Her Majesty the Queen is graciously pleased to confer the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) to Raminder Singh Ranger popularly known as Rami Ranger, Chairman of Sun Mark Ltd, Sea Air & Land Forwarding Ltd and Bulldog Energy Drink Ltd in the New Year’s Honours List 2016 for outstanding services to business and community cohesion in the UK. Rami Ranger was awarded the MBE in 1995. His Company, Sun Mark Ltd is the only Company in Britain to have won an unprecedented 5 consecutive Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade from 2009 to 2013. His book 'From Nothing to Everything', charts his rags to riches story from the time of his birth in Gujranwala (now Pakistan) to his present day life in Britain. The book begins with the dramatic flight from the ancestral home during the turmoil of the partition of India in 1947 and describes the assassination of his father www.shaheednanaksingh.com who was a freedom fighter and opposed the break-up of India on the basis of religion. The hardship he underwent during his childhood are documented along with the pivotal role played by his mother, who worked as a teacher and was responsible in shaping him into a fine upstanding individual. In 1971 he immigrated to England and overcame prejudice to achieve success on a scale that he could hardly have imagined in his wildest dreams. He has been honoured By Her Majesty on record 8 times. No other Briton can claim this accolade. Having founded his first Company with just £2 and a typewriter in 1987, Rami Ranger now oversees Sun Mark Ltd, Sea Air and Land Forwarding Ltd, and Bulldog Ltd with a turnover of over £200-million a year. "My story shows that one does not need a rich father, an elite education or the old schoolboy network to help one in life. What one needs is self-respect, work ethics, commitment, vision and empathy for others," Ranger says in the book. Ranger is Chairman of the British-Sikh Association where he promotes the ethos of Sikh Gurus of peaceful co-existence. He has donated £250,000 to the London Southbank University to help set up Dr Rami Ranger Centre for Graduates Entrepreneurs. He donated £100,000 for the Gandhi Statue in Parliament Square, London which was unveiled last year by Hon. Arun Jaitley, Indian Finance Minister and the PM , The Rt. Hon. David Cameron MP. He is also a Trustee of the Gandhi Memorial Trust, which was formed to raise funds for the Mahatma Gandhi statue. He is also a Fellow of the Prince's Trust where he mentors disaffected youth. He has donated £100,000 to the Trust. He has donated £60,000 to the Indian Gymkhana to help construct a gym for visiting sportsmen and women. He also donated £40,000 to the University of West London to help with their library building.

Traditioanlly, Lohri Festival celebrates the onset of the harvest season in Punjab. People celebrate on this day to offer thanks to god for the precious crops before they begin harvesting them. It is also believed that Lohri night is the longest night of the year. This belief has scientific backing as well. It is known as the winter solstice. Closer home, according to the lunar calendar, Lohri Festival also marks the end of the coldest month of the year as the earth now starts to turn towards the sun. Rituals and Traditions around Lohri The traditions around the festival are appropriate and soulful. You build a bonfire, preferably a community bonfire as everyone gathers around it. This is the cynosure of this festival. The bonfire symbolizes Agni, the God of Fire. People warm up to the sparkling flames, sing songs and throw in foods like gajak,chikki,puffed rice, popcorn , rewri, sesame seeds, jaggery, peanuts and sugarcane to pay homage to your roots, in a matter of speaking. These offerings are fed to the fire to appease the gods and to ask them to bless everybody with abundance and prosperity. What to Eat on Lohri Lohri celebrates the harvest of rabi crops, those which are sown in the winter. It thus follows that winter foods like sarson (mustard leaves), sesame, whole wheat and spinach are an integral part of the festival. As part of the festivities, dinner is served after the bonfire ritual. The dinner typically includes 'Sarson ka Saag and Makki ki Roti', a Punjabi winter treat loved everywhere in the world. Til and rorhi (jaggery) are eaten as traditional festive foods. The words til and rorhi together make 'tilorhi', which eventually got rechristened to Lohri. These belly-warming foods are known to cleanse our bodies and boost them with renewed vigour as we step into a seasonal change. According to folklore, the flames of the fire are known to carry messages to the sun which is why the day after Lohri is warm and sunny bringing an end to gloomy, winter days. The following day is celebrated as Makar Sankranti to mark the beginning of bright days ahead. With winter almost giving North India a miss this year, we still welcome Lohri with open arms. This sputtering bonfire celebration is all about bonhomie and togetherness. A day to warm your hands, and your hearts.

The date of New Year’s Day seems so fundamental that it’s almost as though nature ordained it. But New Year’s Day is a civil event. Its date isn’t precisely fixed by any natural seasonal marker.Our modern celebration of New Year’s Day stems from an ancient Roman custom, the feast of the Roman god Janus – god of doorways and beginnings. The name for the month of January also comes from Janus, who was depicted as having two faces. One face of Janus looked back into the past, and the other peered forward to the future. For us in the Northern Hemisphere, early January is a logical time for new beginnings. At the December solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, we had the shortest day of the year. By early January, our days are obviously lengthening again. This return of longer hours of daylight had a profound effect on cultures that were tied to agricultural cycles. It has an emotional effect on people even in cities today.

Christmas in the United Kingdom In the UK (or Great Britain), 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 to 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. Children believe that Father Christmas or Santa Claus leaves presents in stockings or pillow-cases. These are normally hung up by the fire or by the children's beds on Christmas Eve. Children sometimes leave out mince pies and brandy for Father Christmas to eat and drink when he visits them. Now, some people say that a non-alcoholic drink should be left for Santa as he has to drive! Children write letters to Father Christmas/Santa listing their requests, but sometimes instead of putting them in the post, the letters are tossed into the fireplace. The draught carries the letters up the chimney and Father Christmas/Santa reads the smoke. There are some customs that only take place, or were started, in the UK. Wassailing is an old anglo-saxon custom that doesn't take place much today. Boxing Day is a very old custom that started in the UK and is now taken as a holiday in many countries around the world. In Scotland, some people celebrate New Year's Eve (which is called Hogmanay) more than Christmas! The word Hogmanay comes from a kind of oat cake that was traditionally given to children on New Year's Eve. All across the UK, in cities and towns, there are fireworks to celebrate the New Year. Two of the most famous fireworks displays are in London, along the River Thames, and in Edinburgh at the Hogmanay celebrations. Also in Scotland, the first person to set foot in a house in a New Year is thought to have a big effect on the fortunes of the people that live there! Generally strangers are thought to bring good luck. Depending on the area, it may be better to have a dark-haired or fair-haired stranger set foot in the house. This tradition is widely known as 'first footing'. In England it is sometimes said that a stranger coming through the door carrying a lump of coal will bring good luck. In Scots (a Scottish dialect) Happy/Merry Christmas is 'Blithe Yule'; in Gaelic it's 'Nollaig Chridheil'; in Welsh (which is spoken in some parts of Wales it's 'Nadolig Llawen' and Manx (spoken by some people on the Isle of Man) it's 'Nollick Ghennal'. Happy/Merry Christmas in lots more languages. 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. In Scotland, some people might even have Haggis instead of turkey!). One vegetable that is often at Christmas in the UK are brussel sprouts. I love them but lots of people don't! Dessert is often Christmas Pudding. Mince pies and lots of chocolates are often eaten as well! The dinner table is decorated with a Christmas Cracker for each person and sometimes flowers and candles. AGA Christmas Dinner Infographic 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. In the UK, it doesn't snow very often, but people always want to know if it will be a 'White Christmas'. The British definition, used by the UK Meteorological Office (who say if it has been a White Christmas in the UK or not!), is that a single snow flake has been seen falling in the 24 hours of Christmas Day! This doesn't happen a lot in the UK!!! Statistics show that in the UK, they get an official White Christmas about every 4 or 5 years and have real snow at Christmas about 1 in 10 years (but often this is only normally in Scotland!).