Holidays and traditions in english-speaking countries

which varies from year to year). This is usually in March. The day used to

be known as Mothering Sunday and dates from the time when many girls worked

away from home as domestic servants in big households, where their hours of

work were often very long Mothering Sunday was established as a holyday for

these girls and gave them an

Holidays and traditions in English – speaking countries.

opportunity of going home to see their parents, especially their mother.

They used to take presents with them, often given to them by the lady of

the house.

When the labour situation changed and everyone was entitled to regular

time off, this custom remained, although the day is now often called

“Mothers’ Day”. People visit their mothers if possible and give them

flowers and small presents. If they cannot go they send a “Mothers’ Day

card”, or they may send one in any case. The family try to see that the

mother has as little work to do as possible, sometimes

the husband or children take her breakfast in bed and they often help with

the meals and the washing up. It is considered to be mother’s day off.

St. Patrick’s Day

It is not a national holiday. It’s an Irish religious holiday. St.

Patrick is the patron of Ireland. Irish and Irish Americans celebrate the

day. On the day they decorate their houses and streets with green shamrocks

and wear something green. In large cities long parades march through the

streets. Those who aren’t Irish themselves also wear green neckties and

hair ribbons and take part in the celebration.

ESTER

During the Easter Holidays the attention of the progressive people in

Great Britain and indeed throughout the world is riveted first and foremost

on the Easter Peace Marches, which took place for the first time in 1958

and have since become traditional. The people who participate in these

marches come from different sections of society. Alongside workers and

students march university professors, doctors, scientists, and engineers.

More often than not the columns are joined by progressive people from

abroad.

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.

More recent years have seen a rise in the number of people attending the

annual Easter March, as global problems have begun to affect the conscience

of a broader section of the English population.

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

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advisable to find a vantage-point well before that hour. The parade

consists of a great many interesting and decorated floats, entered by

various organizations in and outside the metropolis. Some of the finest

bands in the country take part in the parade. At the rear of the parade is

usually the very beautiful Jersey float, created from thousands of lovely

spring blooms and bearing the Easter Princess and her attendants. It is an

afternoon to remember.

APRIL FOOLS’ DAY

April Fools’ Day or All Fools’ Day, named from the custom of playing

practical jokes or sending friends on fools’ errands, on April 1st. Its

timing seems related to the vernal equinox, when nature fools mankind with

sudden changes from showers to sunshine. It is a season when all people,

even the most dignified, are given an excuse to play the fool. In April

comes the cuckoo, emblem of simpletons; hence in Scotland the victim is

called “cuckoo” or “gowk”, as in the verse: On the first day of April, Hunt

the gowk another mile. Hunting the gowk was a fruitless errand; so was

hunting for hen’s teeth, for a square circle or for stirrup oil, the last-

named proving to be several strokes from a leather strap.

May Day in Great Britain

As May 1st is not a public holiday in Great Britain, May Day

celebrations are traditionally held on the Sunday following it, unless, of

course, the 1st of May falls on a Sunday. On May Sunday workers march

through the streets and hold meetings to voice their own demands and the

demands of other progressive forces of the country. The issues involved may

include demands for higher wages and better working conditions, protests

against rising unemployment, demands for a change in the Government’s

policy, etc.

May Spring Festival

The 1st of May has also to some extent retained its old significance

— that of а pagan spring festival. In ancient times it used to be

celebrated with garlands and flowers, dancing and games on the village

green. А Maypole was erected — a tall pole wreathed with flowers, to which

in later times ribbons were attached and held by the dancers. The girls put

on their best summer frocks, plaited flowers in their hair and round their

waists and eagerly awaited the crowning of the May Queen. The most

beautiful girl was crowned with а garland of flowers. After this great

event Веге was dancing, often Morris dancing, with the dancers dressed in

fancy costume, usually

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representing characters in the Robin Hood legend. May-Day games and sports

were followed by refreshments in the open.

