Valentine's Day - February 14th or June 12th ?

A romantic date celebrated the world over. A boom time for business in any capital city. Sales of cards, chocolates, flowers, teddy bears and restaurant bookings increase significantly at this time of year. 

However, this date represents a number of different stories and meanings. Valentine’s Day, known in Brazil as the Dia dos namorados (Sweetheart’s Day), was originally celebrated on the day of St. Valentine. 

The history behind the date is a source of some debate, but it is believed that Valentine was a Bishop who carried out secret weddings in the Roman Empire (given that Emperor Claudius II had prohibited marriage), believing that unattached young men would be more likely to enlist for military service. Valentine was exposed, arrested and condemned to death, but whilst imprisoned and awaiting sentencing he began to receive cards from many young people, saying that they still believed in love. 

Valentine was executed on 14 February 270 AD. Pope Gelasius canonized him as Saint Valentine and announced 14 February as his sacred day. The romantic link can be traced in a number of ways, but perhaps the most credible dates back to the Middle Ages and Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English Literature. In one of his poems, Chaucer cites the following phrase: “For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day when every bird come there to choose his mate”. 

The poem’s, written in homage to King Richard II of England and his future wife Anne of Bohemia in 1382, was so successful that it quickly gained popularity amongst couples, who considered it full of romantic connotation.

By the mid-15th century, the date was already established and commemorated by lovers presenting each other with flowers, chocolates and cards. Nowadays, in England alone, around £500 million is spent on Valentine’s Day.

In Brazil, Valentine’s Day is on 12 June, one day before that of Saint Anthony, the famous saint of “matchmaking”. The date was likely chosen for commercial reasons, as businesses felt the need for a public holiday during the month of June, which was when the publicist João Agripino Doria, father of the former mayor of São Paulo and current São Paulo State Governor, João Doria Jr., inspired by the success of Valentine’s Day overseas, adapted the celebration for the Brazilian market. 

Even though the day’s origins are perhaps not as enchanting as in other places, Brazil loves the Dia dos Namorados; at the end of the day, who doesn’t? If you’re single, don’t feel left out; take the chance to show how much you care about the people who matter in your life. In spite of all the commercialization, we can’t forget the essence of Valentine’s Day – a celebration of love.

Match the number to the best synonym possible:

1. a boom time                                                              a)  yet

2. increase significantly                                                b)  that

3. However                                                                   c)  dare

4. a number of                                                              d)  a tribute to

5. who                                                                          e)  at the same time

6. be more likely to                                                       f)  unattractive

7. whilst                                                                        g) at this moment

8. cites                                                                          h) mentions

9. in homage to                                                             i)  high growth

10. nowadays                                                                j)  because

11. as                                                                            k)  a certain amount of

12. Even though                                                            l)  prone to

13. not as enchanting as                                               m) but

14. take the chance to                                                   n) excellent period 

Source of Text: BBMAG BOSSA BRAZIL MAGAZINE ON 12 JUNE 2020

  CALVIN and HOBBES - 

Improve Your Vocab!

I'll bet - in reply to a statement to show that you agree with it or that you expected it to be true, usually when you are annoyed or amused by it. [informal, spoken, feelings]. Synonyms: I agree(d). For example, We are out of power, I'll bet Frank's forgotten to pay the bill.

Stupid - In this case it is foolish, not important, dull, senseless. For example, I forgot to pay that stupid bill! That's why we're out of power. 

Declaration of Independence

 Independence Day - 4th of July

"...We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,..." 

The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a resolution earlier in the year which made a formal declaration inevitable. A committee was assembled to draft the formal declaration, to be ready when Congress voted on independence. Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which congress would edit to produce the final version. The Declaration was ultimately a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The Independence Day of the United States of America is celebrated on July 4, the day Congress approved the wording of the Declaration.

Read FULL TEXT here:  Declaration of Independence 

Listen to the TEXT here: Audio: Declaration of Independence

The National Anthem of America

The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. It is also among some of the world's national anthems that are based on a poem.The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" was recognized for official use by the Navy in 1889, and by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931, which was signed by PresidentHerbert Hoover

Key was inspired by the American victory and the sight of the large American flag flying triumphantly above the fort. This flag, with fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, had been made by Mary Young Pickersgill together with other workers in her home on Baltimore's Pratt Street. The flag later came to be known as the Star Spangled Banner Flag and is today on display in the National Museum of American History, a treasure of the Smithsonian Institution. It was restored in 1914 by Amelia Fowler, and again in 1998 as part of an ongoing conservation program.

The Star-Spangled Banner" is traditionally played at the beginning of public sports events and orchestral concerts in the United States, as well as other public gatherings. Performances at particularly large events are often ended with a military flypast.It is usual for the American  anthem  to be played at Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, and National Basketball Association games 

O say can you see by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:

'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,

A home and a country, should leave us no more?

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation.

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!^[