Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
Thanksgiving
Posted on: November 25, 2009
Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival, traditionally meant as a time to express gratitude for the harvest and in general. It is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada, on the fourth Thursday of November and on the second Monday of October respectively. Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in most jurisdictions of Canada.
The tradition of giving thanks to God is observed in different ways. Various religious and spiritual organizations offer services and events on Thanksgiving themes on or around this day.
Thanksgiving dinner is held on this day, or over the course of the associated weekend in Canada. Friends and family members gather for the dinner at the home of the host, and begin the dinner by saying grace.
The American Christmas season traditionally begins the day after Thanksgiving, it is known as “Black Friday”.
In New York City, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is held annually every Thanksgiving Day from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square, and televised nationally by NBC. The parade features parade floats with specific themes, scenes from Broadway plays, large balloons of cartoon characters and TV personalities, and high school marching bands. The float that traditionally ends the Macy’s Parade is the Santa Claus float, the arrival of which is an unofficial sign of the beginning of the Christmas season.
Interestingly, American football is forms an important part of many Thanksgiving celebrations in the United States. Professional games are traditionally held on Thanksgiving Day. This tradition is dutifully observed by The National Football League, which plays games on Thanksgiving every year since its creation. This is referred to as the Thanksgiving Classic. The Detroit Lions have hosted a game every Thanksgiving Day since 1934, with the exception of 1939–1944 (due to World War II).
This Thanksgiving, let us pray to the Lord and express our gratitude towards Him for showering us with His love and merciful blessings. Let us thank those people in our lives who have stood by us through thick and thin. God bless you all.
We at Agile Technosys wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving!
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Agile Technosys is a web development, software development, web design and web based application development company. Agile Technosys primarily focuses on the use of Open source technologies with LAMP (Linux, Apache, Mysql & PHP) and offers PHP development to clients world wide. To know more Visit:
http://www.agiletechnosys.com/
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Halloween
Posted on: October 26, 2009
Halloween is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain (Summer’s end) and the Christian holy day of All Saints.
Halloween is a holiday characterized by mystery, magic and superstition. It has its origins in the Celtic end-of-summer festival, Samhain, during which the ancient Celts commemorated their dear ones who have passed on. It was their belief that on Samhain, the border between the material world and the spiritual world vanishes and thus the spirits can move freely into this world. The family’s ancestors were honored and invited home whilst harmful spirits were warded off. This desire to keep away evil spirits is what led to the tradition of wearing scary costumes and masks, so as to pose as scary spirits and ward them off.
The day is often associated with orange and black, and is strongly associated with symbols like the jack-o’-lantern. The tale of the origin of Jack-o’-lantern is an interesting one. It is said t
hat a greedy farmer by the name of Stingy Jack, tricked the Devil into climbing up a tree and imprisoned him there by drawing a holy cross on the tree’s bark. When Stingy Jack died, God refused to let him in Heaven due to his bad deeds, and the Devil did not permit him in Hell because of the trick Jack had played on him. So Stingy Jack was condemned into the dark night with a coal to light his path, which he placed in a hollow turnip. This is how the carving in pumpkins came to be associated with Halloween. 
Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, ghost tours, bonfires, visiting haunted attractions, pranks, reading scary stories, and watching horror films.
Trick-or-treating is a traditional custom for children on Halloween. Children proceed in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as confectionery, or sometimes money, with the question, “Trick or treat?” The “trick” is an idle threat to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given.
Halloween costumes generally consist of monsters and evil spirits like ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils, or characters from television shows, movies, and other pop culture icons.
The traditional delicacies that are usually served are candy apples, caramel or taffy apples because the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest.
Though popularly acknowledged as a scary festival, Halloween is primarily meant to pay tribute to our beloved ones who have departed from this world and pray peace for their souls. Also it is meant to celebrate the harvest season. Keeping these traditional reasons in mind, let us celebrate Halloween as an occasion of happiness, along with the fun and excitement of the mysterious scariness and horror.
Agile Technosys wishes all of you a happy Halloween! Trick or treat?
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Agile Technosys is a web development, software development, web design and web based application development company. Agile Technosys primarily focuses on the use of Open source technologies with LAMP (Linux, Apache, Mysql & PHP) and offers PHP development to clients world wide. To know more Visit:
http://www.agiletechnosys.com/
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