This festival was disliked by the Puritans and suppressed during the

Commonwealth, 1649 — 60. After the Restoration it was revived but has

gradually almost died out. However, the Queen of May is still chosen in

most counties, and in mаnу villages school Maypoles are erected around

which the children dance. The famous ceremony of the meeting of the 1st of

May still survives at Oxford, in Magdalen College. At 6 o’clock in the

morning the college choir gathers in the upper gallery of the college tower

to greet the coming of the new day with song.

TROOPING ТНE COLOUR

During the month of June, а day is set aside as the Queen’ s official

birthday. This is usually the second Saturday in June. On this day there

takes place on Horse Guards’ Parade in Whitehall the magnificent spectacle

of Trooping the Colour, which begins at about 11.15 а. m. (unless rain

intervenes, when the ceremony is usually postponed until conditions are

suitable).

This is pageantry of rаrе splendour, with the Queen riding side-saddle

on а highly trained horse.

The colours of one of the five regiments of Foot Guards are trooped

before the Sovereign. As she rides on to Horse Guards’ parade the massed

array of the Brigade of Guards, dressed in ceremonial uniforms, await her

inspection.

For twenty minutes the whole parade stands rigidly to attention while

being inspected by the Queen. Then comes the Trooping ceremony itself, to

be followed by the famous March Past of the Guards to the music of massed

bands, at which the Queen takes the Salute. The precision drill of the

regiments is notable.

The ceremony ends with the Queen returning to Buckingham Palace at the

head of her Guards.

The Escort to the Colour, chosen normally in strict rotation, then

mounts guard at the Palace.

Midsummer's Day

Midsummer's Day, June 24th, is the longest day of the year. On that

day you can see a very old custom at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, England.

Stonehenge is one of Europe's biggest stone circles. A lot of the stones

are ten or twelve metres high. It's also very old. The earliest part of

Stonehenge is nearly 5,000 years old.

But what was Stonehenge? A holy place? A market? Or was it a kind of

calendar? We think the Druids used it for a calendar. The Druids were the

priests in Britain 2,000 years ago. They used the sun and the stones at

Stonehenge to know the

Holidays and traditions in English – speaking countries.

start of months and seasons. There are Druids in Britain today, too. And

every June 24th a lot of them go to Stonehenge. On that morning the sun

shines on one famous stone - the Heel stone. For the Druids this is a very

important moment in the year. But for a lot of British people it's just a

strange old custom.

LATE SUMMER BANK HOLIDAY

On Bank Holiday the townsfolk usually flock into the country and to

the coast. If the weather is fine many families take а picnic-lunch or tea

with them and enjoy their meal in the open. Seaside towns near London, such

as Southend, are invaded by thousands of trippers who come in cars and

coaches, trains, motor cycles and bicycles. Great amusement parks like

Southend Kursaal do а roaring trade with their scenic railways, shooting

galleries, water-shoots, Crazy Houses, Hunted Houses and so on. Trippers

will wear comic paper hats with slogans such as “Kiss Ме Quick”, and they

will eat and drink the weirdest mixture of stuff you can imagine, sea food

like cockles, mussels, whelks, shrimps and fried fish and chips, candy

floss, beer, tea, soft, drinks, everything you can imagine.

Bank Holiday is also an occasion for big sports meetings at places

like the White City Stadium, mainly all kinds of athletics. There are also

horse rасe meetings all over the country, and most traditional of all,

there are large fairs with swings, roundabouts, coconut shies, а Punch and

Judy show, hoop-la stalls and every kind of side-show including, in recent

years, bingo. These fairs are pitched on open spaces of common land, and

the most famous of them is the huge one on Hampstead Heath near London. It

is at Hampstead Heath you will see the Pearly Kings, those Cockney costers

(street traders), who wear suits or frocks with thousands of tiny pearl

buttons stitched all over them, also over their caps and hats, in case of

their Queens. They hold horse and cart parades in which prizes are given

for the smartest turn out. Horses and carts are gaily decorated. Many

Londoners will visit Whipsnade Zoo. There is also much boating activity on

the Thames, regattas at Henley and on other rivers, and the English climate

being what it is, it invariably rains.

