Celebration of Holidays

1. Unit six Celebration of Holidays Guohui Liu

2. Ⅰ. Leading In Introduction of holidays Ⅱ. Ⅳ. practice Homework Ⅴ. Celebration of Holidays Ⅲ. Text A

3. Ⅰ.Leading In We all love holidays! No matter how old we get, we all get excited about special days in our culture. Food, family, friends, and fireworks are all big parts fo enjoying these times. But why wait for a special day to celebrate? Come on– let the fun begin now!

4. Introduction to the Holidays ◆Western holidays ◆Chinese holidays

5. Western Holidays Christmas ●New Year’s Day ●Valentine’s Day ●April Fool’s Day ●Easter ●Halloween ●Thanksgiving Day

6. Christmas (Dec.25) • The history of Christmas dates back over 4000 years. Many of our Christmas traditions were celebrated centuries before Jesus Christ was born. Every family gathers together at Christmas time to exchange gifts and spend the holiday season with one another. It's a time of giving and spreading Christmas cheer. Christmas celebrates the story of Santa Claus (St. Nicholas), a fat, bearded man who wears red and carries gifts throughout the world for all well-behaved boys and girls. The Santa Claus story, combined with an amazing retailing phenomenon that has grown in the past century, has made gift giving a central focus of the Christmas tradition.

7. Christmas Day

8. April Fool’s Day (Apr. 1) Unlike most holidays, the history of April Fool's Day, sometimes called All Fool's Day, is not totally clear. There really wasn't a "first April Fool's Day" that can be pinpointed on the calendar. Some believe it came from celebrations involving the first day of spring about 500 years ago. Originally, Fool's day was celebrated at the end of March or April 1st, but then the day changed to January 1st. Some people in the countryside didn't get the news and continued to celebrate New Year's on April 1st. People began to call these people "April fools."Today it is a lighthearted celebration when people play jokes on each other.

9. Valentine’s Day (Feb.14) People don’t only feel love on February 14th, but in Western countries, this is considered to be the most romantic day of the year. Although it is celebrated as a lovers' holiday today, with the giving of candy, flowers, or other gifts between couples in love, it originated in 5th Century Rome as a tribute to St. Valentine, a man who risked his life for love. Valentine was a man who secretly married young couples in Rome, at a time when marriage was forbidden. For this action he was killed, and later recognized as a saint (a holy man). Today, we still retain this day as a tribute to qaSt. Valentine’s heroism.

10. Easter Easter is usually in early April. This is a religious festival. On the very Sunday morning, children are busy looking for the color eggs assumed to be given by the Easter rabbit.

11. The Easter Egg As with the Easter Bunny and the holiday itself, the Easter Egg predates the Christian holiday of Easter. The exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians. From the earliest times, the egg was a symbol of rebirth in most cultures. Eggs were often wrapped in gold leaf or, if you were a peasant, colored brightly by boiling them with the leaves or petals of certain flowers. Today, children hunt colored eggs and place them in Easter baskets along with the modern version of real Easter eggs -- those made of plastic or chocolate candy.

12. Halloween (Oct. 31) "Boo!"This scary noise is often said again and again on Halloween, October 31st, to frighten people. Originally, this holiday was celebrated 2000 years ago in Europe as a way to remove evil spirits and monsters from people's lives – this time of year, when the days got shorter, was seen as an evil time. In those days this was a serious matter; people were frightened of wild animals and sickness, and scientific knowledge was very limited. Later on, Halloween was celebrated as a Christian holy day, but this well-known holiday is now used as an opportunity to tell scary stories, have parties with friends, and enjoy the darkening autumn days and cooler weather.

13. Traditions of Thanksgiving In 1621, after a hard and devastating first year in the New World, the Pilgrims Fall harvest was very successful and plentiful. There were corn, fruit, and vegetables, along with fish which was packed in salt, and meat that was smoke cured over fires. They found that they had enough food to put away for the winter，the Pilgrims had beaten the odds. Their Governor, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving that was to be shared by all of the colonists and the neighboring Native American Indians. In the 1860s, it became a national holiday, and today it is a time for family reunions, watching sports on TV, and having a relaxing 4-day weekend.

14. New Year’s Day ANCIENT NEW YEARS • The celebration of the new year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible cresent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring). • The beginning of spring is a logical time to start a new year. After all, it is the season of rebirth, of planting new crops, and of blossoming. January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary. • The Romans continued to observe the new year in late March, but their calendar was continually tampered with by various emperors so that the calendar soon became out of synchronization with the sun. • In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1 to be the beginning of the new year. But tampering continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, established what has come to be known as the Julian Calendar. It again established January 1 as the new year. But in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.

15. Chinese festival ●Spring Festival ●The Lantern Festival Yuanxiao Jie ●Qingming-The Clear & Bright Festival ●Dragon Boat Festival ●Festival of Qi Xi Jie (Chinese Valentine's Day‘) ●Moon Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival ●Double Nineth (Elder Day)

16. Spring Festival(Chinese New Year) Far and away the most important holiday in China is Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese New Year. To the Chinese people it is as important as Christmas to people in the West. The dates for this annual celebration are determined by the lunar calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar, so the timing of the holiday varies from late January to early February.

