11) Holidays and Festivals
ENGLISH:
New Years Day – 1st January
People host and attend New Year parties at home or celebrate in restaurants, bars, or on the street, counting down to the end
of the year and wishing each other a happy new year with Champagne.
St. Patrick´s Day – 17th March
The day commemorates a priest Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, and celebrates the heritage and culture of
the Irish in general.
Easter – on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring
Easter is a spring festival of new life (we see lots of symbols of new life and fertility at Easter, like eggs, chicks and rabbits).
Easter is the end of winter and it is also the end of lent (less food is eaten and begins on Ash Wednesday). For Christians, Easter
celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
game egg rolling = first people decorate eggs with different colours, then take the eggs to the top of a hill and let them roll
down; the first egg to get to the foot of the hill is the winner
hot cross buns = bread buns with currants and spices and they have a cross on top (to represent the cross of Jesus)
egg hunting = looking for hidden eggs on Easter Sunday
Good Friday, Easter Monday
Halloween – 31st October (special day, but not a holiday)
This day go back to Celtic times when people celebrated the end of summer and festival of the dead. Halloween is very popular
with children. They make jack-o-lanterns from pumpkins and in the evening they go from house to house and ask “Trick or
treat?”. If you give them a “treat” (sweets or money), they are good spirits and go away. If you do not give them a treat, they
become bad spirits and play a trick on you. Young people often have Halloween parties where they dress up as witches, ghosts
or monsters.
guising (trick-or-treating)
pumpkin carving
lighting bonfires
apple bobbing (filling a tub with water and catching apples from it with teeth)
Toffe Apple (apples covered in sugar coating)
telling or watching scary stories
Guy Fawkes Night – 5th November
The history of Bonfire Night is remembered every 5th of November.
Today it is usually celebrated with colorful firework and several bonfires where effigies are burnt.
It is a celebration of unsuccesful attempt to destroy Parlament.
The history of Bonfire Noght began in 1605.
A group of Catholic s planned to kill the king who was Protestant.
They wanted to blow up a Parliament.
Guy Fawjes, who was in chargé of the gunpowder, was caught anf the plan was discovered.
The king James declared every 5th November to be a celebration.
Rememberance Day – 11th November
11 November is universally associated with the remembrance of those who had died in the First World War. On the 11th hour
on the 11th day of the 11th month, a minutes’ silence is observed and dedicated to those soldiers who died fighting to protect
the nation.
red poppy (symbolises blood)
Veterans Day -> in US
Christmas Day – 25th December
Christmas time starts early. In the weeks before Christmas, people decorate their houses, put up their Christmas trees and send
out Christmas cards. When they get cards, they hang them on the wall or put them on the mantelpiece above the fireplace. On
Christmas Eve Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, comes down the chimney and leaves presents for the children in front of the
fireplace or in their stockings. The real holiday is Christmas Day when the children get up and find their presents. Later that day
people have Christmas dinner. Traditionally they eat turkey with cranberry sauce. In Britain they have Christmas pudding as
dessert.
Boxing Day – 26th December
A day after Christmas Day and falls on December 26. Traditionally, it was a day when employers distributed money, food, cloth
(material) or other valuable goods to their employees.
AMERICAN:
Valentine’s Day – 14th February
On Valentine’s Day people send cards, little presents or flowers to their friends and sweethearts. They often do not write names
on the card, so the person does not know who send it. The cards usually have rhymes or short poems in them.
Independent Day – 4th July
On this day, Americans celebrate their country’s birthday. Before 1776 the American colonies belonged to Britain. Whit the
Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776 the colonies became a free and independent nation: the United States of
America. Every earl Americans celebrate the Fourth of July with public fireworks. A lot of people have parties or picnics where
they eat traditional American food: hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken and corn on the cob.
Thanksgiving Day – the fourth Thursday in November
On this day, people remember the Pilgrims Fathers (the English people who settled Plymouth) and their first harvest (sklizeň) in
America. The Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts in the autumn of 1620. After a hard winter, they learned from the Indians how to
plant and grow food. In the autumn of 1621 they celebrated their first harvest with a big dinner.
Today, this day is still special for Americans. They have a traditional dinner with turkey with stuffing.
