Holidays in Great Britain. There are fewer public holidays in Great Britain than in other European countriesThere are fewer public holidays in Great Britain than in other European countries. They are: Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day, Easter, May Day, Spring Bank holiday and Summer Bank holidays. Public holidays in Britain are called bank holidays, because the banks as well as most of the offices and shops are closed. Christmas is the most favourite holiday in Great Britain. They celebrate Christmas on the 25-th of December, according to the Gregorian Calendar. Every year the people of Norway present the city of London a big Christmas tree and it stands in Trafalgar Square. Before Christmas, a group of singers go from house to house. They collect money for charities and sing carols, traditional Christmas songs. Many churches hold the service on Sunday before Christmas. The fun starts at night before, on the 24th of December. Traditionally this is the day when people decorate their Christmas trees. Children hang stockings at their beds, hoping that Father Christmas will come down the chimney at night and fill them with toys and sweets. Christmas is a family holiday. All the family usually meet at the big Christmas dinner of roasted turkey and Christmas pudding. And everyone gives and receives presents. The 26th of December, Boxing Day, is an extra holiday after Christmas. It’s the time to visit friends and relatives. On this day postmen receive their presents in the boxes. New Year’s Day is less favourite in Britain than Christmas. But in Scotland New Year’s Eve is the biggest festival of the year. There are some traditions on New Year’s Day. One of them is the old First Footing. The first man who comes into the house is very important. The Englishmen believe that he brings luck. This man (not a woman) must be healthy, young, handsome and dark-haired. He brings bread, a piece of coal and a coin. All people like to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day on the 14th of February. This is the holiday of love and affection. People send Valentine cards and presents to those they love: their husbands, wives or boyfriends and girlfriends. Valentine cards are decorated with symbols of love – red hearts and roses, ribbons and laces. On the 31-st of October the British celebrate Halloween and you can expect to meet witches and ghosts that night. Children dress up in Halloween costumes and masks. They go out in the streets to beg: “Treat or trick.” People treat them: they give them sweeets and apples. If they don’t treat them, the children play trick on them. Halloween is an old word for “Hallows Evenings”, the night before “All Hallows”. The favourite Halloween custom is to make a jack-o-lantern out of a pumpkin. They cut the eyes, a nose and a mouth in the pumpkin. Then they light a candle inside the pumpkin to scare their friends.
Exercise 2. Fill in the gaps:
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