The month of March has begun and it has been a joy to experience the wonderful spring weather. The upcoming month of March has events that you might like to share with your classes. On March 2nd, it was Dr. Seuss’ birthday. In a few days, we will be experiencing Daylight Saving Time, on March 14th. The luck of the Irish will shine on us on March 17th, and the Vernal Equinox will occur on the 20th. The month ends with Palm Sunday, on March 28th and the beginning of Passover on the 29th. I hope that the information below is something that can spark conversation within your classes. Enjoy the rest of the month of March! Page 2~Websites to use in your class Pages 3-18~ Dr. Seuss Pages 19-20~ Daylight Saving Time Pages 21-23~ St. Patrick’s Day Pages 24-25~ Vernal equinox Pages 26-27~ Palm Sunday Pages 28-30~ Passover

Building a Teacher’s Toolbox Volume 2, Issue 5 Prepared by: Robin C. Letendre, M.Ed. Learning Disabilities Coordinator Mentor Teacher Reading Specialist

Websites http://www.seussville.com/ Super fun! This website could be used in class just to highlight how fun Dr. Seuss is and it can also be used by students who have children at home! http://atozteacherstuff.com/pages/250.shtml Excellent website that offers activities for 15 of Dr. Seuss’ books. http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day Fantastic website that offers everything there is to know about St. Patrick’s day! Lots of great video! http://printables.kaboose.com/st-patricks-word-search-medium.pdf Word search puzzle for St. Patrick’s Day http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/VernalEquinox.html This website offers a quicktime video illustrating the tilt of the Earth's equatorial plane relative to the Sun which is responsible for the seasons. http://www.churchyear.net/palmsunday.html Great website that includes puzzles for Lent and Palm Sunday. http://www.cinnamonhearts.com/PassoverSeder.htm Menu plan for Passover

Dr. Seuss From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search "Theo Geisel" redirects here. For the physicist, see Theo Geisel (physicist).

Theodor Geisel

Theodor Seuss Geisel surrounded by his literary works, including one of his most

famous, The Cat in the Hat.

Born

Theodor Seuss Geisel March 2, 1904 Springfield, Massachusetts, United States

Died September 24, 1991 (aged 87) San Diego, California, United States

Pen name Dr. Seuss, Theo. LeSieg, Rosetta Stone, Theophrastus Seuss

Occupation Writer, cartoonist, animator Nationality American

Genres Children's literature

Notable work(s)

The Cat in the Hat Green Eggs and Ham One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Spouse(s) Helen Palmer Geisel (1927–1967) Audrey Stone Dimond (1968–1991)

Official website

Theodor Seuss Geisel (pronounced /� � a� zәl/; March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) was an American writer and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen name Dr. Seuss.[1] He published over 60 children's books, which were often characterized by imaginative characters, rhyme, and frequent use of trisyllabic meter. His most celebrated books include the bestselling Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat

in the Hat, and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. Numerous adaptations of his work have been created, including eleven television specials, three feature films, and a Broadway musical.

Geisel also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, most notably for Flit and Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for PM, a New York City newspaper. During World War II, he worked in an animation department of the U.S Army, where he wrote Design for Death, a film that later won the 1947 Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

Read Across America is an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association. One part of the project is National Read Across America Day, an observance in the United States held on March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss.

•

Early life and career Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to Henrietta Seuss and Theodor Robert Geisel.[2][3] His father, the son of German immigrants, inherited the family brewery one month before the start of Prohibition and later supervised Springfield's public park system and zoo.[2] Geisel was raised in the Lutheran faith and remained a member of the denomination his entire life.

Geisel attended Springfield's Central High School and entered Dartmouth College in fall 1921 as a member of the Class of 1925 and joined Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.[2] At Dartmouth, Geisel joined the humor magazine Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, eventually rising to the rank of editor-in-chief.[2]

While at Dartmouth, Geisel was caught drinking gin with nine friends in his room, violating national Prohibition laws of the time.[4] As a result, the school insisted that he resign from all extracurricular activities, including the college humor magazine. In order to continue his work on the Jack-O-Lantern without the administration's knowledge, Geisel began signing his work with the pen name "Seuss;" his first work signed as "Dr. Seuss" appeared after he graduated, six months into his work for humor magazine The Judge where his weekly feature Birdsies and Beasties appeared.[5] Geisel was encouraged in his writing by professor of rhetoric W. Benfield Pressey, whom he described as his "big inspiration for writing" at Dartmouth.[6]

After Dartmouth, he entered Lincoln College, Oxford, intending to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in literature.[citation needed] At Oxford, he met his future wife Helen Palmer; he married her in 1927, and returned to the United States without earning a degree.[2]

He began submitting humorous articles and illustrations to Judge, The Saturday Evening Post, Life, Vanity Fair, and Liberty. One notable "Technocracy Number" made fun of the Technocracy movement and featured satirical rhymes at the expense of Frederick Soddy.[citation needed] He became nationally famous from his advertisements for Flit, a common insecticide at the time. His slogan, "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" became a popular catchphrase. Geisel supported himself and his wife through the Great Depression by drawing advertising for General Electric, NBC, Standard Oil, and many other companies. In 1935, he wrote and drew a short-lived comic strip called Hejji.[5]

In 1937, while Geisel was returning from an ocean voyage to Europe, the rhythm of the ship's engines inspired the poem that became his first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.[citation needed] Geisel wrote three more children's books before World War II, two of which are, atypically for him, in prose.

As World War II began, Geisel turned to political cartoons, drawing over 400 in two years as editorial cartoonist for the left-wing New York City daily newspaper, PM. Geisel's political cartoons, later published in Dr. Seuss Goes to War, opposed the viciousness of Hitler and Mussolini and were highly critical of isolationists, most notably Charles Lindbergh, who opposed American entry into the war.[citation needed] One cartoon[7] depicted all Japanese Americans as latent traitors or fifth-columnists, while at the same time other cartoons deplored the racism at home against Jews and blacks that harmed the war effort. His cartoons were strongly supportive of President Roosevelt's conduct of the war, combining the usual exhortations to ration and contribute to the war effort with frequent attacks on Congress (especially the Republican Party),[citation needed] parts of the press (such as the New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune),[citation needed] and others for criticism of Roosevelt,[citation needed] criticism of aid to the Soviet Union,[citation needed] investigation of suspected Communists,[citation needed] and other offenses that he depicted as leading to disunity and helping the Nazis, intentionally or inadvertently.

In 1942, Geisel turned his energies to direct support of the U.S. war effort. First, he worked drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. Then, in 1943, he joined the Army and was commander of the Animation Dept of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces, where he wrote films that included Your Job in Germany, a 1945 propaganda film about peace in Europe after World War II, Our Job in Japan, and the Private Snafu series of adult army training films. While in the Army, he was awarded the Legion of Merit.[citation needed] Our Job in Japan became the basis for the commercially released film, Design for Death (1947), a study of Japanese culture that won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature.[8] Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950), which was based on an original story by Seuss, won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film.

Later years After the war, Geisel and his wife moved to La Jolla, California. Returning to children's books, he wrote many works, including such children's favorites as If I Ran the Zoo, (1950), Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953), On Beyond Zebra! (1955), If I Ran the Circus

(1956), and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957). Although he received numerous awards throughout his career, Geisel won neither the Caldecott Medal nor the Newbery Medal. Three of his titles from this period were, however, chosen as Caldecott runners-up (now referred to as Caldecott Honor books): McElligot's Pool (1947), Bartholomew and the Oobleck (1949), and If I Ran the Zoo (1950). Dr Seuss also wrote the musical and fantasy film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. which was released in 1953 . The film was a critical and financial failure, and would be the only feature film ever written by Dr. Seuss. At the same time, an important development occurred that influenced much of Geisel's later work. In May 1954, Life magazine published a report on illiteracy among school children, which concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring. Accordingly, William Ellsworth Spaulding, a textbook editor at Houghton Mifflin who later became its Chairman, compiled a list of 348 words he felt were important for first-graders to recognize and asked Geisel to cut the list to 250 words and write a book using only those words.[9] Spaulding challenged Geisel to "bring back a book children can't put down." [10] Nine months later, Geisel, using 236 of the words given to him, completed The Cat in the Hat. This book was a tour de force[who?]—it retained the drawing style, verse rhythms, and all the imaginative power of Geisel's earlier works, but because of its simplified vocabulary could be read by beginning readers. These books achieved significant international success and they remain very popular.[citation needed]

Geisel went on to write many other children's books, both in his new simplified-vocabulary manner (sold as Beginner Books) and in his older, more elaborate style. The Beginner Books were not easy for Geisel, and reportedly[citation needed] he labored for months crafting them.

On October 23, 1967, suffering from a long struggle with illnesses including cancer, Geisel's wife, Helen Palmer Geisel, committed suicide.[11] Geisel married Audrey Stone Dimond on June 21, 1968. Though he devoted most of his life to writing children's books, Geisel never had any children. He would say, when asked about this, "You have 'em; I'll entertain 'em."

Death and posthumous honors Geisel died, following several years of illness, in San Diego, California. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered. On December 1, 1995, four years after his death, UCSD's University Library Building was renamed Geisel Library in honor of Geisel and Audrey for the generous contributions they made to the library and their devotion to improving literacy.[12]

"Dr. Seuss and the Cat in the Hat" at the Dr. Seuss Memorial.

While living in La Jolla, Geisel was frequently confused by the United States Postal Service and others with another La Jolla resident, Dr. Suess (Hans Suess). Their names have been linked together posthumously: the personal papers of Hans Suess are housed in the Geisel Library at UC San Diego.[13]

In 2002, the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden opened in his birthplace of Springfield, Massachusetts; it features sculptures of Geisel and of many of his characters. On May 28, 2008, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced that Geisel would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. The induction ceremony took place December 15 and his widow Audrey accepted the honor in his place. On March 2, 2009, the web search engine Google temporarily changed its logo to commemorate Geisel's birthday (a practice it often follows for various holidays and events).[14] At his alma mater, Dartmouth, where over 90% of incoming first-year students participate in pre-registration Dartmouth Outing Club trips into the New Hampshire wilderness, it is traditional for students returning from the trips to overnight at Dartmouth's Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, where they are served green eggs and ham for breakfast in honor of Dr. Seuss.

Pen names and pronunciations Geisel's pen name is pronounced /� su� s/ or /� sju� s/, an anglicized pronunciation inconsistent with his German surname; Geisel switched to the anglicized pronunciation from German [� z� � s] because it "evoked a figure advantageous for an author of children’s books to be associated with—Mother Goose."[10]

For books that Geisel wrote and others illustrated, he used the pen name "Theo. LeSieg" (Geisel spelled backwards).

Political views

Dr. Seuss was a veteran. Geisel's early political cartoons show a passionate opposition to fascism, and he urged Americans to oppose it, both before and after the entry of the United States into World War II. His cartoons tended to regard the fear of communism as overstated, finding the greater threat in the Dies Committee and those who threatened to cut America's "life line" to Stalin and Soviet Russia, the ones carrying "our war load".

Geisel's cartoons also called attention to the early stages of the Holocaust and denounced discrimination in America against African Americans and Jews. Geisel himself experienced anti-semitism: in his college days, he was refused entry into certain circles because of a misperception that he was Jewish (he was in fact a practicing Lutheran).

However, Geisel supported the Japanese American internment during World War II. His treatment of the Japanese and of Japanese Americans, whom he often failed to differentiate between, has struck many readers as a moral blind spot.[15] On the issue of the Japanese, he is quoted as saying:

But right now, when the Japs are planting their hatchets in our skulls, it seems like a hell of a time for us to smile and warble: "Brothers!" It is a rather flabby battle cry. If we want to win, we’ve got to kill Japs, whether it depresses John Haynes Holmes or not. We can get palsy-walsy afterward with those that are left. —Theodor Geisel, quoted in Dr. Seuss Goes to War, by Dr. Richard H. Minear

Cartoon of John Haynes Holmes. By Dr.Seuss

After the war, though, Geisel was able to end his feelings of animosity, using his book Horton Hears a Who (1954) as an allegory for the American post-war occupation of Japan, as well as dedicating the book to a Japanese friend.[16]

In 1948, after living and working in Hollywood for years, Geisel moved to La Jolla, California. It is said that when he went to register to vote in La Jolla, some Republican friends called him over to where they were registering voters, but Geisel said, "You, my friends, are over there, but I am going over here [to the Democratic registration]."[17]

In his books

Though Geisel made a point of not beginning the writing of his stories with a moral in mind, stating that "kids can see a moral coming a mile off", he was not against writing about issues; he said "there's an inherent moral in any story"[18] and remarked that he was "subversive as hell".[19]

Many of Geisel's books are thought to express his views on a myriad of social and political issues: The Lorax (1971), about environmentalism and anti-consumerism; The Sneetches (1961), about racial equality; The Butter Battle Book (1984), about the arms race; Yertle the Turtle (1958), about anti-fascism and anti-authoritarianism; How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957), about anti-materialism; and Horton Hears a Who! (1954), about anti-isolationism and internationalism.[10][16] Shortly before the end of the

