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| Holidays and traditions in english-speaking countriesHolidays and traditions in english-speaking countries
I. Britain round the calendar. PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AND CELEBRATIONS There are only six public holidays a year in Great Britain, that is
days on which people need not go in to work. They are: Christmas Day, Besides public holidays, there are other festivals, anniversaries and simply days, for example Pancake Day and Bonfire Night, on which certain traditions are observed, but unless they fall on a Sunday, they are ordinary working days. NEW YEAR In England the New Year is not as widely or as enthusiastically observed as Christmas. Some people ignore it completely and go to bed at the same time as usual on New Year’s Eve. Many others, however, do celebration it in one way or another, the type of celebration varying very much according to the local custom, family traditions and personal taste. The most common type of celebration is a New Year party, either a
family party or one arranged by a group of young people. This usually
begins at about eight o’clock and goes on until the early hours of the
morning. There is a lot of drinking, mainly beer, wine, gin and whisky;
sometimes the hosts make a big bowl of punch which consists of wine,
spirits, fruit juice and water in varying proportions. There is usually a
buffer of cold meat, pies, sandwiches, savouries, cakes and biscuits. At
midnight the wireless is turned on, so that everyone can hear the chimes of Another popular way of celebrating the New Year is to go to a New The most famous celebration is in London round the statue of Eros in
Those who have no desire or no opportunity to celebrate the New Year themselves can sit and watch other people celebrating on television. It is an indication of the relative unimportance of the New Year in England that the television producers seem unable to find any traditional English festivities for their programmers and usually show Scottish ones. January 1st, New Year’s Day, is not a public holiday, unfortunately
for those who like to celebrate most of the night. Some people send New Also on New Year’s Day the “New Year Honours List” is published in the newspapers; i.e. a list of those who are to be given honours of various types – knighthoods, etc. In Canada New Year’s Day has a long tradition of celebration. New In USA many people have New Year parties. A party usually begins at
about 8 o’clock and goes on until early morning. At midnight they listen to
the chimes of Big Ben, drink a toast to the New Year and Sing Auld Lang In London crowds usually gather round the statue of Eros in Piccadilly There are some traditions on New Year’s Day. One of them is the old
In Scotland the New Year’s Day is also a public holiday. Some people
ignore it completely and go to bed at the same time as usual on New Year’s The most common type of celebration is a New Year party, either a
family party or one arranged by a group of young people. This usually
begins at about eight o’clock and goes on until the early hours of the
morning. There is a lot of drinking, mainly beer, wine, gin and whisky;
sometimes the hosts make a big bowl of punch which consists of wine,
spirits, fruit juice and water in varying proportions. There is usually a
buffet supper of cold meat, pies, sandwiches, savories, cakes and biscuits. Hogmanay Celebrations Hogmanay is a Scottish name for New Year’s Eve, and is a time for
merrymaking, the giving of presents and the observance of the old custom of The Night of Hogmanay Nowhere else in Britain is the arrival of the New Year celebrated so wholeheartedly as in Scotland. Throughout Scotland, the preparations for greeting the New Year start
with a minor “spring-cleaning”. Brass and silver must be glittering and
fresh linen must be put on the beds. No routine work may be left
unfinished; stockings must be darned, tears mended, clocks wound up,
musical instruments tuned, and pictures hung straight. In addition, all
outstanding bills are paid, overdue letters written and borrowed books
returned. At least, that is the idea! Holidays and traditions in English – speaking countries. In the cities and burghs, the New Year receives a communal welcome,
the traditional gathering-place being the Mercat Cross, the hub and symbol
of the old burgh life. In Edinburgh, however, the crowd has slid a few
yards down the hill from the Mercat Cross to the Tron Kirk – being lured
thither, no doubt, by the four-faced clock in the tower. As the night
advances, Princes Street becomes as thronged as it normally is at noon, and
there is growing excitement in the air. Towards midnight, all steps turn to
the Tron Kirk, where a lively, swaying crowd awaits “the Chaplin o’ the Many families prefer to bring in the New Year at home, with music or dancing, cards or talk. As the evening advances, the fire is piled high – for the brighter the fire, the better the luck. The members of the household seat themselves round the hearth, and when the hands of the clock approach the hour, the head of the house rises, goes to the main door, opens it wide, and holds it thus until the last stroke of midnight has died away. Then he shuts it quietly and returns to the family circle. He has let the Old Year out and the New Year in. now greetings and small gifts are exchanged, glasses are filled – and already the First-Footers are at the door. The First-Footer, on crossing the threshold, greets the family with “Your good health!” The First-Footers must take something to eat as well as to drink, and after an exchange of greetings they go off again on their rounds. ST. VALENTINE’S DAY – FEBRUARY 14 I’ll be your sweetheart, if you will be mine, All of my life I’ll be your Valentine … It’s here again, the day when boys and girls, sweethearts and lovers, husbands and wives, friends and neighbours, and even the office staff will exchange greetings of affections, undying love or satirical comment. And the quick, slick, modern way to do it is with a Valentine card. There are all kinds, to suit all tastes, the lush satin cushions,
boxed and be-ribboned, the entwined hearts, gold arrows, roses, cupids,
doggerel rhymes, sick sentiment and sickly sentimentality – it’s all there.
