Transcript Document

Easter
in Great Britain
(part one)
Easter Day is named after the Saxon goddess of spring, Eostre, whose feast took place
at the spring equinox. Easter is now the spring feast of the Christian church, commemorating the
resurrection of Jesus. It falls on a Sunday between March 22nd and April 25th according to the
church calendar.
Traditionally Easter eggs, dyed and
decorated or made of chocolate, are
given as presents symbolizing new life
and the coming of spring.
Another popular Easter present is the chocolate Easter Bunny. There is a
tradition of Bunny or Egg Hunting: parents hide chocolate eggs or bunnies somewhere
in the house or, if the weather is good, in the garden. When children get up on Easter
morning, they begin to look for these hidden presents.
Egg rolling competitions take place in northern
Britain on Easter Monday; hard-boiled eggs are rolled
down a slope, with the winter being – according to
local preference – the one which rolls the furthest,
survives the most rolls, or is successfully aimed between
two pegs! The best publicized event takes place at
Avenham Park in Preston, Lancashire.
Easter parades are also a part of the Easter
tradition, with those taking part wearing Easter
bonnets or hats, traditionally decorated with spring
flowers and ribbons.
Easter in Ukraine does not coincide with Easter in the countries with
other Christian churches. It is on Sunday between the 4th of April and the 8th
of May.
The week before Easter, the Great
(Velytkyi) Week is called the White (Biliy) or
Pure (Chystyi) Week. During this time an
effort is made to finish all field work before
Thursday.
On the evening of the Pure Thursday the Passion service is performed, after
which people return home with lighted candles.
The last Sunday before Easter is called
Willow Sunday (Verbna nedilia). On this
day pussy-willow branches are blessed in
the church.
The people tap one another with these branches repeating the wish: “Be
as tall as the willow, as healthy as the water and as rich as the earth. Not I
am tapping, the willow is tapping. Easter is in a week!”
Easter begins with the matins and high mass,
during which the pasky (traditional Easter
breads), pysanky and krashanky (decorated or
dyed Easter eggs) are blessed in the church.
After the matins the people exchange
Easter greetings: “Christ is risen! –
Risen indeed!”, give each other
krashanky and than hurry home with
their baskets of blessed food
(sviachene).
Easter is a feast of joy and gladness. For three days people celebrate it.
They often sing spring songs (vesnyanky).
Nowadays Easter has been proclaimed a national holiday of Ukraine
the start
about the authors
The presentation is prepared by:
Dasuk Anton, 5-B, school №2
teacher of computer studying
Kovalenko O.I.
teacher of English
Poplavskaya M.K.