1972–1974 Watergate scandal, in which United States president Richard Nixon resigned, Geisel converted one of his famous children's books into a polemic. "Richard M. Nixon, Will You Please Go Now!" was published in major newspapers through the column of his friend Art Buchwald.[20]

Although Geisel never made any explicit or implicit mention of the abortion debate in his books, the line "A person's a person, no matter how small!!" from Horton Hears a Who! has grown, over the objections of his widow, into widespread use on the pro-life side of the issue.[21]

Poetic meters Geisel wrote most of his books in anapestic tetrameter, a poetic meter employed by many poets of the English literary canon. This characteristic style of writing, which draws and pulls the reader into the text, is often suggested as one of the reasons that Geisel's writing was so well-received.[22][23]

Anapestic tetrameter consists of four rhythmic units, anapests, each composed of two weak beats followed by one strong beat; often, the first weak syllable is omitted, or an additional weak syllable is added at the end. An example of this meter can be found in Geisel's "Yertle the Turtle", from Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories:

"And today the Great Yertle, that Marvelous he Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see."[24]

Geisel generally maintained this rhythm quite strictly, but in his later career somewhat relaxed this tendency. The consistency of his meter was one of his hallmarks; the many imitators and parodists of Geisel are often unable to write in strict anapestic tetrameter, or are unaware that they should, and thus sound clumsy in comparison.

Some books by Geisel that are written mainly in anapestic tetrameter also contain many lines written in amphibrachic tetrameter, such as these from If I Ran the Circus:

"All ready to put up the tents for my circus. I think I will call it the Circus McGurkus. "And NOW comes an act of Enormous Enormance! No former performer's performed this performance!"

Geisel also wrote verse in trochaic tetrameter, an arrangement of a strong beat followed by a weak beat, with four units per line (for example, the title of One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish). The formula for trochaic meter permits the final weak position in the line to be omitted, which facilitates the construction of rhymes.

Geisel generally maintained trochaic meter only for brief passages, and for longer stretches typically mixed it with iambic tetrameter, which consists of a weak beat followed by a strong, and is generally considered easier to write. Thus, for example, the

magicians in Bartholomew and the Oobleck make their first appearance chanting in trochees (thus resembling the witches of Shakespeare's Macbeth):

"Shuffle, duffle, muzzle, muff"

then switch to iambs for the oobleck spell:

"Go make the Oobleck tumble down On every street, in every town!"[25]

Artwork

At work on a drawing of The Grinch for How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, in 1957.

Geisel's earlier artwork often employed the shaded texture of pencil drawings or watercolors, but in children's books of the postwar period he generally employed the starker medium of pen and ink, normally using just black, white, and one or two colors. Later books such as The Lorax used more colors.

Geisel's figures are often rounded and somewhat droopy. This is true, for instance, of the faces of the Grinch and of the Cat in the Hat. It is also true of virtually all buildings and machinery that Geisel drew: although these objects abound in straight lines in real life, for buildings, this could be accomplished in part through choice of architecture. For machines, for example, If I Ran the Circus includes a droopy hoisting crane and a droopy steam calliope.

Geisel evidently enjoyed drawing architecturally elaborate objects. His endlessly varied (but never rectilinear) palaces, ramps, platforms, and free-standing stairways are among his most evocative creations. Geisel also drew elaborate imaginary machines, of which the Audio-Telly-O-Tally-O-Count, from Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book, is one example. Geisel also liked drawing outlandish arrangements of feathers or fur, for example, the 500th hat of Bartholomew Cubbins, the tail of Gertrude McFuzz, and the pet for girls who like to brush and comb, in One Fish Two Fish.

Geisel's images often convey motion vividly. He was fond of a sort of voilà gesture, in which the hand flips outward, spreading the fingers slightly backward with the thumb up;

this is done by Ish, for instance, in One Fish Two Fish when he creates fish (who perform the gesture themselves with their fins), in the introduction of the various acts of If I Ran the Circus, and in the introduction of the Little Cats in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. He was also fond of drawing hands with interlocked fingers, which looked as though the character was twiddling their thumbs.

Geisel also follows the cartoon tradition of showing motion with lines, for instance in the sweeping lines that accompany Sneelock's final dive in If I Ran the Circus. Cartoonist's lines are also used to illustrate the action of the senses (sight, smell, and hearing) in The Big Brag and even of thought, as in the moment when the Grinch conceives his awful idea.

Recurring images

Geisel's early work in advertising and editorial cartooning produced sketches that received more perfect realization later in the children's books. Often, the expressive use to which Geisel put an image later on was quite different from the original.[26]

• An editorial cartoon of July 16, 1941[27] depicts a whale resting on the top of a mountain, as a parody of American isolationists, especially Charles Lindbergh. This was later rendered (with no apparent political content) as the Wumbus of On Beyond Zebra (1955). Seussian whales (cheerful and balloon-shaped, with long eyelashes) also occur in McElligot's Pool, If I Ran the Circus, and other books.

• Another editorial cartoon from 1941[28] shows a long cow with many legs and udders, representing the conquered nations of Europe being milked by Adolf Hitler. This later became the Umbus of On Beyond Zebra.

• The tower of turtles in a 1942 editorial cartoon[29] prefigures a similar tower in Yertle the Turtle. This theme also appeared in a Judge cartoon as one letter of a hieroglypic message, and in Geisel's short-lived comic strip Hejji. Geisel once stated that Yertle the Turtle was Adolf Hitler.[30]

• Little cats A B and C (as well as the rest of the alphabet) who spring from each other's hats appeared in a Ford ad.

• The connected beards in Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? appear frequently in Geisel's work, most notably in Hejji, which featured two goats joined at the beard, The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, which featured two roller-skating guards joined at the beard, and a political cartoon in which Nazism and the America First movement are portrayed as "the men with the Siamese Beard."

• Geisel's earliest elephants were for advertising and had somewhat wrinkly ears, much as real elephants do.[31] With And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937) and Horton Hatches the Egg (1940), the ears became more stylized, somewhat like angel wings and thus appropriate to the saintly Horton. During World War II, the elephant image appeared as an emblem for India in four editorial cartoons.[32] Horton and similar elephants appear frequently in the postwar children's books.

• While drawing advertisements for Flit, Geisel became adept at drawing insects with huge stingers,[33] shaped like a gentle S-curve and with a sharp end that

included a rearward-pointing barb on its lower side. Their facial expressions depict gleeful malevolence. These insects were later rendered in an editorial cartoon as a swarm of Allied aircraft[34] (1942), and again as the Sneedle of On Beyond Zebra, and yet again as the Skritz in I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew.

