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Christmas Voices of Allerdale 25

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Jennib And Friends

CHRISTMAS VOICES OF ALLERDALE.


Allerdale is a scenic area of Cumbria that sits by the Solway coast to the west, bordered by the Lake District National Park to the east and sandwiched between the districts of Eden to the north and Copeland to the south. It’s diversity and beauty is reflected in its people who are as varied and diverse as the landscape.


“Christmas Voices of Allerdale”, was conceived by Brian Melville who, as head of music at St. Joseph’s school in Workington for 34 years, organised the “Christmas Concert” which ran until his retirement in 2004.

The “Christmas Concert” at St. Joseph’s over the years, like many other schools all over the world, became a special event during the year for the music department and on occasions involved as many as 140 pupils singing or playing Christmas songs arranged specially for the event. Some of these arrangements over the years became such a “hit” with school children and parents that to consign them to obscurity would have been a sad option.

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After retiring from mainstream teaching in 2004, Brian then established Solway Music, an independent music support service for junior schools in Allerdale. Having already forged a working partnership with Loose Records, it then became apparent that a CD of Christmas arrangements could become a reality. The next step was to secure the co-operation of a number of schools in Allerdale and every one approached was happy to participate in the project which was beginning to take shape. The logistics of bringing together around 50-60 voices from around the district was a problem that would have been difficult and expensive to overcome given that all the schools are situated many miles away from each other. The solution was to work with each school in their own location and bring together each one in the recording studio. In effect, we had an Allerdale choir from six schools who never met. This involved

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Christmas season celebrations in Australia 9

Posted on December 09, 2010 by Jennib And Friends

Christmas season celebrations in Australia

Violet Teague (1872-1951), Adoration of Shepherds, 1931, oil on canvas. Photograph by Colin Holden. Image courtesy of Anglican Church of Australia Archive.

Christmas is celebrated in many parts of the world on 25 December. Protestant and Roman Catholic churches hold Christmas Day services on 25 December. The Eastern churches – the Ethiopian Orthodox church, Russian Orthodox church and the Armenian church – celebrate Christmas on 6 or 7 January. There have been rituals, parties and celebrations at this time of year for thousands of years.

The birth of Jesus

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that Jesus is ‘the son of God’, the Messiah sent from Heaven to save the world.

The ‘Christmas story’ tells of the birth of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem, the angels announcing the birth to the shepherds in the fields, and the Magi (wise men from the East) visiting the stable and offering gifts to the newborn child.

The origins of Christmas

A Roman almanac confirms that 25 December was used to celebrate Christmas in 336 AD, although it was nearly 600 years later that the churches created a liturgy – a service for public worship – for the occasion.

The choice of date is believed to have been influenced by the northern hemisphere winter solstice, as well as ancient pagan rituals that coincided with the solstice. These rituals included the Halcyon Days in Greece, a period of calm and goodwill when it was believed the sea was calm for birds to lay their eggs; and the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, a celebration of the god Saturn, which involved wild parties, the exchange of gifts and the temporary suspension of social divisions between slaves and masters.

Christmas traditions and symbols

A photo of Santa arriving at the beach by boat. Image courtesy of the National Archives of Australia: A1500, K26950.

Christmas trees are part of a long

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Neil Peart 0

Posted on December 06, 2010 by Jennib And Friends

Life and career

Early life

Peart was born on his family’s farm in Hagersville, on the outskirts of Hamilton. The first child of four, his brother Danny and sisters Judy and Nancy were born after the family moved to St. Catharines when Peart was two. At this time his father became parts manager for Dalziel Equipment, a farm machinery supplier. In 1956 the family moved to the Port Dalhousie area of the town. Peart attended Gracefield School, and describes his childhood as happy and says he experienced a warm family life. By early adolescence he became interested in music and acquired a transistor radio, which he would use to tune into pop music stations broadcasting from Toronto, Hamilton and Welland, Ontario and Buffalo, USA.

His first exposure to musical training came in the form of piano lessons, which he later said in his instructional video A Work in Progress did not have much impact on him. He had a penchant for drumming on various objects around the house with a pair of chopsticks, so for his 13th birthday, his parents bought him a pair of drum sticks, a practice pad and some lessons, with the promise that if he stuck with it for a year, they would buy him a kit.

His parents bought him a drum kit for his 14th birthday and he began taking lessons from Don George at the Peninsula Conservatory of Music. His stage debut took place that year at the school’s Christmas pageant in St. Johns Anglican Church Hall in Port Dalhousie. His next appearance was at Lakeport High School with his first group, The Eternal Triangle. This performance contained an original number entitled “LSD Forever”. At this show he performed his first solo.

Peart got a job in Lakeside Park, a fairground on the shores of Lake Ontario, which later inspired a song of the same name on the Rush album Caress of Steel. He worked on the Bubble Game and Ball Toss, but his tendency to take it easy when business was slack resulted in his termination. By his late

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