Countries and cultures les 3; customs and traditions

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• mavo, havo
• Leerjaar 1

Countries and Cultures

USA AND UK

Goal

Learn about British and American customs and celebrations

Learn something about British culture

Thanksgiving Day

Each year Americans in the United States celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday on the fourth Thursday of November. One of the best things about Thanksgiving is spending time with family. Most families follow traditions begun on the first Thanksgiving.

Some traditions

• Famous foods associated with Thanksgiving are turkey and cookies. 

• At the meal, many families observe the ritual of going around the table to express what each member is thankful for.

• The President of the United States also traditionally pardons a live turkey, meaning the turkey will live on a farm without threat of being eaten.

• Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Black Friday

Black Friday is an informal name for the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. The day after Thanksgiving has been regarded as the beginning of America's Christmas shopping season 

Black Friday

Since 2006, there have been 12 reported deaths and 117 injuries throughout the United States. It is common for prospective shoppers to camp out over the Thanksgiving holiday in an effort to secure a place in front of the line and thus a better chance at getting desired items.

Black Friday

Black Friday has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States.

Retailers write Black instead of red numbers. Hence the name Black Friday. 

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Where did Black Friday first start?

1. It started in the United Kingdom, then Americans started doing it as well.
2. It started in the United Kingdom and America at the same time.
3. It started in America, then Britons started doing it as well.
4. It is not clear where Black Friday started.

Black Friday is called this way because:

1. after this day many people have little money left, which is called: “being in the black”.
2. all the shopping people create crowded streets, looking as if the streets were black.
3. shops lose a lot of money on this day because they are selling things so cheaply.
4. a lot of shops start to make profits during this day.

Fourth of July

Independence Day

Independence day (the 4th of July)

The Americans celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation.

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Halloween!  

Halloween

Halloween 

• Celts: 2000 years ago
•  Samhain: the harvest festival
• the ghosts of the dead watched the earth 
• the church got envolved and called it all saints day 
• known as Hallowmas (holy/saintly)
• Irish immigrants  1840's 
• young pranksters turned into vandalism 
• trick or treating (give us candy or we wil trash your house)
• shopkeepers gave them candy as a bribe (hence trick or treat)

• King James I was a Protestant.
  
• A group of Catholics, including Guy Fawkes, tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament, but they were caught and executed.

The Gunpowder Plot 1605

Christmas

British traditions

1.  Letters to Father Christmas

2.  Hanging stockings

3.  Christmas crackers

4.  Christmas hats

5.  Christmas dinner

6. Christmas pudding

7.  The royal Christmas message

8.  Boxing day

9.  Pantomime

10. Taking down the Christmas tree

What 

What did I have for Christmas dinner ?

Christmas Dinner

• Normally roast turkey, roast vegetables and 'all the trimmings' which means vegetables like carrots & peas, stuffing and sometimes bacon and sausages, called pigs in blankets! It's often served with cranberry sauce and bread sauce. 

• Dessert is usually a plum pudding made of dried fruit. Also sweet are mince pies, which are not filled with meat but with mixed dried fruit.  

• People pull Christmas crackers filled with silly toys, jokes and paper hats.