Christmas in America and Russia

Christmas in America and Russia Free Online Research Papers The article (Celebrate! Holidays In The U.S.A. Christmas Day tells us about how Americans celebrate Christmas holidays and what it means to them. Christmas in America is a very important holiday, especially for children who usually await the 25 of December with great excitement. Kids hang sock all around the house and Santa Claus comes down the chimney in the night and leaves presents and candy in them. On December 24, Christmas Eve, people have Christmas dinner which includes turkey potatoes, pie and lots of deserts. Christmas, while remaining one of the main Christian holidays in Russia, is celebrated on the 7th of January by the Russian Orthodox calendar, but not on the 25th of December. Traditionally, these the girls were telling fortunes, sang mysterious songs, children listened to Christmas fairy tales, frightening stories. Fortune-telling is is still very popular among young ladies as well as in old times both in cities and in the country. The most popular kind of fortune-telling involves the future husband appearing in the mirror. But still, nowadays the 7th of January is more of a religious holiday than a national one and isn’t usually even celebrated by non religious people. There is much more similarity between Catholic Christmas and New Year in Russia. Russians celebrate New Year twice: on the 1st of January, according to the New style calendar, and on the 14th of January, Old style. But the main fun is on the 31st of December. Usually Russians give each other presents on New Years and celebrate all night long, having champagne, the â€Å"Olivie† salad and the TV on with all the different New Year shows along with many singers and TV stars. There is also â€Å"Ded Moroz†, the Russian Santa Claus. But he, unlike Santa, does not use the chimney and does’t usually visit people’s homes in the night. He comes – along with his granddaughter Snegurochka to special parties called â€Å"Iolka† (Christmas tree) which can be held in schools, kinder gardens or just organize in some other places like theatres, so people cam just buy tickets and take their children to see Ded Moroz. All in all we can say, that Christmas is celebrated very differently in Russia and America. Both of the countries have their long going traditions, but, nevertheless, both countries have lots of magical fun and get lots of presents during the winter holidays, no matter how they are called and when exactly they are celebrated. Research Papers on Christmas in America and RussiaLifes What IfsAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This NiceHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyHip-Hop is ArtThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenPETSTEL analysis of IndiaRelationship between Media Coverage and Social and

Pelagornis - Facts and Figures

Pelagornis - Facts and Figures Name: Pelagornis (Greek for pelagic bird); pronounced PELL-ah-GORE-niss Habitat: Skies worldwide Historical Epoch: Late Miocene (10-5 million years ago) Size and Weight: Wingspan of 15-20 feet and weight of 50-75 pounds Diet: Fish Distinguishing Characteristics: Large size; long, tooth-studded beak About Pelagornis One of the enduring mysteries of natural history is why the flying prehistoric birds of the Cenozoic Era never quite matched the size of the pterosaurs, or flying reptiles, of the preceding Mesozoic. The late Cretaceous Quetzalcoatlus, for example, attained wingspans of up to 35 feet, about the size of a small planeso while the late Miocene Pelagornis, which lived about 55 million years later, was still impressive, its wingspan of only about 15 to 20 feet places it firmly in the runner-up category. Still, theres no overstating the size of Pelagornis compared to modern flying birds. This soaring predator was over twice the size of a modern albatross, and even more intimidating, considering that its long, pointed beak was studded with tooth-like appendageswhich would have made it an easy matter to dive into the ocean at high speed and spear a large, wriggling prehistoric fish, or perhaps even a baby whale. As a testament to this birds evolutionary fitness, various species of Pelagornis have been found all over the world; a new fossil unearthed in Chile is the biggest yet. So why couldnt prehistoric birds match the size of the biggest pterosaurs? For one thing, feathers are fairly heavy, and covering a larger surface area might have made sustained flight a physical impossibility. And for another, bigger birds would have had to nurture their chicks for longer periods of time before their hatchlings achieved maturity, which may have put an evolutionary brake on avian gigantism after Pelagornis and its relatives (such as the comparably sized Osteodontornis) went extinct, probably as a result of global climate change.