Lecture 4 of Culture study
- 2. Thanksgiving Most fruit and vegetables grow through the summer and are ready to bring in when autumn comes. This time is called the harvest. After the harvest, many people want to say thank you to God for all the food. There are church services called Harvest Festivals or Thanksgiving Services. There are lots of fruit, vegetables, flowers and loaves of bread in the church, and people sing special songs of thanks. These services started hundreds of years ago.
- 3. The date of Thanksgiving Day in the USA has changed three times, but it is now the fourth Thursday in November. Most American and Canadian families still have a Thanksgiving Day dinner with their family. They have turkey and autumn vegetables, and then pumpkin pie.
- 4. In the USA, there are a lot of big football matches on that day, so many people go to the games or watch them on television. Canada is north of the USA, so the winter is longer and the harvest is earlier there. The date of Thanksgiving Day has changed more than once, but is now the second Monday in October. In Canada there is a Thanksgiving Day holiday and the traditional dinner is turkey and pumpkin pie -* like in the USA.
- 5. Christmas At Christmas, people remember when Jesus Christ was born and the Christian religion started. Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem, about two thousand years ago. The people who followed Jesus’ teaching were the first Christians. Today, Christmas is a very important time in the Christian year, but it is also very important to those who do not go to church. It is a time for buying and giving presents, having parties, and being with family.
- 6. People start to get ready for Christmas in late October or early November. Shop-keepers decorate their shops with lights. Trees and other decorations, and shoppers start to look for presents. Shops get very busy and stay open later. People with family and friends in other countries often send them cards and presents, and everyone begins to make plans for the coming holiday.
- 8. In the middle of December, most families buy Christmas trees, put them inside the house, and put colourful decorations on them. They also send cards to friends and family. The cards say things like ‘Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year’ or ‘Season’s Greetings’. Theses two traditions (the trees and the cards) both started in the middle of the nineteenth century.
- 9. Many children learn about the baby Jesus at school. Sometimes they do a play about the story and sing Christmas songs, called carols, for their mothers and fathers. Many children have Advent calendars with little doors for each day until Christmas. Every day the child opens a new door and inside there is a picture or a chocolate.
- 10. An Advent calendar Many children have parties at school, and many adults have parties at work in December. Most people have 25 and 26 December off work, and many have a week off, from 25 December to 1 January.
- 11. They usually spend this time at home with their family or visiting family who live far away. The Christmas holiday begins on 24 December: Christmas Eve. People often stop work early and have a drink together, or finish their Christmas shopping. They cover the presents in special paper, and put them under the tree. Children have a stocking for Santa Claus when they go to bed. Santa Claus is a big man with white hair and red clothes who brings presents for children during the night. (In Britain he is usually called Father Christmas).
- 12. If the house has a fireplace, the children sometimes leave their stockings by the fire because Santa Claus comes down the chimney. Mothers and fathers tell their children that Santa Claus only comes when they are sleeping, but they do not usually sleep very well. If they are good children, he leaves presents in the stockings. (If they are bad he leaves them a piece of coal!).
- 13. Some children leave a drink and a mince pie for Santa and some vegetables for his animals. Many people go to church at midnight on Christmas Eve. They hear the Christmas story and sing carols. A Christmas stocking
- 14. Christmas Day (25 December) is a holiday. Children usually wake up very early. They look in their stockings to see what Santa put there for them. After breakfast they open their other presents around the tree. Christmas dinner is in the afternoon and is the biggest meal of the day. Before they start to eat, people pull crackers. The crackers make a loud noise, and have a small game and paper party hat inside.
- 15. Dinner is usually turkey with lots of winter vegetables and then hot mince pies or a Christmas pudding. At three o’clock many people in Britain turn their televisions on because the Queen says ‘Happy Christmas’ to everyone. A Christmas cracker
- 16. A lot of people go for a walk in the afternoon or play with their new games. In the evening, people eat cold meat, and Christmas cake (a kind of fruit cake), fruit and nuts, but they are usually not very hungry because of their big dinner. Boxing Day (26 December) is also a holiday in Britain, but many shops open on this day. In the nineteenth century, rich people gave boxes to their workers on Boxing Day, with Christmas presents inside. Now it is another day for eating, drinking and watching television at home, or going out to watch some sport.
- 17. Another British Christmas tradition is the pantomime. A pantomime is a kind of play with a children’s story (like Cinderella or Aladdin) and lots of music and songs. There is usually a man who wears women’s clothes and plays an old woman. ‘She’ is not very beautiful, but makes everyone laugh. There is also a ‘bad’ person in the story. Every time the bad person comes out, the people who watch the pantomime say ‘Boo!’ or ‘Hiss!’ very loudly.
- 18. Children like pantomimes because they can join in and make a lot of noise. They often go with their school or family. The Christmas season ends on the twelfth day after 25 December, which is 6 January7. Most people take down their Christmas trees and decorations by this date, and some people think it is bad luck not to do that.
- 19. Mother’s Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring mothers and motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in March, April, or May. It complements Father's Day, a celebration honoring fathers.
- 20. The modern holiday of Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother in America. She then began a campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday in the United States. Although she was successful in 1914, she was already disappointed with its commercialization by the 1920s. Jarvis' holiday was adopted by other countries and it is now celebrated all over the world. In this tradition, each person offers a gift, card, or remembrance toward their mothers, grandmothers, and/ or maternal figure on mother's day.
- 21. As the American holiday was adopted by other countries and cultures, the date was changed to fit already existing celebrations honoring motherhood, such as Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom or, in Greece, the Orthodox celebration of the presentation of Jesus Christ to the temple (2 February). In some countries the date was changed to a date that was significant to the majority religion, such as Virgin Mary day in Catholic countries.
- 22. Other countries selected a date with historical significance. For example, Bolivia's Mother's Day is the date of a battle in which women participated. Communists countries, such as the former East Germany, usually celebrated the socialist International Women's Day instead of the more capitalist Mother's Day. Some ex-communist countries, like Russia, still follow this custom.