1 . Party themes are a popular way to add something special to birthdays, anniversaries or any type of gathering. There are many options for putting together a French-themed party.     1    

Including French phrases in your invitation is an easy way to set the mood for a French-themed party. Conveniently enough, a number of standard invitation and party phrases are already French. “Hors d’ oeuvre” can be substituted for “appetizer (开胃小菜)”, for instance. The commonly-used “R. S. V. P.” stands for the French “repondez sil vous plait”, meaning please respond.    2    

You can use the French spellings for other words, too, particularly if you are throwing a French-themed party for an anniversary or other occasions. For instance, “Coeur” is French for “heart”, “enchante” means “enchanted”, and as many are already aware, “l’ amour” means “love”.     3    

    4     French music can be downloaded online if you don’t have access to a collection. French food can also be researched online. Crème Brulee, Eclairs and madeleines are all popular French desserts.

Decoration can be an important part of carrying off any theme. For a French-themed party, one way to improve your decoration is to use well-known French icons. The Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe are both recognizable architectural structures, for instance.    5     Another option is to decorate your dining area like an outdoor cafe in Paris.

2 . Adults generally dislike getting older.     1     It’s no surprise, then, that many kids look forward to their birthdays, especially the 16th birthday. For girls in America, a “Sweet 16” birthday is an important rite (仪式) of passage that celebrates approaching adulthood.

In the United States, the 16th birthday is a mark that a girl has come of age. She is not a legal adult yet, but at 16, many girls can begin to learn to drive.     2     For many youths, the 16th birthday is a celebration of womanhood and marks the end of the girl’s childhood.

Society and media often put great importance on a girl’s 16th birthday.     3     Both of them have great personal importance. They think of their 16th birthdays like women think of their weddings.

    4     The event can be held in a garden, a park or somewhere else. Often, a girl has been planning her 16th birthday party for long and has a very specific idea about what she wants and who she wants to invite. As long as she doesn’t waste money, letting a girl plan her 16^th birthday is a great way to let her creativity and personality shine.

There are many theories about how the sweet 16th birthday came into being. Most connect the birthday celebration with the Mexican Quinceanera, which takes place on a girl’s 15th birthday, or European ancient coming-of-age celebrations.     5    

3 . It seems a bit strange to imagine ancient Egyptians celebrating their birthdays with layered cakes topped with lighted candles.    1    

The first birthday cakes were nothing of what they are today and weren’t even called birthday cakes.    2    At that time only they could afford to celebrate with something sweet. That is how cake became associated with special occasions.

Ancient Egyptians are credited with“inventing”the birthday celebration. And ancient Greeks borrowed the tradition but rightfully realized that a dessert would make the celebration all the more meaningful. So they baked moon-shaped cakes to offer up to the moon.    3    

It wasn’t just the ancient Egyptians and Greeks who celebrated with sweet cakes.    4    And it’s believed that the original birthday cake came from them. Rather than just celebrating birthdays, though,ancient Rome was known for celebrating all things with a cake including wedding,but there was an exception—the birthdays celebrated were only for men who were citizens,and they had to be famous.

Modern birthday parties are said to get their roots from the 18th-century German celebration. On the morning of a child’s birthday, he or she would receive a cake with lighted candles that added up to the child’s age plus one.    5    The birthday child would make a wish,try to blow out all the candles in one breath,and dig in.

4 . For the holiday gathering, you may be wondering how you’re going to pull it off. Before we go into the specifics, a few words of general advice: You don’t have to throw the party your parents did.     1    

We talked to a party-planning expert, Miller. Here’s her advice on how to host a stress-free holiday gathering without losing your mind.

The best way to avoid being exhausted is to be prepared. Many seasoned hosts set their tables several days in advance. “Always pretend your event is a few days before.” Miller says.    3     She recommends cleaning the house, rounding up an extra dining chair and buying drinks a few days in advance.

Before you choose your menu, determine your serving style.     4     If you’ve got the space for it, a family-style meal — where people sit around a table and food is passed on big plates — can cut down on the need for complicated decorations. “Food can be part of the design, so you’re not going crazy with flowers or anything,” she says.

The pandemic has made takeout an option not only for family dinners, but also for entertaining, because many restaurants now offer specific holiday dinner dishes to take home.     5     “You can do a party with literally no cooking,” Ramos says. “I like to live in the in-between, but it’s up to you.” Time- and stress-savers include relying on make-ahead dishes.

5 . Celebrating the harvest around the world

A harvest festival is a celebration of the fall months and the harvest that often accompanies these months.    1    

Canada

In Canada, people celebrate their harvest on Thanksgiving.     2     The English explorer Martin Frobisher (1535-1594) came upon the land, searching for the "New World". As he arrived in Canada in 1578, he celebrated surviving the long journey by holding a formal celebration and eating salt beef and peas.

Today, it has become a recognized holiday in the country that falls on the second Monday in October.     3     One of the highlights (高潮) of the holiday is a big Thanksgiving Day meal, which usually includes turkey and breads, which are prepared and presented in a unique Canadian way.

United Kingdom

Harvest festival activities are considered a special time for communities to come together in celebration. The harvest festival may start with carrying baskets of fruits and vegetables to a local church where people sing praise songs for a healthy harvest while praying for future harvests.     4     Large dinners may also be hosted where eache member brings a special dish to share with each other.

China

In 2018, the Farmers' Harvest Festival was launched in China. It's held on the day of the autumn equinox (秋分), which falls roughly on Sept 22 or 23.     5     In Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, farmers brought 100 seed varieties to the main site of the ceremony in Hanhu district and placed them in a wall to mark the achievements of the seed industry. In Heilongjiang province, the festival was combined with local traditions of the Daur people and the locals danced around bonfires.

6 . On the last day of each year, it has become a ceremony for large crowds to gather in the brightly lit chaos of New York’s Times Square to ring in new beginnings.     1     At the stroke of midnight, the crowd erupts into loud cheers.

    2     Because of the coronavirus pandemic, no one was allowed to gather in person, but there will be a virtual event for those wanting to watch it from home. This marked the first year that crowds were prohibited from flocking to Times Square. Though the ball drop was canceled for two years during World War II, people still came to observe the tradition and hold a minute of silence.

Over the past century, the shining ball has evolved from an iron and wood cage decorated with light bulbs to a colorful crystal object.     3     The Times Square ball began thanks to a metalworker, named Jacob Starr and the former New York Times publisher, Adolph Ochs. In 1907 Ochs commissioned Starr, who worked for sign-making firm Strauss Signs to create a new visual display. The new concept was based on time balls, nautical (航海的) devices that had gained popularity in the 19^th century. As time-telling became more precise, ship navigators (领航员) needed a standardized way to set their chronometers (精密计时表). Each day, harbors and observatories would raise and lower a metal ball at the same time to allow sailors to set their clocks to match the ball.     4    

Though Manhattan had been partially lit by electricity since the early 1880s, half of the American homes were still lit by gas lights and candles until the 1920s.     5       It was instantly popular.