Harvest festival (and adjectives!)
Post categories: Teacher blog
| 14:13 UK time, Friday, 24 August 2012
Hi Zibaxa,
What an interesting tradition! It's not one I've heard of before - so maybe it is unique to the church in Armenia? Why are the grapes blessed? Is it a thanksgiving for the grapes? Or is it a symbolic way of purifying them?
The next big festival in the Christian church in the England is "harvest festival". It is a special Christian church service that is held every year to thank God for the crops and harvest. Actually I think this is a common festival in many countries and religions. In England this is usually celebrated in September: when the harvest (corn, wheat, barley etc.) has been gathered in. There is no specific date for this festival. Different churches celebrate on different dates. The church is decorated with flowers, fruit and loaves of bread. On Harvest Sunday people bring food and gifts of money. These days the food is usually tinned, but fresh fruit (like apples and pears) is also common. The food is then put in to old, empty shoe boxes and the boxes are taken to the elderly and needy families as gifts. Hymns are sung and prayers said, thanking God for the harvest and food for the winter.
Many churches will then have a "harvest lunch" (or a harvest supper the night before). These are often called "faith" lunches. Why? Because every member of the congregation is asked to bring some food to share with others - and you have to have to "faith" that there will be enough to go round!
A "faith" lunch
Now let's look at your blog! This time, I've made a few corrections:
- Armenia is a country of traditions! The tradition I want introduce [calls] is called "Grape Blessing Day". You need to use the passive here: am/are/is + past participle
- Every year in August the (those articles again!) Armenian Apostolic Church with great exultation and sublimity [is celebrating] celebrates the feast Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Here you need to use the present simple as this is recurring event: it happens every year.
- After the (articles again!) church ceremony we start to celebrate the (articles again!) fruit festival.
And finally:
- It is very [tastefully] tasty. Here you need to use an adjective rather than an adverb. The adjective tasteful means something or someone with good taste or style: it has nothing to do with food!
OK, so here's some homework. Many of the most common adjectives have no special endings. For example: rough, smooth, easy, difficult - you just need to learn the correct word. However, many other common adjectives do have common endings. Here are a few:
-al: e.g. special
-ant: e.g. pleasant
-ent: e.g. violent
-ous: e.g. dangerous
-ic: e.g. symbolic
-y: e.g. noisy
-ive: e.g. expensive
-able: e.g. fashionable
-ible: e.g. horrible
-less: e.g. useless
-ed: e.g. tired
-ing: e.g. exciting
But for your homework, let's look at some adjectives that end in -ful. Look at the 6 sentences below and see if you can work out which adjective ending in -ful should go in the space!
1. I can never remember where I have left my car keys. I'm so _______________ful.
2. She has long hair, and big brown eyes. She is so _________ful.
3. It's really quiet in the woods. The only sound you can hear is the sound of the wind in the trees. It is really ____________ful.
4. He fell over in the street. Now his leg is really __________ful.
5. She always brings me flowers when she comes to visit. She's so _______ful.
6. Thank you so much for helping me clean my car. I'm so __________ful.
Take care
Carrie
purify: to make something pure by removing harmful or dirty substances from it
gather in: to collect
tinned: food that has been preserved by being sealed in a tin
needy: someone who is poor
congregation: people who attend a church service
go round: in this case, enough food for everyone to eat
Comment number 1.
At 11:37 26th Aug 2012, Elmansour wrote:Dear Carrie
Thank you very much for your clear explanations about the harvest festival celebrated in the church. There is no such traditions in the Mosques; But there are other traditions in Morocco after the harvest, not in the mosques. After the harvest, many festivals, called moussems, are organised in mausoleums. They are considered a recreation after the hard work in gathering the cropes. The main aspect of these festivals is religious, but there are also economic and social interests and outdoor and leisure activities.
Now, this is my homework about adjectives that end in -ful.
1. I can never remember where I have left my car keys. I'm so forgetful.
2. She has long hair, and big brown eyes. She is so beautiful.
3. It's really quiet in the woods. The only sound you can hear is the sound of the wind in the trees. It is really peaceful.
4. He fell over in the street. Now his leg is really painful.
5. She always brings me flowers when she comes to visit. She's so careful.
6. Thank you so much for helping me clean my car. I'm so helpful.
Yours faithfully,
Elmansour
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Comment number 2.
At 10:03 28th Aug 2012, Omar wrote:Thank you Carrie for giving us some homework!
here is mine. just the sentence that differs from Elmansour's one.
