SAINT VALETINE'S DAY/VIDEOGAME REVIEW/MY CHRISTMAS-by Cecilia Galarraga

 

 

Saint Valentine's Day 

St. Valentine’s Day, celebrated on the 14^th of February and it started thanks to Saint Valentine, who died tortured that same date of the year 270 for protecting and supporting young lovers of the time.  He was a priest of the III century who celebrated secret ceremonies for young soldiers who had forbidden marriages, as the emperor of that time decided that men without wife or family were better soldiers. One day St. Valentine was discovered, and the emperor ordered his execution. When Valentine was in Rome he decided to diffuse Christianism in the city, therefore the official in charge of putting him in prison decided to make laugh of him and challenge him to make her daughter get back her sight (as she was blind since birth). He was named saint for the miracle he achieved by making her daughter see again, but that did not save him form execution and he died with Gods name on his mouth.

At first Saint Valentines was a Christian celebration commemorating love between humans, but in 1969 the churched decided to stop celebrating it as his existence was not reliable. Before this the 14^th of February as the day of the lovers, was spread globally, therefore it keeps being a great celebration for: marriages, boyfriends, girlfriend and even family or close friends!

In my opinion Saint Valentine’s is a beautiful and lovely celebration but from my perspective, my impression is that there is lots of business after it and may be it just keeps going because of the advantage shops and malls take form it.

 

 

 

Until Dawn

 

Today I am going to talk you about one of my favourite games for the Play Station. It is called Until Dawn and it was launched in August 2015. It is a drama survival horror adventure and it is relatively short as each play through lasts around 9 hours. But what I like the most is that you have to play it many times to see all the different contents. This game makes use of the “butterfly effect”; which means that small actions can have future unforeseen consequences. There are eight characters and the butterfly effect can make all of them die at once or all eight survive till the end, allowing for many paths and scenarios as well as offering different ending for each character. The game is basically about making choices to survive with the maximum number of characters until sunrise. If you make a bad decision you can only change it if you restart the game or you can keep going until the end and when you begging again, try to remember and do not make the same mistakes. It is a really exciting game which always leaves you at the edge of your seat and if you yet do not know it, I totally recommend you to have a try.

 

 

My Christmas Holidays

Christmas is an anual religious festival who commemorates Jesus Christ' birth. It's part of Christianism and it's mainly celebrated on the 25^th of December. On this date families get together to have breakfast or lunch, go to mass and exchange presents which depend on the family: “Jesusito” or “Santa Claus” leave them for them on each other’s houses.  

Although that’s the main date, Christmas also includes: Christmas Eve the 24^th (here in Spain, Noche Buena), New Year’s Eve 31^st of December/1^st of January (Noche Vieja, Año Nuevo) and Epiphany Day 6^th of January (Epifanía o Día de Reyes), plus all the previous preparations.

Here in Spain we also have adopted the American culture of Santa Claus; therefore, before Christmas, families usually decorate their houses with a Christmas tree and lights or a Belén/Nacimiento.

On Christmas Eve families get together to have an abundant and delicious dinner, sing Christmas Carols and eat "turrón". But children have to go early to bed because if not, the morning after they may not have presents.

New Year’s Eve is my favourite day. You also meet with the family and have a great dinner, again, but something changes: It is very special because you get to say goodbye and remember all of the moments, bad ones or good ones, you have lived that year, plus you also get to welcome the next one with all the people you love and watching the show of La 1 while you eat the 12 grapes thinking about 12 wishes you want to make true for the new year.

Finally we have Epiphany Day. This day represents the day when the three kings (Melchor, Gaspar y Balthasar) went to Bethlehem and gave Baby Jesus three presents: incense, gold and myrrh. We commemorate this day by giving presents to the people we love and attending to mass.

Even though Christmas is a Christian religious festival, lots of people who do not believe in Jesus or God celebrate it because it is one of the most beautiful and lovely ceremonies, which I personally enjoy a lot.