Текст " Праздники в США

I would like to tell you about holidays and traditions in the United States of America. The so-called legal holidays include Christmas, New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and others.
Christmas is a religious holiday celebrated on the 25th of December. On this day Americans celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and sing Christmas carols. Another important tradition is sending Christmas cards. People start sending cards to their relatives and friends early in December. Going home for Christmas, is another good tradition. Christmas is considered to be a family celebration and every person must come back home on this day. This means that at Christmas, American houses are full of aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives who might not see each other for a year. Americans put up a Christmas tree and decorate it with toys and sweets. There are religious ceremonies at churches on Christmas Day and families usually attend them.

The Christmas table is very big. You can see turkey, ham, sweet potatoe pies and other food. In the morning children hurry to the Christmas tree to look for presents. They hang big colourful socks for Santa Claus to put presents inside. Everybody starts unwrapping presents and thanking each other.
New Year's Day is celebrated on the 1st of January, but Americans begin celebrating it on the 31st of December. There is a big celebration in Times Square in New York City on this day. New Year's Day is not as widely celebrated as Christmas. On January 1 Americans
visit friends, relatives and neighbours. There are parties and a lot of food. People watch television together and write New Year's resolutions.
Martin Luther King Day is celebrated on the third Monday in January. Martin Luther King was a black man who won full civil rights for black Americans. On this day schools, offices and federal agencies are closed.
Memorial Day is on the last Monday of May. On this day Americans honour the memories of their dead relatives. This day is also the beginning of summer. Americans go to relax at the beach or go to the mountains.
Independence Day is one of the most important holidays in America. It is celebrated on the 4th of July. On this day in 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. There are picnics, parades and fireworks all over the country on Independence Day. Americans do not work: they have day-long picnics with their favourite food like hot-dogs, hamburgers, potato salad and others.
Halloween is a holiday celebrated mostly by children and the young. On the 31st of October they dress as vampires, witches and ghosts and go from house to house saying trick or treat. People should give them a treat otherwise, the children will play a trick on them.
Thanksgiving is one of the popular American holidays, too. It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. This holiday dates back to the time when the first settlers, the Pilgrims, came to America. Their first winter was very hard, they had little food. In spring, the Indians taught them to plant and grow new crops, hunt and fish. The following autumn the colonists made a great feast for the Indians. At Thanksgiving American families gather and spend this day together. The traditional Thanksgiving food is roast turkey, pumpkin pies, cranberry jelly, ham, sweet potatoes, and other delicious food.
The United States is a young country, but it has a lot of great old and new holidays that are fun to celebrate.


Vocabulary:

attend [a'tend] посещать
Christmas carol рождественская песенка
cranberry jelly клюквенное желе
crop [krop] урожай
day-long длиной в целый день
Declaration of декларация
Independence независимости
feast [fist] пир
federal agency федеральный орган
firework фейерверк
ghost [gaust] привидение
ham ветчина
honour почитать
legal holiday государственный праздник
pumpkin pie тыквенный пирог
put up ставить (о елке)
relative ['relatrv] родственник
resolution обещание
settler поселенец
treat [tri:t] угощение
trick [tnk] шутка
turkey ['t3:ki] индейка
unwrap разворачивать
witch ведьма

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2. Questions:
1. What do the legal holidays in the USA include?
2. What do you know about Christmas? What are its traditions?
3. Is New Year's Day celebrated in America?
4. What is Martin Luther King Day?
5. What is one of the most important American holidays and why?
6. What holiday is loved by children?
7. What is celebrated at Thanksgiving?