Christmas in Great Britain

Christmas Day, December 25, is probably the most popular holiday in Great Britain. It is a family holiday. Traditionally all relatives and friends give each other presents. So, before Christmas all the department stores and shops are crowded, everybody is choosing a present.

In general, people get prepared for this holiday very carefully. They decorate their houses in the traditional way. Christmas trees are set up in houses, in the streets and churches. They are always decorated with fairy lights, angels and small toys. In addition, little packets with nuts, candies and special biscuits are hung on the tree. Presents are put around the tree and artificial «frost» is scattered over the branches.

The Germans are believed to be the first to use the Christmas tree in their celebrations and Martin Luther was the first to place a star on the top of the tree. This star represents the star appeared over the stable in which Christ was born.

In Great Britain, the Christmas tree became popular while Queen Victoria ruled the country.

Besides the Christmas tree, holly and mistletoe are used to decorate the house. Branches of holly are put up behind pictures and mistletoe is hung over doors, so the young people have a chance to kiss the girls under it, plucking each time a red berry from the mistletoe. It is said that the girl who was not kissed under it at Christmas would not get married that year.

On the eve of Christmas children hang their stockings, so that Santa Claus could put presents into them: oranges, sweets, nuts and if the child didn't behave properly Santa Claus can put there a piece of coal as punishment.

Santa Claus got his name from a man known as St. Nicolas, who lived in the fourth century. He gave his wealth to the poor and often to children. After he died, the Dutch brought this legend to colonial America. Soon the Dutch name Sinter Klaus became Santa Claus.

Carol singing is an essential part of Christmas. No church or school is without its carol service. Carols may be traditional or with some variations that express different feelings. Carols were used for the first time during Christmas in the fifteenth century.

Usually children come around in the evening to the front doors and start singing carols and people who live in these houses give children candies, nuts, pies and so on, to thank them for carol singing.

A typical Christmas lunch includes turkey with cranberry sauce and pudding. Every young woman in each household helps to stir the Christmas pudding, if she wishes to be married that year. Usually a coin or two are hidden inside the pudding and part of the fun is to see who finds it.

After the lunch they go to the sitting room to listen to the Christmas speech of the Queen, shown on TV.

So, Christmas is a merry family holiday for all the people of Great Britain. Christmas comes but once a year.

New Zealand is an island country in the Southwest Pacific

Ocean. It lies about 1 600 km southeast of Australia and

about 10 500 km southwest of California. New Zealand

belongs to a large island group called Polynesia. The country

is situated on two main islands — the North Island and the

South Island — and several dozen smaller islands. Most

of the smaller islands are hundreds of kilometers from the

main ones.

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and Auckland is

the largest city. English is the official language of New Zealand

and is spoken throughout the country. Many native people

speak their own language, Maori, in addition to English.

The country once belonged to the British empire. Today it

is an independent member of the Commonwealth of Nations,

an association of Britain and a number of its former colonies.

New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy. The British

Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, is the

monarch of New Zealand. She appoints a governor general to

represent her, but the governor general has little power. The

legislation, prime minister, and Cabinet run the national

government.

Britain gave New Zealand a constitution in 1852, when it

was a British colony. But through the years the New Zealand

legislature has changed almost all its provisions. Today, the

nation has no written constitution.

The first people who settled in New Zealand were a brownskinned people called Maoris. They came from Polynesian

islands located northeast of New Zealand. The country was

discovered by Europeans in 1642, but they did not start to

settle in the islands until the late 1700's. Today, most New

Zealanders are descendants of the early European settlers.

Maoris make up about 12% of the country's population.

New Zealand has one of the highest standard of living in

the world. For many years, the economy of the country depended

largely on agriculture. Today agriculture, manu- facturing,

and service industries are all important to the economy. New

Zealands economy depends on trade with many countries -

Australia, Britain, Japan and the United States.

New Zealand Way of Life

New Zealand have a high standard of living. New

Zealanders eat more butter and meat per person than do the

people of any other country. The government's medical

program provides excellent health care. About 70% of New

Zealand people own their houses. Almost every family has

a car.

Most New Zealanders live in singlefamily houses with a

small vegetable gardens. In the larger cities, some people live in

highrise apartment buildings. Almost in every New Zealand

home there are refrigerators, wash mashines, and other modern electrical appliances. But air conditioning and central heating are rare because the weather rarely becomes extremely hot or extremely cold. In summer, New Zealanders prefer to

keep windows open. In winter, fireplaces or electric heater keep the homes warm.

Although about fourfifths of New Zealand's populationlive in urban areas, cities are uncrowded. Traffic jams seldom

occur, even in downtown areas. Large cities have excellent

restaurants, milk bars, theatres, concert halls, and other places

of entertainment. City life in New Zealand tends to be rathe*

quiet. However it is changing in larger cities, whereinternational tourism is developing rapidly.

Near a fifth of New Zealand's people live in rural areas —

in some of them, small settlements are linked by good roads.

But in other areas, rancher's nearest neighbours may live

kilometers away. Some ranchers live almost in isolation.

Nevertheless, most farms and ranches have electricity. Many farm families run their farms with little or no hired help.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1157