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Parties on New Year‟s Eve are usually for friends. Most people 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 gift from the people of Norway.

St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick‟s Day is celebrated worldwide by Irish people and increasingly by non-Irish people usually in Australia and North America. Celebrations are generally themed around all things Irish and the colour green. Both Christians and non-Christians celebrate the secular version of the holiday by wearing green or orange, eating Irish food and/or green foods, taking in Irish drink such as Guinness or Baileys Irish Cream and attending parades.

As well as being a celebration of Irish culture, St. Patrick‟s Day is a

Christian festival celebrated in the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, and some other denominations. The day almost always falls in the season of Lent. Some bishops will grant an indult, or release, from the Friday no-meat observance when St. Patrick‟s Day falls on a Friday. When March 17 falls on a Sunday, church calendars move St. Patrick‟s Day to the following Monday and when the day falls during Holy Week (very rarely), the observance will be moved to the next available date or, exceptionally, before holy week.

Blue, not green, was the colour long-associated with St. Patrick. Green may have gained its prominence through the phrase “the wearing of the green” meaning to wear a shamrock on one‟s clothing. At many times in Irish history, to do so was seen as a sign of Irish nationalism or loyalty to the Roman Catholic faith. St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish. The wearing and display of shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a general feature of the holiday.

Easter

Easter is the oldest and the most important Christian festival, the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Holy Week is the week leading up to

Easter, commemorating events in the last days of Christ‟s life. The first day of

Holy Week is Palm Sunday. It marks the end of Lent and celebrates Jesus‟ arrival in Jerusalem. Holy Week also includes Maundy Thursday (the Last supper), Good Friday (the day on which Jesus was crucified), Holy Saturday (the Sabbath on

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which Jesus rested in the grave) and Easter Sunday (the day on which Jesus resurrected).

Easter usually comes in the month of April. It is what is called a “movable feast” because the date of it is fixed according to the moon. Easter is the first

Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after the vernal equinox (March 21). If the full moon falls on a Sunday then Easter is the next Sunday. This means that Easter can fall as early as March 22 or as late as April 25.

Like most Christian festivals, Easter has its origins in pre-Christian times. Our ancestors believed that the sun died in winter and was born anew in spring. Different Gods were thanked for bringing the Earth back to life. The word Easter is thought to have derived from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre.

Good Friday

On this day, Christians remember the day when Jesus was crucified on a cross. The name may be derived from “God‟s Friday” in the same way that goodbye is derived from “God be with ye”. Many churches hold a special service, especially around 3 o‟clock as that is about the time when Jesus died. Churches are not decorated. In most of them, pictures and statues are covered over. Good Friday is seen as a time of mourning.

Hot cross buns with their combination of spicy, sweet and fruity flavours have long been an Easter tradition. The pastry cross on top of the buns symbolises and reminds Christians of the cross that Jesus was killed on. The buns were traditionally eaten at breakfast time, hot from the oven. Many Christians fast on this day.

At the London pub “The Widow‟s Son”, a Hot Cross Bun Ceremony takes place each Good Friday. In the early 19th century, a widow who lived on the site was expecting her sailor son back home for Easter, and placed a hot cross bun ready for him on Good Friday. The son never returned, but the widow left the bun waiting for him and added a new bun each year. Successive landlords have kept the tradition going after the pub was opened.

From the reign of Edward III to that of Mary Tudor, monarchs used to bless a plateful of gold and silver rings every Good Friday at the Chapel Royal by rubbing

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the rings between their fingers. The royal touch was believed to cure epilepsy. The custom was abolished during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday is not a public holiday. However, Christians all over the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. On Easter Sunday they gather together for a sunrise service. Some Christians take part in an Easter vigil.

The traditional Easter gift is an egg. For Christians, Easter eggs symbolise new life. They believe that, through his resurrection, Jesus defeated death and sin and offers people the promise of eternal life if they follow his teachings. Eggs have been a symbol of continuing life and resurrection since pre-Christian spring celebrations.

