Japanese Food

We have a special traditional food on New Year’s Day in Japan that is called “Osechi.” There are different dishes in the special boxes. Each type of food have a special meaning for celebration. For example, herring roe is called “Kazunoko” in Japanese. This means “Kazu” means number, and “Ko” means child. We wish plentiful children arrive in the New Year. We also have “Konbu” which is kind of seaweed. Konbu is a word similar to “Yorokobu” which means joy. Everybody wishes health, so we eat black soybeans, too.

Many Japanese people eat soba on New Year’s Eve because soba is very long, and we wish to have a long life.

Usually, Japanese food is made from fish, meat, tofu, vegetable, rice and noodles. In addition, there are good flavor, which are soy sauce, dashi and miso. These are very healthy and low in fat. In Japan, we have a dangerous food, which is “Fugu” in Japanese. Fugu is pufferfish and is very poisonous, and they can kill people. Therefore, cooks must have a license to cook fugu that means they must have special skills and knowledge about fugu. People are afraid of the poison, but they eat it because it is very delicious and healthy. We eat fugu when we celebrate something, so fugu is a special dish in Japan.

Japanese Fashion

Japan has a ceremony on coming of age day when you become 20 years old. It is the Japanese coming of age ceremony. Many women wear “Kimono” and men wear suits or traditional dress, which is “Hakama” on the day. Kimono is beautiful but very expensive, so we usually cerebrate this day, wedding, and tea ceremonies by wearing a kimono. Some college students dress up Kimono or Hakama for their graduation.

Next, I want to tell you “Yukata.” You can see girls who are wearing “Yukata” in summer time. Yukata looks like Kimono, but it is different. The most different thing is material. Yukata is just for summer, and we usually wear it when we go to a firework festival. I think that Kimono looks well on Japanese or Asian because foreigners have a clean-cut face.

Japanese children have to wear school uniforms. Each school has a rule that students wear a uniform. There are two types of school uniform for boys, but for girls, they have a lot of styles for school uniforms. In fact, it has two types of school uniform for girls, but they change to wear different skirts, socks, and blazer. I think that all boys like girls’ uniform because they wear miniskirts. Many schoogirls used to wear very long socks. it could be 140 centimeters. The socks can be a symbol of schoolgirls.

Many executives in Japan have to wear suit except hairdresers or people who work by his or her self. It is easy to see many executives who are wearing suit on the train, bus and street. the suit must be black or navy blue. Even summer time, they wear it, so they always look hot.

Tanzania Culture (JOHNSON J LAZARO)

Tanzania lies on the east coast of Africa, just south of the equator. It shares borders with Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, and the Indian Ocean. Tanzania also shares three great lakes—Victoria, Tanganyika, and Malawi—with its neighbors. The country is comprised of a wide variety of agro-ecological zones: low-lying coastal plains, a dry highland plateau, northern savannas, and cool, well-watered regions in the northwest and south

Over 100 languages are spoken in Tanzania, most of them from the Bantu family. After independence, the government recognized that this represented a problem for nationalunity, and as a result introduced the Swahili language into all primary schools to spread its use. Swahili is the national and official language. English as a second official language is widely spoken especially in major cities, to a lesser extend in rural areas. Arabic is spoken in Zanzibar and Pemba, to a lesser extent though. Tribal languages are widely spoken as well.
Tanzania is among few countries where religious harmony is prevalent; people of different religions live in harmony and inter religious marriages are common. The main religions are Christianity and Islam, another religions are Hinduism and traditional religions.

Tanzania food has been developing gradually. Tanzania food items have lot of variety ranging from fruits to vegetables to meat and milk products. The early people who lived in Tanzania were mostly termed as hunter-gatherers. The most popular food in Tanzania consisted of sorghum, millets, fruits, fishes, vegetables pawpaw (papaya), ndizi (bananas), matunda (fruits), beans, spinach rice (wali) and maize. The Arabs entered Tanzania and established the trade routes in the country, during this time they introduced and popularized food items like cotton plants, citrus fruits, biriani and pilau. These food items became very popular among the people of the coastal areas. Groundnuts and cassava introduced by the Portuguese also became an important part of the diet of Tanzania. Meat items are not widely consumed in Tanzania. Sheep, goats and cattle are normally used for their milk. Only during festive occasions they are killed for their meats. The most commonly used meat items are ndafu and nyama choma. Ugali is the national meat dish of Tanzania.

ugali and chicken wali (rice) meet and vegetable

Meet andTomato

Tanzania run art residences for the artist's worldwide. We have facilities to produce fine arts, carvings (the world famous Makonde tribe ebony carvings), hand made paper, gem stone jewelry, East African batik, African music (drumming and dance) and other arts sectors. A volunteer with interest and skills in various sector of arts will be conducted to work with the local Tanzanian artists to join skills and experiences, to produce shows and exhibitions or just to enhance the skills of both parties in the grassroots level. All art activities are placed in Dar es Salaam.We are printing our own youth magazine "Fiesta - (Mzuka) and all a prties interested in journalism are welcome. Our music studios will provide placements for mucisians and producers and this work is also combined to music video making.