Happy Hampstead

August Bank Holiday would not be а real holiday for tens of thousands

of Londoners without the Fair on Hampstead Heath!

Those who know London will know were to find the Heath – that vast

stretch of open woodland which sprawls across two hills, bounded by Golders

Green and Highgate to the west and east, and by Hampstead itself and Ken

Wood to the south and north.

The site of the fair ground is near to Hampstead Heath station. From

that station to the ground runs а broad road which is blocked with а solid,

almost

Holidays and traditions in English – speaking countries.

immovable mass of humanity on those days when the fair is open. The walk is

not more than а quarter of а mile, but it takes an average of half-an hour

to cover it when the crowd is at its thickest.

But being on that road is comfortable compared with what it is like

inside the fair ground itself. Неге there are, hundreds of stalls arranged

in broad avenues inside a huge square bounded by the caravans of the show

people and the lorries containing the generating plants which provide the

stalls with their electricity.

The noise is deafening. Mechanical bands and the cries of the

“barkers” (the showmen who stand outside the booths and by the stalls

shouting to the crowds to come and try their luck are equalled by the

laughter of the visitors and the din of machinery.

The visitors themselves are looking for fun, and they find it in full

measure. There are fortune-tellers and rifle-ranges and “bumping cars”,

there are bowling alleys and dart boards and coconut shies. There is

something for everybody.

And for the lucky ones, or for those with more skill than most, there

are prizes — table lamps and clocks and а hundred and one other things of

value.

А visit to the fair at Happy Hampstead is something not easily

forgotten. It is noisy, it is exhausting — but it is as exhilarating an

experience as any in the world.

HENRY WOOD

PROMENADE CONCERTS

“Ladies and gentlemen — the Proms!”

Amongst music-lovers in Britain — and, indeed, in very many other

countries — the period between July and September 21 is а time of

excitement, of anticipation, of great enthusiasm.

We are in the middle of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts — the Proms.

London music-lovers are particularly fortunate, for those who are able

to obtain tickets can attend the concerts in person. Every night at 7

о'clock (Sunday excepted) а vast audience assembled at the Royal Albert

Hall rises for the playing and singing of the National Anthem. А few

minutes later, when seats have been resumed, the first work of the evening

begins.

But even if seats are not to be obtained, the important parts of the

concerts can be heard — and are heard — by а very great number of people,

because the ВВС broadcasts certain principal works every night throughout

the season. The audience reached by this means is estimated to total

several millions in Britain alone, and that total is probably equalled by

the number of listeners abroad.

The reason why such а great audience is attracted is that the Proms

present every year а large repertoire of classical works under the best

conductors and with the best artists. А season provides an anthology of

masterpieces.

Holidays and traditions in English – speaking countries.

The Proms started in 1895 when Sir Henry Wood formed the Queen’s Hall

Orchestra. The purpose of the venture was to provide classical music to as

many people who cared to come at а price all could afford to pay, those of

lesser means being charged comparatively little — one shilling — to enter

the Promenade, where standing was the rule.

The coming of the last war ended two Proms’ traditions. The first was

that in 1939 it was nо longer possible to perform to London audiences — the

whole organization was evacuated to Bristol. The second was that the Proms

couldn’t return to the Queen’s Hall after the war was over — the Queen’s

Hall had become а casualty of the air-raids (in 1941), and was gutted.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween means "holy evening" and takes place on October 31st.

Although it is а much more important festival in the USA than in Britain,

it is celebrated by many people in the United Kingdom. It is particularly

connected with witches and ghosts.

