Easter week

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Easter is celebrated in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The festival in the UK begins on Holy Thursday and lasts until Easter Monday. Some of the traditions this week are:

• Easter Eggs: Legend has it that a poor woman, who could not give sweets to her children for lack of money, one day laid decorated eggs in her garden.When the children found them, they saw a rabbit and thought it was him who had left the eggs.And that’s where the tradition of Easter eggs comes from: eggs are painted and decorated, specially among the little ones. And even decorated chocolate eggs are given away.Once decorated, chocolate eggs are hiding in the gardens of houses and children have to look for them. This game is known as Egg Hunt.
• Egg roll:Game in which you have to roll an egg decorated down a hill and try to get the first run after it. The first to arrive without losing his egg wins a prize in chocolate. The most famous Egg Roll is held in Avenham Park, in the city of Preston.
• Hot Cross Buns: Good Friday is very typical to eat these sweet rolls made of raisins and yeast, they are glazed and decorated with a kind of cross on top. It’s tradition to have this hot, buttered sweet.

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CHRISTMAS

Christmas Eve: It is considered a family celebration that takes place on December 24th. Usually, the little ones write a letter with the gifts they have asked Santa Claus and make it to Santa’s mailbox. In the old day, the cards were thrown into the chimney for Santa Claus to read the letter through the smoke coming out of the chimney. This day the little ones hang their socks ( or pillowcases) on the tree, at the foot of the bed or in the fireplace for Santa Claus or Father Christmas to fill them with gifts during the night. Kids sometimes leave out minced meat pies and brandy or milk for Santa to eat and drink when he visits them, and carrots for your reindeer.

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Christmas day: Start on December 25th. The children open in the morning the gifts that Santa Claus has left them overnight. Before eating, diners open the Christmas crackers, small cardboard tubes wrapped in gift paper that are attached. It usually contains a gift or a message inside, which when pulling the sides of the cracker discover a message or small details containes inside. Christmas food is very important. The main course is turkey or stuffed roast chicken, with sauces prepared and with bacon rolls, baked potatoes or accompanied by Brussels sprouts, carrots and peas. For dessert, it’s typical to eat Christmas pudding, a cake made from nuts, bread, eggs, spices, milk and brandy. And it’s special because of the way it’s brought to the table because, after adding the brandy, the dessert is set on fire to light up the family table.

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Boxing day: The following day, 26 December, solidarity and the Christmas spirit are promoted. Donations and presents are usually made to the poor and charitable works, such as visiting elderly or sick people who spend these special dates alone. Its history dates back to the XIX century, when servants could visit their families laden with gift packs and leftovers from the previous day’s banquet. Also, traditionally on this day sports competitions such as horse racing and football matches are typical.

Halloween

The night of October 31 is celebrated. It has its origin in Celtic culture, from a party known as “Samhain”,where the end of the harvest season was celebrated. Ancient Celts believed that the line between this world and the Other World was narrowed with the arrival of Samhain, allowing spirits (so good and bad) to pass through this line.
In this way the ghosts of deceased relatives were welcomed back into the world of the living to meet their families, received in their homes specially decorated for that day.
While the evil spirits were chased away, with the use of costumes and masks, trying to imitate the appearance of the spirits to avoid being harmed. It spread to the United States because a large percentage of Americans today come from Irish who migrated to America.

Traditions of this day

• Decoration: Streets, schools, jobs and universities are dressed in orange and black to recive this holiday. Gardens, doors and windows are decorated with garlands, candles, Halloween pumpkins, graves, skeletons are some of the elements you can find in a garden. And other typical images, such as bats, spider webs, witches or ghosts.

• Costumes: Everyone celebrates this day equally as adults also wear a scary costume, although the celebration is especially popular with children, who often wear scary costumes of all kinds for the traditional Halloween trick or treat.

