Holly has been a mainstay of Christmas decoration since the fifteenth century, mentioned regularly in churchwardens’ records, but many of the specific traditions about it are found in much later accounts. It has been said that the kind of holly that comes into a house at Christmas could determine who would be master during the coming year, the wife or the husband. If the holly is smooth the wife will be master, if the holly is prickly, the husband will be the master.

Holly is palatable to livestock despite its spines and was extensively used as a winter fodder for livestock in medieval times. Hay and grains for wintering stock would often run short, and the livestock would eventually have to be slaughtered, causing problems to medieval economies in the following years. Thus, a supply of fresh browse would have been extremely valuable. Written records of payments and agreements involving the use of holly for livestock cover a wide period from the late 12th century to the mid-18th century, by which time the practice had been largely abandoned.

In the past, many believed that it was extremely unlucky to decorate before Christmas Eve. It was once thought that if every scrap of Christmas decoration was not removed from the church before Candlemas Day on February 2nd, there would be a death within a year in the family occupying the pew where the leaf or berry was left.

Festive ecology explores the relationships between the symbolism and the ecology of the plants, fungi and animals associated with cultural events such as festivals, processions and special occasions.

Holly, ivy and mistletoe, plants traditionally associated with Christmas, have had special roles in earlier religions and past cultures. Houses were decorated with evergreens and bunches of holly were given as tokens of friendship. When this festival was absorbed into the Christian calendar, holly and the other evergreens were absorbed as well.

The main areas in which belief comes to play in respect to Christmas decorations are which plants can be used and which are forbidden, when they are put up and taken down, and what happens to them later and whether they should be burnt or not.

Artificial decorations were not introduced until late Victorian times and do not seem to have gathered any beliefs of their own.

The Anhinga, sometimes called the Snakebird, Darter, American Darter, or Water Turkey, is a water bird of the warmer parts of the Americas. The word comes from the Brazilian Tupi language and means devil bird or snake bird.

It is a cormorant-like bird with a very long neck, and often swims with only the neck above water. When swimming in this way the name Snakebird is apparent, since only the light-colored neck appears above water, making the bird look like a snake ready to strike

Unlike ducks, the Anhinga is not able to waterproof its feathers using oil produced by the uropygial gland. Consequently, feathers can become waterlogged, making the bird barely buoyant. However, this allows them to dive easily and search for underwater prey such as fish and amphibians. They remain submerged for significant periods.

When necessary, the Anhinga will dry out its wings and feathers. It will perch for long periods with its wings spread to allow the drying process. If it attempts to fly while its wings are wet, it has great difficulty getting off the water and takes off by flapping vigorously while “running” on the water.

Anhingas will migrate towards the equator during winter but this range is determined by the amount of sunshine to warm their chilled feathers. They have been found as far north as the states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. A flock or group of anhingas is known as a kettle.

Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning the right, opportune moment, or supreme moment. The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of undetermined period of time in which something special happens. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature.

According to ancient Greeks, Kairos was the god of the fleeting moment, a favorable opportunity opposing the fate of man. Such a moment must be grasped by the tuft of hair on the personified forehead of the fleeting opportunity, otherwise the moment is gone and can not be re-captured. This is personified on sculptures of the representative deity by the back of head being bald.

Kairos was central to the Sophists, who stressed the rhetor’s ability to adapt to and take advantage of changing, contingent circumstances. In Panathenaicus, Isocrates writes that educated people are those who manage well the circumstances which they encounter day by day, and who possess a judgment which is accurate in meeting occasions as they arise and rarely misses the expedient course of action.

Kairos is also very important in Aristotle’s scheme of rhetoric. Kairos is, for Aristotle, the time and space context in which the proof will be delivered. Kairos stands alongside other contextual elements of rhetoric: The Audience, which is the psychological and emotional makeup of those who will receive the proof; and To Prepon, which is the style with which the orator clothes their proof.

The Kappa effect is a term relating to the human perception of time. A demonstration of this effect can be displayed when considering a journey made in two parts that take an equal amount of time. Between these two parts, the journey that covers more distance will appear to take longer than the journey covering less distance, even though they take an equal amount of time.

Practically speaking, a faster journey over more distance will still appear more time-consuming than a slower journey over less distance. Another phenomenon in human psychology, the Tau effect, describes a related effect also dealing with two equidistant parts in a journey. The part of the journey that takes more time to complete will appear to have covered more distance.

In essence, a slower journey will appear to cover more ground than a faster one, since it takes more time to do so. This effect is noted in the study of psychology.

It has also been found that long periods of time appear to pass faster as people grow older. The time from a child’s eighth birthday to the ninth seems an eternity, while the time from the sixty-eighth to the sixty-ninth seems to pass in a flash.

Cuneiform is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Written on clay tablets by means of a blunt reed for a stylus, cuneiform underwent considerable changes over a period spanning three millennia. Originally, pictograms were either drawn on clay tablets in vertical columns with a pen made from a sharpened reed stylus, or incised in stone. This early style lacked the characteristic wedge shape.

Before cuneiform, clay tokens were used count agricultural and manufactured foods. The tokens were placed in hollow clay containers and the lids were marked with the number of tokens inside by pressing them into the lids as many times as the amount of tokens. Later, it was realized that there was no need for both the tokens and the inscription on the containers, so only the inscription was used. Eventually, this system was streamlined with the introduction of symbols for numbers. For example, to avoid making 100 pictures to represent 100 tokens, a dedicated symbol was used.

The writing originated as a system of pictographs. The markings became successively more sophisticated, and pictographs developed into conventionalized linear drawings. The pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract. The number of characters in use also grew gradually smaller, from about 1,000 unique characters in the Early Bronze Age to about 400 unique characters in Late Bronze Age.

Cuneiform tablets could be fired in kilns to provide a permanent record, or they could be recycled if permanence was not needed. Many of the clay tablets found by archaeologists were preserved because they were fired when attacking armies burned the building in which they were kept.

The geostrophic wind is the theoretical wind that would result from an exact balance between the Coriolis effect and the pressure gradient force. This condition is called geostrophic balance. The geostrophic wind is directed parallel to isobars or lines of constant pressure at a given height.

Air naturally moves from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure, due to the pressure gradient force. As soon as the air starts to move, however, the Coriolis force deflects it. The deflection is to the right in the northern hemisphere, and to the left in the southern hemisphere.

As the air moves from the high pressure area, its speed increases, and so does its Coriolis deflection. The deflection increases until the Coriolis and pressure gradient forces are in geostrophic balance, At this point, the air flow is no longer moving from high to low pressure, but instead moves along an isobar.

Flow of ocean water is also largely geostrophic. Measurements of density as a function of depth in the ocean are used to infer geostrophic currents. Satellite altimeters are also used to measure sea surface height anomaly, which permits a calculation of the geostrophic current at the surface.

Quality time is an informal reference to time spent with loved ones, close family, partners or friends. The time spent is in some way important, special, productive or profitable. It is time that is set aside for paying full and undivided attention to the person and matter at hand.

It may also refer to time spent performing some favored activity such a hobby or packing suitcases to move across the world with loved ones. The opportunity to experience quality time, or the actual time available to enjoy quality time, is often limited. However, this is outweighed by the importance, intensity or value attached to events or interactions which occur during quality time.

Quality time therefore has a degree of emotional or social quality which other aspects of personal life may lack. Busy parents may also use the term to justify the limited amount of overall time they spend with their children.

In terms of critique, it is occasionally pointed out that true quality time cannot be rigidly scheduled, but that quality moments can happen if there are sufficient opportunities for sharing and that each adapts to the other’s needs and interests.