The first eggs given at Easter were bird‟s eggs. They were brightly coloured to imitate the new, fresh colours of spring. The practice of decorating eggs was made even more famous by King Edward I of England who ordered 450 eggs to be gold-leafed and coloured for Easter gifts in 1290. As chocolate was becoming more wide spread in the 20th century, a chocolate version of the traditional egg was developed. The size of the chocolate egg has grown over the years and is now more likely to be the size of an ostrich egg rather than a small bird‟s egg. The eggs are either hollow or have a filling, and are usually covered with brightly coloured silver paper. Around 80 million chocolate eggs are eaten each year in Britain. Small chocolate eggs are hidden for the children to find on the traditional Easter Egg Hunt.

One of the most popular Easter Day activities is jarping. Players tap their opponents‟ eggs until one breaks. The victor goes through to the next round and it‟s a process of exclusion until there‟s only one good egg, the winner‟s, left.

After the lean months of winter and the fast weeks of Lent, food at Easter is a special treat. Boiled eggs are traditionally served at breakfast and then Easter cards and gifts may be exchanged. Roast lamb is the traditional meat for the main meal on Easter Day. It is served with mint sauce and vegetables. Simnel cake is baked for tea. Eleven balls of marzipan are placed around the top layer to represent the eleven true disciples (excluding Judas).

Easter Monday

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Easter Monday has little religious significance but is the occasion for numerous secular customs. Egg rolling is a very popular Easter Monday sport. Hard-boiled eggs are rolled down a hill. Customs differ from place to place. The winner‟s egg may be the one that rolls the farthest, survives the most rolls, or is rolled between two pegs.

At Biddenden in Kent, the Biddenden Dole in the form of bread, cheese, tea (formerly beer) and cake is distributed. The cake bears an image of two women said to be the founders of this charity, a pair of Siamese twins who were born in 1100 and died within a few hours of each other at the age of 34.

May Day

The first day of the month of May is known as May Day. It is the time of year when warmer weather begins and flowers and trees start to blossom. It is said to be a time of love and romance.

May Day celebrations have their origins in the Roman festival of Flora, goddess of fruit and flowers. The festival marked the beginning of summer. People would go out before sunrise in order to gather flowers and greenery to decorate their houses and villages with, in the belief that the vegetation spirits would bring good fortune.

Young women would rise early to cleanse their faces in May morning dew and blankets would be soaked in the same, in the belief that sick children would be cured once wrapped in them.

In some parts of Britain, May Day is called Garland Day. Two garlands are prepared by the village children. One is made of garden flowers and the other of wild flowers. Sometimes they put a doll inside to represent the goddess of spring. The garlands are carried round the houses, where they are shown and money is given to the children. This is the remnant of what was once a much more elaborate May Day custom involving garlanding the local fishing boats.

May Day is given over to various festivities. There is dancing in the street, archery contest and exhibitions of strength. The highlight of the day is the crowning of the May Queen. By tradition she takes no part in the games or dancing, but sits like a queen in a flower-decked chair and watches her “subjects”.

A traditional May Day dance is known as maypole dancing. People used to cut down young trees and stick them in the ground in the village. They danced

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around the maypoles in celebration of the end of winter and the start of the fine weather that would allow planting to begin. Many English villages still have a maypole and people dance around it on May Day. The tallest maypole is said to have been erected in London on the Strand in 1661; it stood over 143 feet high. It was felled in 1717, when it was used by Isaac Newton to support Huygen‟s new reflecting telescope.

Another traditional dance you will often see on May Day is morris dancing. The dancing is very lively and often accompanied by an accordion player. Morris dancers are usually men and wear different clothes depending on the part of the country in which they dance. They are often dressed in white with coloured belts across their chests. The dancers may carry white handkerchiefs that they shake, or short sticks that they bang against each other as they dance. There are also single dancers who wear special costumes.

The Battle of the Boyne - Orangemen’s Day

Orangemen‟s Day is celebrated on July 12. It commemorates the 1690

Protestant victory over Roman Catholic forces in the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. King William III of Orange, the Protestant King of England, defeated former King James II, a Catholic.

The Orange Order was established a century after the Battle of the Boyne and steadily grew in the 19th century as a patriotic bulwark against what many Protestants saw as treacherous Catholicism.

