Lecture 6 customs and traditions of great britain. Artistic and cultural life in Britain. Dialects in Great Britain

L ECTURE VI.
Customs and traditions.


The Problem to be discussed:

1. 
   Cultural life
   
2. 
   Holidays
   

F estival, bagpipes, buttonhole, procession, warp up, cracker, mince pie, pagan, resurrection, fireworks, bonfire, anonymous, convey, fairs, parades.
Cultural life
Annual festivals of music and drama are very popular in Britain. Some of them are famous not only in Britain, but all over the world.
Burn’s night. January 25 is the birthday of Scotland’s greatest poet Robert Burns. There are hundreds of Burns clubs not only in Britain, but also throughout the world, and on the 25^th of January they all hold Burns Night celebrations. Thousands of people drink a toast to the immortal memory of Robert Burns. To the sound of the bagpipes, there appear on the tables the traditional dishes of the festival dinner: chicken broth, boiled salt-herring, and haggis a typical Scottish dish made from the heart and other organs of a sheep. It is eaten with boiled turnip and potatoes. The dinner is followed by dancing, pipe music, and reciting selections from Burn’s lyrics. The celebration concludes with singing the poet’s famous Auld Lang Syne.
Shakespeare’s Birthday. Every year the anniversary of the birth if William Shakespeare is celebrated in Stradford-upon-Avon, where he was born on April 23, 1564. Flags are hung in the main street; people wear spring of rosemary (for remembrance) in their buttonholes. A long procession goes along the street s to the church where everyone in the procession puts a wreath or a bouquet, or just one flower at the poet’s grave. In the evening there is a performance of the chosen Birthday Play in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
In London the Aldwych Theatre which has close ties with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stradford-upon-Avon, holds International Shakespeare festivals, during which famous companies from abroad, including the comedie Francaise from Paris, the Moscow Art Theatre. The Schiller Theatre of Berlin, the Abbey Theatre from Dublin, and others, perform Shakespeare’s plays.
The Edinburgh International Festival is held annually during three weeks in late August and early September. The Festival is quite international in its character, as it gives a varied representation of artistic production from many countries. Leading musicians of the world and world-famous theatre companies always take part in it.
The first Festival was held in 1947, and since that time, the Edinburgh International festival has firmly established its reputation as one of the important events of its kind in the world.