The mighty Morris
Hello again Kiran and all our readers, I hope you’re having a nice relaxing weekend, with considerably better weather than we are having! Although actually yesterday wasn’t too bad – we had a completely blue sky for a couple of hours without a cloud to be seen. That’s nothing according to my brother who lives in Madrid. He claims he hasn’t seen a cloud for over a month! Simon was absolutely right when he said that British weather is interesting because it’s so varied, and you know I don’t really mind it either.
We were lucky that it turned out all right yesterday as we went to a village fete. Village fetes are my new summer obsession… every village in England worth its salt has a fete each year which is basically a small festival and a chance for everyone to get out into the sunshine (hopefully), have a go at a traditional game like skittles* or a coconut shy** and sometimes raise a bit of money for something the village needs, like a new church roof or playground.
The one we went to yesterday was in Nunney, a small village near where we live. Now Nunney is your quintessential village apart from one rather extraordinary feature which I’ll tell you about in just a minute. Nunney has a lovely church with a well-kept graveyard, a village shop and post office, a duck pond, a small market square, thatched*** houses, a fabulous village fete every year and… a castle!! A castle?! Yes, unlikely as it may seem, the little village of Nunney has it’s very own fairytale castle complete with a moat. Here are a couple of photos for you:
As you’ll see in the middle photo we also got to watch a group of Morris Dancers doing their traditional dances. This style of dancing apparently dates back to the 15th century and, in a nutshell, involves a group of (mostly) men dressed in white, with bells attached to their legs, dancing around each other waving sticks or handkerchiefs in the air. Intrigued? Have a look here if you’ve never seen it before.
I’ve love to hear about the traditional dances in Nepal, Kiran, and from any of our readers’ countries. Does anyone have anything similar to Morris Dancing?
* Skittles is a bit like ten pin bowling – you roll a ball down a long narrow board to try and knock over some or all of the nine wooden ‘pins’ that are standing at the other end.
** A game where you have to throw a ball at a row of coconuts to try and knock one of them over – if you succeed you win the coconut!
***If you’d like to know a bit more about thatched roofs, have a look here at a post Jo Kent did about them last year.
Now I hope everyone is feeling fit and healthy on their new 5 a day diets (see my Aug 1 post if that doesn’t make any sense). Today I’d like to briefly look at something that you said in your first post, Kiran. Here you wrote:
“I was born … in a small village … I was grown up there with my parents and two elder brothers”
First of all I’d like to ask you if your village has any kind of annual festival, and secondly I’d like to have a look at the grammar you’ve used here. “I was born” and “I was grown up there” are both in what we call the passive form. As you probably know, we use this when the subject of the sentence is not the person or thing which does the action. So for example:
Paul drove the car. (Paul is the subject – the verb is active not passive)
The car was driven by Paul. (The car is the subject so the verb is in the passive form because obviously a car can’t drive itself).
So your first use of the passive ‘I was born’ is correct, because of course you can’t give birth to yourself! But what about the second… ‘I was grown up’. Who did the growing up? You? Yep! So you can’t use the passive form here, it needs to be active: ‘I grew up’.
For homework, can you write three sentences that start with ‘I’ that correctly use the passive form? They can be about anything that you like. For example… ‘I was born in England’, ‘I was given a lot of presents for my birthday’. Try and use different verbs!
Okay, that’s it from me. Time to wake Oslo up from his nap.
xx Amy
p.s. it’s stopped raining now, hurrah!
Definitions from last time…
To get used to something/someone – to become comfortable or happy with something or someone
To get to grips with something - to learn how to do something or understand something that is quite difficult
To get up to mischief - to do things that are a bit naughty
To get hung up on something - to worry or think about something too much
To get something across - to make something clear so it can be understood
To get the idea - to mostly understand something, although perhaps not all the details.
This blog’s words and phrases…
To turn out all right
To be worth its salt
Quintessential
Extraordinary
Well-kept
A moat
In a nutshell
Intrigued
Comments
Hi Amy, I left a comment on your previous entry. I do not see it anywhere and I did not hear a word from you re: my comment though you posted your second post. Mongolian dancing is very special, it varies from province to province. I wonder if I have to write about it when it doesn't appear anywhere.
