Main British Holidays

• The main holidays in Great Britain are New Year’s Day, Good Friday (Пятница на Страстной неделе), Easter Monday, Labour Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

• Public holidays are called Bank Holidays because on these days banks, most of shops and offices are closed.

• Besides public holidays the British people observe certain traditions on such days as Pancake Day, Guy Fawkes’ Night, St. Valentine’s Day, April Fool’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween which are ordinary working days.

• Christmas is the main religious holiday in many countries. It is celebrated in Europe on the 25th of December, in Russia on the 7th of January. It is the day when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, though the actual date of his birth is not known.

• Boxing Day (UK) is the next day after Christmas, when rich people give small presents in boxes to the servants, etc.

• The New Year is not as widely celebrated as Christmas in Britain. Some people ignore it completely and go to bed at usual time. Others, however, do celebrate it in one way or another. The most common way of celebration is a New Year Party.

• Hogmanay is the most popular holiday in Scotland, celebrated on the New Year’s Eve.

• Easter is a very important festival in the Christian calendar. The Christians think that on the day of Easter Jesus Christ rose from dead. The actual date of Easter changes every year. The preparations for Easter really begin 40 days before Easter, on Shrove Tuesday. This marks the beginning of a period of fasting, called Lent.

• There are also local festivals all through the year. In spring village children dance round Maypole (Майское дерево). Maypole is an ancient emblem of the beginning of summer. In ancient times it was a pagan spring festival. A tall pole decorated with flowers, maypole, was erected to which ribbons were attached and held by the dancers.

• Guy Fawkes Night (UK) is on November, 5. Guy Fawkes Night goes back to the days of King James I who was vary unpopular as a protestant. So some of the Catholics made an attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. The man who was to explode the building was Guy Fawkes. But he was discovered, arrested and hanged. Since that time people burn a straw dummy of Guy Fawkes on a bonfire on the 5th of November.