Why is Christmas the most Important Christian Holiday?
To anyone looking from the outside, Christmas would seem to be the biggest festival of the Christian year. It has the 4 week build-up with Advent, there are more carol services than you can shake a yule-log at, and the churches are packed with people who may not have even stepped inside a church since last Christmas! So is it really Christianity’s most important festival ?
The Day the Gateway to the East was Renamed : When Constantinople became Istanbul
On the 28th March 1930 – after 1,599 years, 10 months and 17 days – Constantinople, named after the Roman Emperor Constantine, became Istanbul.
Constantinople – Where (Middle) East Meets West
On the 28 March 1930 after 1,599 years, ten months and seventeen days the great city of Constantinople officially became Istanbul. It was on this day that the Turkish Post Office formally changed the name by which it had been informally identified since some time in the 13th century. A Long History A Greek City There has been a town on the site of modern Istanbul since at least the 7th century BC, when it was settled by Greeks. They...
The Normans – A Timeline
Guernsey and the Channel Islands were very much at the heart of the old Duchy of Normandy and then in 1066 we were propelled into the wider world when our Duke, William the Bastard defeated the English King Harold at Hastings. In this artilcle we outline some of the defining moments in the history of the Norman dynasty.
Pivotal Moments : November 27 1095 – The Pope orders Crusade
There are key moments in history when on the decisions and actions of men the course of human history is changed forever. November 27 1095 was such a day. It was the day on which Pope Urban II made perhaps the most influential speech of the Middle Ages calling for crusade in the Holy land.
Coffee – buzzy, frothy goodness
According to tradition, around AD 1000, an Ethiopian goatsman named Kaldi observed his herd becoming much more energetic after munching on the bright red berries of a certain bush – the coffee plant. He tried them himself and was the first person to get the energy buzz we’re all familiar with.
