Festivals and Celebrations

GREAT BRITAIN
April Fools Day (1st April)
People (sometimes even the BBC and serious newspapers) play tricks or practical jokes on
each other on this day.
Guy Fawkes Day Bonfire Night
For more than 300 years the 5th November has been celebrated in England by the burning of
stuffed figures (guys, out of old clothes stuffed with straw /dummy/, or stuffed with
newspaper), of this gunpowder plot conspirator, and children used to sing:
Please to remember to fifth of November
Gunpowder treason and plot
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
This old custom keeps alive the horror felt by England in 1605 when Guy Fawkes and his
fellow conspirators because of the penal laws against Catholics tried to blow up King James I
and the Houses of Parliament. They succeeded in storing several barrels of gunpowder in a
cellar under the House of Parliament. But before Parliament opened on November the 5th the
plot was discovered. Sentence of death was passed on all the conspirators. Fawkes being
executed on the 31st of January in 1606.
Shrove Tuesday Pancake Day
In past centuries, Lent was a time of fasting. Both meat and eggs were forbidden throughout
the 6 weeks. The tradition was to eat up all your meat on the Monday before Lent, and all
your eggs on the Tuesday in pancakes. Now, the fasting has gone and only the eating
remains. Two events associated with Shrove Tuesday: *The pancake tossing contest: how
many pancakes can you throw into the air & catch within a certain time? *The pancake race:
contestants have to run while continuously tossing a pancake. Anyone who drops his or her
pancake is disqualified.
Good Friday
Commemorates Christs crucifixion.
Easter Monday
The day after Easter Sunday.

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Festivals and Celebrations

May Day
Associated more with ancient folklore than with the workers. In some villages the custom of
dancing round the maypole is acted out.
Spring Bank Holiday (The last Monday in May)
There used to be a holiday on Whit Monday celebrating the Christian feast of Pentecost.
Because its date varied, it has been replaced by this fixed holiday.
St Patricks Day (17th March)
This is a public holiday in Northern Ireland, associated with the Catholic part of the
community.
Orangemens Day (12th July)
This is a public holiday in Northern Ireland, associated with the Protestant part of the
community.
Remembrance Sunday (2nd Sunday in November)
Commemorates the dead of both World Wars and of more recent conflicts. On and before this
day money is collected in the street on behalf of charities for ex-servicemen & women. Those
who donate money are given paper poppies to pin to their clothes. No politicians without a
poppy!
Boxing Day (26th December)
Its origin varies. 1: it was the day on which landowners and householders would present their
tenants and servants with gifts in boxes. 2: the day on which the collecting boxes in churches
were opened and the contents distributed to the poor.

U.S.A.
Independence Day (July 4)
A national holiday celebrating the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of
Independence in 1776. Declaration of Independence: the document that proclaimed the
freedom of the 13 American colonies from British rule. Written primarily by Thomas
Jefferson, it was adopted on July 4 1776. Family picnics, parades, fireworks at night.
American flags, decoration on the buildings in colours of red, white & blue.

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Festivals and Celebrations

Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday of November)

A national holiday celebrated to give thanks to God for the harvest, remembering particularly
the first successful harvest of the early settlers who had suffered a terrible winter when they
arrived. Many of the first arrivers starved to death during their first winter in the new land.
The settlers didnt have anything to eat for a month, they had to survive. They asked help of
the Indians who taught them to grow maize and other crops. When they harvested their crops
in autumn, they had enough to live on through the 2nd winter had a feast of thanksgiving
with the Indians. Gratitude to God for the successful harvest. Declared a national holiday by
Abraham Lincoln in 1863. First held in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621, a year after the
arrival of the first Puritan settlers. Today: family day, hearty meals, happy reunions, dinner.
Families gather together and eat (roast) turkey with stuffing and gravy, sweet potatoes,
cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.
National Holidays
Intensify the sense of national identity. Patriotism in Hungary: essentially the love of the land.
In America: this identification with the whole country as the homeland in the geographical
sense not very developed, rather the love of the local land.
New Years Day (1st January)
The festivals begin on the previous night, New Years Eve (31 December), friends gather
together at parties to wish each other a happy new year. New Years Day: feasting, watching
football on TV.
Easter
For Christian Americans it is a religious holiday, attend to church services to commemorate
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They colour hard-boiled eggs, give children some
sweets. Easter Monday: the President holds an annual Easer egg hunt on the lawn of the
White House to amuse young children.
At Christmas time: put up & decorate Christmas trees (just like in the U.K.) earlier in
December (Hungary: on Christmas Eve). Send greeting cards.
Christmas Eve (24th December)
A preparation for Christmas Day (25th December).
Christmas Day (25th December)
Presents are given in the morning. Little children believe that Santa Claus brings the presents
by slipping in through the chimney. (Hungarian Santa Claus Day not celebrated at all.)

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Festivals and Celebrations

Martin Luther King Jr. (3rd Monday of January)

(Since 1986; originally 15th, January, his birthday.) He was a civil rights leader & advocate
of non-violent social change, assassinated on the 4th of April, 1968. Each year memorial
services were held on his birthday.
Presidents Day (3rd Monday of February)
Originally commemorates George Washington, the 1st President, & Abraham Lincoln, who
brought the country through the Civil War. Both mens birthday fall in February celebrated
together. Recently commemorates all past Presidents.
Memorial Day (4th Monday of May)
Originally commemorated the casualties of the Civil War, now they remember the dead of all
wars.
Labour Day (1st Monday of September)
Honours the American worker. Determination to achieve an economic freedom for the
average man political freedom reality (Franklin D. Roosevelt). The School year starts on
the following day.
Columbus Day (2nd Monday of October)
The Italian Christopher Columbus discovered the new world on 12, October, 1492.
Halloween (31st October)
On the evening before All Saints Day (1st November), associated with the supernatural.
Children (like in the U.K.) dress up as witches, ghosts, monsters, pirates, all kinds of scary
creatures, knock on peoples door & call out: trick or treat. Treat: the person at the door
gives each child a treat, usually some sweets. Trick: if he refuses to give them something, they
might play some small tricks on him. At Halloween the windows are decorated with Jack-olanterns (pumpkins, carved with strange faces, a candle inside). Children & adults may have a
Halloween party/fancy-dress party, where play games.
Veterans Day (Formerly known as Armistice Day; 11, November)
(The end of World War I in 1918.) It honours Americans who had served in W.W. I + the
veterans of all wars fought by the U.S.. The President places a wreath on the tomb of the
unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington.

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