Проект Ефимовой К. по теме "Рождество"

CHRISTMAS by Efimova K.

Introduction

• If you try to catch a train on 24th of December you may have difficulty in finding a seat. This is the day when many people travelling home to be with their families on Christmas Day 25th of December. For mosts British Families this is the most important festival of the year it combines the Christian celebration of the birth of Christ with the traditional festivities of winter.

Before Christmas

Christmas Eve is a very busy time for the Englishmen. On December the 24 th offices, factories and schools close at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, but shops are open until late for the people who haven’t bought Christmas presents yet and want to buy them at the last moment.

People have a lot to do: they decorate Christmas trees and their houses, prepare presents for children, relatives and friends, women cook or buy various tasty things for Christmas Dinner. Many people on this day go home to be with their families because Christmas is a family holiday.

On Christmas day families sit down at a festive dinner. In the afternoon they may watch the Queen on television as she delivers her traditional Christmas message to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Christmas evening is the time for terrible stories about ghosts. But now people only laugh and nobody is frightened.

Christmas Decorations.

The English like to decorate their houses before Christmas. There is a beautiful Christmas tree in every English home. But this tradition is not very old. In England the Christmas tree was made popular by Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. Prince Albert was born in Germany where the decorated tree was already one of the Christmas traditions. In 1840 he introduces a beautiful tree into the royal family’s Christmas and many other people soon followed suit.

Christmas Cards

Every English family sends and gets a lot of Christmas cards. In fact the English send more than a billion Christmas cards every year. The custom of sending cards at Christmas appears in Queen Victoria’s reign. All the Christmas cards are beautiful; there are pictures of angels, fir trees, Christmas stockings on them.

Christmas Dinner

The most popular Christmas dishes are Christmas turkey and Christmas pudding. In England they make Christmas pudding before Christmas. All the family stir the pudding and make a wish. When the pudding is hot they put five-penny pieces in it and sometimes little silver charms – a horseshoe, a button or a ring.

Christmas presents.

There are a lot of traditions connected with Christmas but perhaps the most important one is giving of presents. The Bible says that when Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem wise men from the East came to worship him. That’s why people nowadays try to please their friends and relatives giving them Christmas presents.

Santa Claus.

For English children Christmas means Santa Claus. We picture him a merry old grey-haired gentleman with rosy cheeks, dressed in his gay heavy red coat and having large sacks on his back.

But when we want to know what lies behind this happy picture we find some interesting thing. To begin with, Saint Nicholas – that was his real name – is the national saint of Russia and Greece. He is the saint, who protects all the people in trouble.

Carols

On Sunday before Christmas many churches hold a carol service where special songs are sung. These songs are called carols. Carols are sung by waits. Waits are a group of singers who sing carols. In small towns and villages waits often come and stand in front of the house and sing or play carols. They receive money for their singing or playing. They give money to poor and old people.

THE

END :)