Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day started over two thousand years ago, as a winter festival, on15 February. On that day, pagans asked their gods to give them good fruit and vegetables, and strong animals.
When the Christians came to Britain, they came with a story about a man called Saint Valentine. The story is that Valentine was a christian who he lived in the third century ( between the years 200 and 300 ). The Roman Emperor at the time, Claudius II, was not a christian. Claudius decided that his soldiers must not marry, because married soldiers do not make good soldiers. Valentine worked for the church, and one day he helped a soldier to get married. The Emperor said that Valentine had to die because he did wrong. In prison Valentine started to love the daughter a man who worked in the prison. The day he died, he sent a note to this woman, and at the end of the note, he said: ' Your Valentine'. He died on 14 February, so the date of the festival changed from 15 to 14 February, and the name changed to Saint Valentine's Day.
In the early nineteenth century, when the post office started in Britain, people started to sent Valentine's cards to the person they loved on 14 February.
The cards had pictures of flowers and birds on, and words inside like:

Rose are red, my love,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet, my love,
But not as sweet as you.

People still send each other Valentine's cards, but often they do not write their names inside: they just write ' Be my Valentine', or ' From your Valentine'. It is a kind of game.
Some children give their friends or teachers cards or chocolates. A man will perhaps give his girlfriend or wife red roses.
Alt of people go out to restaurants for the evening and have dinner for two, with candles and soft music.




source: Seasons and Celebrations  by Jackie Maguire

Hallowe'en

Hallowe'en


The pagans who lived in Britain toe thousand years ago celebrated their New Year in 1 November . Then the Christians came and people celebrated Hallowe'en, a three-day festival between 31 October and 2 November.31 October was called All Hallow's Eve, and slowly the name changed to Hallowe'en.
In November, winter is near, and hundreds of years ago people people believed that bad spirits, like ghosts, came in the winter. They wanted the bad spirits to go away, so they made fires outside and used big autumn fruit or vegetabeles to make jack o'lanterns. The name ' jack o'lantern ' means ' Jack of the lantern'. A lantern is a kind of light, and some people think Jack was a nightwatchman who had one of these lights.
To make a jack o'lantern, people cut a hole in large fruit - usually a pumpkin. Then they put a candel in the hole, and cut a face in the side so the light was easy to see. Another thing people did, to make the bad spirits to go away, was to dress like witches and ghosts.
Children still do this if they go to Hollowe'en parties. people often put up decorations for Hallowe'en parties , and play games. The decorations are usually black ( for dark nights and death ) and orange ( for the autumn vegetables ).
One Hallowe'en party game is called ' bobbing for apples'. Many apples fall of the trees in October so they are easy to find.
Someone puts water and apples in a big bowl. The apples stay on top of the water. Often someone puts something round the first player's head so they cannot see. The player must keep their hands behind their back and take an apple out of the water with their teeth. Then the next player tries. The game is sometimes very difficult and players usually get very wet!
In Canada and the USA, and sometimes in Britain, children go ' trick or treating'. They dress like witches and ghosts, and go to the houses around where they live, often in a small group. When someone answers the door, the children say : ' trick or treat?' This means that the person in the house must decide. Either they give the children a treat ( like fruit or chocolate ) or the children will play a trick on them. For a trck the children sometimes throw something like an egg at the house. 




source: Seasons and Celebrations  by Jackie Maguire