SPANISH CULTURE

FOOD

The food in Spain has a lot of importance. Some of the world’s stop chefs are Spanish and one of the latest trends is go on a trip, which includes the best places to eat great typical food. I think the most well known food from Spain are Spanish omelette, paella and Serrano ham.
The Spanish omelette is just an omelette with potatoes but the taste is better if we add onion. Some people put in other things like red pepper or chorizo that is a kind of pork meat and is dry. People eat it throughout all the year. It’s very common to have when someone organizes an informal dinner in his or her house or like an aperitif, but in that case we eat just a little piece. It can be eaten cold and it’s the perfect companion for a glass of beer. Also sometimes it’s tasted better the day after to be cocked.





It’s important to know that the really good ham is not the one, which we usually eat. This one is only for very special moments for the major of people except for the rich. It comes from a black pig that grows up in limited farms in the southeast of Spain. It’s so good that it isn’t necessary have it with anything else, like a piece of bread. It’s perfect like an aperitif with a glass of red wine or beer. Personally I think it’s better with a glass of wine and much better with good company to share it with. The other ham it’s good too but not so much as the really good one, the tasted and the appearance are very different. This one is perfect for sandwiches or to fried it with a piece of garlic and put them over boiled vegetables. If you want to taste the really good ham, you should be informed about which places have it.





Paella is very typical from the middle east coast and it’s perfect in every season of the year. There are a few kinds so it can be fish, vegetables or meat. The best has shrimps, crayfishes, lobsters, blue mussels and clams. It’s a typical Sunday lunch almost if it’s a family lunch. When the summer is coming a lot of people enjoy going to restaurants in front of the beach while they eating a paella and taking a sunbathe. The good chefs spend a lot of time making it so it’s important not to be in a hurry when you go to a restaurant.






Other typical meals less known are gazpacho, bread with tomato and rice with milk. The first is like a tomato soap but it has also green and red pepper, onion, garlic, water, olive oil and bread. Summer is the best season to have it, as it’s served cold, it’s very refreshing. Gazpacho usually doesn’t have the same taste in all the places because every housewife has her own secret to make it more delicious and special. The most modern chefs try to make it modern so in some restaurants they put in the gazpacho little pieces of melon, shrimps, Serrano ham or boiled egg.
The second comes from the northeast. You can use all kind of breads but the best is rustic bread. To make it you have to cut a mature tomato in two halves and rub it over the bread and then add some olive oil. The bread is less dry and ready to have it with cheese, ham or both together. It’s ideal in any moment of the day, lunch, dinner and also breakfast.




The last is a dessert and is very popular in the north. The ingredients are very simply just rice, milk, sugar and cinnamon but the way to do it spends a lot of time. An advice, if you want to eat it, it will be better if you don’t eat to much before or you will feel very full.





Obviously there are more typical meals but it’s difficult to talk about all of them. If you go to any restaurant in Spain you will find them so if you won’t you will be in the wrong place. A good way to taste most of them is going to a restaurant or bar where they serve “tapas” or “pinchos”. If you choose this option you could enjoy a great lunch or dinner with very different savours and sensations.

FESTIVITIES.
Spain has a lot of years of history so we have many traditions and some of them are a mixture of the different cultures that have been there. Sometimes it’s difficult to know how old a tradition is or who was the first to do something.
I think that the most famous are the “San Fermin” and the “Tomatina”. San Fermin is very popular but it isn’t the only palace in the country that has bullfights and running. There are full of places where they celebrate it too. The origin of that kind of celebrations is not very clear but some people say that it started about 800 years ago. They don’t know exactly when because they think it could have changes during the time.