• Jack O´Lantern: The tradition of decorating pumpkins is a fun activity, and it is also belived to scare away evil spirits. All Americans use this fruit, which is very abundant in the country, to give it the shape of an evil face and also add a lantern inside. On weekends, families often go with their children to collect pumpkins from farms, where they choose the perfect pumpkin.

• Trick or treat: Children from all over the country go door to door to the neighboring houses asking the “trick or treat” choir for candy and sweets in disguise . If adults give them candy, they are interpreted as having accepted the treat. If they don’t, the children will play a little trick on them, like throwing eggs or shaving cream at the door.

• Games: It is common to celebrate Halloween in the United States with traditional games, such as the apple-biting game, which consists of taking this fruit floating in the water with your teeth or from a rope hanging from a branch.

• Sweets and foot :Typical are sweets and especially caramel apples or apples with peanuts (peanut cream). They also make cookies with typical Halloween shapes, such as ghosts, vampires and bats.

Thansgiving

• Celebration Day: It’s one of the biggest holidays of the year. It is celebrated mainly in the United States and Canada.It is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of November. This 2020 falls on Thursday, November 26.

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• The origin of the celebration: It originated when a group of British settlers arrived by boat in Plymouth (Massachusetts), looking for a place to practice their faith freely or for the prosperity of the New World. More than half died during the first winter. When spring came, the survivors got off the boat and the Wampanoag Indians helped them to harvest the land and survive. At that time, the indigenous communities celebrated the successes of the agricultural harvest in the fall.

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• Decoración: It focuses on autumn colours such as orange, red, green and brown. And many centerpieces and decorations are created with candles, pineapples and nuts. -Decoration of the entrance door:The wreaths with pineapples, branches, flowers and leaves in orange, ochre and yellow, with some ribbon or bow are perfect for the occasion. -Decoration of the enviro:Flowers and candles are fundamental elements in the decoration, candles can be placed in candleholders or candles and candles of different sizes, as well as flowers in vases, vases and baskets, in orange, yellow and red tones in the different rooms of the house, in order to create a visually beautiful atmosphere with an exquisite aroma. -Center of the table and surroundings: It can include candles, yellow or red flowers such as sunflowers, geraniums, marigolds, pumpkins and fruits arranged in baskets or vases. The vases can be decorated with burlap cloth and rustic ribbons that look great with the characteristic shades of the date.

• Traditional Food: Families get together before the meal itself to do their preparation together. The traditional dinner usually consists of a stuffed turkey in the oven as the main dish. The side dish will depend on the taste of the different families but usually includes the stuffed turkey, corn bread, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce.Some vegetable dishes like green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and others. In desserts, are usually typical pecan pie, apple pie, sweet potato pie, blackberry pie or pumpkin pie and also a typical cranberry sauce. Part of the tradition during the meal is to choose the longest turkey bone for luck.

• Thanksgiving games or activities: After that hearty meal they usually go for a walk, play outdoor games or play board games. Watch a football game on family television or watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

St Patrick’s Day

It is celebrated on March 17 (lasts five days), is considered a national holiday and the most important day in Ireland, this popular and religious celebration commemorates the death of the patron saint of the country, St. Patrick.
It is said that St. Patrick used a clover to teach people about the Holy Trinity. The three leaves symbolized the father, the son and the holy spirit according to Christian tradition.

During the festivities, the city is dressed in green: -The colour green represents spring and joy. -People wear a green garment and a clover in their lapel.
-The leprechaun costume is another of the customs that are part of the festivities.

The streets are flooded with acts, music and dancing: -Large processions, parades, religious services and folk dance performances are held.
-With the céilidh, Ireland’s traditional dance, in which up to 16 people can participate.
-In musical matters, the bagpipes to the rhythm of Celtic music are also important.

The drink and the food:
-Corned beef(canned veal)
-Colcannon(Cabbage with mashed potatoes). -Irish stew.
-Lamb, potato bread, cabbage and lots of beer, which you can also get in green, are some of the foods that cannot be missing from the celebration.