Sunday, November 3, 2013

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day

Every  year on  November 11th , Canadians  pause in  a  silent  moment  to  remember  men  and  women  who  have  served  and  still  continue  to  serve  Canada  during  times   of  war , during  conflicts  and  even  in peace . We  honour  those  who  fought  in  the  First  World  War  , the  Second  World  War  and  the  Korean  War  and   all  those  who  still  serve   since  then .

More  than  1,500,000  Canadians  have  served  our  country  this  way  and  more  than  100,000  have  died . They  gave  their  lives  and  their  futures   so  that we may  live  in  peace .


   ODE  OF  REMEMBRANCE   

  They  went  with  songs  to  the  battle , they  were  young

  Straight of  limb , true  of  eyes , steady  and  aglow

  They  were  staunch to  the  end  against  all odds uncounted

  They  fell with  their  faces  to  the  foe

  They  shall  not  grow  old , as we  that  are left  grow  old .

  Age shall  not  weary  them , nor  the  years  condemn

  At  the  going down of  the  sun  and  in  the  morning

  We  will  remember  them

  LEST  WE  FORGET....

Let  us  remember  them  in  our  prayers . Let  us  pray  for  our  country  of  birth , and  our  adopted  country ,. God  bless  these  countries ! ! ! God  Bless  us ! ! !

Posted ByMULTI SERVICES
Residential & Commercial Cleaning
Professional Cleaners without the Professional Price
416-782-3417
 multiservices@primus.ca

Friday, October 25, 2013

Ancient Origins of Halloween


Ancient Origins of Halloween




 

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

On May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III (731–741) later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1. By the 9th century the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted the older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It is widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

Halloween Comes to America

Celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups as well as the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.

Today's Halloween Traditions


 

The American Halloween tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.  

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Halloween Superstitions


 

Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world. Today's Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into cats. We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred; it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe. And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.

But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today's trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday—with luck, by next Halloween—be married. In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it. In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl's future husband. (In some versions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.) Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband. Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands' initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water; and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands' faces. Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry; at others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.

Of course, whether we're asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the good will of the very same "spirits" whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly.
 
Posted By Multi Services
Residential & Commercial Cleaning
www.multiservices-janitorial.com
416-782-3417

Happy Halloween
Are you having a party or planning an event, but just dont have enough time to clean. Dont Worry Multi Services can take care of that for you.

We do after Party Clean-up
Event Clean-up
Decoration takedown
And more

Have a Fun  Halloween
 Call Multi Services Now for a Free Estimate
416-782-3417

Tuesday, September 24, 2013



Hi

Welcome to “What Multi Services is talking about”.

 

Today we are going talk about cleaning your bathroom(the most dirtiest room in your home).



The bathroom is one of the most important places to keep clean.  Think about it, it’s the place where you expose your most sensitive body parts.  Weather your using the washroom, bathing or brushing your teeth.  If your bathroom is not clean you have an increased chance of catching an infection.

 

So Today we are going to show you how to clean your bathroom quickly but thorough

 

Before we go through the steps we are going to look at the tools we are going to need.

Broom and dustpan

3 cloths (Two for washing and one for drying)

A can of scrubbing bubbles

Either bleach or toilet bowl cleaner depending on your preference or how bad the ring in the toilet is

Dish soap

Bucket of water

 

Step 1

First thing we have to do is take anything out of the bathroom that will be in the way, such as a garbage can, plunger, and anything on the counter or back of toilet.  Just place them in the hall until you’re done.

 

Step 2

 Now that everything is out of the way we want to sweep the floor.  I know people usually sweep last but there is a reason for this.

 

Step 3

Now we are going to take the scrubbing bubbles and spray everything but the mirror.  Make sure you get the shower tiles.

 

Step 4

Now take your first wash cloth and soak it in the water and wash the sink down including the backsplash.  Now you want to have a soaking cloth so that it drips. Don’t worry if it gets on the floor that will help you later. Now wash out the cloth and do the same to the toilet.  Take your dry cloth and dry the sink.

