In the UK (or Great Britain and Northern Ireland), families often celebrate Christmas together, so they can watch each other open their presents!

Most families have a Christmas Tree (or maybe even two!) in their house for Christmas.

The decorating of the tree is usually a family occasion, with everyone helping. Christmas Trees were first popularised the UK by Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria.

Prince Albert was German, and thought that it would be good to use one of his ways of celebrating Christmas in England.

Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe are also sometimes used to decorate homes or other buildings.

Most villages, towns and cities are decorated with Christmas lights over Christmas. Often a famous person switches them on. The most famous Christmas lights in the UK are in Oxford Street in London.

Every year they get bigger and better. Thousands of people go to watch the big ‘switch on’ around the beginning of November.

Like a lot of countries, Nativity Plays and Carol Services are also very popular at Christmas time.

The Church that I go to always has a Carols by Candlelight Service where the church is only lit up by candles.

It is a very special service and always makes me feel very Christmassy! Lots of other British churches also have Carols by Candlelight and Christingle services.

The most famous UK Carol service is the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols which is broadcast on Christmas Eve at 3.00pm from the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge.

In the UK, the main Christmas Meal is usually eaten at lunchtime or early afternoon on Christmas Day. It’s normally roast turkey, roast vegetables and ‘all the trimmings’ which means vegetables like carrots & peas, stuffing and sometimes bacon and sausages.

It’s often served with cranberry sauce and bread sauce. Traditionally, and before turkey was available, roast beef or goose was the main Christmas meal. One vegetable that is often at Christmas in the UK are brussel sprouts.

Dessert is often Christmas Pudding. Mince pies and lots of chocolates are often eaten as well!

Trifle is also a popular dessert at Christmas. It’s made in a large bowl and consists of a layer of sponge cake (or sponge fingers) at the bottom of the bowl (which is often soaked in sherry or brandy) then there’s a layer of fruit (normally suspended in a fruit flavored jelly) and it’s topped with a layer of custard and then whipped cream.

In Scotland there’s a variation called ‘Tipsy Laird’ which uses whiskey to soak the sponge and the fruit are raspberries.

The dinner table is decorated with a Christmas Cracker for each person and sometimes flowers and candles.

The UK is also famous for Christmas Cake – some people love it and some people really don’t like it! It’s traditionally a rich fruit cake covered with marzipan and icing – and often top with Christmas themed cake decorations like a spring of holly.

1. Dammam, Saudi Arabia (124.11 µg/m3)

Dammam air pollution ranked number 1 in the world

2. Lahore, Pakistan (111.63 µg/m3)

Lahore air pollution ranked number 2 in the world

3. Dhaka, Bangladesh (84.73 µg/m3)

Dhaka air pollution ranked 3rd worst in the world

4. Delhi, India (84.39 µg/m3)

Delhi city ranked number 4 most polluted city in the world

5. Muzaffarnagar, India (81.35 µg/m3)

Muzaffarnagar city ranked number 5 most polluted city in the world

6. Baghdad, Iraq (77.62 µg/m3)

Baghdad city ranked number 6 most polluted city in the world

7. Ghaziabad, India (74.72 µg/m3)

Ghaziabad air pollution ranked 7th worst in the world

8. Patna, India (67.20 µg/m3)

Patna air pollution ranked 8th worst in the world

9. Hapur, India (67.02 µg/m3)

Hapur city ranked number 9 most polluted city in the world

10. Peshawar, Pakistan (66.15 µg/m3)

Peshawar air pollution ranked 10th worst in the world

11. Lucknow, India (63.65 µg/m3)

Lucknow city ranked number 11 most polluted city in the world

12. East London, South Africa (60.69 µg/m3)

East London city ranked number 12 most polluted city in the world

13. Pokhara, Nepal (59.15 µg/m3)

Pokhara city ranked number 13 most polluted city in the world

14. Manama, Bahrain (57.38 µg/m3)

Manama city ranked number 14 most polluted city in the world

15. Chandigarh, India (53.16 µg/m3)

Chandigarh city ranked number 15 most polluted city in the world

The residents of Dhaka are hoping 2023 heralds an end to the city’s notorious traffic congestion after the Bangladeshi capital this week opened its first metro line.

A 2021 study by Khulna University put the annual cost of traffic jams in the city of 20 million people at $4.2 billion, adding that commuters spent an average of two hours a day traveling 5-10 km.

The new metro service is operated by the state-owned Dhaka Mass Transit Co. Ltd. and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Developed with funding from Japan, construction began in 2017. An initial 12-km section of the planned 20-km Line 6 connects Dhaka’s northern suburb of Uttara to Agargaon in the city center.

“We have initiated this mass rapid transit project aiming to address two major areas: reducing traffic congestion and environmental pollution,” M.A.N. Siddique, DMTCL’s managing director, told Arab News on Saturday.

“This is hugely timesaving for the passengers.”

While there are currently no stops between Uttara and Agargaon, new stations are scheduled to open in March, and by the end of the year the service is set to be expanded to Motijheel, Dhaka’s business and commercial hub.

“Currently, it takes around three hours to travel from Urtara to Motijheel, which will be reduced to 38 minutes when this metro rail service is fully operational,” Siddique said.

“Every day it will carry 500,000 people, which will automatically reduce the number of small vehicles and private cars on the streets.”

Uttara resident Abdur Rahman said he was delighted to have a metro service in his city.

