Traditions, holidays, festivals

TRADITIONS, HOLIDAYS, FESTIVALS IN GB, the USA and CR

CHRISTMAS:
4 weeks before Christmas the Advent begins– the beautiful time full of expectation and preparations for Christmas. We decorate our houses with lights (especially the USA is famous for its light decoration), we bake sweets and every Sunday we light a candle on the advent wreath.

December 24 - Christmas Eve
In the USA or in GB a lot of people spend the day shopping. Before English children go to bed on Christmas Eve they hang up Christmas stockings at the end of their beds and believe that Santa Claus or Father Christmas rides through the air on a sledge drawn by reindeer and comes down the chimney and fills up the stockings with presents and toys. Larger things are found at the foot of their beds or under the Christmas tree. There is also a custom of leaving out mince pies for Father Christmas to eat when he comes down with presents.
Children in our country write a letter which they give outside the window and hope that Christmas kind (little Jesus) fulfills their wishes. In the CR in the evening people have dinner which consists of fried carp with potato salad then we drink tea with cherry brandy, punch or mull and eat some sweets. After the dinner Baby Jesus rings a bell to announce that the presents are already there and children run to the living room to open them.
Christmas trees are often decorated with fairy lights and bright colored ornaments.
A sprig of mistletoe is hung in a central position or over the door. If you catch a girl under it you are allowed to kiss her and for GB holly or cinnamon is also a typical symbol of Christmas.

December 25 - Christmas Day
In the USA or GB in the morning children enjoy opening presents and also midday Christmas dinner is a great occasion. It consists of roast turkey with chestnut stuffing and roast potatoes and Christmas pudding. This is a special rich pudding made with lots of dried fruit, eggs, suet and very little flour. It is made well ahead before Christmas.
There is also an old custom of stirring into the pudding, when it is being prepared, a coin, a thimble and a ring to bring wealth, work and a wedding to those who find it.

December 26 - Boxing Day
Lots of people go visiting on this day or to parties in the evening. It is named after the tradition of giving small sums of money in boxes. And people pick money for charity up.

December 31 - New Year’s Eve
People celebrate the coming of the New Year with singing and dancing and watching fireworks at midnight.
In USA it is a day of shopping because there are New Year’s sales everywhere around.

EASTER:
Easter is the most religious or sacred holiday of the year. It is celebrated on the 1st Sunday but actually it starts on Ash Wednesday - 40 days before Easter when Christians start their Lent. It is the time in which believers prepare for Easter. In this time people remember the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ. Some people spend this time fasting –