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Guatemalan Culture
The culture of Guatemala reflects strong Mayan and Spanish influences and continues to be defined as a contrast between poor Mayan villagers in the rural highlands, and the urbanized and relatively wealthy mestizos population (known in Guatemala as '' ladinos'') who occupy the cities and surrounding agricultural plains. Cuisine Guatemalan cuisine reflects the multicultural nature of Guatemala, in that it involves food that differs in taste depending on the region. Guatemala has 22 departments (or divisions), each of which has different food varieties. For example, Antigua Guatemala is well known for its candy that makes use of many local ingredients: fruits, seeds and nuts, honey, condensed milk and other traditional sweeteners. Antigua's candy is popular with tourists. Many traditional foods are based on Maya cuisine and prominently feature corn, chilis and beans. Various dishes may have the same name as dishes from a neighboring country but in fact be quite different. For ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamales
A tamale, in Spanish , is a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of ''masa'', a dough made from nixtamalized corn, which is steamed in a corn husk or banana leaves. The wrapping can either be discarded prior to eating or used as a plate. Tamales can be filled with meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, herbs, chilies, or any preparation according to taste, and both the filling and the cooking liquid may be seasoned. ''Tamale'' is an anglicized version of the Spanish word (plural: ). comes from the Nahuatl . The English "tamale" is a back-formation from , with English speakers applying English pluralization rules, and thus interpreting the ''-e-'' as part of the stem, rather than part of the plural suffix ''-es''. Origin Tamales originated in Mesoamerica as early as 8000 to 5000 BC. The preparation of tamales is likely to have spread from the indigenous cultures in Mesoamerica to the rest of the Americas. According to archaeologists Karl Taube, William Saturno, and Davi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Easter
Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary . It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. Easter-observing Christians commonly refer to the last week of Lent, before Easter, as Holy Week, which in Western Christianity begins on Palm Sunday (marking the entrance of Jesus in Jerusalem), includes Spy Wednesday (on which the betrayal of Jesus is mourned), and contains the days of the Easter Triduum including Maundy Thursday, commemorating the Maundy and Last Supper, as well as Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus. In Eastern Christianity, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lent
Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christianity, Christian religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Christ, temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Mark and Gospel of Luke, Luke, before beginning his Ministry of Jesus, public ministry. Lent is usually observed in the Catholic Church, Catholic, Lutheranism, Lutheran, Moravian Church, Moravian, Anglican Communion, Anglican, United and uniting churches, United Protestant and Eastern Orthodoxy, Orthodox Christian traditions, among others. A number of Anabaptism, Anabaptist, Baptists, Baptist, Methodism, Methodist, Calvinism, Reformed (including certain Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continental Reformed, Presbyterianism, Presbyterian and Congregational church, Congregationalist churches), and Nondenominational Christianity, nondenominational Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xylophones
The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children's instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use. The term ''xylophone'' may be used generally, to include all such instruments such as the marimba, balafon and even the semantron. However, in the orchestra, the term ''xylophone'' refers specifically to a chromatic instrument of somewhat higher pitch range and drier timbre than the marimba, and these two instruments should not be confused. A person who plays the xylophone is known as a ''xylophonist'' or simply a ''xylophone player''. The term is also popularly used to refer to similar instruments of the lithophone and metallophone types. For example, the Pixiphone and many similar toys described by the makers as xylophones have bars ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idiophone
An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electrophones). It is the first of the four main divisions in the original Hornbostel–Sachs system of musical instrument classification (see List of idiophones by Hornbostel–Sachs number). The early classification of Victor-Charles Mahillon called this group of instruments ''autophones''. The most common are struck idiophones, or concussion idiophones, which are made to vibrate by being struck, either directly with a stick or hand (like the wood block, singing bowl, steel tongue drum, handpan, triangle or marimba) or indirectly, with scraping or shaking motions (like maracas or flexatone). Various types of bells fall into both categories. A common plucked idiophone is the Jew's harp. According to Sachs, idiophones Etymology The word ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marimba
The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the marimba has a lower range. Typically, the bars of a marimba are arranged chromatically, like the keys of a piano. The marimba is a type of idiophone. Today, the marimba is used as a solo instrument, or in ensembles like orchestras, marching bands (typically as a part of the front ensemble), percussion ensembles, brass band, brass and concert bands, and other traditional ensembles. Etymology and terminology The term ''marimba'' refers to both the traditional version of this instrument and its modern form. Its first documented use in the English language dates back to 1704. The term is of Bantu languages, Bantu origin, deriving from the prefix meaning 'many' and meaning 'xylophone'. The term is akin to kongo languages, Kikongo and Swahili ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing them from dessert bananas. The fruit is variable in size, color and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a peel, which may have a variety of colors when ripe. It grows upward in clusters near the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible seedless ( parthenocarp) cultivated bananas come from two wild species – '' Musa acuminata'' and ''Musa balbisiana'', or hybrids of them. ''Musa'' species are native to tropical Indomalaya and Australia; they were probably domesticated in New Guinea. They are grown in 135 countries, primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent to make banana paper and textiles, while some are grown as ornamental plants. The world's largest producers of bananas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plantain (cooking)
Cooking bananas are a group of banana cultivars in the genus '' Musa'' whose fruits are generally used in cooking. They are not eaten raw and are generally starchy. Many cooking bananas are referred to as plantains or ' green bananas'. In botanical usage, the term "plantain" is used only for true plantains, while other starchy cultivars used for cooking are called "cooking bananas". True plantains are cooking cultivars belonging to the AAB group, while cooking bananas are any cooking cultivar belonging to the AAB, AAA, ABB, or BBB groups. The currently accepted scientific name for all such cultivars in these groups is ''Musa'' × ''paradisiaca''. Fe'i bananas (''Musa'' × ''troglodytarum'') from the Pacific Islands are often eaten roasted or boiled, and are thus informally referred to as "mountain plantains", but they do not belong to any of the species from which all modern banana cultivars are descended. Cooking bananas are a major food staple in West and Central Africa, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elote
Corn on the cob is a culinary term for a cooked :wikt:ear#earofcorn, ear of sweet corn (maize) eaten directly off the corncob, cob. The ear is picked while the endosperm is in the "milk stage" so that the caryopsis, kernels are still tender. Ears of corn are steamed, boiled, or grilled usually without their green husks, or roasted with them. The husk leaves are removed before serving. Corn on the cob is normally eaten while still warm, and is often seasoned with salt and butter. Some diners use specialized skewers, thrust into the ends of the cob, to hold the ear while eating without touching the hot and sticky kernels. After being picked, the corn's sugar converts into starch: it takes only one day for it to lose up to 25% of its sweetness, so it is ideally cooked on the same day as it is harvested. Preparation The most common methods for cooking corn on the cob are frying, boiling, roasting, grilling, and baking. Corn on the cob can be grilled directly in its husk, or it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maize
Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native Americans planted it alongside beans and squashes in the Three Sisters polyculture. The leafy stalk of the plant gives rise to male inflorescences or tassels which produce pollen, and female inflorescences called ears. The ears yield grain, known as kernels or seeds. In modern commercial varieties, these are usually yellow or white; other varieties can be of many colors. Maize relies on humans for its propagation. Since the Columbian exchange, it has become a staple food in many parts of the world, with the total production of maize surpassing that of wheat and rice. Much maize is used for animal feed, whether as grain or as the whole plant, which can either be baled or made into the more palatable silage. Sugar-rich varieties called sw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rice
Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much less commonly, ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). Asian rice was domesticated in China some 13,500 to 8,200 years ago; African rice was domesticated in Africa about 3,000 years ago. Rice has become commonplace in many cultures worldwide; in 2023, 800 million tons were produced, placing it third after sugarcane and maize. Only some 8% of rice is traded internationally. China, India, and Indonesia are the largest consumers of rice. A substantial amount of the rice produced in developing nations is lost after harvest through factors such as poor transport and storage. Rice yields can be reduced by pests including insects, rodents, and birds, as well as by weeds, and by List of rice diseases, diseases such as rice blast. Traditional rice polyc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
