Презентация по теме "Официальные праздники Британии"

Официальные праздники Британии

Раздел: Страноведение.

Автор: Алешкина Оксана Валентиновна, учитель английского языка.

British holidays

The word holiday literally means 'holyday': many British holidays have religious origins but in fact are not religious today. These are days when people do not work, they relax and have fun.

Public holidays in Britain are also called 'Bank Holidays' because according to the Bank Holidays Act of 1871 banks are closed on these days.

In Great Britain there are not so many public holidays as in other European countries or in the USA.

The British public holidays are New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, the Spring Bank Holiday, the Summer Bank Holiday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Apart from public holidays the Britons have some other popular festivals and celebrations.

Let us learn a little more about the most interesting of them.

January

New Year's Eve: all over Britain on 31 December there are New Year celebrations. Most of people see the New Year with friends and relations. At midnight on New Year's Eve, everybody join hands and sings Auld Lang Syne, a poem by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. The most famous celebrations is in London in Trafalgar Square where there is a big crowd and someone usually falls into the fountain.

New Year became a public holiday only when the UK joined the EEC (European Economic Community). But it has always been a great holiday in Scotland. It has a special name - 'HogmanayIt is not clear where the word comes from but it is associated with giving food and drinks to all visitors to your home at New Year. According to Scottish beliefs the first person who visits your home on New Year's Day can bring good or bad luck. If the first visitor is a dark-haired man and he has a little gift for you, the coming year will be lucky and happy for you and your family. The first visitors who are called 'First Footers' go from house to house after midnight bringing a piece of coal to wish warmth, a piece of bread to wish food, and a silver coin to wish wealth. New Year's Day: on New Year's Day (1 January) people make New Year's resolutions. They decide to do something to improve their lives. For example, people decide give up smoking, spend less money, or go to the gym once a week.

'For Auld Lang Syne' means 'in memory of past times'.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind! Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne, We'll take a cup of kindness yet,

For auld lang syne! (by Robert Burns)

February

St Valentine's Day. St Valentine's Day is 14 February. It is not a public holiday but this festival of love and fun is celebrated by a lot of people. It's the day when boys and girls, sweethearts and lovers, husbands and wives, friends and neighbors, and even the office staff exchange greetings of love and romance.

I'll be your sweetheart if you will be mine. All my life I'll be your Valentine. St Valentine's Day has roots in several different legends. One of the earliest popular symbols of the day is Cupid, the Roman god of Love. Three hundred years after the death of Jesus Christ, the Roman emperors still wanted everyone to believe in the Roman gods. Valentine, a Christian priest, was sent to prison for his teachings. Before Valentine was executed on 14 February, he had cured the Jailer's daughter of her blindness. The night before the execution he wrote the jailer's daughter a letter and signed it 'From Your Valentine'. Another Valentine was an Italian bishop who lived at about the same time. He was imprisoned because he secretly married couples, contrary to the laws of the Roman emperor. 14 February, was also a Roman holiday, celebrated in honor of a Goddess, young men chose at random the name of a young girl to escort to the festivities. The custom of choosing a sweetheart on this date was popular in Europe in the Middle Ages, and then in the early American Colonies. For ages, people also believed that birds chose up their mates on 14 February! And now St Valentine's Day is a day for sweethearts. You can send 'a valentine', a greeting card named after the notes which St Valentine wrote from prison. People of all ages love to send and receive valentines. There are all kinds of valentines in shops to suit all tastes. You can also make a valentine yourself by cutting a heart out of colored paper, decorating it in your own way. Don't forget to write a sweet message.

March

Pancake Day: Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, is the day before Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent. It's a day of penitence, to clean the soul, and a day of celebration as the last chance to feast before Lent begins. Lent is a Christian fast which lasts for 40 days before Easter.

Pancake Day is traditionally a day of celebration, the last day that you can eat what you want until Easter. Pancakes are made of flour, eggs and milk: all things, which should not be eaten during Lent. Nowadays people do no fast, but some people give up sweets or smoking. In some villages and towns in Britain, there is a pancakes race every year. In all these races, one has to make the pancake first and then run, tossing the pancake as one goes.

The competitors are usually women.

Pancake races are thought to have begun in 1445. A woman had lost track of the time on Shrove Tuesday, and was busy cooking pancakes in her kitchen.

Suddenly she heard the church bell ringing to call the faithful to church for confession. The woman raced out of her house and ran all the way to church; still holding her frying pan and wearing her apron. Mothering Sunday: 3 weeks before Easter. A time for people living in the UK to think about their mothers. People often give flowers or chocolates or organize a special day out for their mothers at this time, and send a special "Mother's Day" card. St Patrick's Day: 17 March.

A celebration of Irish culture in London on the Sunday before St Patrick's Day. The church festival of St Patrick, is regarded as national day in Northern Ireland.

April

April Fool's Day: April Fool's Day is 1 April. День обманов: Many people think April Fool's Day is the funniest day of the year. You can play jokes on people, even on teachers. When they discover the joke, you say, "April Fool!". You have to play the joke before 12 o'clock midday, otherwise the joke's on you. This holiday originated in France. When the French first adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582, some people continued to use the old calendar and celebrated the New Year's Day on April 1. These people were called April fools. The custom of playing tricks on this day became popular in France and then spread to many other countries. Most April Fool jokes are in good fun and are not meant to offend anyone. Here are some typical jokes:

• Calling the zoo and asking to speak to Mr. Lion
• Putting Salt in the sugar-bowl
• Setting the clocks back an hour
• Saying to a friend, 'Oh my! You have four big holes in your coat. Buttonholes'
• Fixing a string to a wallet and leaving a wallet in the middle of the street

When someone tries to pick it up, the prankster pulls it out of the reach. Some people though prefer more cruel jokes, which are called 'practical jokes'. April Fool's jokes as any other jokes are as humorous or cruel as the people who perform them. On this day of national good humor, television and newspapers join in the fun

Easter: schools close for two weeks at Easter. Today Easter is one of the most beautiful religious holidays. People celebrate it according to their beliefs and their religious denominations.

Christians commemorate Good Friday as the day when Jesus Christ died and Easter Sunday as the day when he was resurrected. On Good Friday, people eat hot cross buns, which are small sweet rolls. They eat them toasted with butter. People give each other chocolate Easter eggs on Easter Sunday. The eggs are usually hollow and contains sweets. The celebration takes its name and many of its customs and symbols from a pagan festival called Eostre. Eostre was the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring time. Every spring northern European people celebrated the festival of Eostre to greet the coming of new life in nature. Later Christians related the rising of the sun to the resurrection of Jesus and their own spiritual rebirth. It might surprise you to learn how many modern Easter symbols come from pagan times. The egg, for example, was a fertility symbol long before the Christian era.

The ancient Persians, Greeks and Chinese exchanged eggs at their spring festivals. In Christian times the egg took on a new meaning, symbolizing the tomb from which Christ rose. Why the ancient people decorated eggs is not quite clear. But this custom is still very popular at Easter time.

The Easter bunny is also a pre-Christian fertility symbol. The rabbit was the most fertile animal our ancestors knew, so they selected it as a symbol of new life. Today on Easter Sunday, children wake up to find that the Easter Bunny has left them baskets of sweets. He has also hidden the eggs that they decorated earlier that week. Children look for the eggs all around the house. Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays in the UK and everybody enjoys them a lot.

May

May Day: in the villages throughout Britain on 1 May you can see children dancing round the maypole (a tall pole wreathed with flowers, to which in later times ribbons were attached and held by dancers) and singing songs. It is a pagan festival to celebrate the end of winter and welcome summer. The girls put on their best summer frocks, plaited flowers in their hair and eagerly awaited the crowning of the May Queen. The most beautiful young woman was crowned with a garland of flowers..

There was often a May King who reigned with her, or a Lord and Lady of the May.

This beautiful tradition has gradually almost died out. However, the Queen of May is still chosen in most counties, and in many villages school maypoles are erected around which the children dance.

June

Trooping the Color: this is the second Saturday in June and celebrates the Queen's official birthday (her real birthday is 21 April). She watches a parade of hundreds of soldiers.

There is lots of marching, military music and the soldiers are dressed in colorful uniform.

July

Father's Day: 3rd Sunday of July. A time for people living in the UK to think about their fathers. Wimbledon: this is one of the four great world tennis championships and the only one which is played on grass..

It is held in the last week of June and the first week of July at Wimbledon in south-west London. Henley Regatta: this is the largest rowing competition in Britain..

The regatta, or boat racing competition, has been held at Henley-on Thames since 1839.

August

"Bank holidays": this is the late summer holidays, in the end of August. They are named Bank holidays due to the fact that on those days the banks are closed.

Summertime is the most popular and on Bank holidays the townsfolk usually flock into the country or the coast. Bank holidays is also an occasion for big sports meetings at places like White City Stadium, mainly all kinds of athleticsThere are also horse race meetings all over the country, there are large fairs, with swings, roundabouts , a Punch and Judy show and every kind of side-show including bingo. Notting Hill Carnival: the last weekend in August there is a big carnival at Notting Hill in west London. People who take part dress up fabulous costumes. It is the biggest carnival outside Brazil. The Proms: this is a popular series of classic music concerts. The season lasts seven weeks.