17. ★January 26, 2009 is the first day of the Chinese new year. There are three ways to name a Chinese year: • By an animal. This year is known as the Year of the oxen.There are 12 animal names; so by this system, year names are re-cycled every 12 years. • By its Formal Name (Stem-Branch). The new year is the year of jichou. (己丑) • In the 'Stem-Branch' system, the years are named in 60-year cycles, and the Name of the Year is repeated every 60 years.

18. The origin of the Chinese New Year Festival can be traced back thousands of years through a continually evolving series of colorful legends and traditions. One of the most famous legends is that of Nian, an extremely cruel and ferocious beast, which the Chinese believe, eats people on New Year's Eve. To keep Nian away, red-paper couplets are pasted on doors, torches are lit, and firecrackers are set off throughout the night, because Nian is said to fear the color red, the light of fire, and loud noises. Early the next morning, as feelings of triumph and renewal fill the air at successfully keeping Nian away for another year, the most popular greeting heard is gongxi, or "congratulations"..

19. On New Year'sEve, all the members of families come together to feast. Jiaozi, a steamed dumpling as pictured below, is popular in the north, while southerners favor a sticky sweet glutinous rice pudding called nian gao.

20. Ⅱ.Text A Happy New year

21. Ⅰ.Pre-reading Activities Prepare the following topics in groups: ●celebrations of the New year in China; ●celebrations of the New Year in their hometowns; ●their plans for this year’s celebration of the New Year;

22. Language Points 1. eve: the night or day before the stated religious day or holidays • In the United States, many people go to New Year’s Eve parties. 2. measure v. 1)show or record • Time is measured by the hour, minute, and second. 2)find the size length, amount, degree etc. of sth. in standard units • How does a teacher measure his students’ success? 3. give importance to : pay attention to • We should give much more importance to English learning. • Importance is given to learning foreign languages. 4. bring in: cause to come in; introduce • They brought in different customs and cultures.

23. 5. common: adj.1) usual a common error • Everybody should know it, as it is common sense. • Have…in common: share with someone else • They have many interests in common. 6. tradition n. 1) principles, beliefs, practices, etc. passed down from the past to the present • In Germany, some people still follow this old tradition. 2)a customary way of thinking or behaving that has been passed down in this way • The writer is sad because he feels that old traditions are being forgotten. 7. drive away: drive off; force away • Don’t drive away the students who want to help you. 8. gather: v. 1) come together • On New Year’s Eve, crowds gather in Times Square in New York City.

24. 2) collect • They have gathered a lot of information on the subject. 9. let off: fire or cause to explode • The inexperienced soldier let the gun off in error. 10. in the shape of : in a certain form in which something may exist or appear • He has a watch in the shape of a rabbit. 11. light up: cause to begin giving out light • When the play ended, all the lights lit up. 12. put up: build, or raise into position • They planned to put up a statue of the late President. 13. resolution: n. a firm decision • He made a resolution to lose weight through exercising.

25. Vocabulary Practice

26. Ex. Ⅰ Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the word given. 1. Their house is in a very (favor) _____________position near the park. 2. I was ____________( honor) to have been mentioned in his speech. 3. This shows that they do not understand the (important)____________ of the question. 4. The (celebrate) ____________didn’t end until midnight. 5. They took part in all kinds of social (act) ___________on campus. 6. The writer’s sudden (die)___________ was much regretted in Britain. 7. December25th had been a (wide) ___________celebrated day in the Roman world. 8. The test will involve (answer) ____________questions about a picture. 9. The streets were very (noise) _____________throughout the night. 10. Six theatre companies have been (select) _____________to take part in this year’s festival.

27. Ex. 2 Choose the best item to complete each of the following sentences. 1. It’s all right to borrow money sometimes, but don’t let it become a(n)____________. A. habit B. tradition C. spirit D. action 2. There’s a (n)__________ in our office that when it’s someone’s birthday, they bring in a cake for us all to share. A. habit B. tradition C. spirit D. action 3. The baby___________ an attempt to stand up, but failed. A. did B. took C. wanted D. made 4. The fact that he didn’t say “No” immediately is a good___________. A. activity B. experience C. sign D. design 5. Have you discovered that the two cultures have a lot in___________. A. spirit B. effort C. common D. fact 6. The house was just as what she had______________. A. thought B. believed C. considered D. imagined 7. He _____________ and built his own house. A. designed B. believed C. determined D. put 8. The practice of hanging up stockings is believed to be _________with St. Nicholas. A. included B. connected C. determined D. selected 9. He never carried___________ his promise to stop playing PC games A. on B. about C. out D. in 10. To let __________fireworks on New Year’s Eve is a tradition in China. A. up B. in C. of D. off

28. homework Exit