6. Thank you so much for helping me clean my car. I'm so grateful.
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Comment number 3.
At 07:37 29th Aug 2012, imran wrote:Hi everyone,
I like homework and i am thankful to bbc
1.I can never remember where I have left my car keys. I'm so ___forget__ful.
2. She has long hair, and big brown eyes. She is so __beautiful_______ful.
3. It's really quiet in the woods. The only sound you can hear is the sound of the wind in the trees. It is really ____peace________ful.
4. He fell over in the street. Now his leg is really ___pain_______ful.
5. She always brings me flowers when she comes to visit. She's so ____delight__ful.
6. Thank you so much for helping me clean my car. I'm so ___thank_______ful.
regards
imran
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Comment number 4.
At 19:36 29th Aug 2012, Elmansour wrote:Hello Omar,
Thank you very much for pointing out my mistake. I did not read carefully the sentence and I thought it was " you are so" instead of "I am so".
Thanks again for correcting me.
Best wishes,
Elmansour
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Comment number 5.
At 14:45 30th Aug 2012, learn2learnagain wrote:Hello to all,
after I haven´t been here for long, I need a bit of language training again. For that - here´s my homework:
1. I can never remember where I have left my car keys. I'm so forgetful.
2. She has long hair, and big brown eyes. She is so beautiful.
3. It's really quiet in the woods. The only sound you can hear is the sound of the wind in the trees. It is really peaceful.
4. He fell over in the street. Now his leg is really harmful.
5. She always brings me flowers when she comes to visit. She's so kindful.
6. Thank you so much for helping me clean my car. I'm so thankful.
My current project is to brush up my English to get my A-levels finally. Thanks to all teacher and student-bloggers and comentators! Let´s make progress together.
learn2learnagain, Germany
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Comment number 6.
At 12:03 31st Aug 2012, Darya wrote:Hello to all,
I was signed in today and not to understand very well how are happening process of communication ))) Could you explain me some rules. Thank you in advance. I would like to join you.
Practise like such will be good for me, because I must improve my English in different ways.
I am afraid my english is not very well, but I will try to make it better and better...
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Comment number 7.
At 15:00 4th Sep 2012, Andry wrote:Hi Carrie!
It was so interesting to learn what a wonderful feast English people celebrate every year! And particularly thing that’s impressed me a lot, it’s your tradition of sharing harvest between pour people.
In Russia we have something about that. There are two days in August: 15 August we celebrate “Honey harvest” and 19 August:”Apple harvest”. In these days people bring honey and apples in a church for Holly Blessing.
Now about your task:
1. Forgetful
2. Beautiful
3. Peaceful
4. Painful
5. Wonderful
6. Grateful
With my regards,
Anrey.
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Comment number 8.
At 20:09 11th Sep 2012, samsa wrote:how many snacks on the table
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Comment number 9.
At 16:27 13th Sep 2012, BBC Learning English wrote:Homework answers!
1. I can never remember where I have left my car keys. I'm so forgetful.
2. She has long hair, and big brown eyes. She is so beautiful.
3. It's really quiet in the woods. The only sound you can hear is the sound of the wind in the trees. It is really peaceful.
4. He fell over in the street. Now his leg is really painful.
5. She always brings me flowers when she comes to visit. She's so thoughtful (wonderful would also be correct). I understand why you thought "careful" might be correct: but the adjective you want is caring. If you use the adjective careful about a person you mean they do something with a lot of attention to make sure they do it well or correctly.
6. Thank you so much for helping me clean my car. I'm so grateful. (Thankful is technically correct, but very old-fashioned)
Have you tried the crossword yet?
https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/quizzes/crossword/120831_crossword_adjectives.shtml
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Comment number 10.
At 11:46 14th Sep 2012, Elmansour wrote:Hello carrie,
How are you? I hope you are fine. We miss you indeed.
Kind regards,
Elmansour
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Comment number 11.
At 14:26 14th Sep 2012, BBC Learning English wrote:Hi Elmansour!
I'm fine thank you. I've been away on holiday for a few days, but I'm back now and writing a blog for Omar....and setting some new homework! His blogs are great, aren't they?
Carrie
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Comment number 12.
At 22:00 6th Oct 2012, TenJack wrote:Wonderful blog entry! I made a list of the vocabulary words on Flashcard Stash, so people can review: https://flashcardstash.com/lists/137519-harvest-festival-vocab.
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