Publications Further information: List of Dr. Seuss books

Over the course of his long career, Geisel wrote over 60 books. Though most were published under his well-known pseudonym, Dr. Seuss, he also authored over a dozen books as Theo. LeSieg and one as Rosetta Stone. As one of the most popular children's authors of all time, Geisel's books have topped many bestseller lists, sold over 222 million copies, and been translated into more than 15 languages.[35] In 2000, Publishers Weekly compiled a list of the best-selling children's books of all time; of the top 100 hardcover books, 16 were written by Geisel, including Green Eggs and Ham, at number 4, The Cat in the Hat, at number 9, and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, at number 13.[36] In the years after his death in 1991, several additional books have been published based on his sketches and notes; these include Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! and Daisy-Head Mayzie. Though they were all published under the name Dr. Seuss, only My Many Colored Days, originally written in 1973, was entirely by Geisel.

At various times Geisel also wrote books for adults that used the same style of verse and pictures: The Seven Lady Godivas which included nude depictions; Oh, The Places You'll Go! which has become a popular gift for graduating students; and You're Only Old Once! which chronicles an old man's journey through a clinic, a satire of the inefficiency of clinics.

Adaptations Further information: List of Dr. Seuss television adaptations

Seuss Landing at Islands of Adventure in Orlando

For most of his career, Geisel was reluctant to have his characters marketed in contexts outside of his own books. However, he did allow for the creation of several animated

cartoons, an art form in which he himself had gained experience during the Second World War, and gradually relaxed his policy as he aged.

The first adaptation of one of Geisel's works was a cartoon version of Horton Hatches the Egg, animated at Warner Brothers in 1942. Directed by Robert Clampett, it was presented as part of the Looney Tunes series, and included a number of gags not present in the original narrative, including a fish committing suicide and a Katharine Hepburn imitation by Maisie.

In 1959, Geisel authorized Revell, the well-known plastic model-making company, to make a series of "animals" that snapped together rather than being glued together, and which could be assembled, disassembled and re-assembled "in thousands" of ways. The series was called the "Dr. Seuss Zoo" and included Gowdy the Dowdy Grackle, Norval the Bashful Blinket, Tingo the Noodle Topped Stroodle and Roscoe the Many Footed Lion. The basic body parts were the same and all were interchangeable, and so it was possible for children to combine parts from various characters in essentially unlimited ways in creating their own animal characters (Revell encouraged this by selling Gowdy, Norval and Tingo together in a "Gift Set" as well as individually). Revell also made a conventional glue-together "beginner's kit" of The Cat in the Hat.

In 1966, Geisel authorized the eminent cartoon artist Chuck Jones, his friend and former colleague from the war, to make a cartoon version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!; Geisel was credited as a co-producer, along with Jones, under his real name, "Ted Geisel". The cartoon was very faithful to the original book, and is considered a classic by many to this day; it is often broadcast as an annual Christmas television special. In 1970, an adaptation of Horton Hears a Who! was directed by Chuck Jones for MGM.

From 1971 to 1982, Geisel wrote seven television specials, which were produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and aired on CBS: The Cat in the Hat (1971), The Lorax (1972), Dr. Seuss on the Loose (1973), The Hoober-Bloob Highway (1975), Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977), Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You? (1980), and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982). Several of the specials were nominated for and won multiple Emmy Awards.

A Soviet paint-on-glass-animated short film called Welcome (an adaptation of Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose) was made in 1986. The last adaptation of Geisel's works before he died was The Butter Battle Book, a television special based on the book of the same name, directed by adult animation legend Ralph Bakshi. Geisel himself called the special "the most faithful adaptation of his work."[citation needed]

After Geisel died of cancer at the age of 87 in 1991, his widow Audrey Geisel was placed in charge of all licensing matters. She approved a live-action feature film version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! starring Jim Carrey, as well as a Seuss-themed Broadway musical called Seussical, and both premiered in 2000. The Grinch has had limited engagement runs on Broadway during the Christmas season, after premiering in 1998 (under the title How the Grinch Stole Christmas!) at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego,

where it has become a Christmas tradition. In 2003, another live-action film was released, this time an adaptation of The Cat in the Hat that featured Mike Myers as the title character. Audrey Geisel was vocal in her dislike of the film, especially the casting of Myers as the Cat in the Hat, and stated that there would be no further live-action adaptations of Geisel's books.[37] However, an animated CGI feature film adaptation of Horton Hears a Who! was approved, and was eventually released on March 14, 2008, to critical acclaim.

Two television series have been adapted from Geisel's work. The first, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, was a mix of live-action and puppetry by Jim Henson Television, the producers of The Muppets. It aired for one season on Nickelodeon in the United States, from 1996 to 1997. The second, Gerald McBoing-Boing, is an animated television adaptation of Geisel's 1951 cartoon of the same name.[38] Produced in Canada by Cookie Jar Entertainment, it ran from 2005 to 2007.

Geisel's books and characters are also featured in Seuss Landing, one of many islands at the Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando, Florida. In an attempt to match Geisel's visual style, there are reportedly "no straight lines" in Seuss Landing.[39]

References 1. ^ "Theodor Seuss Geisel". Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved 19

December 2009. 2. ^ a b c d e Register of Dr. Seuss Collection from the University of California, San

Diego 3. ^ Geisel, Theodor Seuss (2005). "Dr. Seuss Biography". in Taylor, Constance.

Theodor Seuss Geisel The Early Works of Dr. Seuss. 1. 228 Byers Road, Suite 201, Miamisburg, OH 45342: Checker Book Publishing Group. p. 6. ISBN 1933160012.

4. ^ Nell, Phillip (March/April 2009). "Impertient Questions". Humanities. National Endowment for the Humanities. http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2009-03/Questions.html. Retrieved 2009-06-20.

5. ^ a b Lambiek Comiclopedia. "Dr. Seuss". http://lambiek.net/artists/s/seuss_dr.htm.

6. ^ Fensch, Thomas (2001). The Man Who Was Dr. Seuss. Woodlands: New Century Books. pp. 38. ISBN 0930751116.

7. ^ Dr. Seuss (w, p, i). "Waiting for the Signal from Home" PM (February 13) 8. ^ Morgan, Judith; Morgan, Neil (1995). Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel. Random House.

pp. 119–120. ISBN 0679416862. 9. ^ Kahn, Jr., E. J. (1960-12-17). "Profiles: Children's Friend". The New Yorker.

Condé Nast Publications. http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1960-12-17#folio=046. Retrieved 2008-09-20.

