Thanksgiving Day
– is celebrated the fourth Thursday in November and it is a legal holiday in the United States and in Canada; after the first harvest was completed by the Plymouth colonists and with help of Indians in 1621, a day of thanksgiving and prayer was proclaimed; now American families usually get together and they eat turkey, corn, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie
Independence Day – is the holiday, which commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, and wasn’t a legal holiday until 1941; parades, pageants, patriotic speeches, organized firing of guns and cannons and displays of fireworks are held as well as family picnics and outings
Halloween – is not a holiday and is celebrated on October 31; this feast originated among the ancient Druids, who believed that on that evening, the lord of the dead called evil spirits so the Druids customarily lit great fires on Halloween apparently for the purpose of warding off all these spirits; after the Romans conquered Britain, they added to Halloween features of the Roman harvest festival; in recent days children go trick or treat, they were frightening clothes and face masks; carved pumpkins with lit candles placed inside can be seen in windows
Guy Fawkes Night – is not a holiday, celebrated on 5th November and remembering the failure of the “Gunpowder plot”, a plan by Roman catholics and Guy Fawkes who wanted to rid the country of its Protestant rulers and to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605; bonfires are lit and dummies are burned
Eisteddfod – is a national music and literary festival held each summer in Wales to promote Welsh language, literature, music, and customs; the week-long ceremony is a revival of the ancient Welsh custom of assembling bards, or minstrels, for competition among themselves in poetry and music