At parties people dress up in strange costumes and pretend they are

witches. They cut horrible faces in potatoes and other vegetables and put а

candle inside, which shines through their eyes. People play different games

such as trying to eat an apple from а bucket of water without using their

hands.

In recent years children dressed in white sheets knock on doors at

Halloween and ask if you would like а “trick” or “treat”. If you give them

something nice, а “treat”, they go away. However, if you don’t, they play а

“trick” on you, such as making а lot of noise or spilling flour on your

front doorstep.

GUY FAWKES NIGHT (BONFIRE NIGHT) — NOVEMBER 5

Guy Fawkes Night is one of the most popular festivals in Great

Britain. It commemorates the discovery of the so-called Gunpowder Plot, and

is widely celebrated throughout the country. Below, the reader will find

the necessary information concerning the Plot, which, as he will see, may

never have existed, and the description of the traditional celebrations.

Gunpowder Plot. Conspiracy to destroy the English Houses of Parliament

and King James I when the latter opened Parliament on Nov. 5, 1605.

Engineered by а group of Roman Catholics as а protest against anti-Papist

measures. In May 1604 the conspirators rented а house adjoining the House

of Lords, from which they dug а tunnel to а vault below that house, where

they stored 36 barrels of gunpowder. It was planned that when king and

parliament were destroyed the Roman Catholics should attempt to seize

power. Preparations for the plot had been completed when, on October 26,

one of the conspirators wrote to а kinsman, Lord Monteagle, warning

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him to stay away from the House of Lords. On November 4 а search was made

of the parliament vaults, and the gunpowder was found, together with Guy

Fawkes (1570 — 1606), an English Roman Catholic in the pay of Spain (which

was making political capital out of Roman Catholics discontent in England).

Fawkes had been commissioned to set off the explosion. Arrested and

tortured he revealed the names of the conspirators, some of whom were

killed resisting arrest. Fawkes was hanged. Detection of the plot led to

increased repression of English Roman Catholics. The Plot is still

commemorated by an official ceremonial search of the vaults before the

annual opening of Parliament, also by the burning of Fawkes's effigy and

the explosion of fireworks every Nov. 5.

Thanksgiving Day

Every year, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. Families and friends get

together for a big feast. It is a legal holiday in the US. Many people go

to church in the morning and at home they have a big dinner with turkey.

People gather to give the God thanks for all the good things in their

lives.

Thanksgiving is the harvest festival. The celebration was held in 1621

after the first harvest in New England. In the end of 1620 the passengers

from the Mayflower landed in America and started settling there. Only half

of the people survived the terrible winter. In spring the Indians gave the

settlers some seeds of Indian corn and the first harvest was very good.

Later, Thanksgiving Days following harvest were celebrated in all the

colonies of New England, but not on the same day. In October 1863 President

Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving. In 191, the US Congress

Named fourth Thursday of November a Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving Day is a

“day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with

which Canada has been blessed”. Regular annual observance began in 1879.

Since 1957 Thanksgiving Day has been observed on the second Monday in

October.

St. Andrew’s Day

In some areas, such as Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire,

and Northamptonshire, St Andrew was regarded as the patron saint of lace-

makers and his day was thus kept as a holiday, or “tendering feast”, by

many in that trade. Thomas Sternberg, describing customs in mid-19th-

century Northampton shire, claims that St Andrew’s Day Old Style (11

December) was a major festival day “in many out of the way villages” of the

country: “… the day is one of unbridled license- a kind of carnival;

village scholars bar out the master, the lace schools are deserted, and

drinking and feasting prevail to a riotous extent. Towards evening the

villagers walk about and masquerade, the women wearing men’s dress and the

men wearing female

Holidays and traditions in English – speaking countries.

attire, visiting one another’s cottages and drinking hot Elderberry wine,

the chief beverage of the season …”. In Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, a

future of the day was the making and eating of Tandry Wigs. A strange

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