 

Step 5

Now take your other wash cloth and wet it, put a couple of drops of dish soap on the cloth and scrub it together so it gets a lather.  Use it to wash the mirror, the soap will get rid of any grease or dirt on the mirror.  Then rinse the cloth and wipe again, and finally dry with the dry cloth. 

Now dry the toilet.



Step 6

Now take the bucket and get into the tub with your first wash cloth.  Soak the cloth and start washing off the wall, keep soaking the cloth during this process than wash the tub as well.

Now get out of the tub and turn on the shower using it to rinse the walls and tub.  Depending on the type of wall you can dry it with the dry cloth.

 

Step 7

Now mop the floor, all the soap and water that spilled on the floor from before has soaked into corners making it easier for you to just wipe out with the mop or you can just use one of your cloths.

 

Final step

Put everything back to where it belongs.

 

And there you have it. You now know how to clean your bathroom within a half hour and have it shining like new.

 

Thank you for viewing our blog and hope you can tune in for our next lesson “how to clean your fridge within a half hour”.

 

Posted by
 
Kerry 

Multi Services

Residential & Commercial Cleaning

Professional Cleaners without the Professional Price


416-782-3417

Heres Some Tips that Multi Services thinks will be helpfull for your laundry

 

Wash Nylons and Tights

stockings
To wash nylons or tights, place them in a mesh bag and wash with other delicate items without hooks, eyes, or other metal parts that could snag the stockings.
 

Clean Baby Clothes

baby
To get baby clothes their cleanest, treat in a pre-soak product, and then launder as usual. Soak items as soon after staining as possible and keep them wet until laundering.
 

Whiten Your Whites

towels
To whiten, soak in a solution of cold water and 1 teaspoon cream of tarter before hand washing with mild soap.
 

Remove Collar Stains

collar
To remove rings around shirt collars, rub liquid laundry detergent into the stain or collect soap bits in a mesh bag and rub into the affected area. Wash as usual.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Clean your bathroom within a half hour- Cleaning services in Toronto


Hi

Welcome to “What Multi Services is talking about”.

 

Today we are going talk about cleaning your bathroom.


The bathroom is one of the most important places to keep clean.  Think about it, it’s the place where you expose your most sensitive body parts.  Weather your using the washroom, bathing or brushing your teeth.  If your bathroom is not clean you have an increased chance of catching an infection.

 

So Today we are going to show you how to clean your bathroom quickly but thorough

 

Before we go through the steps we are going to look at the tools we are going to need.

Broom and dustpan

3 cloths (Two for washing and one for drying)

A can of scrubbing bubbles

Either bleach or toilet bowl cleaner depending on your preference or how bad the ring in the toilet is

Dish soap

Bucket of water

 

Step 1

First thing we have to do is take anything out of the bathroom that will be in the way, such as a garbage can, plunger, and anything on the counter or back of toilet.  Just place them in the hall until you’re done.

 

Step 2

 Now that everything is out of the way we want to sweep the floor.  I know people usually sweep last but there is a reason for this.

 

Step 3

Now we are going to take the scrubbing bubbles and spray everything but the mirror.  Make sure you get the shower tiles.

 

Step 4

Now take your first wash cloth and soak it in the water and wash the sink down including the backsplash.  Now you want to have a soaking cloth so that it drips. Don’t worry if it gets on the floor that will help you later. Now wash out the cloth and do the same to the toilet.  Take your dry cloth and dry the sink.

 

Step 5

Now take your other wash cloth and wet it, put a couple of drops of dish soap on the cloth and scrub it together so it gets a lather.  Use it to wash the mirror, the soap will get rid of any grease or dirt on the mirror.  Then rinse the cloth and wipe again, and finally dry with the dry cloth. 

Now dry the toilet.



Step 6

Now take the bucket and get into the tub with your first wash cloth.  Soak the cloth and start washing off the wall, keep soaking the cloth during this process than wash the tub as well.

Now get out of the tub and turn on the shower using it to rinse the walls and tub.  Depending on the type of wall you can dry it with the dry cloth.

 

Step 7

Now mop the floor, all the soap and water that spilled on the floor from before has soaked into corners making it easier for you to just wipe out with the mop or you can just use one of your cloths.

