11_Special_days,_anniversaries

And now, I’d like to tell something about some special holidays for each country.

The USA and Great Britain have also one more feast in common - the Halloween. We don’t celebrate it, but in the last few years, the tradition attacks our country just like the American Christmas symbol, Santa Claus.

Children celebrate it by dressing up in Halloween costumes with masks over their faces. Carrying baskets they go from house to house, knock on the door and say „Trick or treat“ which means „give us some sweets or we will do something naughty to you“.

People also decorate their houses and gardens with jack-o-lanterns, which are carved pumpkins with a candle inside. These pumpkins shall welcome the souls of the dead.

One of the special British feasts is the Bonfire Night on the 5 of November. It’s the anniversary of the Gunpowder plot in 1605.

Then an young English catholic, Guy Fawkes, tried to blow up King James I. and his Government in the Houses of Parliament in London. Fawkes with ther Catholics wanted to kill the king because the king was a Protestant. Fortunately, Fawkes wasn’t successful, the plot was discovered and the conspirators executed.

People on this day light great bonfires and organise fireworks. Traditionally people make an effigy of Guy Fawkes with old clothes and newspaper, and burn him on the fire. Originally, Bonfire Night was an occasion on which people celebrated the fact that Guy Fawkes didn’t kill the king. nowadays, it is just a festival where family and friends come together to watch a fireworks display.

The USA has two very important holidays that should be mentioned.

The first one is Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving commemorates the honour of Native Americans who helped the first settlers to survive the winter because they gave them part of their crop.

It’s celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November and it is the occasion for the whole family to be together. The traditional dinner is roast turkey with filling and cranberry sauce, followed by a pumpkin pie.

The other festival is Independence Day that celebrates the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and establishing the USA on the July 4.

Each city has its own ceremony and parades, band concerts and firework display in the evening. People also celebrate it with barbecue and beer, picnics and watching baseball matches.

In the Czech Republic, we celebrate for example the Independence Day of the Czechoslovakia on October 28, the anniversary of the creation of the Czech Republic on January 1, or the day of Velvet Revolution on November 17.

I must say we don’t make such huge celebrations of these feasts in comparison with Great Britain and America.

But one special day used to be propagated a lot in the past. It is 1st May which were celebrated as a Labor day during the communist era. Then it was obligatory to join the celebration so everybody had to take part in large parades which were held in each city. If somebody didn’t participace he could have a problem. It was also common to display the Czech and Russian flag to the window.