Traditional Gaelic Salutation

 

The Gaelic greeting for “Merry Christmas” is: “Nollaig Shona Duit” … which is pronounced as “null-ig hun-a dit”.

Happy Christmas!

OTHER HOLIDAYS

Read the text, find new information. Speak on any holiday.

Independence Day

On July 4 the Americans celebrate their national holiday-independence Day. The United States gained independence as a result of gradual and painful process. By the mid 1700’s it became difficult for thirteen British colonies in the New World to be ruled by a kind 3000 miles across the ocean. The British Empire imposed high taxes upon the colonies.

In 1774, the First Continental Congress drew up a list of grievances against the British crown. This document was the first draft of the document that would formally separate colonies from England. In 1755, the Revolutionary War began. On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress presented a second draft of the list of grievances. On July 4 the Continental Congress approved the declaration of Independence. But the War of independence lasted until 1783. After the war Independence Day became an official holiday.

On July 4, Americans have holiday from work. People have day-long picnic with favorite foods like hot dog, hamburgers, potato salad, baked beans. Lively music is heard everywhere. People play baseball or compete three-legged races or pie-eating or water-melon-eating contests. Some cities have parades with people dressed as the original founding fathers who march to the music of high school bands. In the evening people gather to watch firework displays. Wherever Americans are around the globe they will get together to celebrate Independence Day.

Halloween

Halloween is a festival that takes place on October 31. In the us children wear costumes and masks and go trick-or-treating. Many of them carve jack-o’-lantens out of pumpkins. Fortunetelling and storytelling about ghosts and witches are popular activities.

Halloween developed from new year festivals and festivals of the dead. Christian church established a festival on November 1 called All Saints’ Day so that people could continue to celebrate their festivals. The Mass said on All Saints’ Day was called Allhallowmass. The day before All Saints Day was known all hallows Eve or Halloween.

The main Halloween activity for children is trick-or-treating. Children dress in costumes and masks and go from door to door saying “trick or treat”. The neighbors give children such treats as candy, fruit and pennies so that children do not play tricks on them.

Jack-o’-lanterns are hallowed-out pumpkins with face carved into one side. Most jack-o-lanterns contain a cantle inside. An Irish legend says that jack-o’-lanterns are named after the man called jack. He could not enter heaven because he was a miser, and he could not enter hell because he had played jokes on devil. As a result, Jack has to walk on the earth with his lantern until Judgment Day.

Fortunetelling an important part of Halloween. For example, a coin, a ring, and thimble were baked into a cake. It was believed that the person who found the ring would marry soon. And the person who found the thimble would never get married. Today people practice cardreading or palmistry.

People once believed that there were many ghosts and witches on the Earth and that they met on October 31 to worship the devil. Today, people do not believe in ghosts and witches but they like to tell stories about them on Halloween.

Thanksgiving

Almost in every culture in the world there is a celebration of thanks for rich harvest. The American Thanksgiving began as a feast of thanksgiving almost four hundred years ago.

In 1620, a religious community sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New World. They settled in what is now known as the state of Massachusettes. Their first winter in America was difficult. They arrived too late to grow a rich harvest. Moreover, half the colony died from disease. The following spring the Iroquois Indians taught them how to grow corn. Indians showed them also how to grow other crops and how to hunt and fish.

In the autumn of 1621 they got a beautiful harvest of corn, barley, beans and pumpkins. The colonists had much to be thankful for, so they planned a feast. Local Indian chief and ninety Indians were present. The colonists learned from Indians how to cook cranberries and dishes of corn and pumpkins.

In following years many of the colonists celebrated the harvest with a feast of thanks. After the United States gained independence, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole country. Later George Washington suggested the date November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. Than, after the civil war, Abraham Lincoln suggested the last Thursday in November to be the day of thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving Day, family members gather at the house of an older relative, even if they far away. All give thanks for everything good they have. Charitable organizations offer traditional meal to homeless.

Foods, eaten at the first thanksgiving, have become traditional. The traditional thanksgiving meal consists of roast turkey stuffed with herb-flavored bread, cranberry jelly, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie. Other dishes may vary as to region: ham, sweet potatoes, creamed corn.

Valentine’s Day

There are several legends about St. Valentine’s Day. One of the legends says that Valentine was Christian pries who lived in the 3 century A.D. he was put into prison by roman authorities for his teachings and was beheaded on February cured his jailer’s daughter of her blindness. Before the execution he wrote her a letter signed “From Your Valentine”. Another legend says that the same Valentine wrote to children and friends who loved him from the jail.

According to another legend, Valentine was an Italian bishop who lived at about the same time. He was thrown into prison because he secretly married couples, contrary to the laws of the Roman Empire. The legend says that he was burnt at the stake.

February 14 was also a Roman holiday. On this day young men randomly chose the name of the girl to escort to the festival. The custom of choosing a sweetheart on this day became very popular in the medieval Europe. Later this custom spread to American colonies.

Now, St. Valentine’s Day is the day of sweethearts. On this day, people show their friends relatives and loved ones that they care. People send candy of flowers to those whom they love. Most people send “valentines”, greeting cards named after St. Valentine’s letters written from jail. Valentines can be sentimental and romantic, or funny and friendly. Valentines can be anonymous. Valentines can be heard-shaped or can carry hearts on them. People buy valentines or make them themselves.

Saint Patrick’s Day

Every 17 March, Irish people all over the world celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in honour of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Let’s find out what was so special about that person.

When St. Patrick was born, his name actually was not Patrick but Maewyn. He grew up in Wales, but when he was 16, people kidnapped him and sold him into slavery in Ireland.

Maewyn spent six years as a slave in Ireland, but then he escaped and went to Gaul in France where he studied in a monastery for 12 years. Finally, Maewyn became a bishop and adopted the Christian name Patricius (in English: Patrick).

Later Patrick decided to go back to Ireland. Unlike many other missionaries before him, Patrick successfully converted Irish pagans to Christianity because he knew a lot about Irish life and their gods. So Patrick for example did not simply introduce the Christian cross – he put a sun behind it because he knew that the sun was an important symbol for the Irish. The so called Celtic Cross therefore is a cross with a circle symbolising the sun.

Furthermore, Patrick explained the holy Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) with the help of a shamrock, which grows everywhere in Ireland. The shamrock has three equally sized leaves and Patrick used this to show how the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit could exist as separate elements of the same entity.

There are several legends about St. Patrick, for example that he banned all snakes from Ireland (still now there are no snakes in Ireland). People also say that Patrick met some Irish legends such as the Children of Lir.

Patrick died on 17 March 461. That day now is a national holiday in Ireland and there are parades in the streets and music everywhere. Not only in Ireland – Irish emigrants took this tradition all over the world. So there will most probably be a St. Patrick’s Day party in an Irish pub near you. Why not go there and get a little St. Patrick’s Day feeling? Have a good time and sing along. Here are two traditional Irish songs that will surely be sung in every Irish pub that night: Whiskey in the Jar and The Wild Rover.

UNIT VIII

 

SPORTS