The last week or so has provided us with a few more cultural experiences.
One of those was the conclusion of the Six Nations rugby tournament. The Six Nations involved are Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland (Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland combined), Italy, and France. Wales began the tournament as the defending champions from last year – they even went undefeated (The Grand Slam) – but were unable to reproduce such heroic rugby feats again. They had to beat Ireland by 13 points or more last Saturday in order to retain the title. Alas, Ireland won on a last-minute kick, going undefeated and taking the title from Wales. There's always next year. The definite highlight of the season was Wales' victory over England, which is the most important match of the year for Wales. As one Welshman I know stated, his two favorite rugby teams are Wales, and whoever is playing England. Basically, when Wales plays rugby every pub in town is full of people watching it on the big screen (we watched it at home, for those interested).
Another cultural event was that of “Mothering Sunday,” which is also known as Mother's Day. The day originally had to do with the church calendar, but it's basically now the UK version of Mother's Day. The kids said a bible verse in the morning service, I did an object lesson for them about loving our mothers and loving Jesus, and then Joe gave an abbreviated Mother's Day sermon. Since the sermon was short, Marcia and Abbie were able to stay in the service rather than take the kids out for Sunday school. I haven't decided yet if Marcia will receive Mother's Day presents twice a year or only on Mothering Sunday.:-)
26 March 2009
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