Festivals in Great Britain. People in Great Britain celebrate different festivals in each of the four seasons. Some are connected with Christian religion.

Festivals in Great Britain

People in Great Britain celebrate different festivals in each of the four seasons. Some are connected with Christian

religion others did not start in the church. Family, food, presents are important part of most celebrations. In this presentation we

are going to describe the most popular English festivals:

- Christmas and New Year- Valentine’s Day

- Easter- Halloween

- Guy Fawkes’ DayTimes change, and festivals change too, but people still enjoy

them and will celebrate them in many years time.

Christmas

Christmas traditions

At Christmas , people remember when Jesus Christ was born and the

Christian Religion started . It is a very important time in the

Christian year, time for buying and giving presents, having parties,

and being with family. The Christmas holiday begins on 24

December: Christmas Eve. People finish work early, do shopping ,

cover the presents in special paper and put them underthe tree.

Christmas Day, 25 December is a holiday. After breakfast children open

presents around the tree. Christmas dinner is in the afternoon.

People have turkey with vegetables, hot mince pies and Christmas

pudding. Boxing Day, 26 December is also a holiday. It is another

day for eating, drinking, watching television or going out.

Santa Claus is a big man with white hair

and red clothes who brings presents for

children during the night. In Britain it is

usually called Father Christmas. It

is believed that Santa Claus comes down the chimney.

Christmas tree

In the middle of December most families Buy Christmas trees, put them inside the House, and put colourful decorations on them.

Christmas symbols

Christmas cracker

mistletoe

stocking

Christmas holly Christmas pudding

Mince pie

Presents and decorations

British children don’t open their presents on December 24th like in Poland. Father Christmas brings their presents at night. Then they

open them in the morning on the 25th. Children find their presents in sacks, pillow cases or socks hang up above the bed or fireplace.

Traditionally people decorate their trees on Christmas Eve 24thDecember. They take down them 12 days later, on Twelfth Night

(5th January)An older taradition is Christmas mistleote. People put

a piece of this green plant with its white berries over the door. Mistletoe brings good luck, people say. Also,

at Christmas British people kiss their friends and family under the mistletoe.

New Year

British celebrations of New Year are a defined and precise reflection of the customs, cultures, and traditions as followed and hold by British people. Even in the time of the modern world, when everything which one can think of has grown

itself into an unimaginable world, festivals and the way they are celebrated are no exception. However, with the New Year

celebrations in Britain, one can clearly draw a prominent exception in the list.

British celebrate New Year on January 1, i.e. the first date of the first month of the Georgian calendar. British celebrations reflect high vigor, enthusiasm, pleasure, and delight; and at

the same times give a glance of their rich customs and traditions. They reflect the British belief that one should

initiate anything with positive hopes and beliefs of pleasurable coming time.

Easter

A few days before Easter the preparations start. The most important part of Easter are Easter eggs. They mean spring and new life. Some eggs are covered with wax and painted

after , which makes them look really pretty. Others are decorated with crayons.

On Easter Sunday, people give chocolate eggs as presents. Some mothers and fathers tell their children that

Easter Rabbit brings the eggs and hides them in the garden. The children must go outside and look for them.

Easter Bunny

Valentine’s Day

Valentine's Day - an annual Valentine's Day falling on February 14. The name comes from St. Valentine, whose liturgical memorial of the Catholic Church is also

celebrated on this day.It is customary on this day to send letters containing confessions of love (often written in verse). In the West, particularly in Britain and the United States, the revered Saint. Valentine as the patron saint of lovers. February 14, became a

chance to bestow a small gift shop.Valentine's Day is celebrated in southern and western Europe from the Middle Ages.

Northern and Eastern Europe joined the group much later Valentine's Day. The prototype was the ancient Roman feast of Valentine's Day: Luperkalia.

Although the Catholic patron saint of the holidays, it is sometimes associated with convergent timely custom dating back to the Roman Empire, which consisted mainly of seeking chosen one heart, for example, by drawing its name from a special urn. The modern day love but there is no direct relationship with one particular festival

of ancient Rome, although it is associated with the mythological figures such as Cupid, Eros, Pan and Juno Februata.

It is possible that customs associated with this day refer to the ancient Roman feast called Luperkaliami, celebrated on 14-15 February in honor of Juno, the Roman

goddess of women and marriage, and the Lord, the God o nature.