10. ^ a b c Menand, Louis (2002-12-23). "Cat People: What Dr. Seuss Really Taught Us". The New Yorker. Condé Nast Publications. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/12/23/021223crat_atlarge?currentPage=all. Retrieved 2008-09-16.

11. ^ Wadler, Joyce (November 29, 2000). "PUBLIC LIVES; Mrs. Seuss Hears a Who, and Tells About It". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE7D7143DF93AA15752C1A9669C8B63. Retrieved 2008-05-28.

12. ^ UCSD Libraries: Geisel Library 13. ^ Hans Suess Papers 14. ^ "Google Holiday Logos". Google. 2009.

http://www.webcitation.org/5fFM3WgA0. Retrieved March 13, 2009. 15. ^ The Political Dr. Seuss Springfield Library and Museums Association 16. ^ a b Wood, Hayley and Ron Lamothe (interview) (August 2004). "Interview with

filmmaker Ron Lamothe about The Political Dr. Seuss". MassHumanities eNews. Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. Archived from the original on September 16, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070916044241/http://www.mfh.org/lamotheinterview/. Retrieved 2008-09-16.

17. ^ [1] Washington Post 18. ^ Peter Bunzel (1959-04-06). "The Wacky World of Dr. Seuss Delights the

Child—and Adult—Readers of His Books". Life (Chicago: Time Inc.). ISSN 0024-3019. OCLC 1643958. "Most of Geisel's books point a moral, though he insists he never starts with one. 'Kids,' he says, 'can see a moral coming a mile off and they gag at it. But there's an inherent moral in any story.' ".

19. ^ Cott, Jonathan (1983). "The Good Dr. Seuss" (Reprint). Pipers at the Gates of Dawn: The Wisdom of Children's Literature. New York: Random House. ISBN 9780394504643. OCLC 8728388.

20. ^ Buchwald, Art (1974-07-30). "Richard M. Nixon Will You Please Go Now!". The Washington Post (Katharine Weymouth): p. B01. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/19/AR2006041901099.html. Retrieved 2008-09-17.

21. ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88189147 22. ^ Mensch, Betty; Alan Freeman (1987). "Getting to Solla Sollew: The

Existentialist Politics of Dr. Seuss". Tikkun: 30. "In opposition to the conventional—indeed, hegemonic—iambic voice, his metric triplets offer the power of a more primal chant which quickly draws the reader in with its relentless repetition.".

23. ^ Fensch, Thomas (ed.) (1997). Of Sneetches and Whos and the Good Dr. Seuss. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0786403888. OCLC 37418407.

24. ^ Dr. Seuss (1958). Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories. Random House. OCLC 18181636.

25. ^ Dr. Seuss (1949). Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Random House. OCLC 391115.

26. ^ UCSD. "Mandeville Special Collections Library, UC San Diego". http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/seusscoll.html.

27. ^ Dr. Seuss (w, p, i). "The Isolationist" PM (July 16) 28. ^ Dr. Seuss (w, p, i). "The head eats.. the rest gets milked" PM (May 19)

29. ^ Dr. Seuss (w, p, i). "June 2009ou can't build a substantial V out of turtles!" PM (March 21, 1942)

30. ^ CNN.com (October 17, 1999). "Serious Seuss: Children's author as political cartoonist". http://www.cnn.com/books/news/9910/17/dr.seuss.war/index.html.

31. ^ Geisel, Theodor. "You can't kill an elephant with a pop gun!". L.P.C.Co. http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dsads/bizpostcards/postcardD101.shtml.

32. ^ Theodor Geisel. "India List". http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/India.html.

33. ^ Theodor Geisel. "Flit kills!". http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dsads/flit/flit.jpg. 34. ^ Theodor Geisel (w, p, i). "Try and pull the wings off these butterflies, Benito!"

PM (November 11) 35. ^ "Seussville: Biography". Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P..

http://www.seussville.com/lb/bio.html. Retrieved 2008-08-11. 36. ^ Debbie Hochman Turvey (2001-12-17). "All-Time Bestselling Children's

Books". Publishers Weekly. http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA186995.html. Retrieved 2008-04-23.

37. ^ Associated Press (February 26, 2004). Seussentenial: 100 years of Dr. Seuss. msnbc.com. Retrieved on April 6, 2008.

38. ^ Abby Ellin (2005-10-02). "The Return of . . . Gerald McBoing Boing?". nytimes.com. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/arts/television/02elli.html. Retrieved 2008-04-07.

39. ^ Universal Orlando.com. The Cat in the Hat ride. Retrieved on April 6, 2008.

Further information • Cohen, Charles (2004). The Seuss, the Whole Seuss and Nothing But the Seuss: A

Visual Biography of Theodor Seuss Geisel. Random House Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0375822488.

• Fensch, Thomas (ed.) (1997). Of Sneetches and Whos and the Good Dr. Seuss: Essays on the Writings and Life of Theodor Geisel. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0786403888.

• Geisel, Audrey (1995). The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss. Random House. ISBN 0679434488.

• Geisel, Theodor (1987). Dr. Seuss from Then to Now: A Catalogue of the Retrospective Exhibition. Random House. ISBN 0394892682.

• Geisel, Theodor; Richard Minnear (ed.) (2001). Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel. New Press. ISBN 1565847040.

• Geisel, Theodor (2005). Theodor Seuss Geisel: The Early Works, Volume 1. Checker Book Publishing. ISBN 1933160012.

• Geisel, Theodor; Richard Marschall (ed.) (1987). The Tough Coughs as he Ploughs the Dough: Early Writings and Cartoons by Dr. Seuss. New York: Morrow/Remco Worldservice Books. ISBN 0688065481.

• Lamothe, Ron. (2004). The Political Dr. Seuss. [DVD]. Terra Incognita Films. http://www.tifilms.com/dr_seuss/seuss.htm. Documentary aired on the Public Television System.

• MacDonald, Ruth K. (1988). Dr. Seuss. Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0805775242. • Morgan, Judith; Neil Morgan (1995). Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel. Random House.

ISBN 0679416862. • Nel, Philip (2007). The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats.

Random House. ISBN 9780375833694. • Nel, Philip (2004). Dr. Seuss: American Icon. Continuum Publishing.