The tomatina isn’t an old tradition and also not very important, in fact lots of Spanish don’t know it. I think it’s more famous out of Spain than there.
Every city, town and village in Spain has his own event and some of them are more recognized than the others all around the country. Those festivities are usually celebrated during for a few days and the government of each place organizes many activities for all age’s people. Some people spend all the year preparing it and almost those days they don’t go to work. The major parts of the festivities are to remember some saint.
Some of the festivities that are on the top are the “Fallas” of Valencia and the carnivals of two places that are Canarias and Cadiz. The first one is important because they have the best fire-works in the country and very big statues that they burn the last day. The carnival of Canarias is famous because they spend a number of days choosing the queen of the carnival. The girls who want to be the queen have to wear a very heavy and amazing dress, which help them to win the title. The other carnival is well known because there are some groups of men that sing songs composed by them and they don’t play any instrument. They usually talk about actual topics but in a hilarious way, just to make fun. The government organizes competitions to choose the best.





Finally one of the most important and the one that everybody enjoy at the same time, like in other countries, it’s Christmas time. All of the students have holidays and many workers too. People spend those days with their families, so most of them have to move to other cities. Other people prefer to make a trip to an exotic place. Our Christmas time stars on the 24th of December and ends on the 6th of January, but we celebrate more specially five days of all them. There is a typical meal for each day, but it can be different depending on the area where you are from.
The most interesting and funny to explain now is the New Year’s Eve. That day people wear elegant clothes and have a dinner with their families or their closest friends. After dinner everybody go to sit down around the television with a dish in their hand that contains twelve grapes. Every channel of television shows a clock that is in square in Madrid. This clock sounds twelve times that’s the reason why we eat twelve grapes, and the last one is at twelve o’clock. Then everybody stand up, most of them with all the grapes in their mouth because there isn’t enough time, and they start to give kisses and hugs to the others. After that there are parties in all the pubs and discos, as well some people organizes the party in their houses till late. It’s very common go to have breakfast after the party and try to decrease the hangover.

Aramaic People

The minority population in Iraq is called Aramaic or Assyrians Metropolitan. Where do the Aramaic people come from, what is their history, culture, language and religion. Many people thought that the Aramaic people and culture had disappeared for ever but we are alive and on the increase even after many have been massacred over the years. (I love this quote from the internet “It is breathtaking to watch a culture that almost everyone perceived to be dead to suddenly experience a rebirth”.) In my opinion, people with a rich history never die out.

Assyrian FlagThe Assyrian people originally come from the population of the olden Assyrian Empire, which grew from the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon of Akkad (975-700 B.C). Assyrian kings conquered Aramaean tribes and they were moulded into the Assyrian empire, but their language, Aramaic, took over the local Akkadian language, which was partly due to the Assyrian kings moving lots of people around the country. However, the modern Aramaic language spoken by modern Assyrians, is quite heavily mixed with ancient Akkadian language. The term Aramaic is derived from Aram, the fifth son of Shem, the firstborn of Noah. The family of Aram stayed in the fruitful valley, Padan-aram also known as Beth Nahreen.

Aramaic people can be found in many countries, including : Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Jordon, Lebanon, Georgia, Armenia and Palestine.

Culture
Aramaic culture is dictated by religion. The language is joined to the church and festivals happen during religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas. Aramaic’s are proud of their traditions, their Christianity and of speaking the language of Christ. When a person dies, three days after they are buried they get together to celebrate their rising to heaven, the same as Jesus and after seven days they again get together to celebrate their passing. After a death a close family member wears only black clothes for forty days and forty nights or sometimes for one year as a sign of respect

The first law in the world was made during the reign of Hammurabi of Babylon between 1792 and 1750 B.C. He made lots of laws to do with business, the family like marriage and divorce and criminal law like theft.

When people visit their family or friends the custom is for the men to shake hands and kiss each other on the cheek and the women kiss and hug each other. You are allowed to kiss a relative (man or woman) but not people who are not relatives. The Aramaic people are very friendly, they like meeting friends and having fun especially when they are sharing food and drink. Each family used to make different types of food and they would all meet up in one house to have fun.

Somikka is a religious festival that begins on February 26 and ends on Easter Sunday. It is similar in some ways to Halloween, but its meaning is very much different. The young men wear scary masks and black clothes and then they go and scare the children of other friend and family. The men don’t leave the house until the family give them some money. The young men scare the children so that they remember to fast during lent.




People’s names mean a lot in Aramaic. People can tell you are Aramaic by your name like Teresa, Rita, Paul, Steve, Nathan, Mary and many more.