The day after -> Black Friday
Halloween – 31st October
This day go back to Celtic times when people celebrated the end of summer and festival of the dead. Halloween is very popular
with children. They make jack-o-lanterns from pumpkins and in the evening they go from house to house and ask “Trick or
treat?”. If you give them a “treat” (sweets or money), they are good spirits and go away. If you do not give them a treat, they
become bad spirits and play a trick on you. Young people often have Halloween parties where they dress up as witches, ghosts
or monsters.
custom apple peel = a young single woman would peel an apple in one long strand and toss the peel over her shoulder. If the
peel landed in the shape of a letter, that was supposedly her future husband's initia
Veterans Day – 11st November
Christmas Day – 25th December
Christmas time starts early. In the weeks before Christmas, people decorate their houses, put up their Christmas trees and send
out Christmas cards. When they get cards, they hang them on the wall or put them on the mantelpiece above the fireplace. On
Christmas Eve Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, comes down the chimney and leaves presents for the children in front of the
fireplace or in their stockings. The real holiday is Christmas Day when the children get up and find their presents. Later that day
people have Christmas dinner. Traditionally they eat turkey with cranberry sauce. In Britain they have Christmas pudding as
dessert.
New Year’s Eve – 31st December
Parties are popular on New Year’s Eve, but there are no fireworks. At midnight church bells ring and in big cities people go to
traditional gathering points (for example, Trafalgar Square in London and Times Square in New York). There they join hands and
sing “Auld Lang Syne” (old times), an old Scottish song.
CZECH:
Restoration Day of the Independent Czech State and New Year – 1st January
Easter – on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring
Easter is the most important Christian holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. On Easter Monday morning men
and boys go home for their friends and whip women and girls by handmade willow rod. Willow rods are decorated with colorful
ribbons.
Labour Day + May Day – 1st May
Victory Day – 8th May
-> end of World War II on the European continent
Saints Cyril and Methodius Day – 5th July
Czechs celebrate the symbolic anniversary of the arrival of Slavic missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, to Great Moravia in 863.
they invented a special alphabet tailored to the needs of the old Slavonic language, and they founded schools.
Jan Hus Day – 6th July
He was a Roman Catholic priest, a Czech medieval religious thinker, a university teacher, a reformer and a preacher. burned alive
on 6 July 1415, after he refused to renounce his teachings.
Czech Statehood Day – 28th September
On 28 September 935, the Czech prince Wenceslas was murdered in Stará Boleslav and soon after his death he became the
patron of the Czech lands and honoured as a Catholic saint.
Independent Czechoslovak State Day – 28 October
On this day in 1918, the independent Czechoslovakia was declared and the Austrian-Hungarian Empire ended to exist at the end
of World War I.
Velvet Revolution – 17th November
An event on 17 November 1989 when the remembrance of the 50th anniversary of the Nazi repressions grew into a
demonstration against the communist regime. The main demonstration took place at Národní třída in Prague, near the National
Theatre.
St. Nicholas Night – 6th December
Around 4pm on the 5th December, three figures slowly move around the Old Town Square, in and out of the Christmas markets.
They are St. Nicholas, an Angel and a Devil. St. Nicholas will ask kids if they have been a good child during the past year. Most
children naturally say yes and will be asked to sing a song or recite a short poem, after which they are rewarded with a small
present or a sweet. But if St. Nicholas suspects they have been naughty, children get lumps of coal or hard potatoes or are sent
to hell.
Christmas – 24th December
Christmas is a Christian holiday and it is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Czech people celebrate Christmas on 24th
December on Christmas Eve. People make wreaths and give there candles. There are 4 candles because it is for 4 weeks before
Christmas. This is so-called Advent. Typical symbols for Christmas are mistletoe, Christmas tree, presents, Jesus Child, bells,
Christmas dinner, sweets, candles, carp, potato salad, and carols. People go to the church and everyone is nice to each other.
People first decorate Xmas tree. They have Christmas dinner in the evening. The dinner consists of soup of carp, carp, schnitzel,
sausages and potato salad. Someone gives under the plate carp’s scale for luck or gives shells with a candle to the water or cut
up apples.
New Year’s Eve – 31st December