ISBN 0826414346. • Weidt, Maryann; Kerry Maguire (1994). Oh, the Places He Went. Carolrhoda

Books. ISBN 0876146272.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Dr. Seuss

• Seussville site Random House • Dr. Seuss biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia • The Register of Dr. Seuss Collection UC San Diego • The Advertising Artwork of Dr. Seuss UC San Diego • Dr. Seuss Went to War: A Catalog of Political Cartoons UC San Diego • Dr. Seuss' Commencement Speech Lake Forest College • Dr. Seuss / Theodor Geisel artwork can be viewed at American Art Archives web

site • Dr. Seuss at the Internet Movie Database • Dr. Seuss at Find a Grave Retrieved on 2008-07-26 • A Tale of Two Cartoonists, Hugh Turley, Hyattsville Life and Times, April 2009

[hide] v • d • e

Works by Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

Bibliography

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street · The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins · The King's Stilts · The Seven Lady Godivas · Horton Hatches the Egg · McElligot's Pool · Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose · Bartholomew and the Oobleck · If I Ran the Zoo · Scrambled Eggs Super! · Horton Hears a Who! · On Beyond Zebra! · If I Ran the Circus · How the Grinch Stole Christmas! · The Cat in the Hat · The Cat in the Hat Comes Back · Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories · Happy Birthday to You! · Green Eggs and Ham · One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish · The Sneetches and Other Stories · Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book · Dr. Seuss's ABC · Fox in Socks · Hop on Pop · I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew · The Cat in the Hat Song Book · The Foot Book · I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories · The Lorax · Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! · The Butter Battle Book · Oh, the Places You'll Go! · I Wish That I Had Duck Feet · Daisy-Head Mayzie (posthumous) · My Many Colored Days (posthumous) · Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! (posthumous)

Sneetches and Other Stories · Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book · Dr. Seuss's ABC · Fox in Socks · Hop on Pop · I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew · The Cat in the Hat Song Book · The Foot Book · I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories · The Lorax · Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! · The Butter Battle Book · Oh, the Places You'll Go! · I Wish That I Had Duck Feet · Daisy-Head Mayzie (posthumous) · My Many Colored Days (posthumous) · Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! (posthumous)

Television adaptations

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) · Horton Hears a Who! (1970) · The Cat in the Hat (1971) · The Lorax (1972) · Dr. Seuss on the Loose (1973) · The Hoober-Bloob Highway (1975) · Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977) · Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You? (1980) · The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982) · The Butter Battle Book (1990) · The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (1996–1997) · Gerald McBoing-Boing (2005–2007)

Film adaptations

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) · The Cat in the Hat (2003) · Horton Hears a Who! (2008) · The Lorax (2012)

Other adaptations

Seussical (musical) · Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (musical) · The Grinch (video game) · Dr. Seuss: How The Grinch Stole Christmas! (video game)

Other work Private Snafu · The Pocket Book of Boners · Your Job in Germany · Design for Death · The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T · Hejji · Society of Red Tape Cutters · Flit

Related articles

Seuss Landing · Beginner Books · PM · Geisel Library · Dr. Seuss National Memorial · Read Across America

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss

Daylight Saving Time (Not Daylight "Savings" Time) Daylight Saving Time Extended by Four Weeks in U.S. Starting in 2007 By Matt Rosenberg, About.com Guide

See More About:

• daylight saving time • time zones • physical geography • dst • time

Whether "Spring forward" or "Fall back," we change our clocks one hour ahead or behind twice each year, thanks to Daylight Saving Time.

Getty Images Mar 9 2010 On Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 2 a.m., Daylight Saving Time begins in the United States.

Every Spring we move our clocks one hour ahead and "lose" an hour during the night and each Fall we move our clocks back one hour and "gain" an extra hour. But Daylight Saving Time (and not Daylight Savings Time with an "s") wasn't just created to confuse our schedules.

The phrase "Spring forward, Fall back" helps people remember how Daylight Saving Time affects their clocks. At 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March, we set our clocks forward one hour ahead of Standard Time ("Spring forward"). We "Fall back" at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in November by setting our clock back one hour and thus returning to Standard Time.

The change to Daylight Saving Time allows us to use less energy in lighting our homes by taking advantage of the longer and later daylight hours. During the eight-month period of Daylight Saving Time, the names of time in each of the time zones in the U.S. (map) change as well. Eastern Standard Time (EST) becomes Eastern Daylight Time, Central Standard Time (CST) becomes Central Daylight Time (CDT), Mountain Standard Time (MST) becomes Mountain Daylight Time (MDT), Pacific Standard Time becomes Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), and so forth.

Daylight Saving Time was instituted in the United States during World War I in order to save energy for war production by taking advantage of the later hours of daylight between April and October. During World War II the federal government again required the states to observe the time change. Between the wars and after World War II, states and communities chose whether or not to observe Daylight Saving Time. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which standardized the length of Daylight Saving Time.

Daylight Saving Time is four weeks longer since 2007 due to the passage of the Energy Policy Act in 2005. The Act extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November, with the hope that it would save 10,000 barrels of oil each day through reduced use of power by businesses during daylight hours. Unfortunately, it is exceedingly difficult to determine energy savings from Daylight Saving Time and based on a variety of factors, it is possible that little or no energy is saved by Daylight Saving Time.

Arizona (except some Indian Reservations), Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa have chosen not to observe Daylight Saving Time. This choice does make sense for the areas closer to the equator because the days are more consistent in length throughout the year.

Daylight Saving Time Around the World

Other parts of the world observe Daylight Saving Time as well. While European nations have been taking advantage of the time change for decades, in 1996 the European Union (EU) standardized a EU-wide European Summer Time. This EU version of Daylight Saving Time runs from the last Sunday in March through the last Sunday in October.

In the southern hemisphere, where Summer comes in December, Daylight Saving Time is observed from October to March. Equatorial and tropical countries (lower latitudes) don't observe Daylight Saving Time since the daylight hours are similar during every season; so there's no advantage to moving clocks forward during the Summer.

Kyrgyzstan is the only country that observes year-round Daylight Saving Time. The country has been doing so since 2005.

http://geography.about.com/cs/daylightsavings/a/dst.htm

Who Was Saint Patrick? Even though Saint Patrick the patron saint of Ireland and one of the most celebrated religious figures around the world, the factual information about his life and times is quite vague. Most information about St. Patrick has been twisted, embellished, or simply made up over centuries by storytellers, causing much ambiguity about the real life of St. Patrick. However, there are a some elements of his story about which most scholars accept to be true.

According to Coilin Owens, Irish literature expert and Professor Emeritus of English at George Mason University, Saint Patrick is traditionally thought to have lived "between 432-461 A.D., but more recent scholarship moves the dates up a bit." At the age of sixteen he was kidnapped from his native land of the Roman British Isles by a band pirates, and sold into slavery in Ireland. Saint Patrick worked as a shepherd and turned to religion for solace. After six years of slavery he escaped to the Irish coast and fled home to Britain.

