PAGAN AND RELIGIOUS FESTIVITIES

During the year there are many festive days. Halloween is a pagan rite of Celtic origin. It is celebrated on the night of October, 31 (the thirty first).

Christmas, Easter and Lent are the most important Christian festivities.

Lent starts on Ash Wednesday and last 40 (forty) days to remember the period which Jesus Christ spent in the desert.

 

HALLOWEEN

Halloween is a famous pagan rite of Celtic origin. It is now celebrated all over Europe on the night of October, 31 (the thirty first)

It is associated with the winter fruit and nuts which were roasted in front of huge bonfires. This feast is linked to ghosts and witches. People think that the spirit of the dead wandered about.

The image of Halloween is a carved, empty pumpkin with a light candle inside. People dress up in sinister costumes and go to parties. Children dress like ghosts and go  from house to house demanding “trick or treat?”.  If you don’t give them a treat (sweets or money) they will play a trick on you.

 

 

 THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving is one  of the most important festivity in America, Canada and Britain.

It is celebrated every year on the last Thursday of November.

It was first celebrated in 1624 by the Pilgrim Fathers to thank God for the good harvest and for helping them survive their first year in America.

Pilgrim Fathers were a group of English people who in September 1623 crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Plymouth, in England, to North America in a ship called The Mayflower. They left England because they wanted freedom of religion.

The Pilgrim decided to celebrate the good harvest with the Indians by having a meal together .

People usually spend  Thanksgiving day at home with their families. The traditional menu is very rich.

Traditional dishes are turkey, baked ham, chicken pie, pumpkin pie, served with sweet potatoes and raisin or cramberry sauce and followed by succulent desserts such as plum pudding.

 

 

CHRISTMAS

Christmas dinner is the most important festivity of the year. Celebrations start on Christmas Eve(24th,December) and it ends on Boxing Day (26th, December)

Christmas is connected with traditional dishes and the giving of presents. Children are happy. They hope that, on Christmas Eve, 24th December, Father Christmas will bring them present. 

Today the traditional British Christmas dishes are roast turkey with chestnut stuffing, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts, bread sauce, bacon rolls and gravy    and  Christmas pudding.

The tradition  of using turkey is relatively recent and it comes from America. Before the traditional dish served at Christmas was stuffed goose. Turkey became more popular because there is much more meat and less fat than on a goose.

Preparing Christmas pudding takes a long time and people start preparing it a month earlier.

The name Boxing Day comes from the old custom of giving boxes of food, clothing or other goods to workers and servants