FRIDAY, 13th: UNLUCKY DAY'S SUPERSTITIONS

For Americans and British, today being Friday the 13th is an unlucky day, just as for us is a Tuesday the 13th. Below information taken from the Wikipedia about this tradition of unlucky days:

 

Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in Western superstition. It occurs when the 13th day of the month in the Gregorian calendar falls on a Friday, which happens at least once every year but can occur up to three times in the same year. For example, 2015 had a Friday the 13th in February, March, and November, which will happen again in 2026. Leap years that begin on Sunday such as 2012 and 2040, also have three Friday the 13ths in January, April, and July. 2017 through 2020 had two Friday the 13ths, as did 2023; 2016, 2021, and 2022 had just one Friday the 13th, as will 2025, 2027, and 2028; 2024 will have two Friday the 13ths.

For a month to have a Friday the 13th, the 1st must be a Sunday.

In Hispanic countries, instead of Friday, Tuesday the 13th (martes trece) is considered a day of bad luck.

The Greeks also consider Tuesday (and especially the 13th) an unlucky day. Tuesday is considered dominated by the influence of Ares, the god of war (or Mars, the Roman equivalent). The fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade occurred on Tuesday 13 April 1204, and the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans happened on Tuesday 29 May 1453, events that strengthen the superstition about Tuesday.

There is a Tuesday the 13th in months that begin on a Thursday.

 On the link below you can find more explanations:

[Taken from USA TODAY]

Friday the 13th: We explain why once or twice a year we have an unlucky da

y.

Including some superstitions:

STAR WARS DAY: MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

Commenting on a curiosity today. Do you know what day it is?

It's May, 4th: "Star Wars Day"

And do you know why it's so? Well, it has a curious explanation: it's a pun or a play on words, with one of the famous mythical punch-line quotes from the films, which has become a worldwide catchphrase:

"MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!"

which phonetically sounds similar to another sentence:

"MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!"

This second sentence was used on the exact day in 1979 as a headline in a British newspaper to congratulate Margaret Thatcher for having won the election and having become the first woman Prime Minister in the country.

Since 2008, it has become the day to pay tribute to George Lucas' film saga by its millions of fans and it's widely celebrated throughout the social networks and media.

Galician version of this post @ ArquivosDoTrasno.

"BRAIN ROT", OXFORD'S WORD OF THE YEAR 2024

Oxford University Press (OUP) has named ‘brain rot’ as the Oxford Word of the Year 2024, following a public vote that saw more than 37,000 people worldwide have their say. ‘Brain rot’ was one of the six contenders shortlisted by OUP’s language experts.

‘Brain rot’ is defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration”.

+ info: OXFORD WORD OF THE YEAR 2024.

HOW CAN CITIES REDUCE CARBON FOOTPRINT? & STOCKHOLM TACKLING TRAFFIC & ENVIRONMENT

Some tips above of how can cities reduce their carbon footprint and below a video of how the capital city of Sweden, Stockholm, is tackling with traffic & environment.

29th FEBRUARY: THE LEAP DAY OF A LEAP YEAR

2016 is a leap year, because February has an extra day, which is today: the 29th of February, leap day. Leap day is an extra day inserted into the calendar to keep it synchronised with the astronomical and seasonal year and it occurs every 4 years.

+ info: @ Wikipedia: LEAP DAY & LEAP YEAR.

Video: WHY ARE THERE LEAP YEARS?

THE MEANING OF THE RAINBOW FLAG

CURIOUS ABBREVIATIONS

CELEBRATING 20th ANNIVERSARY OF "LOVE ACTUALLY" (+ SOME FACTS YOU DIDN'T KNOW)

 

 One of America's TV channels celebrates tonight the 20th anniversary of the iconic Christmas film "LOVE ACTUALLY" reuniting some of the actors that featured in the film and also the director to comment on some curiosities and secrets of the shooting of the film. Here a trailer:

Video trailer "The laughter & secrets of 'LOVE ACTUALLY' 20 years later":

 

ClickOnEnglish 13th ANNIVERSARY

 This year, for the first time, we celebrate the blog's anniversary having started the classes already. We celebrate its 13th birthday, having begun on a 13th of September 13 years back. 13 is known to be an "unlucky" number, but it definitely hasn't been for this blog. 13 courses to help learn & practice English and collecting information and compiling our activities. So here we are again... to continue.

By the way here's some info about where the unlucky tradition of number 13 comes from:

WHAT'S SO UNLUCKY ABOUT THE NUMBER 13?

 nl13?

2-22-2022: TWOSDAY

 

[11thCW] HOW BIG & DEEP IS THE OCEAN? (+ Ocean idioms)

Working on the topic of the SEA. Today we start posting a series of entries with information on the topic. 
To start with here are some videos that show us how big and how deep an ocean is.

Video "HOW BIG IS AN OCEAN?"

Video "HOW DEEP IS THE OCEAN?"

- OCEANS OF THE WORLD BY SIZE

BOOK DAY 2020 IN LOCKDOWN

TODAY'S PALINDROME DATE + SOME PALINDROME WORDS

Today's date is quite peculiar. It's a palindrome date, that is, the group of numbers of today's date can be read the same from left to right and viceversa.

It's an uncommon phenomenon which depends on the calendar's numerical combinations. It happens three times in a decade. It will happen again next year and the following and then won't occur again until ten-year-and-a-day's time (03/02/2030).

Apart from all this, it's the 33rd day of this year and there's 333 days left to the end of it. The most supersticious people associate these kinds of dates with good luck and often choose them for special celebrations.

E.T. REVISTS ELLIOT 37 YEARS LATER FOR CHRISTMAS

An American TV advertisement has brought together E.T. and Elliot 37 years after the iconic film was a great success at the cinemas. The voyager from outer space revists Elliot's home and meets his family for Christmas.

Video:

24th-OCT: LIBRARIES DAY

October 24th is Library Day in Spain. This year our school library has celebrated it with several exhibitions, which you can see on a post on our library blog clicking HERE.

- An exhibition of photos of the best world's libraries, and as you can see not of them are in  luxurious buildings. Some libraries are in the strangest places: a beach, a donkey's back... or, as in the UK, in old telephone boxes, which have been recycled into mini-libraries where bookcrossing is practiced. In this video you can see an example:

Video:

BLOOMSDAY

Bloomsday celebrates the date in which James Joyce's "Ulises" novel takes place: June 16th. It comes from the name of its main character Leopold Bloom, who on that day of 1904 travelled around Dublin in the novel. The book tells about what happens that only day. It's said that Joyce chose this day because it was the anniversary of the first time he dated with who would be his wife, Nora Barnacle. Joyce's fans get dressed up in costumes of the time during the Bloomsday Festivals (held every year between 11th & 16th June).