Внеклассное мероприятие по английскому языку в 8 классе "Сравнение российских и британских традиций"
план-конспект занятия по английскому языку (8 класс)

Comparison of British and Russian Holidays and Traditions

        Every country has it’s own holidays and traditions. Some of them appeared ages ago and are unique for one particular country, others can be found all over the world. The way people celebrate this or that holiday can tell much about their culture and way of life. To know customs and traditions means to understand the people, their art and culture better. They can tell us much about the country’s history and the people’s psychology.  

1. Read the names of some holidays

2. Try to guess which holidays people celebrate in Russia and in Great Britain. Divide their names into two groups.

Maybe                                                     .....   is celebrated in Russia / Great Britain.

I am sure                                                 .....   is associated with ...   .

I know exactly                                        .....   makes me think of ...   .

In my opinion

I doubt but

Probably

I can be mistaken but I think  

3. At different celebrations people are involved in different activities. What do people traditionally do on holidays?

Visit relatives and friends

Set off firecrackers

Give / get presents to their relatives and friends

Have fun

Watch TV shows

Cook special dinner for the whole family

Make costumes and put them on

Take part in parades

Go to the church

Write and send beautiful postcards

4. Fill in the table using the information of our lesson:

5. Read the text:

                        Pancake Day or Maslenitsa

In Russia Pancake week is called Maslenitsa, this word means "butter" in English. It means that many different food, including butter, may be eaten before the time when Lent comes. On the whole, the pancake week may be segmented into three parts, i.e. meeting of Maslenitsa on Monday, broad Maslyanitsa, or the peak of festive occasion(повод для праздника), on Thursday, and the last day, the good-bye day, which comes on Sunday morning. Through the whole week people cook pancakes served with honey, caviar, fresh cream and butter.

The historians say that those were really "mad" days in the past. People wore funny masks and costumes, sometimes, men wore women clothing and vice a versa. Such masquerade gave start to merry festival, when nice food was eaten. A big man of straw was burned as the final act of saying goodbye to the already passed winter. The feast fighting was one more great fun, which helped to warm up on cold winter days. Tsars and Grand Princes used to find a lot of fun in feast fighting (кулачные бои). At present special performances are held on Pancake week.

In Britain the day preceding Lent is known as Shrove Tuesday (отпущение грехов), or Pancake Day. Shrove Tuesday recalls the day when people went to Church to confess and be shriven before Lent. But now the day is more generally connected with relics of the traditional feasting (пиршество) before the fast. Shrove Tuesday is famous for pancake celebration.

British people eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday in February or March. In some parts of Britain there are pancake races on Shrove Tuesday. People race with a frying pan in one hand. They have to "toss" the pancake, throw it in the air and catch it again in the frying pan.

Questions:

1. When is Maslenitsa / Shrove Tuesday celebrated?
2. What did people traditionally do on these holidays in the past? What do they do now?
3. What did they eat?
4. Is the idea of the holiday the same or is it different?

6. Easter.  What do you know about the history of Easter? You may speak Russian.People in Russia and Great Britain, as the two nations, are Christians. However, Russians are Orthodox and British are Catholics, so the day Easter is celebrated in the two countries does not usually match. Catholic Easter is usually a week earlier that the Orthodox one.

There are very many similarities in the way the two nations celebrated this holiday.

Grammar task. Put the verbs into the correct tense and you will have a story about some traditions connected with Easter.

On eve of Easter people  _______ (cook)   special dishes, they ______(bake)   rich Easter cakes (kulichi),  _______ (make)   Easter cottage cheese cakes (the so called Paskha) and  _______ (dye)   eggs. Usually eggs  _________ (be  dyed)   on Thursday, and then on Saturday  _________ (be  brought)   to the church to consecrate. All paschal week people  ______ (have)   a feast with rich meal with meat, eggs and other meal that  ___________ (not be  allowed)   during 40 days Fast.

          Eggs, chickens, rabbits and flowers  _____ (be) all symbols of new life. Chocolate and fruit cakes  ______ (show)   that fasting  _____ (be)   over. Egg  _____ (be)   the main paschal symbol. There  ______ (be)   an old Russian Easter tradition - in this day people  _______ (greet)   each other with three times kisses and with words "Christ arise!" At paschal greeting believers  ______ (give)   each other red eggs. Easter egg  _____ (be)   a real hard-boiled egg dyed in bright colors or nicely decorated. People  _____ (boil)   eggs with the skin of an onion, which  ______ (make)   the eggs shells yellow,red or brown. Sometimes they  _____ (use)   leaves, flowers and bark  _____ (dye)   eggs.

          At present Easter eggs  _______ (be also made)   of chocolate, sugar, metals, wood, ceramics and other materials at hand.

          In Russia and in England, children  _____ (play)   a traditional game. They  ______ (roll)   eggs down hills on Easter morning. It  ________ (consist)   of rolling coloured, hardboiled egg down a slope until they  _______ (be  cracked and broken)   after which they  _____ (be  eaten) by their owners..

7. Read the texts in groups. Give a short summery of the texts.

        Halloween        

Halloween is an old word for "Hallows Evening", or "All Saints' Day". The celebrations of All Saints Day or just Halloween takes place on October 31st. The tradition of Halloween began in the fifth century B.C. This day the Irish Celts celebrated their year according to the agricultural calendar and marked the transition from one year to the next on October 31st. In the year 835 A.D. the Roman Catholic Church made November 1st a church holiday to honour all the saints. This day is called All Saint’s Day.

       The most known custom is the tradition of dressing. The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, many people were afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts (приведения) would mistake them for fellow spirits (духи). On Halloween, people placed bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter their home.

       Fire has always played an important part in Halloween. Fire was very important to the Celts as it was to the early people. In the old days people lit bonfires (костры) to ward away evil spirits and in some laces they used to jump over the fire to bring good luck. Today, we light candles in pumpkin and then put them outside our homes to ward of evil spirits.

Ivan Kupalo or St. John the Baptist’s Day

In the Orthodox countries, as well as all over Europe, people celebrate the Holiday of St. John the Baptist. In Russia this holiday is called Ivan Kupalo. Everything in the holiday relates to water. In the past boys and girls used to swim in rivers till late at night, they burned fires and, taking each-others hands, jumped over the fires. If after the jump they still held their hands together, it considered to be a good sign saying that the wedding is close.

The popular belief (поверье) was that the night before the Ivan Kupalo's Day (St.John Baptist's Day) trees would move from place to place and talk among themselves; animals and even herbs would also talk to each other, because that night they would obtain magic power. To gain this power, people would gather herbs (травы) to be used for medical purposes. Also, the plants were believed to be able to point to hidden treasures (in particular, the mythological fern flower); they were expected to protect from all sorts of troubles and to be good for making love potion. To make sure that the herbs had the magic and medical effect, it was important to gather them in the right place at the right time following all rituals including singing special songs.

Not only water is an important part of the Kupalo holidays, but also fire. The night before the Kupalo's Day they would build fires, dance around them and jump above them. Those who could jump especially high were supposed to become happier.

The holiday was also associated with the sun; therefore, there existed a tradition of throwing from the hills the wheels covered with straw and put on fire (this used to be the ancient symbol of the sun.)

8. Read the texts in groups. Give a short summery of the texts.

Christmas  /  New Year

Let us briefly see the difference between celebrating Christmas and New Year in Russia and Great Britain

9. Homework