1) What is culture? Traditions, Differences between dif. cultures, sports, rituals
2) Celebrations
3) Theatre, genres, cinema, concerts, galleries, museums, opera, books
Culture distinguishes /rozlišuje/ one group of people from another country. Culture is almost everything what people make. In the culture there are included traditions, celebrations, languages, fashion, ways of producing and cooking food, political systems and many other things. Now, I’m going to speak about the most important parts of culture.
Now, I would like to say something little about the two most important Feasts.
Christmas
Christmas is a celebration of Jesus Christ’s birthday. It is one of the biggest Christian holidays. There are 2 great traditions on Christmas. One of them is to be with a family or friends together and the second Christmas tradition is to get a gift from them. Between U.S. (or UK) and CR is one big difference. The one who gives presents in the U.S. is Santa Clause but in CR gives presents little Jesus. We have different food too.
Christmas it’s the day of the birth of Christ. Christmas are in our country and in the Great Britain celebrated a little bit differently. - In England: on the 24th December is the Christmas Eve. the Christmas tree is decorated with candles, bells and sweets. Socks are hung up and children believe that they will be filled by the Father Christmas. Christmas is a truly magical season, bringing families and friends together to share the much loved customs and traditions which have been around for centuries. In the morning on 25. , you can open the presents; then is Christmas dinner – there’re differences between food in England and food in USA. Food consists of roast turkey or goose (husa) with different vegetables, potatoes and Christmas pudding. In USA = they eat roast turkey with stuffing and many different cookies. Christmas customs: in Great Britain = they have special crackers – cracker is a little present wrapped (zabalený) in colour paper and it explode with crack and are pulled (by two people). Traditionally a Christmas cracker is placed next to each plate on the Christmas dinner table. When the crackers are pulled, out falls a colourful party crown, a toy or gift and a festive joke. When Christmas pudding is made, the silver pence may be put into it and if you find this coin, you’ll be wealthy next year. The pudding consists of: flour, eggs, fat, nuts, raisins, plums and other dried fruit, succade (kandované ovoce), spices, and other ingredients.
-they sing Christmas carols, for ex. Gingle bells.
- you can kiss anybody who stands under the mistletoe during the Christmas and New Year
In Czech Republic:
- we eat our Christmas dinner in the evening; we eat carp with potatoes salad; carps soup and sandwiches or some special homemade candies
Easter
The symbols of Easter are: the crucifix. Why? The Jesus was crucifixate. Bunny is the symbol for the onset of the spring, eggs they are symbols of the new life, Easter lamb is very important for Jews, who were rescued from Egypt in this day. Typical food is Easter stuffing with potatoes and soup from fresh herbs. If we want to be healthy, we must eat something green. And we bake the cross- bun and the Easter lamb.
In the USA family decorate Easter Eggs on Saturday evening and on Sunday morning they find Easter Eggs in the house and in the garden. According to fairytale The Easter Bunny brought Easter eggs and he hid them in the house and in the garden. When children woke up they found these eggs. Why the Easter Bunny does it, nobody knows it.
In Great Britain girls attach boys to chairs and when men want to release, they must pay the women. People hold a competition. Who runs faster with pancakes. They eat only chocolate eggs, they don´t decorate them.
Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving is the oldest and most American of the national holiday in the USA. It is celebrated in the US and Canada on the 4th Thursday in November. For many Americans it is the most important holiday apart from Christmas. Thanksgiving is associated with the time when Europeans first came to North America (in Massachusetts). In 1620 the ship Mayflower arrived from England, bringing about 150 people who today are usually called Pilgrims. The first winter they could not find enough to eat, so many of them died. But in the following summer Native Americans showed them what foods were safe to eat, so that they could save food for the next winter. They held a big celebration to thank God and the Native Americans for the fact that they had survived.
Today people celebrate Thanksgiving to remember these early days. The most important part of the celebration is a traditional dinner with foods that come from North America. The meal includes turkey, sweet potatoes (also called yams) and cranberries, which are made into a kind of sauce or jelly. The turkey is filled with stuffing and many families have their own special recipe. Dessert is pumpkin pie. Before dinner they give thanks for healthy year, good job, all good thinks and so on. On Thanksgiving there are special television programmes and sports events. In New York there is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Independence Day
In the United States, Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson (the third President of the United States). Fireworks over the Washington Monument; in Miami; New York City's fireworks sponsored by Macy's and the largest in the country.
Velvet Revolution Day
Is the day of the fall of Communism in CR.
Movies & Theatre
Movies & theatre is a very big topic. Everyone of us like movies so you know it. Popular genres of movies are thriller, horror and comedy and romantic stories. I think that the best movies are comedies or some film when I can relax and not think. I don‘t like horrors, because I don’t like the sci-fi and the nonsense’s. I like going to the theatre. The last drama I saw was Hrdý Budžes with Bára Hrzánová in the lead /hl. role/.
Music
There are really many different types of music for example pop, rock, reggae, metal, punk, disco... Each band has its own concerts and fans and each person like something others. Me, I like disco, pop and rock. I don’t dislike metal and this kind of music.
Literature
Everybody reads something. Somebody reads magazines, newspaper, cartoons or some dictionary or encyclopaedia. We read for learning something new or for fun. When we read, we make our word-stock better. Now I haven’t enough time to read some book. But sometimes I read a newspaper or magazine.
These themes are only small parts of culture. Culture itself is too huge to be described only in 15 minutes (we can speak about languages or dance too) and each of us has its own view of culture. But I think everybody agrees that these 4 themes are most important.
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