American Holidays

THE MAIN TASKS:
To show the variety of holidays and traditions of the American calendar
To use the additional material at the lessons

HYPOTHESIS:
Are all American holidays of English origin?
HYPOTHESIS:

THE CONTENTS:
New New YNew Year
Martin Luther King Day
Valentine’s Day
Presidents’ Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Halloween
Veterans Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas
Easter
April fool’s Day
Mother’s Day
Memorial Day
Flag Day
Father’s Day
LiteratureLiterature:

NEW YEAR
December 31, many guests watch television as part of the festivities. Most of television channels show Times Square in the heart of New York City.
In the United States, the legal holiday is January first, but Americans begin celebrating on December 31. Sometimes people have masquerade balls, where guests dress up in costumes and cover their faces with masks. According to an old tradition, guests unmasks at midnight.
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NEW YEAR
On January first, Americans visit friends, relatives, and neighbors. They watch television together enjoying the Tournament of roses parade preceding the Rose Bowl football game in Pasadena California.
States it is necessary to attribute grandfather, symbolizing year past, and baby personifying new year.
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MARTIN LUTHER KING
The priest Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta. Has organized campaign of struggle for the complete civil rights of black people. In 35 years he became the youngest winner in a history of the Nobel Prize of the world. The murder King in 1968 has shaken all world.
In 1983, the Congress of USA has announced third Monday of January by a national holiday in honour of birthday Martin Luther King. This day the schools, offices, mail and banks are closed. All telechannels broadcast rollers of performances from 60 years. On Monday pass memorial services and refined ceremonies reminding of life
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VALENTINE’S DAY
St. Valentine’s Day has roots in several different legends that have found their way to us through the ages.
Three hundred years after the death of Jesus Christ, the Roman emperors still demanded that everyone believe in the Roman gods. Valentine, a Christian priest, had been thrown in prison for his teachings.
On February 14, Valentine was beheaded, not only because he was a
Christian, but also because he had performed a miracle. He
supposedly cured the jailer’s daughter of her blindness. The night before he was executed, he wrote the jailer’s daughter a farewell letter, signing it, “ From Your Valentine.”
Another legend tell us that this same Valentine, well-loved by all, wrote notes from his jail cell to children and friends who missed him.
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VALENTINE’S DAY
In America Day all in love began to celebrate since February 14, 1777. One of the earliest popular symbols of the day is Cupid, the Roman god of love, who is represented by the image of a young boy with bow and arrow.
St. Valentine’s Day is now a day for sweethearts. It is the day that you show your friend or loved one that you care. You can send candy to someone you think is special. Or you can send roses, the flower of love. Most people send “valentines,” a greeting card named after the notes that St. Valentine wrote from jail.
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PRESIDENTS’ DAY
George Washington, born February 22, 1732 in Virginia, was a natural leader – instrumental in creating a united nation out of a conglomeration of struggling colonies and territories. The first president of the United States of America is affectionately honored as “the father of his country.”
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Kentucky .
Lincoln began a long road to become the sixteenth president of the United States. He practiced law all across the state for the next few years, traveling far on horseback to different counties.
Per 70 years the Congress has announced about establishment of a uniform holiday in honour of all former presidents of USA. The day of the presidents is marked on third Monday of February.
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INDEPENDENCE DAY
On July 4th 1776, the 13 colonies of North America signed the Declaration of Independence. This said that they were no longer under the control of Great Britain, and were an independent country. This famous declaration, which marked the birth of the USA, is celebrated every year on the “4th July”.
It is a day of picnics, parades and flying the flag, which has a special importance to Americans. At night there are parties, barbecues, concerts and spectacular firework displays.
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LABOUR DAY
Today we celebrate Labor Day with a little less fanfare on the first Monday of September. Some cities have parades and community picnics. Many politicians “kick off” their political campaigns by holding rallies on the holiday.
Most Americans consider Labor day the end of the summer, and the beaches and other popular resort areas are packed with people enjoying one last three-day weekend.
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On October 31st, dozens of children dressed in costumes knock on their neighbors’ doors and yell, “Trick or Treat” when the door opens. Pirates and princesses, ghosts and popular heroes of the day all hold bags open to catch the candy or other goodies that the neighbors drop in. As they give each child a treat, the neighbors exclaim over the costumes and try to guess who is under the masks.
HALLOWEEN
On this day, ghosts walked and mingled with the living, or so the Celts thought. The townspeople baked foot all that day, and when night fell, they dressed up and tried to resemble the soul of the dead. Hoping that the ghosts would leave peacefully before midnight of the new year, the people carried the food to the edge of town and left it for them.
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HALLOWEEN
Halloween originated as a celebration connected with evil spirits. Witches flying on broomsticks with black cats, ghosts, goblins and skeletons have all evolved as symbols of Halloween .
In the weeks before October 31, Americans decorate widows of houses and schools with silhouettes of witches and black cats. Pumpkins are also symbol of Halloween
No Halloween party is complete without at least one scary story. Usually one person talks in a low voice while everyone else crowds together on the floor or around a fire. The following is a retelling is a retelling of a tale told in Britain and in North Carolina and Virginia.
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November 11 was set aside as Armistice Day in the United States, to remember the sacrifices that men and women made during the war in order to ensure a lasting peace. In 1953, townspeople in Emporia, Kansas called the holiday Veterans’ Day in gratitude to the veterans in their town.
