Traditions in Russia and English-speaking Countries
Every country has its national holidays, but there are also holidays that are common for many countries. New Year’s Day is the first holiday of each new year. In Russia it is the most popular holiday, but in Europe and America people pay more attention to Christmas. The celebration begins on New Year’s Eve, that is, on the 31st of December. At home we all stay up until midnight and much later. We light coloured lamps on our New Year Tree and have a late dinner with cake and champagne. Sometimes we just watch TV, but we also go out for a late walk. Everybody gets presents.
New Year’s Day is a family event. But in Russia we also have holidays commemorating some important events in our history, for example, Victory Day or Constitution Day. There are also holidays like May Day and Women’s Day which started as political events but over the years have become family holidays.
Recently Russian people have begun to celebrate religious holidays again. The most important religious holidays are Christmas and Easter. In Russia, Christmas is celebrated on January 7th, and in Europe and in the USA on December 25th.
In Great Britain there are also many holidays, some of them are the same as in our country, and some different. Bank Holidays, the peculiar English holidays, were appointed by Act of Parliament in 1871. They happen four times a year: Easter Monday, Whit Monday, the first Monday in August and December 26th. December 26th is Boxing Day. The “boxing” refers to the boxes of Christmas presents which are usually given on that day. Other public holidays are: Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Good Friday and May Day. On these days all banks and all places of business are closed and nearly everyone takes a holiday.
But besides public holidays, the British people observe certain traditions on such days as Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday, Guy Fawkes’ Night, St. Valentine’s Day, April Fool’s Day, which, unless they fall on Sunday, are ordinary working days.
In the USA constitution there is no provision for national holidays. Each state has the right to decide which holiday to observe. Many states have holidays of their own, but there are also major holidays observed in nearly all the states.
The main holiday in the USA is Independence Day, celebrated on the fourth of July. On that day in 1776, the Declaration of
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