Question

Opisz w 6-8zdaniach po angielsku te święta:
*Guy Fawkes Night
*Carnival
*May Day

Answer 1

Guy Fawkes Night - is celebrated in Britain annually on November 5th. The event is accompanied by firework displays, the lighting of bonfires and the ceremonial effigy-burning of one Guy Fawkes. The origin of this celebration stems from events which took place in 1605 and was a conspiracy known as "The Gunpowder Plot," intended to take place on November 5th of that year (the day set for the opening of Parliament). The object of The Gunpowder Plot was to blow up English Parliament along with the ruling monarch, King James I. It was hoped that such a disaster would initiate a great uprising of English Catholics, who were distressed by the increased severity of penal laws against the practice of their religion.
The conspirators, who began plotting early in 1604, eventually expanded their members to a point where secrecy was impossible. One of their number, Thomas Percy (who had contacts at the Court of King James), hired a cellar beneath the House of Lords. Within this cellar were secretly stored 36 barrels (almost two tons) of gunpowder, overlaid with iron bars and firewood. The plan went awry, however, by way of a myserious letter received by Lord Monteagle on October 26th (10 days prior to the opening of Parliament).


Carnival - is a joyful time in Poland between the end of Christmas holidays and the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday). In the old days it was a period of active socializing in Poland. During the carnival, entertainment included hunting, weddings, balls and masquerades. Not only gentry, but the city and village common folk enjoyed themselves during carnival. The company not only ate, drank and danced, but also sang songs, sometimes with quite frivolous lyrics.
There were no special carnival delicacies. Only among cakes there were carnival Faworki (chruscik) and great amounts of Paczki (doughnuts) are still consumed throughout the country on the last Thursday (so-called “Fat Thursday”) of the carnival.
In the villages the young farmhands went around with a wooden cock on a cart, obtaining cheese, butter, bacon, kielbasa and eggs from the girls. In the end they organized a merry feast from the collected food, along with drinks.


May Day - is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half of a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and neopagan festivals such as Samhain. May Day marks the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations, regardless of the locally prevalent political or religious establishment.
As Europe became Christianized the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, and All Saint's Day. In the twentieth century, many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival again.
The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian, with the festival of Flora, the Roman Goddess of flowers, and the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane. Many pagan celebrations were abandoned or Christianized during the process of conversion in Europe.