While back in his homeland, Patrick decided to become a priest and then decided to return to Ireland after dreaming that the voices of the Irish people were calling him to convert them to Christianity.

After studying and preparing for several years, Patrick traveled back to Ireland as a Christian missionary. Although there were already some Christians living in Ireland, St. Patrick was able to bring upon a massive religious shift to Christianity by converting people of power. Says Prof. Owens, "[St. Patrick] is credited with converting the nobles; who set an example which the people followed."

But Patrick's desire to spread of Christianity was not met without mighty opposition. Prof. Owens explains, "Patrick ran into trouble with the local pagan priesthood, the druids: and there are many stories about his arguments with them as well as his survival of plots against them." He laid the groundwork for the establishment of hundreds of monasteries and churches that eventually popped up across the Irish country to promote Christianity.

Saint Patrick is also credited with bringing written word to Ireland through the promotion of the study of legal texts and the Bible, says Prof. Owens. Previous to Patrick, storytelling and history were reliant on memory and orally passing down stories.

Patrick's mission in Ireland is said to have lasted for thirty years. It is believed he died in the 5th century on March 17, which is the day St. Patrick's Day is commemorated each year.

The first year St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in America in 1737 in Boston, Massachusetts. The first official St. Patrick's Day parade was held in New York City in 1766. As the saying goes, on this day "everybody is Irish!" Over 100 U.S. cities now hold Saint Patrick's Day parades.

Facts about St. Patrick's Day Holiday

• St. Patrick’s Day is observed on March 17 because that is the feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is believed that he died on March 17 in the year 461 AD. It is also a worldwide celebration of Irish culture and history. St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland, and a provincial holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

• In Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day, people traditionally wear a small bunch of shamrocks on their jackets or caps. Children wear orange, white and green badges, and women and girls wear green ribbons in their hair.

• Many cities have a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Dublin, the capital of Ireland, has a huge St. Patrick’s Day festival from March 15-19, that features a parade, family carnivals, treasure hunt, dance, theatre and more. In North American, parades are often held on the Sunday before March 17. Some paint the yellow street lines green for the day! In Chicago, the Chicago River is dyed green with a special dye that only lasts a few hours. There has been a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston, Massachusetts since 1737. Montreal is home to Canada’s longest running St. Patrick’s Day parade, which began in 1824.

Facts about Saint Patrick

• St. Patrick was born in 385 AD somewhere along the west coast of Britain, possibly in the Welsh town of Banwen. At age 16, he was captured and sold into slavery to a sheep farmer. He escaped when he was 22 and spent the next 12 years in a monastery. In his 30s he returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary. He died at Saul in 461 AD and is buried at Downpatrick.

Facts about the Irish

• 34 million Americans have Irish ancestry, according to the 2003 US Census. That’s almost nine times the population of Ireland, which has 4.1 million people.

• Some American towns have “Irish” names. You could visit: Mount Gay-Shamrock, West Virginia; Shamrock Lakes, Indiana; Shamrock, Oklahoma; Shamrock, Texas; Dublin, California and Dublin, Ohio.

• The harp is the symbol of Ireland. The color green is also commonly associated with Ireland, also known as “the Emerald Isle.”

• The Irish flag is green, white and orange. The green symbolizes the people of the south, and orange, the people of the north. White represents the peace that brings them together as a nation.

• The name “lephrechaun” has several origins. It could be from the Irish Gaelic word “leipreachan,” which means “a kind of aqueous sprite.” Or, it could be from “leath bhrogan,” which means “shoemaker.”

Facts about Clovers

• According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the highest number of leaves found on a clover is 14!

• One estimate suggests that there are about 10 000 regular three-leaf clovers for every lucky four-leaf clover.

• Legend says that each leaf of the clover means something: the first is for hope, the second for faith, the third for love and the fourth for luck.

http://holidays.kaboose.com/saint-patricks-day/quick_facts.html

Vernal Equinox

The date (near March 21 in the northern hemisphere) when night and day are nearly the same length and Sun crosses the celestial equator (i.e., declination 0) moving northward. In the southern hemisphere, the vernal equinox corresponds to the center of the Sun crossing the celestial equator moving southward and occurs on the date of the northern autumnal equinox. The vernal equinox marks the first day of the season of spring. The right ascension at the vernal equinox originally was in the constellation Aries and the point of crossing was known as the first point in Aries (now actually in Pisces because of precession ).

The above plots show how the date of the vernal equinox shifts through the Gregorian calendar according to the insertion of leap years. The table below gives the universal time of the vernal equinox. To convert to U. S. Eastern standard time, subtract 5 hours, so the vernal equinox occurs on March 20, 2001 at 8:14 a.m. EST.

Note that the times below were calculated using VernalEquinox[] in the Mathematica application package Scientific Astronomer, which is accurate to within only an hour or so, and in practice gives times that differ by up to 15 minutes from those computed by the U.S. Naval Observatory (which computes March 21, 1999 at 01:46 UT instead of 01:36 UT and March 20, 2000 at 07:35 UT instead of 07:25).

Date UT Date UT Date UT

03-20-1980 11:05 03-20-1990 21:15 03-20-2000 07:25 03-20-1981 16:54 03-21-1991 03:04 03-20-2001 13:14 03-20-1982 22:43 03-20-1992 08:53 03-20-2002 19:03 03-21-1983 04:32 03-20-1993 14:42 03-21-2003 00:52 03-20-1984 10:21 03-20-1994 20:31 03-20-2004 06:41 03-20-1985 16:10 03-21-1995 02:20 03-20-2005 12:30 03-20-1986 21:59 03-20-1996 08:09 03-20-2006 18:19

03-20-1986 21:59 03-20-1996 08:09 03-20-2006 18:19

03-21-1987 03:48 03-20-1997 13:58 03-21-2007 00:08

03-20-1988 09:37 03-20-1998 19:47 03-20-2008 05:57

03-20-1989 15:26 03-21-1999 01:36 03-20-2009 11:46

Here is a QuickTime movie illustrating the tilt of the Earth's equatorial plane relative to the Sun which is responsible for the seasons. The dates of maximum tilt of the Earth's equator correspond to the summer solstice and winter solstice, and the dates of zero tilt to the vernal equinox and autumnal equinox.

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/VernalEquinox.html

Palm Sunday Definition and Summary Palm Sunday is the Sunday of Holy Week. Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Palm Sunday falls on March 28 in 2010 (dates in other years).