Dancing and Music
Everybody likes to sing and dance and it is part of our culture. The most popular dance is the Khigga. This is a very simple dance and it is also the first music that is played to welcome the bride and groom at their reception.

This kind of dance helps everyone at the party get to know each other as people who don’t know each other have to hold hands when they dance and talk to each other.


The main musical instruments are the Dhol & Zurna. During a wedding, the musicians play for a very long time, sometime about 2 hours without stopping. During that time people throw money at the musicians. If someone throws 50 pounds at the musician then some other man will try and be a bigger man by throwing in 100 pounds.

Today’s music has changed because of the influence of the British Army. The story goes that in 1932, the British Army was playing their music when they were marching in their parades. The Iraqi young people saw the parades and started to copy some of the music. Many years later, Ewan Shamdinany was the first who released a modern Assyrian music LP with full western instrumental band in the 1950s.

The Aramaic Language
Aramaic is one of the Semitic languages, an important group of languages known almost from the beginning of human history and including also Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopic, and Akkadian (ancient Babylonian and Assyrian). By the 8th century B.C. the Aramaic language was the major language from Egypt to Asia Minor to Pakistan. It was in use by the great Semitic empires, Assyria and Babylon. The language of the people of Palestine from Hebrew to Aramaic sometime between 721-500 B.C. Therefore,. Many parts of the Bible like Ezra and Daniel are in Aramaic. Some of the best known stories in biblical literature, including that of Belshazzar’s feast with the famous "handwriting on the wall" are in Aramaic., the what's left of the library of a two languages that haven't been used in common speech for centuries -- Latin and the even less familiar Aramaic.

Early Aramaic Alphabet

Cuisine
Assyrian cuisine is similar to other Middle Eastern cuisines. However, it came before both Arab and Turkish cuisine in Western Asia. It is also similar to Armenian, Greek, Israeli, Persian, and Levantine cuisine. It is rich in grains, meat, tomato, and potato. Rice is usually served with every meal accompanied by a stew poured over the rice. Tea is typically consumed at all times of the day drink. Cheese, crackers, biscuits, baklava, or other snacks are often served beside the tea. Alcohol is also very popular when we are eating, the most popular is called Arak.

A typical appetiser would be called a Maza and is made like:
Maza which may include Humous ou Tahina, Baba Ghanouj,Tapoula , Fattoush, vegetables and dip,Burek, etc.Fava beans , known as baqilleh, and koba, known as lablabior, khirtamaneh, are very common in soups, salads, and are used in many foods. Fried almonds and raisins are also used . Another popular maza is tourshi which means pickles. Many different types of vegetables are pickled such as cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, beats, and peppers. Tea is a staple in the diet even more so than coffee. Almost always the maza is accompanied with tea or Turkish coffee.

Religion
All Aramaic’s are Christians. Most educated people believe that Jesus spoke firstly Aramaic then some Hebrew and Greek. They also believe that the old towns of Nazareth and Capernaum where Jesus lived were Aramaic speaking. Also it is believed that Jesus would have spoken to mostly Aramaic speaking audiences.

IRAQ

History
Iraq has lots of history, various peoples ruled it. Some of them were the Sumerians and Akkadians, then there was the Babylonians, Mitanni and Assyrians, then the Chaldeans, after them it was Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, then the Persians followed by the Arabs then the Turks. The Turks Ottoman Empire ruled until World War 1 when the British captured Bagdad in 1917. The British and French decided on our borders with no respect for the different cultures and religions (Kurds and Assyrians) so there was lots of fighting. Emir Faisal became the first king of Iraq in 1921. In 1927 the oil fields were found (It is now the 2nd largest country in the world with oil reserves) and in 1979 Saddam Hussein took control and the rest is history, we all know about the wars.

Location
The country of Iraq is located in the Middle East and its neighbours are Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordon, Syria and Turkey. There is two very big rivers in Iraq, the Tigris and Euphrates

Culture
One of the seven wonders of the world - The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, They were built by Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 B.C and history tells us that they Hanging Gardens rose up hundreds of feet into the air.











Folklore
The Iraqi National Folklore group started in 1971 to preserve the folk dancing heritage of Iraq. Nowadays the woman in the group have to be very careful to protect themselves because females dancing is considered haram or forbidden in Islam.

In the days of Saddam there was 13,000,000 people in Bagdad, Saddam ordered that every person plant a Date Tree, which is why we now have so many and we even export them. There is many different kinds of dates with different tastes and colours which is just amazing.

I miss my country and I hope that peace comes back there one day. ND.