But as the media at that time were not what they are today, in many places people were not aware of the change until years later, so 1st April continued as a reference. This resulted in the habit of playing tricks on those people on that day, custom which eventually spread to England and Scotland in the eighteenth century and later to the American colonies and the rest of the world. You can read about that if you click here.

You can learn how to cook pancakes if you click here.

 On Pancake Day, “pancake races” are held in towns and cities in the UK. It is said that the custom arose in 1445, when a neighbour of Olney, Buckinghamshire, England, was so busy cooking pancakes that she did not realize about the time until she heard the church bells ringing for service. Then she left home and ran to the church still with her apron, the pan and the pancake that was in it … Olney race is famous worldwide and participants must be women resident in the village for three months at least. They must wear an apron and a hat or a scarf. The race begins at 11:55 am at the market square and the winner is the first to arrive at the church (375 meters away), serve the pancake to the bell ringer and be kissed by him. Of course the pancake has to be intact after being thrown into the air 3 times during the race … The record is 63 seconds and it was held in 1967.

You can watch the race in this video.

You can click here to practise.

There are festivals involving fireworks and bonfires all around the world. Do you know any of them?

The long form of the name is the longest officially recognized place name in the United Kingdom and one of the longest in the world, being 58 letters in length (51 letters in the Welsh alphabet, where “ch” and “ll” count as single letters).

The name is Welsh for “St Mary’s church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave”.

You can see the size of the sign at the train station in the picture below.

 And wouldn´t you like to try with the pronunciation?

More than 200 dancers perfomed their version of “Do Re Mi”, in the Central Station of Antwerp, Belgium. Those 4 fantastic minutes started on 23rd March 2009, 08:00 AM. It is a promotion stunt for a Belgian television programme, where they are looking for someone to play the leading role in the musical of “The Sound of Music”.