Text 7 Easter

The build-up to Easter begins on Shrove Tuesday. This is the day before Ash Wednesday - the beginning of the 40 days of Lent. On Shrove Tuesday it is the custom to cook and eat pancakes. This is symbolic of using up left-over food - eggs, milk and flour in this case - in readiness for Lent, traditionally a time of Fasting and abstinence. Nowadays very few British people actually fast in Lent, but many use it as a time to give up something they know is bad for them, such as chocolate, alcohol or cigarettes.

Although Easter is the most important festival in the Christian calendar, the majority of the British public pay much more attention to Christmas with its traditions of present giving, eating and drinking. Good Friday (three days before Easter Day) and Easter Monday are bank holidays, and the banks and other financial institutions, offices and shops are closed ой these days.

Gift giving is more restricted than at Christmas although most children are given an Easter egg-made of chocolate and often filled with sweets or a small gift. Tradition says that these eggs are delivered by the Easter Bunny (rabbit) and it is a popular game for the children to hunt for small eggs concealed around the house or garden.

Fish is traditionally eaten on Good Friday and Easter cake is an iced fruit cake with a marzipan on the top.

Easter – пасха

Ash Wednesday – прощенная среда

Lent – великий пост

Shrove Tuesday – масленица

Fasting – пост

Abstinence – воздержание

To restrict – ограничивать

Good Friday – страстная пятница

Text 8

May Day

May Day is not celebrated in Britain to the same extent that it is in many other countries. It became a public holiday only in relatively recent years and falls on the first Monday of May (and not on 1 May).

In previous centuries. May Day, which marked the Spring festival, was a potent pagan symbol and was widely celebrated. Today, in many towns and villages you can still find remnants of the old traditions. Often a local girl is chosen and crowned "Queen of the May", and people dance around a May Pole - a tall pole with colored ribbons attached to the top - on the village green. However May Day is chiefly celebrated as simply a day off work by the majority of the working population.

At the end of the month there is another public holiday called Whitsun which was originally a holiday to celebrate the religious festival of Pentecost.

potent – могущественный

pagan – языческий

remnants – следы; пережитки

ribbons – ленты

Pentecost – пятидесятница, троицын день

Whitsun – неделя после троицына дня

As you read the article, find out the answers to these questions:

1. What do druids, travelers and hippies have in common?

2. What happens to people who don't give children a "treat" on 31 October?

3. What is "guy"?

4. What is another name for Father Christmas?

5. What is sometimes the surprise in a Christmas pudding?

6. When and where might you be given a lump of coal?