Hello Amy - last Summer, when I was in Durham, I saw some groups of Morris Dancers and I found dances and music similar to Occitanian ones. They come from the Occitanian Valleys, a big area in West Piedmont, near France. Occitanian dancers don't wear special dresses, because in the past the dancers (men and woman) were poor peasants. Usually woman wear long skirts and men should wear clogs. They are very popular, there are courses to learn them and it's common to see Occitanian Dances in squares. I love dance them!Ciao
Hi Amy, It’s a great pleasure to know about the wonderful fete of Nunney. I love its archeology, Especially the magnificent looking Nunney castle! There are some 19th century castles in west bengal(where I live), but these aren’t big like Red fort(I think you’ve already seen it) in Delhi. But when it comes to the castle I think no one can beat Mysore. I can’t recommend a better city to visit in India for those who love historical sites. But, Amy…… I couldn’t find the difference between a castle and a fort in dictionary. Could you kindly explain me the difference, please? Yes, It’s really nice to know about these morris dancers. As you might know that there are many tribal dances in rural India. But unlike England very few tourists go there. However, sometimes those villages are situated in remote parts of India so, it’s very hard to get there. But, there are some fete which draws large number of crowd each year. Anyway, back to our homework:- To turn out all right:- To happen in a particular way, especially an unexpected one To be worth its salt:- deserving respect, especially because it does its job well Quintessential:- being the most typical example or most important part of something Extraordinary:- very unusual, special, unexpected or strange Well-kept:- clean, tidy and cared for A moat:- a long wide channel which is dug all the way around a place such as a castle, and usually filled with water, to make it more difficult to attack. In a nutshell:- using as few words as possible Intrigued:- to interest someone a lot, especially by being strange Well, I thought three sentences will be too ‘little’! 1:- I was woken up by a loud noise last night. 2:- I got stung by a hornet last week. 3:- I am invited to Sam’s party. 4:- I got stuck in traffic for several hours. 5:- I was on that bus but miraculously I wasn’t badly injured. 6:- I was warned off buying the house. Anyway, thank you very much for a wonderful blog and thank you again for sharing these beautiful pictures with us. I’m eagerly waiting for your next one! With kind regards, Pritam.
Hi dear Amy and readers , At first I want to claim that recently we are experiencing a very boiling weather in Iran and I noticed that how long I haven't seen a cloud In the sky , too and how much it worth . I pray God for sky opening . Also we have a energy crisis and for the first time in my life , every day we suffer from black out for three to four hours ! I don't want to exaggerate , but it really influenced people every day life and industry , agriculture , healthcare and … as well .And I have heard in some countries it 's not the same and they enjoy from unusual midsummer rains ! Anyway I really enjoyed reading your Blog and watching the photos . In Iran as there are many different tribe and nations there are many different dances and I promise to find some link to show some shots of them as soon as possible . I 'm waiting to see more photo of you and your lovely family with near view .Please kiss the kids for me . By the way how it 's to have two little kids in your family ? And finally here are my homework : To turn out all right : you mean having a sunny day in your excursion ,To be worth its salt : from context , Every village has its own special things to be visited ,Quintessential: Main , most important , Extraordinary: very strange and remarkable , Well-kept: if sth is well kept , it has been kept in a good condition over the years , A moat :As it 's clear from the photo deep wide ditch filled with water round a castle , In a nutshell : when we say sth in a nutshell , we say it precisely . intrigued : sth which is very interesting and a bit unusual in a positive way . Best wishes and bye Pary
Hi Amy, I hope you might have watched any one of the village festival when you were in India. Temples, Shrines and Churches in each places in India has worth its salt to celebrate festivals. Some of them have longer period of celebrations. Others have shorter period of celebration. But all the festivals should be fun and happy. Not like the tragic incident occurred in the shrine yesterday. You might have watched the news on the TV yesterday what had happened in the Himachal Predesh Shrine. More than 145 people died including 35 children when they had done assembled special pooja. The stampede happened in the shrine that the rumors of the landslide triggered by some people. It ended in a tragedy. The celebrations should not end like this.
Hi Amy, Happy to see you back in the blog. I am sure we will learn more from you this time as well. Cheers!
Hi Amy ; I'm from Morocco in the south of morocco . An area that is called souss . In this part of morocco , there are a lot of villages and tribes .In the summer , eEach tribe organize the brides and festivals . In this video , you see a dance called ahouach . In morocco the pricipal language is the arabic but in the south the poeple speaks a language called "Soussi" . There is completely different than arabic . http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/ahouach/video/x2ex9x_aaouad-mtougua-2_music I propose to say a lot in the further posts . Kind Regards Redouane
Hi Amy, The Morris dance looks like the Kollatam dance (in Tamil we say like this) but one difference is the young girls dance kollatam in this part of the world. Bells attached not only in legs but also with the sticks in their hands. They use the Handkerchiefs, it is nice to watch the girls to dance. Some times boys also dance kollatam. But I have never seen adult dancing these kind of dance.
