Festivals and Traditions
New Year
n the night ofDecember 31# people celebrate
New Year's Eve with partiesand fireworks.
☑ They cheer and wish each other 'Happy New
Year. Sometimes they join hands and sing
Auld Lang Syne. In London thousands of
people go to Trafalgar Square and some jump
the fountains. On New Year's Day many peopl into
e make resolutions: they decide to give up bad
habits and to lead better lives.
In Scotland New Year is called Hogm
anay. The Hogmanay Festival in Edinburgh
is one of
the world's biggest New Year parties, with
thousands of people coming from all over
the world
to enjoy the music, parad
es, street theatre and wonderful fireworks.
The Chinese New Year starts betwe
en January 21st and February 20th,
the position ofthe sun. It is celebrated
according to
with spectacular processions in areas
with a large
population ofChinese. An enormous paper
dragon, moved by many men inside its body,
1. SPEAKING dances through the streets to the music of
drums.
1. New Year in London.
Exchange questions and answers
with your class. Then talk about
your country's main festivities. Easter
1. Have you ever made any New
or Christians this is a most important feast celebrating the
resurrection
Year's resolutions? Did you keep
them?
P Christ,Besides the religiout tericen celebclebrating the reuee tion ofof Jesus
ests
Easter egg hunts and egg rolling on Easter
Monday (hard-boiled eggs are rolled down a
Do you have any special cakes hill; the winner is the one whose egg rolls the farthes
t).
and traditions at Easter? Traditionally Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny are the symbols of this festivity. Eggs
symbolize new life and bunnies symbolize fertility. They have both been
3. of a symbol
Do you have military parades in
regeneration since pre-Christian spring celebrations.
your country? When and where? Decorating and colouring eggs for
Easter has beenacommon custom in England
for centuries. The Easter Bunny is a mythica
4. Do you have any local carnivals l
in your country? When? What character that brings baskets filled with coloured
are they like? eggs, candy and toys to children.
'Hot cross buns' are traditional Easter cakes
5. Do you have a Remembrance
(eaten particularly on Good Friday). They
are
Day in your country? When? small cakes filled with currants, with
a pastry
Do you sing any special cross on top. They were once sold in the street
Christmas songs? When and by vendors singing
where?
Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns!
2. Cross buns.
What special food do you eat at One a penny, two a penny hot cross buns.
-
Christmas?
3. Trooping the colours.
Trooping the Colours
his is a military parade for the
I Queen's oficial birtihday. Ii takes
The British Isles
place in London in June and it is the
biggest royal event of the year. "Trooping
the colours" means carrying the flag.
Thousands of guardsmen parade
the
Colours (their regiment's flag) and salute
Part 1 -
in red uniforms and bearskins, and
the
Household Cavalry.
80