SYMBOLSValentine's Day symbols include red or pink hearts, red roses, teddy bears

with roses or hearts and couples kissing or holding each other. These symbols are printed on cards, wrapping paper, lingerie and clothing and

made of chocolate or other types of food.

Pictures or models of Cupid are also often displayed in the run up to and on Valentine's Day in the UK. Cupid is usually

portrayed as a small winged figure with a bow and arrow. According to mythology, he uses his bow and arrow to strike

romantic love into people's hearts.

Halloween

Festival, which came to us from America, despite appearances, it does not come from there. This custom is celebrated on October 31,

that on Christmas Eve of All Saints, a tradition dating back to the Celts, living long before the beginning of our era, today's areas of

England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and northern France. More precisely - it comes

with a ceremony Celtic priests, called Druids, who took the pagan Scotland features judges, doctors and magicians.

Halloween It is celebrated on 31 st October. This holiday has a pagan origin. It dates back thousands of years to Celtic traditions.

Celts celebrated this holiday as the end of the old year and beginning of a new one. Then the Celtic tradition mixed with Roman Catholic

holiday off All Saints and All Souls' Day when we remember all saint and common dead people.

Halloween is a celtic (pogan) tradition to celebrate the dead. Today it is mostly an american celebration, but in many english tongued

coutries like Canada, Ireland, England, and Scotland it is an important happening. In Ireland it is even the second most popular national

happening after Christmas. A few halloween activities are: trick-or-treating, carving jack-o'-lanterns, apple bobbing, telling ghost stories,

wearing scary costumes, and decorating houses.

Guy Fawke’s Day

HISTORYIt is a British holiday celebrated on November 5. It is a memorial to detect and deter attempts to murder King James I and the entire parliament. Conspiracy

was to blow up the parliament building on the day of its opening.

The conspirators, gave practical matters in the hands of seasoned soldier in the battles in the service of the Spanish army in the battles against the Protestants in

the Netherlands. He was an expert in explosives.On the night of 4 to 5 November 1605 he has been

responsible for the conspiracy Guy Fawkes was arrested in the basement of Parliament with barrels of

gunpowder, then tried and convicted.

DESCRIPTION THE CONSPIRACYGunpowder Plot was ground not only political but also

religious. Guy Fawkes, along with a group of English Catholics ,decided to remove the Protestant King James

I and his government by blowing up the Parliament building. Preparations for the attack lasted the whole

year - conspirators leased space located directly beneath the House of Lords, where he began to

accumulate the barrel of gunpowder. The opening of the parliamentary session was scheduled for July 28,

but due to the impending epidemic of plague, has been delayed until November 5. At the time of inventory

dust weathered and it was necessary to provide new barrels containing explosive mixture. In total, up to July 20 were collected up to 36 barrels of gunpowder. Plan itself was relatively simple - it was assumed that the Parliament will debate, Guy Fawkes simply ignite the fuse and run the Thames. At the same time, in the

Midlands had burst revolt by which expected to include the Princess Elizabeth.

All the action was planned in great detail, but some of the conspirators worried representatives of the Catholic presence at the meeting of Parliament. Lord

Monteagle received an anonymous letter, adhering to him from attending the session, suggesting to go back to his county and there waiting for

developments. Message on the anonymous letter spread quickly, and also reached the conspirators. But you nevertheless decided to continue the action

finding that the letter was not taken seriously. They were wrong, however. Concerned Lord Monteagle showed a letter to James I, and ordered the search of the cellars underneath Parliament. There are Guy Fawkes and hidden under

piles of wood powder keg.Guy Fawkes was locked in the Tower of London and tortured, including with the

use of bed Madejowego. At the beginning of Guy hiding his identity, giving a false name. However, after two days of torture, confessed to everything and

revealed the names of five other conspirators.The trial began on January 27, 1606. The conspirators were sentenced to the most severe punishment, used almost exclusively in cases of high treason,

and only in relation to men: first, they were to be hanged for a short period of time, so that they could not die. Then they had to be castrated, their entrails

removed before their eyes, and only then, on the border of human endurance, their heads were to be cut, and their bodies dismembered. The penalty

applied in relation to the three conspirators, Guy Fawkes was the last to join the scaffold. There is, however, jumped down from the ladder breaking his

neck, which spared him a cruel death. After all, his intestines were removed and his body dismembered. The remains were sent to the four corners of the

kingdom, as a warning to future traitors.

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