Most of the concerts are performed at the Royal Albert Hall, in London. A lot of people like to go to the Last Night of the Proms.The orchestra plays popular tunes.

People sing along and wave flags.

September

Harvest Festivals: harvest festivals are held in the autumn. Traditionally, the festival was held to say thank you to God for a good harvest. This is a Christian festival and churches are decorated with fruit, vegetables and flowers

October

Halloween: 31 October is Halloween.

This is one of the children's favorites. Some of them follow the American custom called Trick or Treat. Dozens of kids dressed up as witches, ghosts, devils, goblins, skeletons, bats, or anything scary, knock at their neighbors' doors and yell 'Trick or treat' when the door opens. If they are given some sweets or another treat, the kids go away. Otherwise, they play trick on you, like squirting water on your face. Most people prefer giving treats. While giving something to each child they try to guess who is under the masks of pirates, princesses, ghosts and popular heroes. The word 'Halloween' comes from the words 'holy evening'. The day before the holy evening is known as All Hallows' Eve. Like so many other celebrations, Halloween originates from pre-Christian and Christian customs. 31 October was the eve of the Celtic new year.

The Celts were the ancestors of the present-day Irish, Welsh and Scottish people. The Celts believed that on this day ghosts came and mixed with people. The townspeople cooked all that day and when night fell, they dressed up and tried to resemble the souls of the dead. Hoping that the ghosts would leave peacefully before midnight of the new year, the people carried the food to the edge of town and left it for them. Much later, when Christianity spread throughout Britain and 31 October was no longer the last day of the year, Halloween became a celebration mostly for children.

November

Guy Fawkes' Night (Bonfire Night): Guy Fawkes' Night is a very popular festival in Britain. It commemorates the discovery of the so-called Gunpowder plot on 5 November, 1605. It dates back to 1605 when King James I was on the throne.

As a Protestant, he was very unpopular with Roman Catholics. Some of them planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament on 5 November of that year, when the King was going to open Parliament. Under the House of Lords they stored a lot of gunpowder, which was to be blown up by a man called Guy Fawkes. However, one of the plotters spoke about these plans and Fawkes was discovered, arrested and later he was hanged. Since that day the British traditionally celebrate 5 November by burning a dummy made of straw and old clothes on a bonfire. С того дня в Британии традиционно отмечают 5 ноября сжиганием на костре соломенного чучела в старых одеждах.

This dummy is called a 'guy' (like Guy Fawkes) and children can often be seen on the pavements before 5 November saying 'Penny for the guy'. If they collect enough money, they can buy some fireworks. Early Guy Fawkes celebrations used to be wild indeed, with home-made fireworks and huge bonfires in the streets. There used to be a lot of accidents. Fortunately, lots of limitations and fire regulations have been introduced, but fire brigades and police are still on alert, to make the day a real feast. Now one of the most popular places in England on Bonfire Night is Lewes, a cosy old town in East SussexThe impressive ceremony in Lewes has been famous for many years and it attracts thousands of visitors. The Bonfire Societies in the town are responsible for the arrangements. There are beautiful torchlight processions, bands, 'Bonfire Boys' in fancy dresses, songs and prayers round the fires.

December

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Christmas Day: the most important day of the holiday is 25 December, or Christmas Day. The word 'Christmas' comes from the words 'Christ's Mass' - the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. On Christmas Eye everything is rush and panic. Offices and public buildings close early and everybody does the last minute shopping. Streets, buses, trains are overcrowded with people hurrying home to be in time for Christmas. Most big cities, especially London, are decorated with colored lights and Christmas treesIn Trafalgar Square in London in front of the National Gallery, stands an enormous Christmas tree.

It is a gift from the people of Oslo. Every winter they cut down a tree for London. Then horses take it to the docks. When the tree arrives in Britain the police escort it to Trafalgar Square. The brightly decorated tree looks magnificent. It is a traditional custom in Britain for children to put stockings at the foot of their beds at Christmas for Santa Claus to fill them with presents. Every year almost a quarter of a million children post letters addressed to Santa Claus, telling him what presents they would like to get! The Post Office delivers the letters to a special office in Scotland and children get a reply on a card postmarked Reindeerland. Not only children send Christmas cards. The number of Christmas greetings sent by grown-ups is sometimes incredible. Christmas cards, gifts and decorations mean big money for the shops and big problems for the customers. But also great fun for both.

Boxing Day: this is 26 December. День Boxing Day takes its name from the old custom of giving presents or 'Christmas boxes' on this day. In the Middle Ages the priests opened boxes with gifts to give to the poor.Later it became a tradition to exchange gifts with friends and relatives on this day.