In the two drawings, one woman soars through the air on a broom the other flies aboard a plain white stick. The earliest known image of witches on brooms dates to 1451, when two illustrations appeared in the French poet Martin Le Franc’s manuscript Le Champion des Dames (The Defender of Ladies). His confession came under torture, and he eventually repented but was still imprisoned for life.īy the time of Edelin’s “confession,” the idea of witches riding around on broomsticks was already well established. He was arrested in 1453 and tried for witchcraft after publicly criticizing the church’s warnings about witches. Edelin was a priest from Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris. From the beginning, brooms and besoms were associated primarily with women, and this ubiquitous household object became a powerful symbol of female domesticity.ĭespite this, the first witch to confess to riding a broom or besom was a man: Guillaume Edelin. It gradually replaced the Old English word besom, though both terms appear to have been used until at least the 18th century. It'll be good to get to know more of the neighbours too.The word broom comes from the actual plant, or shrub, that was used to make many early sweeping devices. There are quite a lot of different nationalities living on our street – people from India, China and different African countries – so the food should be really interesting. We're all going to bring different dishes and share them round. We're going to stop cars coming through, obviously. Well, it's a good excuse to have a party, isn't it? We're all going to take out tables and chairs and put them together in the middle of the road. Lots of people are having parties in squares and parks and places, and the people in our street decided to have one too. There's a Royal Wedding in June – one of our princes is getting married – so it's a public holiday. Then, as soon as Sandra lets them in, we're going to turn the lights out and jump out at them! We just have to make sure nobody mentions anything on Facebook and gives away the surprise. We're going to make up an excuse to get the birthday girls to come round to the house – say we're going to help Sandra move some stuff, or something. It's at the end of October, so we're going to decorate the house with Halloween things, you know, spiders' webs and spooky things. One of my friends, Sandra, has a big house, and her parents say we can use it. Two of my best friends have their birthday in the same week, so some of us have decided to have a surprise party for both of them. So as we go up the river we're going to listen to music from the time my grandparents got married – the swinging sixties! My dad has borrowed an ancient gramophone player, you know, what they had before CD players, and some old records. We've got this huge picnic planned, with loads of different types of sandwiches and salads and an enormous cake. I'm really looking forward to seeing my cousins again. It's my grandparents' golden wedding anniversary, so the whole family is getting together. We're going to hire a boat for the day and take it up the river. But it's really good fun it's like London becomes a different country. And you have to watch out for pick-pockets when there are so many people in the same place. It does get quite crowded, so you have to make sure you stick together. We don't go in costume, but we do dance a lot. It's all Afro-Caribbean, with people in amazing costumes and these brilliant steel bands. We went last year and we had such a fantastic time. You've probably heard of it, the Notting Hill Carnival? So this year, me and my friends are going again. It's going to be cool.Įvery year there's a carnival in August in London. Ours is the best, because we've been together longest and we've got a great bass player, ( coughs) although I say so myself, so we're on last. Then there are three different bands lined up to play. And we've got Jo's brother, who's a professional DJ, coming along. Steve had this idea of projecting photos of everyone onto a wall, like a slide show. As soon as the last exams have finished, we're going to decorate the main hall at school with paper streamers and Chinese lanterns and things. It was Nicky's idea, but we all think it's going to be brilliant.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |