Athletics Meet ( LING Hong Ting )

Good morning everyone, today I would like to share some of my thoughts about the athletics meet recently held at the beginning of the month.

If you were to ask me to summarise the whole event in a few words, I’d definitely quote Michael Jordan’s words --- ‘Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.’ It’s normal that we desire to win in competitions. Sometimes, we’re so focused in the race and forget about the fun and the enjoyment. At the end of the day, there must be someone out there who’s doing a better job. Having fun during the process is what playing sports is truly about. It is the same case as we always talk about sportsmanship and putting friendship before races. For me, I have participated in the A grade 800m with my friends. It was, without a doubt, more about running (or should I say jogging) on the track with my buddies while earning one point for my house than competing against others, chasing after the top spot. I am not trying to say that there’s no fun in finishing in first place, I’m simply saying that it doesn’t matter about your position, what really matters is whether you had fun. Not finishing in the top 3 places doesn’t mean you’re not good enough, sometimes doing your best and finishing the race means complete and total respect to the sportsmen and women and that deserves just as equal applause and praise as for those who actually won the race.

For me, this year was not only about having fun on the track, but also being the vice-chairperson of my house, leading the Form 1 students to cheer our house’s athletes. I have never been so anxious watching others taking part in their events. It’s surely about whether they could win and earn points for the house or not. It’s also about giving my support to them, as this is an act of respect to the athletes and honoring their efforts.

Looking back on the athletics meet this year, it has never been so different. As the position has changed, the whole athletics meet was not simply about winning or losing. There are more elements included; such as sportsmanship, leadership and friendship. But all these elements, can be included into one word --- sports. As we all understand, sport is a way of life and life is a bit of everything.

Thank you for listening

By LING Hong Ting Henry Chairman of English Ambassadors

Halloween ( 5C 11 )

Good morning principal, teachers and fellow students, I am Gordon Lau from form 5C. Today I would like to talk about the history of Halloween. Before starting my sharing, I’d like to ask you some questions. Do you know what the date of Halloween is? Yes, it starts from 31st of October to the 1st of November. So what you are going to do on that day? Get candles? Play with friends at Ocean Park? Eat pumpkins with your family? Or will you consider about what the original purpose of celebrating Halloween is?

In history, Halloween is the traditional festival for Brittonic Celts. They thought that the end of October was the end of summer and the beginning of winter. They treated Halloween as the “darker half” in the whole year, which meant that spirits or fairies could be come out more easily into the world, and people would be dangerous on that day. To make the fairies scared, Celts would put on masks at Halloween.

On the other hand, for Christians, Halloween is a festival for them to commemorate the martyrs. In the early-church, because of persecution of the Roma government, many Christians were killed. After the death of martyrs, many Christians would commemorate them on the places that the martyrs were killed. When the time past, the number of martyrs increased. Some churches decided to set up a date to commemorate the martyrs. The first church of deciding setting up a festival for martyrs was the Antioch church. After that, the Roman Catholic Church shifted the date of All Saints' Day to 1st November, which is now the day after Halloween.

You may ask me that why Halloween would become a festival for people playing together? This is because the presence of American pop culture, which had changed Halloween from a festival of commemorating martyrs to a festival of playing with ghosts.

Before celebrating a festival, I suggest that we should first understand the original purpose of it, especially when we’re celebrating Halloween. If not, then why do we still need to celebrate the festival?

Have a great Halloween and thank you for listening.

By LAU Gordon 5C (11)

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