The photos are really good. Dieting is really works for me as I already started with 10 a day diet ;-)!. I vouch for it. However I am not using a notebook instead using word pad application to store in my computer. Since most of the time I spent in front of my computer, as being a software programmer it is more comfy to store it in the system and get it review often while at work. Also I use a cue card. But the difficulties lies in remembering these words, as I am not using it that often and makes me to review the vocabulary list more frequently. It is not the problem that I do not use it, may be I am not getting into the right conversation to use the words or forgetting the words while in a conversation. To overcome this I thought the writing could help as it allows enough time to recollect the words or correct it if necessary and started writing at least a paragraph a day. When I see the Morris dance snap it suddenly struck to mind the similarity on our village dance called 'thappattam', it is one of the traditional dance in the village side of south India, Tamil Nadu and surprised seeing these similarities as the culture is sheer different between our countries. This dance is usually performed by group of men and it needs lots of energy and stamina, as the steps are hard and tiresome. Here is the link to see such a stupendous dance, not to be missed!, it has also clubbed other genre of traditional dance of India. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC-pKqBdlKA You can see the bells attached to the dancer’s legs and use the props in their hand. Isn’t it similar? The interesting thing it is not just the props as it can be used as musical instrument. And you can see they not only perform dance in sync but also the sound they make with these props is heavy that goes with dance. The other day I watched this dance performed by girls in the local TV channel that I really astonished seeing energy level of girls doing this dance, which usually have heavy dance steps. Unfortunately I could not find that in the website to post it here. Looking forward to your further posting as I always. Cheers!
Hi Amy, First of all most wellcome to Teacher bloning, I really applogy that I could not put my comment at your first blog,becouse here in Afghanstan we had a power cut, becouse of windy weather, so I didnot access to net, any way I really enjoy reading your blogs and espacially seeing your photoes, I wish we could learn more from you, Best wish Naweed Rahyab
Dear Amy, As you had spent some valuable time in your life in India, in my opinion you are somewhat familiar with traditional fete as well as religious festivals in India and Nepal. This time student blogger is also from Nepal, so I request Kiran to write about religious fete otherwise she might complain that I have taken this opportunity write something about traditional things. In spite of all traditional festivals celebrated in various parts of country, people started to celebrate street festivals which don’t have any traditional as well as religious background. So, no tale related to such festivals otherwise each traditional and religious fete and festivals have tale behind them. Word meaning: To turn out all right – to happen to be right, To be worth its salt – have its importance or have significant value, Quintessential - Typical Extraordinary - special Well-kept – well maintained A moat – ditch surround a castle In a nutshell – in a few word-cream (butter) of discussion, Intrigued - become excited to learn more,
Hello Amy, what an interesting blog and what nice pictures. I always enjoy reading about different traditions. So we all discover new countries without travelling there. But the best of all is you do your job as teacher! I sometimes missed this in the former blogs. I'm looking forward to reading of you. Felicitas
It seems you had a good weekend. Here was too cold. Nice for be at home. I learnt about thatched houses in a previous month in this blog, one of the new words for me was moat.
Hi Amy, Thank you for sharing these pictures with us. I'll try to make the sentences you asked us. 1) I was given some flowers on my last birthday.2) I was received by a lot of friends last night 3) I was given a phone call by Mary. 4) I was taken by surprise. 5) I was taught to do the right things. See you, Cris
Hi Amy ; About dancing please see this video : http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY
Hi Amy, Apart from the annual festival in the church, we have games like Skittles and a coconut shy in the church during the month of Oct or Nov in my place. During Oct we celebrate mission sunday. In Nov we have bible competition. the whole month we have function centre around with bible. The amount collect from these kinds of games will be spent for the poor people before Christmas.
Hi Amy, I like the way of your English teaching, fabulously.James
Hi Amy! I really like the way you explained the terms in your posted pictures by pointing it through arrows. Good work:). I've checked the link of Morris dancing and after watching it, it reminds me that very similar kind of traditional dance is also part of our culture too. Im sending you the link for it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtVy9XCcxN0&feature=related.Its called Khatakh dance and usually they are performed by men and they all ensambled in white clothes mostly but not necessary. They usually perform dance by keeping sword or a piece of cloth in their hands or sometimes they just clap and do it. Now here are 3 sentences with 'I' that use passive: 1) I was pretty sure about his arrival 2) I was quite confident that our team would win. 3) I was excited to know she got cured from the disease she had before. I will do the vocablulary part later. Thats all for now:) Mahjabeen
Hi Amy! What a fantastic pictures! There are something similar to Morris Dancing in my city. It´s called Congada. This group generally dances in religion Catholic festivals in order to honour God. It´s really amazing to see the dancers in action. You can even see 3 year old children given their first Congada steps. Oh just lovely :-). Best wishes, Ana Paula.
Hi Amy! what a nice blog. i really enjoyed to read your posting. Regards Maya
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