Americans still give thanks for peace on Veterans’ Day. There are ceremonies and speeches, and at 11:00 in the morning, most Americans observe a moment of silence, remembering those who fought for peace.
Veterans` Day
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THANKSGIVING DAY
Thanksgiving Day is the fourth Thursday in November. Many people take a day off on Friday to make four-day weekend, and they may travel long distances to visit friends and relations because Thanksgiving is a special family occasion.
The holiday dates back to 1621, the year after the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts, in their search for religious freedom. After a terrible winter, in which nearly half of the Pilgrims died, they turned for help to the Native Americans, who taught them how to plant corn and other crops. The next autumn’s harvest was wonderful, and the Pilgrims gave thanks by having a feast.
Thanksgiving dinners always include some of the foods served at the first feast: roast turkey, cranberry sauce, potatoes, pumpkin pie. Before the meal begins, families or friends usually pause to give thanks for their good fortune, and for being together for the occasion.
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THANKSGIVING DAY
Also attribute of a holiday: parades and fun.
In XX century the Thanksgiving has received new tradition - this day play the American football.
A line of traditions is connected to Thanksgiving, which Americans store and observe. Family necessarily should go in church, and after a service to be going behind a celebratory table.
Attribute of Thanksgiving - turkey. On the first holiday colonists and Indians have fried and in common ate of four turkeys. Since turkey and Thanksgiving became synonyms. The turkey hardly was did not become a national symbol of USA, however has lost competition predatory eagle.
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CHRISTMAS DAY
To celebrate Christmas 25th
December have begun
Presumably per 336 years.
As America the country
Multinational, often that,
As someone celebrates Christmas,
Depends about that, whence were him
Grandmother and grandfather.
Christmas is a joyful religious holiday when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The Christmas story comes from the Bible.
In 1924 in Washington the first national Christmas tree was brought up.
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EASTER
People celebrate the holiday according to their beliefs and their religious denominations. Christians commemorate Good Friday as the day that Jesus Christ died and Easter Sunday as the day that He was resurrected. Protestant settlers brought the custom of a sunrise service, a religious gathering at dawn, to the United States.
Today on Easter Sunday, children wake up to find that the Easter Bunny has left them baskets of candy. He has also hidden the eggs that they decorated earlier that week. Children hunt for the eggs all around the house. Neighborhoods and organizations hold Easter egg hunts, and the child who finds the most eggs wins a prize
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APRIL FOOL’S DAY
In 1562, in France, Pop Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, and the new year fell on January first. There were some people, however, who hadn’t heard or didn’t believe the change in the date, so they continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April first. Others played tricks on them and called them “April Fools.” They sent them on a “fool’s errand” or tried to make them believe that something false was true.
Where origin custom to joke in this
day?
Today Americans play small tricks on friends and strangers alike on the first of April
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MOTHER’S DAY
On the second Sunday in May, American children of all ages treat their mothers to something special. It is the one day out of the year when children, young and old, try to show in a tangible way how much they appreciate their mothers.
On Mother’s day morning, some American children follow the tradition of serving their mothers breakfast in bed. Other children will give their mothers gifts which they have made themselves, or bought in stores. Adults give their mothers red carnations, the official Mother’s Day flower. In this day Americans go to restaurants, because Mom not want to cook dinner.
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MEMORIAL DAY
In 1882, the name was changed to Memorial Day, and soldiers who had died in previous wars were honored as well. In the northern United States, it was designated a legal holiday. In 1971, along with other holidays, President Richard Nixon declared Memorial Day a national holiday on the last Monday in May.
Children read poems and sang civil war songs, and veterans came to school wearing their medals and uniforms to tell students about the Civil War. Then the veterans marched through their home towns, followed by the townspeople to the cemetery. They decorated graves and took photographs of soldiers next to American flags. Rifles were shot in the air as a salute to the northern soldiers who had given their lives to keep the United States together.
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13 strips red color alternate with white; in the left top corner the dark blue rectangular with 50 small stars is located; 50 stars symbolize 50 states, 13 strips represent 13 primary colonies.
Flag Day
On June 14,1777, Congress proposed that the United States have a national flag instead of the British Union Jack. The thirteen stars of the flag represented the thirteen new states.
The first official Flag Day was observed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1893.
In August 1949, President Harry S. Truman proclaimed June 14 as Flag Day.
Schools had unfurled American flags over their doors or outside the buildings long before this. All Americans in the country to display the Stars and Stripes outside their homes and businesses.
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FATHER’S DAY
The United States is one of the few countries in the world that has an official day on which fathers are honored by their children. On the third Sunday in June, fathers all across the United States are given presents, treated to dinner or otherwise made to feel special.
The origin of Father’s Day is not clear. Some say that it began with a church service in West Virginia in 1908. Others say the first Father’s Day ceremony was held in Vancouver, Washington.
Children made special desserts, or visited their fathers if they lived apart. When children can’t visit their fathers or take them out to dinner, they send a greeting card. Traditionally, fathers prefer greeting cards that are not too sentimental. Most greeting cards are whimsical so fathers laugh when they open them. Some give heartfelt thanks for being there whenever the child needed Dad.
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Hypotheses that all American holidays of English origin is not true!