Orange walks are a series of parades held annually by members of the Orange Order during the summer in Northern Ireland, to a lesser extent in Scotland, and occasionally in England, the Republic of Ireland, and throughout the Commonwealth. All Orange walks include at least one lodge, with officers. The lodge will almost always be accompanied by a marching band. Elderly lodge members often travel the parade route in a vehicle such as a black taxi. It has become much more common in recent decades for members of Ladies‟ lodges to walk, although women are still massively outnumbered by men in most parades. Walks may be headed by a figure on a white horse dressed as Boyne victor William of Orange. A few parades also include others in historical fancy dress.

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St. Andrew’s Day

St. Andrew‟s Day is mainly celebrated north of the Borders and by Scots living outside of Scotland. The Saint‟s Day is usually a celebration of general

Scottishness with traditional food, music and dancing. Special St. Andrew‟s Day events and activities are held across Scotland including art shows, Scottish country dancing, ceilidhs, dance festivals, storytelling, reciting and writing poems, writing tall tales, cooking traditional Scottish meals, and even bagpipe playing.

Around midnight on November 29, it was traditional for girls to pray to St. Andrew for a husband. They would make a wish and look for a sign that they had been heard. A girl wishing to marry could throw a shoe at a door. If the toe of the shoe pointed in the direction of the exit, then she would marry and leave her parents‟ house within a year.

St. Andrew is also expected to look after singers, unmarried women, old maids, women who wish to become mothers, fish dealers, fishmongers and fishermen.

St. Andrew‟s Day is an official flag day in Scotland. The Scottish Government‟s flag-flying regulations state that the Flag of Scotland, the Saltire, (a white diagonal cross on the blue background) shall fly on all its buildings with a flagpole.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day is the most popular of bank holidays. It is celebrated on December 25. This day is a traditional family reunion day and a special day for children.

In November in Oxford Street, one of the main shopping streets in the centre of London, a famous personality ceremoniously switches on the Christmas lights (decorations) thus “officially” marking the start of the period of frantic Christmas shopping. And it certainly is frantic. Between that time and the middle of January, most shops do nearly half of their total business for the year, most have “sales” in early January when prices are reduced. People buy presents for the members of their household, relatives, especially children and close friends. To a wider circle

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of friends and relatives, and sometimes also to working associates and neighbours, they send Christmas cards.

In December, as Christmas gets closer, carols (usually, but not always, with a religious theme) are sung in churches and schools, often at special concerts, and also, though less often than in the past, by groups of people who go from house to house collecting money for charitable causes.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus. It is traditional in England for primary schools to put on a Nativity play.

The custom of hanging stockings comes from England. Father Christmas once dropped some gold coins while coming down the chimney. The coins would have been lost if they hadn‟t landed in a stocking that had been hung out to dry. Since that time children have continued to hang out stockings in hopes of finding them filled with gifts.

Children write letters to Father Christmas listing their requests, but instead of dropping them in the mailbox, the letters are thrown into the hearth. The draught carries the letters up the chimney and Father Christmas reads the smoke.

The hanging of greenery around the house, such as holly and ivy, is a winter tradition with origins well before the Christian era. Greenery was brought into the house to lift winter spirits and remind people that spring was not far away. The needlelike points of holly leaves are thought by some to resemble the crown of thorns that Jesus wore when he was crucified. The red berries may symbolize the drops of blood he shed. Mistletoe is found on willow and apple trees and the practice of hanging it in the house goes back to the times of the ancient Druids. It is supposed to possess mystical powers, which bring good luck to the household and ward off evil spirits.

The fir tree has a long association with Christianity. It began in Germany almost a thousand years ago when St. Boniface, who converted the German people to Christianity, was said to have come across a group of pagans about to sacrifice a young boy while worshipping an oak tree. In anger, St. Boniface is said to have cut down the oak tree and to his amazement a young fir tree sprung up from the roots of the oak tree. St. Boniface took this as a sign of the Christian faith.

It was not until the 16th century that fir trees were brought indoors at Christmas time. The decorating of Christmas trees, though primarily a German custom, has been widely popular in England since 1841 when Prince Albert had a

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Christmas tree set up in for his wife Queen Victoria and their children. At that time the tree would have been decorated with candles to represent stars.

A Nordic tradition of burning the Yule log goes back to medieval times. The Yule log was originally an entire tree, carefully chosen, and brought into the house with great ceremony. The large end would be placed into the hearth while the rest of the tree stuck out into the room. The log would be lit from the remnants of the previous year‟s log, which had been carefully stored away and slowly fed into the fire through the twelve days of festivities. Having the remains of the Yule log in the house throughout the year was thought to give protection against fire. It was considered important that the re-lighting process be carried out by someone with clean hands.

Gifts are opened on Christmas morning. The younger children will awake very early in the morning to find a stocking at the end of their bed and some presents on the floor. Later, the family will gather together to open all the presents that have been left under the Christmas tree.

The traditional Christmas dinner consists of stuffed roast turkey with roast potatoes and some other vegetables often Brussel sprouts. Other foods associated with Christmas are Сhristmas pudding, an extremely heavy sweet dish made of dried fruits (it is traditional to pour brandy over it and then set it alight) and Christmas cake, an equally heavy fruit cake, with hard white icing on top.

Christmas crackers are a party favourite in England. Traditionally there will be one cracker next to each plate on the Christmas dinner table. When the crackers are pulled, out falls a colourful party hat, a toy or gift and a festive joke.

Some children in the UK make Christingles in their classrooms and gather together to light them in a church service that raises money for the Church of England Children‟s Society. The Christingle consists of an orange representing the world; with a red ribbon around it representing the blood of Jesus; fruits and sweets are put on four cocktail sticks which are pushed into the orange representing the fruits of the earth and the four seasons; and a lighted candle is pushed into the centre of the orange representing Christ, the light of the world.

Boxing Day

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Boxing Day is the following day after Christmas Day. Explanations for the origin of this name vary. Historians say the holiday developed because servants were required to work on Christmas Day, but took the following day off. As servants prepared to leave to visit their families, their employers would present them with Christmas boxes. Today many people still give small gifts or monetary tips to regular visiting trade people (the milkman, dustman, coalman, paperboy etc.) and, in some work places employees get a Christmas bonus. It has also become traditional for working people to open their tip boxes on this day.

Another explanation goes back to medieval times when alms boxes were placed at the back of every church to collect money for the poor. On Boxing Day the boxes were opened and the contents distributed to the poor.

Traditionally Boxing Day is a day for fox hunting. Horse riders dressed in red and white with a pack of hounds chase foxes through the country side. Before a Boxing Day hunt, the huntsmen and huntswomen drink hot wine. But the tradition of the December 26th hunt is changing. The “sport” is slowly dying out due to the growing support for the fox.

Boxing Day is usually the day when families travel to meet together if they spent Christmas Day at their own home. It is a day of watching sports and playing board games.

VOCABULARY FOCUS

public holiday – официальный выходной день

bank holiday – официальный выходной день, установленный законом; неприсутственный день для английских банков

common law holiday – официальный выходной день, установленный общим правом

to observe holidays – праздновать, отмечать праздники

New Year‟s Eve / Hogmanay n – канун Нового года

rousing adj – воодушевляющий, восторженный

first-foot n – первый гость в новом году

crone n – старуха

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a bonnie lass – красивая девушка

harbinger n – предвестник, предшественник secular adj – светский, нецерковный denomination n – вероисповедание, конфессия

Lent n – Великий пост

indult n – индульгенция; особое разрешение

Holy Week – Страстная неделя

resurrect v – воскресать; resurrection n – воскресение, возрождение

Palm Sunday – Вербное воскресенье

Maundy Thursday – Страстной четверг, Чистый четверг

Good Friday – Страстная пятница

crucify v – распинать, мучить; crucifixion n – распятие на кресте

Holy Saturday – Страстная суббота the Sabbath – день отдохновения

a mov(e)able feast – праздник, который проводится в определенный день недели и не имеет определенной календарной даты

vernal (spring) equinox – весеннее равноденствие; autumnal equinox – осеннее равноденствие

to mourn smb‟s death – скорбеть, оплакивать чью-либо смерть fast v – поститься, воздерживаться от скоромной пищи sunrise service – заутреня

vigil n – всенощная; ночное бдение

Simnel cake n – пасхальный кулич; кекс с изюмом и цукатами

marzipan n – марципан (смесь измельченного в муку миндаля и сахарного сиропа или сахарной пудры)

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