Christmas and New Year

Christmas is the one occasion in modern Britain when a large number of customs are observed (соблюдаются) by most ordinary people within the family. Even people who consider themselves to be anti-religious quite happily wish each other a “Happy Christmas” or a “Merry Christmas”. Every November in Oxford Street (one of the main shopping streets in the centre of London), a famous personality switches on the “Christmas lights” thus “officially” marking the start of the period of Christmas shopping. Most people buy presents for the other members of their household and also for other relatives, especially children. Some people also buy presents for their close friends. And to a wider circle of friends and relatives, and sometimes also to neighbours, they send Christmas cards. Some people even send such greetings to people whom they have not seen for many years. People also buy Christmas trees (a tradition imported from Germany in the 19^th century). Almost every household has a tree decorated in a different way (in many cases, with coloured lights). Most people also put up other decorations around the house.

The role of Father Christmas (or Santa Claus) and the customs associated with the giving of gifts vary from family to family. Most households with children tell them that Father Christmas comes down the chimney (дымоход) on the night of Christmas Eve (even though most houses no longer have a working chimney!). Many children lay out a Christmas stocking (чулок) at the foot of their beds, which they expect to see filled when they wake up on Christmas morning. Most families put wrapped presents around or on the Christmas tree and these are opened at some time on Christmas Day.

Other activities on Christmas Day may include the eating of Christmas dinner and listening to the Queen’s Christmas message. This ten-minute television broadcast is normally the only time in the year when the monarch speaks directly to “her” people on television.

The general feeling is that Christmas is a time for families. Many of the gatherings in houses on Christmas Day and Boxing Day consist of extended families (more than just parents and children). For many families, Christmas is the only time that they are all together.

Parties on New Year’s Eve, on the other hand, are usually for friends. Most people attend a gathering at this time and “see in” the new year with a group of other people. In London, many go to the traditional celebration in Trafalgar Square (where there is an enormous Christmas tree which is an annual (ежегодный) gift from the people of Norway).

In Scotland, New Year, called Hogmanay, is given particular importance – so much importance that, in Scotland only, 2 January as well as New Year’s Day is also a public holiday (so that people have two days to recover from their New Year’s Eve parties instead of just one!). Some British New Year customs, such as the singing of the song Auld Lang Syne, originated in Scotland. Another, less common, one is the custom of “first footing”, in which the first person to visit a house in the new year is supposed to arrive with tokens (признаки) of certain important items for survival (such as a lump (кусок) of coal for the fire).

Other notable annual occasions (другие примечательные ежегодные события)

Easter is far less important than Christmas to most people in Britain. Although it involves a four-day “weekend”, there are very few customs and habits associated generally with it. Some people preserve (сохраняют) the tradition of eating hot cross buns on Good Friday. Quite a lot of people go away on holiday at this time.

None of the other days of the year to which traditional customs are attached is a holiday, and not everybody takes part in these customs. In fact, many people in Britain live through occasions such as Pancake Day, April Fool’s Day or Haloween without even knowing that they have happened.

There is one other day which, although many people do not mark in any special way, is very difficult to ignore. This is 5 November, the day which celebrates a famous event in British History – the gunpowder plot ("Пороховой заговор"). It is called Guy Fawkes’ Day – or, more commonly, Bonfire Night. At the beginning of the 17^th century, a group of Catholics planned to blow up (взорвать) the Houses of Parliament while King James I was in there. Before they could achieve (выполнили) this, one of them, Guy Fawkes, was caught in the cellars (подвале) under Parliament with the gunpowder (порохом). He and his fellow-conspirators were all killed. At the time, the failure of the gunpowder plot was celebrated as a victory for British Protestantism over rebel Catholicism. However, it has now lost its religious and patriotic connotations (подтекст). In most parts of Britain, Catholic children celebrate it just as enthusiastically (восторженно) as Protestant children. Some children make a “guy” (пугало) out of old clothes stuffed with newspaper several weeks beforehand (заранее). They then place this somewhere on the street and ask passers-by for “a penny for the guy”. What they are actually asking for is money to buy fireworks with. On Guy Fawkes’ Night itself there are “bonfire parties” throughout (на всем протяжении)the country, at which the “guy” is burnt.

Поиск по сайту: