Text C. Holidays and Festivals

There are eight holidays a year in Great Britain. On these days people don't go to work. They are: Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter, May Day, Spring Bank Holiday, Late Summer Bank Holiday.

Most of these holidays are of religious origin. But nowadays they have lost their religious significance and are simply days on which people relax, visit their friends. All the public holidays (except New Year's Day, Christmas and Boxing Day) are movable. They don't fall on the same date each year.

Besides public holidays, there are other festivals, anniversaries, on which certain traditions are observed. But if they don't fall on Sunday, they're ordinary working days.

Lent

Lent is the period before Easter during which Christians practice various forms of fasting or abstinence. Easter itself is a movable feast, and Lent covers the forty weekdays before Easter, starting on a Wednesday. This Wednesday is known as Ash Wednesday. It is clear that if during Lent people abstained from eating certain forbidden foods, they did not relish throwing away any they had left. And hence, on the eve of Ash Wednesday there is a traditional jollification when eggs and butter are used up; the obvious ingredients for making pancakes. The eve of Ash Wednesday is known as Shrove Tuesday, the day of pancakes and gay social gatherings. There are still a number of ritual celebrations connected with Shrove Tuesday. At Westminster Public School the boys scramble for pieces of the hot pancake tossed among them, and in certain places, such as Olney in Buckinghamshire, there are pancake races to mark the last day of plenty - Shrove Tuesday - before life once more starts in sober earnest on Ash Wednesday.

Make Love, Not War

The 14^th of February is St Valentine's Day, the day when, according to ancient tradition, the birds choose their mates for the year. It was once the custom in England to draw lots for lovers on this day, the person drawn being the drawer's valentine, and given a present, sometimes of an expensive kind, but more often a pair of gloves. The valentine is now represented by a greeting card of a sentimental, humorous, or merely vulgar character.

The Winter is Past

Easter, the feast of the Christian Church commemorating the Resurrection of Christ, is derived from Eostre, a goddess of spring honoured by the pagan Anglo-Saxons in the month of April. When Christianity was introduced into England it was natural for the name of the heathen festival to be transferred to the Christian, the two falling about the same time.

Easter has been from ancient times the most important feast in the Christian year. Many popular customs, which probably go back to pagan times, are also associated with it throughout Europe, for example the giving of Easter eggs. Eggs are a symbol of life and fertility or recreation of spring. It was not, however, until the nineteenth century that the practice of presenting eggs of Easter was introduced into England.

Mothering Sunday

The 8^th of March is Mid-Lent Sunday or Mothering Sunday. It is claimed that the name Mothering Sunday came from the ancient custom of visiting the "mother church" at this time; but to schoolchildren it always meant a holiday, when they went home to spend the day with their mother or parents. At one time in Britain, especially in Lancashire, it was the custom to eat simnel cakes on this day. The word simnel is derived from a Latin word meaning fine bread.

Mothering Sunday is not the same as Mother's Day. The latter is an American festival celebrated on the second Sunday in May as an occasion for each person to remember his mother by some act of grateful affection.

I. Read and translate text C ‘Holidays and Festivals’ in writing. Use the dictionary.

II. Fill in the gaps:

1. Most of the holidays in Great Britain are of … origin. 2. All the public holidays are …. 3. There are a lot of festivals on which … are observed. 4. St. Valentine's Day is celebrated on ….

III. Decide if the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

1. All the public holidays are movable. 2. Easter eggs haven't been used before the middle of the last century. 3. On St. Valentine's Day boys and girls, sweethearts, husbands and wives, friends and neighbours exchange greetings of affection and love. 4. Lent is the period after Easter.

Поиск по сайту: