German: Loreley) is a 132 m (433 ft) high, steep slate rock on the right bank of the River Rhine in the Rhine Gorge (or Middle Rhine) at Sankt Goarshausen in Germany. The heavy currents, and a small waterfall in the area (still visible in the early 19th century) created a murmuring sound, and this combined with the special echo the rock produces to act as a sort of amplifier, giving the rock its name.

German author Clemens Brentano composed his ballad Zu Bacharach am RheineIn the poem, the beautiful Lore Lay, betrayed by her sweetheart, is accused of bewitching men and causing their death. Rather than sentence her to death, the bishop consigns her to a nunnery. On the way thereto, accompanied by three knights, she comes to the Lorelei rock. She asks permission to climb it and view the Rhine once again. She does so and thinking that she sees her love in the Rhine, falls to her death; the rock still retained an echo of her name afterwards.

Vocabulary

lexis: speech, word

lexicographer

meaning: a writer, editor, or compiler of a dictionary.

example: He is a lexicographer.

bulldozing

meaning: to force someone to do something, although they might not want to