 

Final step

Put everything back to where it belongs.

 

And there you have it. You now know how to clean your bathroom within a half hour and have it shining like new.





 

Thank you for viewing our blog and hope you can tune in for our next lesson “how to clean your fridge within a half hour”.

 
Posted By

Kerry

Multi Services

Residential & Commercial Cleaning

Professional Cleaners without the Professional Price


416-782-3417

Thursday, June 27, 2013

All about Canada Day

Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada) is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act, 1867 (today called the Constitution Act, 1867), which united three coloniesinto a single country called Canada within the British Empire.[1][2][3] Originally calledDominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération), the holiday was renamed in 1982, the year the Canada Act was passed. Canada Day observances take place throughout Canada as well as among Canadians internationally. Commemoration Frequently referred to as "Canada's birthday", particularly in the popular press,[4][5][6] the occasion marks the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, intoOntario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867. Canada became a kingdom in its own right on that date,[n 1][8][9][10][11] but the British parliamentand Cabinet kept limited rights of political control over the new country that were shed by stages over the years until the last vestiges were surrendered in 1982, when the Constitution Act patriated the Canadian constitution.[n 2] Under the federal Holidays Act,[12] Canada Day is observed on July 1, unless that date falls on a Sunday, in which case July 2 is the statutory holiday, although celebratory events generally take place on July 1, even though it is not the legal holiday.[13] If it falls on a Saturday, any businesses normally closed that day will generally dedicate the following Monday as a day off. National Holiday of Canada, an amendment that effectively killed the bill.[34] Beginning in 1958, the Canadian government began to orchestrate Dominion Day celebrations, usually consisting of Trooping the Colourceremonies on Parliament Hill in the afternoon and evening, followed by a mass band concert and fireworks display. Canada's centennial in 1967 is often seen as an important milestone in the history of Canadian patriotism, and in Canada's maturing as a distinct, independent country, after which Dominion Day became more popular with average Canadians. Into the late 1960s, nationally televised, multi-cultural concerts held in Ottawa were added, and the fête became known as Festival Canada; after 1980 the Canadian government began to promote the celebrating of Dominion Day beyond the national capital, giving grants and aid to cities across the country to help fund local activities.
Canada Day fireworks in Barrie, Ontario Some Canadians were, by the early 1980s, informally referring to the holiday as Canada Day.[n 4] However, this practice did cause some controversy:[40] Numerous politicians, journalists, and authors, such as Robertson Davies,[41] decried the change at the time, and some continue to maintain that it was illegitimate and an unnecessary break with tradition.[35] Proponents argued that the name Dominion Day was a holdover from the colonial era, an argument given some impetus by the patriation of the Canadian Constitutionin 1982, and others asserted that an alternative was needed as the term does not translate well into French.[35] Conversely, these arguments were disputed by those who claimedDominion was widely misunderstood, and conservatively inclined commenters saw the change as part of a much larger attempt by Liberals to "re-brand" or re-define Canadian history.[35][41][42] Columnist Andrew Cohen called Canada Day a term of "crushing banality" and criticized it as "a renunciation of the past [and] a misreading of history, laden with political correctness and historical ignorance".[43][44]
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the official Canada Day celebration in Ottawa, 2011 The holiday was officially renamed as a result of a private member's bill that was introduced in the House of Commons when only twelve Members of Parliament were present. (This was actually eight members less than a quorum, but, according to parliamentary rules, the quorum is enforceable only at the start of a sitting or when a member calls attention to it.[45]) The bill passed the House in five minutes, without debate.[40] It met with stronger resistance in the Senate—some Senators objected to the change of name; Ernest Manning, who argued that the rationale for the change was based on a misperception of the name, andGeorge McIlraith, who did not agree with the manner in which the bill had been passed and urged the government to proceed in a more "dignified way"—but finally passed.[35] With the granting of Royal Assent, the name was officially changed to Canada Day on October 27, 1982. As the anniversary of Confederation, Dominion Day, and later Canada Day, was the date set for a number of important events, such as the first national radio network hookup by the Canadian National Railway (1927), the inauguration of the CBC's cross-country television broadcast (1958), the flooding of the Saint Lawrence Seaway (1958), the first colour television transmission in Canada (1966), the inauguration of the Order of Canada (1967), and the establishment of "O Canada" as the country's national anthem (1980). Other events fell on the same day coincidentally, such as the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916—shortly after which Newfoundland recognized July 1 as Memorial Day to commemorate the Newfoundland Regiment's heavy losses during the battle[46][47]—and the enactment of the Chinese Immigration Act in 1923—leading Chinese-Canadians to refer to July 1 as Humiliation Day and boycott Dominion Day celebrations until the act was repealed in 1947.[48]

