the perish. "
- "Another New Year custom is Burning the Bush, not very widely spread now but of great fame in the days gone, especially in the rural England. In former years, almost every home and farm had its own Bush, or howthorn globe which, together with a bunch of mistletoe, hung in the farm kitchen all through the year. At about five o'clock in the morning on 1 January it was taken down, carried out to the first-sown wheatfield, and there burnt on a large straw fire. Then all the men concerned in the affair made a ring round the fire and cried "Auld-Ci-der". Afterwards there was cheering, and the drinking of the farmer's health, and feasting upon cider and plum cake. Meanwhile, a new Bush was being made at home and hung up in the place of the old. All this was supposed to bring good luck to the crops.
The Twelfth Night and Twelfth Day - 5 and 6 January - are popularly so called because the mark the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Over the last two centuries, the twelve-day period had steadily shrunk, and now only three days - Christmas Day, Boxing Day and the New Year's Day - remain as official holidays. Bonfires are lit on Twelfth Night in many parts of the British Midlands, often 12 in number, with one made larger than the rest, to represent Lord and his Apostles. Sometimes there are 13 bonfires, one standing for Judas Iscariot, which is stamped out soon after it is lit. "
- "The Monday after Twelfth Day is Plough Monday, a day of rural festivity, especially in the northern counties and the Midlands. Theoretically, work starts again then on the farm, after the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and the spring ploughing begins, but in fact, very little work is done.
On 2 February, the double feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and the Purification of Our Lady is celebrated in Britain. It is popularly known as Candlemas Day because candles are blessed in the churches then, distributed to the congregations, and carried in procession. This custom has existed on the British Isles since the fifth century, as well as in the continental Europe under the Roman Catholic Church influence.
The day after Candlemas is the Feast of St. Blaise, who is the patron saint of wool-combers, and of all who suffer from diseases of the throat. The beautiful ceremony of Blessing the Throat takes place on this day in many English churches.
Another famous and well-known February celebration is St. Valentines Day, on 14 February. The word "Valentine" has a double meaning. It means the person concerned, the chosen sweetheart, but it is also applied to the Valentine gift or to the Valentine card, which replaced the traditional gift in the nineteenth century as it (the gift) went out of fashion. "br/>
4) Systematization of the new knowledge and training for it's application in practice (
20 minutes)
The basis for practical training can be listening to a record of native speaker's narration or any other kind of listening comprehension exercise with following wide discussion on the spoken subject. The whole idea of ​​the lesson is to minimize the amount of time that students spend working with textbook material and maximize the communicative aspect of the lesson. Each exercise should be spoken over by students upon the completion. In course of all conversation, students should tend to apply new words and expressions that they learn while studying the given topic.
5) Homework (2-3 minutes)
The homework, on the contrary, should engage as much textbook/written exercises as possible. It can include writing a short essays on the passed material, preparing reports and dialogs etc. Also there'd be a text on the topic of the following lesson which might undergo analysis at home for further discussion in class. The example of the text is as follows
" Shrovetide and Lent
Shrove Tuesday is the eve of Lent, the last day of Shraft, the end of the short festival season which includes Egg Saturday, Quinquagesima Sunday, and shrove, or Collop, Monday. The English name "Shrove" is derived from the pre-Reformation practice of going to be shriven on that day in preparation for the once severe fast of Lent. What the British now call the Pancake Bell is supposed to be a signal to start making pancakes. Originally it was rung to call the faithful to church to make their confessions. But though the religious side of Shrovetide was always important, it is also a time of high festivity, renowened everywhere for the playing of traditional games, cock-fighting, wrestling, dancing, feasting upon pancakes and other good things that the coming forty-day fast forbids.
One of the traditional sports of Shrovetide is football - not the organized game we know today, but the old wild type of game without proper rules or set teams, p...
