December Facts....Diciembre.

December gemstone is the turquoise and the flower is the Narcissus, although the typical plant for this
 month is the Poinsettia. December gets its name from the roman word 'decem', which means ten. The Anglo-Saxons called it 'Winter monath' but after becoming Christians they called it holy month because Christmas, the birth of Jesus, is celebrated in December. At the beginning of December, the season of Advent starts.The word advent means 'coming', and as its name suggests it is a time of preparation for the coming feast of Christmas. Festivities: 6th December is the feast day of St Nicholas, the patron saint of children. St Nicholas evolved into Santa Claus in the USA and into Father Christmas in the UK. Holy Innocents Day falls on 28 December. It commemorates King Herod's massacre of all male infants in and around Bethlehem under the age of two in attempt to kill the young Christ. In the days when Christmas
was less child-centred, this day was a time for indulging children with treats and parties. Unlucky: On a more sombre note, 28 December is widely regarded as the unluckiest day of the year, so don't do anything and certainly don't start anything on this day! 31st December is the last day of the year. It is New Year's Eve. All over Britain there are parties, fireworks, singing and dancing, to ring out the old year and ring in the new. As the clock - Big Ben - strikes midnight, people link arms and sing a song called 'Auld Lang Syne'. It reminds them of old and new friends.
Anniversaries: In December many events happened like the opening of the English Channel tunnel in 1990, the opening of the first Britain´s motorway in 1958, Sir Isaac Newton was born or the first powered flight by Orville in 1903.

La piedra preciosa de Diciembre es la turquesa y su flor el narciso, aunque es más típica de estas fechas la Poinsettia o flor de Pascua.Diciembre toma su nombre del calendario romano; los anglosajones lo llamaron el mes del invierno pero cuando muchos de ellos se convirtieron al catolicismo lo llamaron Christmas por celebrarse el nacimiento de Jesús. Las celebraciones más conocidas son el dia de San Nicolás, patrón de los niños, que se convertiría en Santa Claus en América o en Papá Noel en Inglaterra.También se celebran el día de los Inocentes o Año Nuevo. Entre los aniversarios destacan el nacimiento de Newton, la apertura del canal que une Inglaterra con Francia, la inauguración de la primera autopista inglesa o el primer vuelo a motor de Orville.