Thursday, June 6, 2013

What is Summer


Summer is the warmest of the four temperate seasons, between spring and autumn. At the summer solstice, the days are longest and the nights are shortest, with day-length decreasing as the season progresses after the solstice. The date of the beginning of summer varies according to climate, culture, and tradition, but when it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and vice versa. Timing From an astronomical view, the equinoxes and solstices would be the middle of the respective seasons,[1][2] but a variable seasonal lag means that the meteorological start of the season, which is based on average temperature patterns, occurs several weeks later than the start of the astronomical season.[3] According to meteorologists,[4][5] summer extends for the whole months of June, July, and August in the northern hemisphere and the whole months of December, January, and February in the southern hemisphere. Under meteorological definitions, all seasons are arbitrarily set to start at the beginning of a calendar month and end at the end of a month. This meteorological definition of summer also aligns with the commonly viewed notion of summer as the season with the longest (and warmest) days of the year, in which daylight predominates. Diferent placees different months The summer season in the United States is commonly regarded as beginning on Memorial Day weekend (the last weekend in May) and ending on Labor Day weekend (the first weekend in September), more closely in line with the meteorological definition; the similar Canadian tradition starts summer on Victoria Day one week prior (although summer conditions vary widely across Canada's expansive territory) and ends, as in the United States, on Labour Day The meteorological reckoning of seasons is used in Austria, Denmark and the former Soviet Union; it is also used by many in the United Kingdom, where summer is thought of as extending from mid-May to mid-August. In Ireland, the summer months according to the national meteorological service, Met Éireann, are June, July and August. However, according to the Irish Calendar summer begins 1 May and ends 1 August. School textbooks in Ireland follow the cultural norm of summer commencing on 1 May rather than the meteorological definition of 1 June. In Chinese astronomy, summer starts on or around 5 May, with the jiéqì (solar term) known as lìxià (立夏), i.e. "establishment of summer", and it ends on or around 6 August. In southern and southeast Asia, where the monsoon occurs, summer is more generally defined as lasting from March to May/early June, the warmest time of the year, ending with the onset of the monsoon rains.[citation needed] Because the temperature lag is shorter in the oceanic temperate southern hemisphere[11] most countries in this region, especially Australia and New Zealand, use the meteorological definition with summer starting on December 1 and ending on the last day of February.[12][13] Weather Wet season thunderstorm at night in Darwin, Australia. See also: Hail, Tropical cyclone, and Wet season Summer is traditionally associated with hot dry weather, but this does not occur in all regions. In areas of the tropics and subtropics, the wet season occurs during the summer. The wet season is the main period of vegetation growth within the savanna climate regime.[14] Where the wet season is associated with a seasonal shift in the prevailing winds, it is known as a monsoon.[15] Image of Hurricane Lester from late August 1992. In the northern Atlantic Ocean, a distinct tropical cyclone season occurs from 1 June to 30 November.[16] The statistical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is 10 September. The Northeast Pacific Ocean has a broader period of activity, but in a similar time frame to the Atlantic.[17] The Northwest Pacific sees tropical cyclones year-round, with a minimum in February and March and a peak in early September. In the North Indian basin, storms are most common from April to December, with peaks in May and November.[16] In the Southern Hemisphere, the tropical cyclone season runs from 1 November until the end of April with peaks in mid-February to early March.[16][18] Thunderstorm season in the USA and Canada runs in the spring through summer. These storms can produce hail, strong winds and tornadoes, usually during the afternoon and evening.