Автор работы: Пользователь скрыл имя, 01 Декабря 2011 в 21:26, доклад
приведены несколько праздников на английском языке
American Holidays and Traditions
It's Another New Year... (January 1)
...but for what reason?
"Happy New Year!" That greeting will be said and heard for at least the first couple of weeks as a new year gets under way. But the day celebrated as New Year's Day in modern America was not always January 1.
ANCIENT NEW YEARS
The celebration of the new year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible cresent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring).
Parties
It's the custom to have a party to celebrate:
- A person's birthday
- A new house
- Christmas (at home, and often in offices, too)
- An engagement (a promise to marry)
- A wedding (marriage)
- New Year's Eve
Wrong
side of the bed
When
people are bad tempered we say that they must have got out of bed on
the wrong side. Originally, it was meant quiet literally. People believe
that the way they rose in the morning affected their behavior throughout
the day. The wrong side of the bed was the left side. The left always
having been linked with evil.
Blowing
out the cand candles
The
custom of having candles on birthday cakes goes back to the ancient
Greeks. Worshippers of Artemis, goddess of the moon and hunting, used
to place honey cakes on the altars of her temples on her birthday. The
cakes were round like the full moon and lit with tapers. This custom
was next recorded in the middle ages when German peasants lit tapers
on birthday cakes, the number lit indicating the person's age, plus
an extra one to represent the light of life. From earliest days burning
tapers had been endued with mystical significance and it was believedthat
when blown out they had the power to grant a secret wish and ensure
a happy year ahead.
I have chosen the topic ‘British customs and traditions’ because I enjoy learning the English language and wanted to know more about British ways of life and traditions. Working on this topic I came to the conclusion that British people are very conservative. They are proud of their traditions and carefully keep them up. It was interesting to know that foreigners coming to England are stuck at once by quite a number of customs and peculiarities.
So I think of Britain as a place with a lot of different types of people who observe their traditions.