Chapter 8 British Holidays and festivals Time Allocation: 2 periods Focal Points: Christmas, Christian trinity, Easter and Halloween Introduction Holiday is a day set apart for religious ob servance or for the commemoration of some extraordinary event or distinguished person, or for some other public occasion Holidays are characterized by a partial or total cessation of work and normal business are gene rally accompanied by public and private ceremonies, including feasting(or fasting), parades and carnivals, or displays of flags and speechmaking The word holiday, in fact, is derived from "holy day. Subsequently, non-religious holidays commemorating historical occasions or distinguished persons outnumbered holy days, although many ancient religious rituals and customs have been carried over into modern times and incorporated into both non-religious and religious observations Thus, knowing a little bit about a countrys holidays and their origins is a good way of understanding this country's way of life and people's way of thinking Holid ays usually reflect a country's religious, historical, social and cultural diversity (P. 93, Paragraph 1) United Kingdom is a Christian country. Yet, its public holidays include not only religious ones, but also non-religious ones. The main holidays are as follows United Kingdom Public Holidays Name Date Meaning New Year 's January Celebration of the new year Good Friday March or April Christian religious holiday Easter Monday March or April Christian religious holiday Labor Day First Monday in May Celebration in honor of workers Late May Bank Last Monday in May Traditional bank holiday Holiday The day after Whit Monday Christian religious holiday Pentecost Second Monday in Queens Birthday Celebration of birthday of Queen Elizabeth If June1 Chapter 8 British Holidays and Festivals Time Allocation: 2 periods Focal Points: Christmas, Christian trinity, Easter and Halloween. I. Introduction Holiday is a day set apart for religious ob’servance or for the commemoration of some extraordinary event or distinguished person, or for some other public occasion. Holidays are characterized by a partial or total cessation of work and normal business activities and are generally accompanied by public and private ceremonies, including feasting (or fasting), parades and carnivals, or displays of flags and speechmaking. The word holiday, in fact, is derived from “holy day.” Subsequently, non-religious holidays commemorating historical occasions or distinguished persons outnumbered holy days, although many ancient religious rituals and customs have been carried over into modern times and incorporated into both non-religious and religious observations. Thus, knowing a little bit about a country’s holidays and their origins is a good way of understanding this country’s way of life and people’s way of thinking. Holidays usually reflect a country’s religious, historical, social and cultural diversity. (P. 93, Paragraph 1) United Kingdom is a Christian country. Yet, its public holidays include not only religious ones, but also non-religious ones. The main holidays are as follows. United Kingdom Public Holidays Name Date Meaning New Year’s January 1 Celebration of the new year Good Friday March or April Christian religious holiday Easter Monday March or April Christian religious holiday Labor Day First Monday in May Celebration in honor of workers Late May Bank Holiday Last Monday in May Traditional bank holiday Whit Monday The day after Pentecost Christian religious holiday Queen’s Birthday Second Monday in June Celebration of birthday of Queen Elizabeth II