In his magazine, Punch, as long ago as 1880 he pointed out that no
sooner was the avalanche of Christmas cards swept away than the publishers
began to fill the shops with their novel valentines, full of “Hearts and It must have been one of these cards which Charles Dickens describes in Pickwick Papers. It was “a highly coloured representation of a couple of human hearts skewered together with an arrow, cooking before a cheerful fire” and “superintending the cooking” was a “highly indelicate young gentleman in a pair of wings and nothing else”. In the last century, sweet-hearts of both sexes would spend hours
fashioning a homemade card or present. The results of some of those
painstaking efforts are still preserved in museums. Lace, ribbon, wild
flowers, coloured paper, feathers and shells, all were brought into use. If
the aspiring (or perspiring) lover had difficulty in thinking up a message
or rhyme there was help at hand. He could dip into the quiver of Love or The first Valentine of all was a bishop, a Christian martyr, who before the Romans put him to death sent a note of friendship to his jailer’s blind daughter. The Christian Church took for his saint’s day February 14; the date of an old pagan festival when young Roman maidens threw decorated love missives into an urn to be drawn out by their boy friends. A French writer who described how the guests of both sexes drew lots for partners by writing down names on pieces of paper noted this idea of lottery in 17th century England. “It is all the rage,” he wrote. But apparently to bring the game into a family and friendly atmosphere one could withdraw from the situation by paying a forfeit, usually a pair of gloves. One of the older versions of a well-known rhyme gives the same picture: The rose is red, the violets are blue, The honey’s sweet and so are you. Thou art my love and I am thine. I drew thee to my Valentine. The lot was cast and then I drew And fortune said it should be you. Comic valentines are also traditional. The habit of sending gifts is
dying out, which must be disappointing for the manufacturers, who
nevertheless still hopefully dish out presents for Valentine’s Day in an
attempt to cash in. and the demand for valentines is increasing. According
to one manufacturer, an estimated 30 million cards will have been sent by Holidays and traditions in English – speaking countries. “Our cards cost from 6d to 15s 6d”, he says, but “ardent youngsters”
want to pay more.” They can pay more. I saw a red satin heart-shaped
cushion enthroning a “pearl” necklace and earrings for 25s. Another, in
velvet bordered with gold lace, topped with a gilt leaf brooch, was 21s There are all kinds: The sick joke – reclining lady on the front, and inside she will “kick you in the ear”. The satirical – “You are charming, witty, intelligent, etc.”, and “if you believe all this you must be …” – inside the card you find an animated cuckoo clock. And the take-off of the sentimental – “Here’s the key to my heart … use it before I change the lock”. And the attempts to send a serious message without being too sickly, ending with variations of “mine” and “thine” and “Valentine”. So in the 20th century, when there are no longer any bars to communication between the sexes, the love missives of an older, slower time, edged carefully over the counters by the publishers and shopkeepers, still surge through the letter boxes. PANCAKE DAY Pancake Day is the popular name for Shrove Tuesday, the day preceding
the first day of Lent. In medieval times the day was characterized by
merrymaking and feasting, a relic of which is the eating of pancakes. “It’s the day when I say to my wife: ‘Why don’t we make pancakes?’ and she says, ‘No, not this Tuesday! Anyway, we can make them any time.’” “It is a religious festival the significance of which escapes me. What “It’s pancake day and also the day of the student rags. Pancakes – luscious, beautiful pancakes. I never know the date – bears some relationship to some holy day.” The origin of the festival is rather obscure, as is the origin of the custom of pancake eating. Elfrica Viport, in her book on Christian Festivals, suggests that since the ingredients of the pancakes were all forbidden by the Church during Lent then they just had to be used up the day before. Nancy Price in a book called Pagan’s Progress suggests that the pancake was a “thin flat cake eaten to stay the pangs of hunger before going to be shriven” (to confession). Holidays and traditions in English – speaking countries. In his Seasonal Feasts and Festivals E. O. James links up Shrove The most consistent form of celebration in the old days was the all- over-town ball game or tug-of-war in which everyone let rip before the traditional feast, tearing here and tearing there, struggling to get the ball or rope into their part of the town. It seems that several dozen towns kept up these ball games until only a few years ago. E. O. James in his book records instances where the Shrove Tuesday celebrations became pitched battles between citizens led by the local church authorities. Today the only custom that is consistently observed throughout Britain
is pancake eating, though here and there other customs still seem to
survive. Among the latter, Pancake Races, the Pancake Greaze custom and ST DAVID’S DAY On the 1st of March each year one can see people walking around London
with leeks pinned to their coats. À leek is the national emblem of Wales. The day is actually called Saint David’s Day, after à sixth century abbot who became patron saint of Wales. David is the nearest English equivalent to the saint’s name, Dawi. The saint was known traditionally as “the Waterman”, which perhaps means that he and his monks were teetotallers. À teetotaller is someone who drinks nî kind of alcohol, but it does not mean that he drinks only tea, as many people seem to think. In spite of the leeks mentioned earlier, Saint David’s emblem is not that, but à dove. No one, not even the Welsh, can explain why they took leek to symbolize their country, but perhaps it was just as well. After all, they can't pin à dove to their coat! MOTHERING SUNDAY (MOTHERS’ DAY) Mothers’ Day is traditionally observed on the fourth Sunday in Lent
opportunity of going home to see their parents, especially their mother. When the labour situation changed and everyone was entitled to regular
time off, this custom remained, although the day is now often called St. Patrick’s Day It is not a national holiday. It’s an Irish religious holiday. St. ESTER During the Easter Holidays the attention of the progressive people in The character of the marches has changed over the years. The high-
point was reached in the early sixties; this was followed by a lapse in
enthusiasm when attendance fell off during the middle and late sixties. London’s Easter Parade London greets the spring, and its early visitors, with a truly spectacular Easter Parade in Battersea Park on Easter Sunday each year. It is sponsored by the London Tourist Board and is usually planned around a central theme related to the history and attractions of London. The great procession, or parade, begins at 3 p. m., but it is Holidays and traditions in English – speaking countries. Ñòðàíèöû: 1, 2 |
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