297.WHEN DID PUPPET SHOWS START?
There are many kinds of puppets, as you know. There are hand puppets, rod puppets, shadow figures, and marionettes. They are little figures operated by strings and wires from above, by rods, or by hands from below. Puppets are as old as the theater itself. The first puppets were probably made in India or Egypt. Puppet theaters, thousands of years old have been found in both of these countries. Marionettes, which are puppets animated by strings from above, got their name in Italy. During the early Christmas celebrations, small, jointed nativity figures including the Christ Child and the Virgin Mary were made to move by strings. This kind of puppet became known as a marionette, or little Mary.
296.WHEN DID DRAMA BEGIN?
The word “drama” comes from a Greek term meaning a thing done. A drama tells a story by means of action and speech.
We do not know exactly when drama began. It grew out of religious ceremonies in which the life of a god was portrayed by a man or a group of men. The drama that we know today goes back to the times of ancient Greece.
295.WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF TENNIS?
Some games are invented spontaneously, and some games develop over long periods of time. Tennis has an ancient history. The Greeks and Romans had ball games which later became a French game called jeu de paume; this was probably the ancestor of modern tennis.
The word tennis probably comes from the French word “Tennez!” which means, “Take it! Play!” Some experts believe the game had its beginnings in Egypt, in Persia and among the Arabs, before Charlemagne.
