1) Why people celebrate, differences between countries
2) Public, family and religious celebration
3) Which do you like best? Why?
4) Czech, British and American holidays and celebrations
I think that people celebrate mostly because they want to have the day off. They want to enjoy every possible action, be with their friends and family or only drink a lot of alcohol with reason.
Public feast are for example St. Valentine’s day, New years Eve or mother’s day – it is celebrated in CR, GB and also in US. Only for US are public feasts Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day or Halloween. In UK St. Patrick’s Day and Guy Fawkes Night.
Family feasts ate birthdays and name days
And religious are Christmas and Easter.
St. Valentine’s Day: 14th February - it is a lover’s feast - people in love give some presents to their partners and send Valentine cards. Here is one Legend: In the 3rd century people believed in many Gods, but some people liked the ideals of only one God. They had to hide their feelings, because it was a crime punishable by death. There was one man who didn’t hide it – it was Valentinus. He was put in prison and sentenced to death. His jailer asked him to give some lessons to his blind daughter Julia, she also started to believe in only one god. They prayed together that Julia would one day be able to see. Suddenly there was a brilliant light in the prison cell and Julia started to cry: I can see. Valentinus was executed on February 14th, 270 A.D. Julia herself planted a pink-blossomed almond tree near his grave and it’s became a symbol of Love and friendship.
Independence Day commemorating the birth of the USA on 4. July. Independence from GB. 13 American colonies were now independent states and no longer a part of the British Empire. Declaration was written by Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the US. It is celebrating with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, picnics, baseball games, political speeches and ceremonies.
Thanksgiving Day is every 4th Thursday in November commemorating a day, when the Native Americans (Indians) helped white people (Pilgrim Fathers, which arrived from England on ship called Mayflower) with first harvest.
People do parades, they are wearing fancy costumes, have large balloons. Thanksgiving is beginning of the Christmas period.
Halloween 31 October. In November, winter is near, and hundreds of years ago people believed that bad spirits, like ghosts, came in the winter. They wanted the bad spirits to go away, so they made fires outsider and used big autumn fruit or vegetables to make jack o’lanterns. The name „jack o’lantern“ . To make a jack o’lantern, people cut a hole in a large fruit – usually a pumpkin. Then they put a candle in the hole, and cut a face in the side so the light was easy to see. Another thing people did, to make the bad spirits go away, was to dress like witches and ghosts. People often put up decorations for Hallowe’en parties, and play games. The decorations are usually black (for dark nights and death) and orange (for the autumn vegetables). In Canada and the USA, and sometimes in Britain, children ho „trick or treating“. They dress like witches and ghosts, and go to the houses around where they live, often in a small group. When someone answers the door, the children say: „Trick or treat?“ This means that the person in the house must decide. Either they give the children a treat (like fruit or chocolate) or the children will play a trick on them. For a trick the children sometimes throw something like an egg at the house.
St. Patrick’s Day - on 17. March. St. Patrick is a legendary person who was born in England in 385 A.D. As a child caught by pirates and sold to slavery, in this bad times he began to believe. He started to spread Christianity in Ireland. A legend says that he drove out snakes from Ireland (snakes – evil ) Typical color is green, people are wearing green clothes, clovers, eating green meals and coloring all things green.
Guy Fawkes Night - on 5. November, it commemorates the unsuccessful plot to blow up the House of Parliament with gunpowder in 1605. Guy Fawkes was a member of a group of Catholic conspirators. It is celebrate with bonfires and fireworks.
Easter is one of the most popular religious feast. Jesus was resurrected from the death on the third day after his crucifixion. Even if this feast is Christian feast, non Christians celebrate it too, because this day lost his original meaning. We celebrate on Monday after the first spring full moon.
Typical food is Easter stuffing with potatoes and soup from fresh herbs, the hot cross- bun and the Easter lamb. In the USA family decorate Easter Eggs on Saturday evening and on Sunday morning they find Easter Eggs in the house and in the garden.
Christmas the day of the birth of Christ.
CR – On 24th December, we have Christmas dinner about 6 o’clock consist by potato salad, carp, schnitzels and white sausages. Then we go in living room and unwrap presents.
In England: on the 24th December is the Christmas Eve. The Christmas tree is decorated with candles, bells and sweets. Socks are hung up and children believe that they will be filled by the Father Christmas. In the morning on 25. you can open the presents.Food consists of roast turkey or goose with different vegetables, potatoes and Christmas pudding. They have special crackers – cracker is a little present wrapped in colour paper. Traditionally a Christmas cracker is placed next to each plate on the Christmas dinner table. When Christmas pudding is made, the silver pence may be put into it and if you find this coin, you’ll be wealthy next year.
USA = they eat roast turkey with stuffing and many different
My favourite feast is Christmas, because whole family is together, everything smells like sweets, mood is very nice, we love each other and of course I get a lot of presents.
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