Basic Facts About Palm Sunday Liturgical Color(s): Red Type of Holiday: Sunday Feast Time of Year: Sixth Sunday of Lent Duration: One Day Celebrates/Symbolizes: Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem Alternate Names: Passion Sunday, Fig Sunday, Dominica in Palmis, Kyriake, Heorte Ton Baion, Heorte Baiophoros Scriptural References: Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-40

Introduction And as he rode [into Jerusalem), they spread their garments on the road. As he was now drawing near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" (Luke 19:36-38, RSV)

Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion (the full name), the first Sunday of Holy Week within the Lenten Season, commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem preceding his passion. As he entered, the people of Jerusalem recognized Jesus as their king, saying "Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"

Traditionally in the Western Church the Palm Sunday service begins with the "blessing of the palms," where the palms used in the procession that follows are blessed. It is during this time that the story of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem is read. Then a procession into the church building follows. If there cannot be a procession from the outside of the church, a solemn entrance, taking place entirely within the church, may be done. The hymns and psalmody are related to Christ's office as King. Traditionally the Gloria Laus (i.e. All Glory Laud and Honor), written by Theodulf of Orleans, is sung. Many times the worship service contains a "preaching of the passion," where different events in the last days of Christ are read publicly within the Eucharistic service. In modern Catholic services, the priest and/or a combination of readers read aloud Matthew 26:14-27:66 (Year A), Mark 14:1—15:47 (Year B), or Luke 22:14-23:56 (Year C).

Palm Sunday is also called Fig Sunday, because figs were traditionally eaten that day, memorializing the fig tree cursed by Christ after his entry into Jerusalem. In England Palm Sunday was called Olive or Branch Sunday, Sallow or Willow, Yew or Blossom

Sunday, or Sunday of the Willow Boughs, named for the local replacements for the traditional palm branches.

Various customs have developed to celebrate Palm Sunday. In the Slavic countries, the faithful walked through their buildings and fields with the blessed palms, praying and singing ancient hymns. They then laid palm pieces on each plot of ground, in every barn, building, and stable, as a petition was made for protection from weather and disease, and for a blessing upon the produce and property.

History The pilgrim Egeria attests to a Palm Sunday procession taking place in the Jerusalem Church at the end of the 4th century. In the Gallican Bobbio Missal of the 8th century we find a reference to blessing of the palms, which symbolize the victory of Christ. The more elaborate celebrations of the Middle Ages have been replaced by simpler services in the Western Church. Many denominations, including Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians celebrate Palm Sunday, in addition to Catholics and Eastern Christians. In most churches, the ashes for Ash Wednesday are derived from burned palms, left over from Palm Sunday liturgies.

http://www.churchyear.net/palmsunday.html

Passover Story "And thou shalt tell thy son" (Exod. 13:8) On Passover, we tell the story of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Slavery Jacob brought his family to Egypt to be with his son Joseph, who had become Viceroy of all Egypt. Over time, the children of Israel multiplied in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh feared the Israelites were becoming too influential and powerful. He started to oppress and enslave them as a way of weakening them. The Israelites were forced to build cities, erect monuments, construct roads, work in the quarries and hew stones. Despite the oppression, the Israelites continued to multiply. So Pharaoh decreed that all male newborns of Jewish mothers be killed. Moses Jacob's great-grandson, Amram, who married Yocheved, had a daughter Miriam and a son named Aaron. Yocheved then gave birth to a third child. To save him from being killed by Pharaoh's soldiers, she placed him in a basket which she hid amongst the reeds at the edge of the Nile River. When Pharaoh's daughter came to bathe in the Nile she discovered the baby. She called the baby Moses (drawn from the water) and decided to raise him herself in the palace. She hired the baby's mother, Yocheved, to be his nurse. As Moses grew, Yocheved taught him about his Jewish heritage. Plagues The suffering of the enslaved Jewish People increased. When Moses was 80 years old and his brother Aaron was 83 years old, they entered the palace of King Pharaoh to deliver a message: "The God of Israel said, 'Let My people go, that they may serve me." Pharaoh did not believe in the God of the Israelites, and he refused to let the Jewish slaves go free. When Pharaoh continued to refuse to liberate the children of Israel, Moshe and Aaron warned him that God would punish both him and his people with plagues. First, the waters of the land of Egypt turned into blood. Then the entire land was covered by the plague of frogs. The third plague had lice crawling forth from the dust to cover all of Egypt. Despite the plagues, Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go. The fourth plague consisted of hordes of wild animals roving all over the country

destroying everything in their path. After this plague, Pharaoh promised to let the Jews go on condition that they would not go too far. Moshe prayed to God, and the wild animals disappeared. But as soon as they had gone, Pharaoh changed his mind and decided not to let the Jewish slaves go free. Then God sent the fifth plague - a fatal pestilence that killed most of the domestic animals of the Egyptians. In the sixth plague, boils burst forth upon man and beast throughout Egypt. Now Moses announced to Pharaoh that a violent hailstorm would kill everything that was outside and not sheltered. Pharaoh started to relent and agreed to let the Jewish men go free, but Pharaoh insisted that the Jewish women and children and all their possessions remain in Egypt. Moshe and Aaron could not accept his offer. With the eighth plague, swarms of locusts devoured everything green that had escaped the hail and previous plagues. The ninth plague was a blanket of darkness that enveloped all of Egypt except for Goshen, where the children of Israel lived. Finally at midnight on the 15th of Nissan all firstborn in the land of Egypt began dying, including the firstborn of King Pharaoh, exactly as Moshe had warned. At this point, Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said to them: "Arise, go m out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve God as you have said, and go, and bless me also." Exodus The Jews departed Egypt in haste. They assembled in groups to eat the roasted paschal lamb and the unleavened bread (matza). Then after the sun rose on the 15th day of Hebrew month of Nissan, the Jewish nation rose together to leave the land of Egypt. After three days, Pharaoh started to regret that he had permitted the Israelites to leave. He mobilized his army in hot pursuit of his former slaves. He reached them near the banks of the Red Sea. Moses led the Israelites onwards until they came to the very borders of the Red Sea. Then God spoke to Moshe: "Lift up your rod, stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it; and the children shall go into the midst of the sea on dry ground." Moshe did as God ordered. Then a strong east wind blew all night, and the waters of the Red Sea divided. The Israelites marched along a dry path through the Red Sea until they reached the opposite side in safety. The Egyptians continued their pursuit, but the waters of the Red Sea closed over them and drowned Pharaoh's army.

Birth of the Jewish Nation Thus, God liberated the children of Israel from the Egyptians. And the children of Israel saw God's great power and believed in Him. The story of Passover recounts the birth of the Jewish people as a nation whose ultimate goal is to be a "light unto the nations."

http://judaism.about.com/od/passover/a/pesach_story.htm