Canada

Founding of New France

France was a colonial power in North America from the early 16th century, the age of great European discoveries and fishing expeditions, to the early 19th century, when Napoléon Bonaparte sold Louisiana to the US. From the founding of Québec in 1608 to the ceding of Canada to Britain in 1763, France placed its stamp upon the history of the continent, much of whose lands - including ACADIA, the vast territory of Louisiana and the Mississippi Valley - lay under its control. The populations it established, especially in the St Lawrence Valley, are still full of vitality today.

BBQ Chicken on Canada Day

OTTAWA – It's a Canada Day tradition- and we’re back for the eighth year in a row! On July 1^st, everyone is invited to stop in at "The Great Canadian Chicken BBQ" on Major’s Hill Park to enjoy our delicious grilled chicken sandwich or chicken salad.New this year, we will host BBQ cooking demonstrations at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. featuring Executive Chef Jean-Luc Barone of the Westin Hotel Ottawa.Every year the BBQ, sponsored by Chicken Farmers of Canada (CFC), features a delicious new recipe for grilled chicken.

Artic Char

There are two types of Arctic char. The anadromous variety, found in northern Quebec, lives and spawns in the ocean, though it prefers to winter in fresh water. It has steel-blue markings and silvery sides with large pink, red or cream spots. The fresh water Arctic char is found particularly in southern Quebec. It has adopted the colors of the forest: a deep green or blue-green back and a bright orange-red abdomen and sides. This noble fish lives in the cold water of deep lakes. In the summer it moves down to depths that may reach 80 to 100 meters, seeking out the lowest temperatures. This explains why it is very rare in summer and more often found on the market in spring and fall.

Canada

History	Founding of New France
Tradition	BBQ Chicken on Canada Day
Food	Artic Char

wales

mount snowdon

There are six main routes to the summit of Snowdon. They are fairly easy to follow, and mostly easy underfoot. Many thousands of people reach the summit each year, so you will not be walking alone.
One of the benefits of walking on this mountain is that you do not need to go down the same way you went up. The convenient Sherpa buses travel around in the summer months between the walks, and you can catch a ride back to where you parked your car.The cost of the Sherpa bus is very reasonable, allowing you to travel around and enjoy the scenery as an alternative to driving.

Saint David's day

If you were lucky enough to be in Wales on March the first, you would find the country in a festive mood. Every self-respecting man, woman and child would be celebrating St. David's Day in one way or another. But who was St. David, and why is he so important to the Welsh? And just how is St. David's Day celebrated in Wales today?Well, Saint David, or Dewi Sant, as he is known in the Welsh language, is the patron saint of Wales. He was a Celtic monk, abbot and bishop, who lived in the sixth century.

faggot


Coined in the victorian era, this term comes from the practice in British Public Schools of making the students do menial tasks such as gathering the sticks to make Faggots, which were used instead of logs. These menial tasks became known as "Faggot-work", and it was the lowest of the low socially that typically were made to do these tasks. These boys were often physically weak as well, and were left open to sexual advances from other boys or teachers with little or recourse to refuse.

wales

Famous sights	Mount Snowdon
Traditions	St David’s Day
Food	faggot

New Zealand

New Zealand Wars

The New Zealand Wars were generally fought in New Zealand between 1843 and 1872, though opinion on this time frame does vary.Some historians have suggested that the wars did not finish until after the Parihaka invasion of 1881, by the Armed Constabulary, when the New Zealand frontier might be said to have been ‘closed’. This was the time when, as historian Alan Ward puts it, ‘the rifle was replaced by the rubber truncheon.’Other historians have suggested the wars finished after the ‘Dog Tax War’ of 1898. Most historians however who think the wars extended beyond 1872 point to closure after the Police invasion of Maungapohatu, in 1916. It was here, some have suggested, that the ‘last shots fired of the New Zealand Wars’ were fired.

poi dance

Dance is an intrinsic part of Maori culture, and here Maori women perform the traditional poi dance. The atomic weave is a fusion of a 3 beat weave and split time opposites. It is also a portal to the wonderful world of 3 dimensional spinning for poi. The other end of the cord was often decorated with a mukamuka — a tassel made from muka formed around a smaller knot. Poi piu were smaller tassels occasionally affixed to the base of the poi ball. There were a wide variety of regional, tribal and personal variations on construction and design.

Maori Hangi

Hangi is Maori for "feast." Tonight our dinner was cooked in a traditional Maori fashion, which means the food is burried deep within the earth's crust. The heat from the geothermal ground of Rotorura cooks the food to absolute perfection.Hangi actually refers to the method of cooking in the ground with hot stones, or to the underground oven so created, and to the food so cooked.When you're asked to a hangi, you're actually being invited to a feast of Maori food cooked in the manner described.

New Zealand

History	New Zealand Wars
Traditions	Poi Dance
Food	Maori Hangi

England

Civil war

By January, 1647, King Charles was a prisoner of Parliament. In the midst of factional disagreements within the Parliamentary forces, the king was brought to London in August of 1647. After another altercation between the two warring sides, in which King Charles was captured by first one side and then the other, the remaining members of Parliament declared it treason for a king to make war on Parliament. In January, 1649, the trial began with King Charles steadfastly refusing to bow to Parliament's demands. On January 30, 1649, King Charles I was beheaded, the death warrant signed by 59 men, two of whom, Edward Whalley and William Goffe, leaving their wives and families behind.

tea

It is no wonder that tea is the beverage most commonly enjoyed by centenarians around the world. Tea is full of powerful antioxidants that improve concentration, gently boost energy, and make people happier. The free radical-inhibiting property of tea is more potent than that of vitamin E, and tea is a proven preventive and treatment for atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). The polyphenols in tea, especially the catechins, are powerful antioxidants that help ward off diabetes and cancer.

apple pie

“The typical American pie made from uncooked apples, fat, sugar, and sweet spices mixed together and baked inside a closed pie shell descends from fifteenth-century English apple pies, which, while not quite the same, are similar enough that the relationship is unmistakable. By the end of the sixteenth century in England, apple pies were being made that are virtually identical to those made in America in the early twenty-first century. Apple pies came to America quite early. There are recipes for apple pie in both manuscript receipts and eighteenth-century English cookery books imported into the colonies.”
—Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004.

England

History
civil war

Tradition
Tea

Food
apple pie