19._FESTIVALS_AND_CELEBRATIONS

FESTIVALS AND CELEBRATIONS

* PUBLIC HOLIDAYS/ OTHER HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS IN THE UK

BANK HOLIDAY

Bank Holiday are public holidays in Britain, originally called so as banks where closed on these special days.

TROPPING THE COLOUR

Is Queen’s officially birthday celebrated on 6th June. It takes place at Whitewall with Horse Guard’s Parade. On that day and on New Year’s Day the Queen awards honours to important people.

THE LORD MAYOR’S SHOW

Takes place on 8th November. The Mayor drives through the City in a two hundred-year old golden coach.

REMEMBRANCE DAY

Is celebrated on 11th November or the nearest Sunday. At the Cenotaph in London a ceremony is held and thee is two-minute silence to remember those who were killed in the two words wars.

EDINBURG INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

It is a music festival of Scottish music and dancing which is celebrated from 12th August to 2nd Sempember. The Scots dress in tartan kilts and compete in their typical sports: tossing the caber, throwing the hammer ar a tug-of-war.

EISTEDDFOD

It is rather a festival than holiday. It‘s celebrated in the first week of August in Wales. Originally it was a miner’s cultural feast. Now it’s a festival of music, literature and arts.

GUY FAWKES’ DAY

In 1604, the King of England was James I and a Protestant. Many people did not like him because they were Catholics and wanted a Catholic king. A Catholic called Guy Fawkes, and his friends, had a plot to kill King James, and his government, when he opened Parliament in London on 5 November 1605.

They put thirty-six boxes of gunpowder in a room underneath the Houses of Parliament. They wanted to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill everyone at the same time. But the plan did not work. One of Guy Fawkes' friends wrote a note to someone about it. At about midnight on 4 November, the King's soldiers found Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder.

In January 1606, when people heard the news that the plotters were dead, they made many fires in the streets to celebrate. King James was alive and well!

Every year on 5 November, in most parts of Britain, people build a big fire outside, with all the dead leaves and old pieces of wood they do not want. The fire is called a bonfire. They make a dummy (called a 'guy') of Guy Fawkes, from old clothes and straw. Sometimes children carry the guy around the streets to show people. They say: 'Penny for the guy', and ask people for money for fireworks.

Some people have a bonfire with fireworks in their garden, but fireworks are expensive, so often people get together and have one big party in a park or a field.

* PUBLIC HOLIDAYS/ OTHER HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS IN THE USA

THANKSGIVING

In September 1620, a group of English people called the Pilgrim Fathers sailed from Plymouth, England across the Atlantic Ocean, in a ship called The Mayflower, to Cape Cod in North America. They went away from England because of their religious and because they wanted land for their families. They also wanted to grow food for themselves.