“I have experienced metro rail services abroad but now I am enjoying this service in my country. I used to spend two hours traveling to my office in Mohammadpur area. Now it takes only 50 minutes. This service brought a huge benefit to me,” he said.

“I think in the new year, people will enjoy the benefits more and more and it’s expected that the traffic congestion in the city will be reduced.”

The new metro is also expected to make traveling in Dhaka safer, especially for women, many of whom fear being sexual harassed on the city’s roads.

Standing on the waterfront at Belem near the mouth of the River Tagus is located the Torre de Belém, which is arguably the most iconic symbol of Lisbon.

Originally conceived as a lighthouse, the tower was eventually built as a defensive fortress on the orders of King Manuel I.

Built in 1515 as a fortress to guard the entrance to Lisbon’s harbor, the Belem Tower was the starting point for many of the voyages of discovery, and for the sailors it was the last sight of their homeland.

It is also known as the Tower of St. Vincent. Belem tower is located in the civil parish of Santa Maria de Belém.

It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because of the significant role it played in the Portuguese maritime discoveries of the era of the Age of Discoveries.

The tower was commissioned by King John II to be part of a defense system at the mouth of the Tagus river and a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon.

The structure was built from lioz limestone and it is a prominent example of the Portuguese Manueline style.

Belem is composed of a bastion and a 30 m (100 feet), four floors tower. It has incorrectly been stated that the tower was built in the middle of the Tagus and now sits near the shore because the river was redirected after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. In fact, the tower was built on a small island in the Tagus River near the Lisbon shore.

The architect, Francisco de Arruda, had previously worked on Portuguese fortifications in Morocco, so there are also Moorish-style watchtowers and other Moorish influences.

Facing the river are arcade windows, delicate Venetian-style loggias, and a statue of Our Lady of Safe Homecoming, a symbol of protection for sailors on their voyages.

The interior of the bastion, with a circular staircase at the north end, has two contiguous halls with vaulted ceilings supported by masonry arches, as well as four storage lockers and sanitary facilities.

On the ground floor bunker, the floor is inclined towards the outside, while the ceilings are supported by masonry pilasters and vaulted spines.

Gothic rib vaulting is evident in this casemate, the rooms of the tower and the cupolas of the watchtowers on the bastion terrace. Peripheral compartments on the edges of the bunker allow the individual cannons to occupy their own space, with the ceiling designed with several asymmetrical domes of various heights.

The ancillary storerooms were later used as prison cells. The tower is about 12 meters (39 feet) wide and 30 meters (98 feet) tall.

The first floor interior contains the Sala do Governador (Governors Hall), an octagonal space that opens into the cistern, while in the northeast and northwest corners are corridors that link to the bartizans.A small door provides access via a spiral staircase to the subsequent floors.

On the second floor, the Sala dos Reis (King’s Hall) opens to the loggia overlooking the river, while a small corner fireplace extends from this floor to the third floor fireplace in the Sala das Audiências (Audience Hall).

The ceilings of all three floors are covered in hollow concrete slabs. The fourth floor chapel has a vaulted rib ceiling with niches emblematic of the Manueline style, supported by carved corbels.

Mesurado River, also known locally as Du-River, is a major river that flows through the capital city of the west African Republic of Liberia, Monrovia, into the Atlantic Ocean.

The beginning of the river is measured to be some 30 meters (98 feet) above the sea, and it has a total length of about 25 kilometers (16 miles).

The main source of the Mesurado is located just east of Monrovia in the area known as Sinda Town, and it is always under the influence of the Atlantic Ocean’s tide, where at high tide, the river is dammed up, making it a large lagoon which is perfect for a transportation of people and goods throughout the city.

As the transportation is a major problem in Monrovia, there are always traffic congestion from people who are trying to move from one to another part of the capital, and all of these difficulties have led the Liberians to use the Mesurado River as a crossing point to easily get across, not just to the slum community of West Point, but other parts as well.

As the Government of Liberia was advised to protect the mangrove area, nowadays, parts of the Mesurado River have been declared a nature reserve of great importance, parts mostly located in the lower reaches of the confluence with the Saint Paul River.

In this part is located also the historic Gabriel Tucker Bridge which is a major link between the islands that comprise the capital.

Christmas in Nigeria is a family event, a time when lots of family members come together to celebrate and have fun.

Most families, that live in cities, travel to the villages where their grandparents and older relatives live.

Many different languages are spoken in Nigeria.

In Hausa Happy/Merry Christmas is ‘barka dà Kirsìmatì’; in Yoruba it’s ‘E ku odun, e ku iye’dun’; in Fulani it’s ‘Jabbama be salla Kirismati’; in Igbo (Ibo) ‘E keresimesi Oma’; in Ibibio ‘Idara ukapade isua’ and it’s Edo it’s ‘Iselogbe’.

Many families will throw Christmas parties that will last all night long on Christmas Eve!

Many also attend Christmas Eve Service.

Then, on Christmas Morning, they go to church to give thanks to God.

Homes and streets are often decorated. Most homes will have an artificial Christmas tree.

Children love to play with firecrackers at Christmas.

The church choir may visit the church congregation in their homes to sing Christmas carols to them.

Christmas cards are sent to friends and family members. Presents are exchanged amongst family members.

In addition to serving turkey, a traditional Christmas meal in Nigeria may include beef, goat, sheep, ram or chicken.

Other dishes might included pounded yam, jollof rice, fried rice, vegetable salad and some type of stew.