We are not a religious family and we don’t regularly go to church, but we respect national traditions and my grandmother always dyes eggs red and makes Christmas cakes and Easter pies.
On public holidays like the Independence Day or May Day people stay away from work or school and have a rest. There are two very special holidays in the country: the Eighth of March and the Ninth of May. On the Eighth of March women are traditionally presented with flowers and gifts and words of love and respect are addressed to them. The Ninth of May is both a happy and a sad day. On this day we celebrate our victory over fascism in the Great Patriotic War and at the same time pay tribute to those who gave up their lives for the liberation of our motherland. Deep respect and warm gratitude are shown to war veterans. The day is made special by a military parade in the morning and grand fireworks at night. The look of elderly people proudly wearing numerous orders and medals cannot leave anyone unmoved, I think.
Apart from national holidays there are family holidays like birthdays, weddings and anniversaries. We have a family tradition to celebrate birthdays of each member of the family. On these days we usually have a party. Friends and relatives come with flowers and presents. A festive dinner is served with plenty of delicious food to eat, which is a famous Slavic tradition, you know. Afterwards the guests either dance or sing, listen to music or just chat. Such parties usually go late into the night and people are unwilling to leave which, frankly speaking, I don’t like. But the last celebration of my birthday was different. We had an outing on that day. My friends and I, a group of ten in all, went to the «Youth» hotel. My parents saw how happy I was and agreed that I had become a grown-up person and had the right to go out with my friends. We had barbeques in the forest, stayed for the night, in the hotel and came back home the next day. We enjoyed ourselves greatly.
Indeed, life would be dull and grey without holidays.
ТОПИК 2
I think it’s hard to find a person, especially among the young, who doesn’t like holidays, as they mean rest and entertainment, when you can forget for a while about the work undone and enjoy yourself. In my view rest and recreation are as important as work.
Like other countries Russia has its own holidays. They are either of a political, social or religious kind. The New Year, the 8th of March and the Victory Day are probably the most popular national holidays in our republic. Among religious holidays that are widely observed in most families are Christmas and Easter.
National holidays are both a public celebration and a personal event in the family. Different people choose different ways of celebrating them. New Year is traditionally a family holiday with a New Year tree, plenty of delicious food, presents and good wishes.
On other holidays people either take part in public entertainments arranged in parks and squares or go to parties at somebody’s place or restaurants. My family are not an exception in our attitude to holidays and we always look forward to them and make all kinds of preparations. We observe most public holidays which are printed in red in the calendar. But the most exciting for me are the New Year, Christmas, Easter and the Women’s Day.
At the same time every family has some holidays which are a special event only for them. They are usually anniversaries, birthdays and weddings. I love our family holidays and I think I loved them even more when I was a child. I was thrilled when all the relatives and most of the friends got together, dressed up and smiling, and they brought presents, danced and sang songs. On the eve of the party the house was given a big clean and a lot of delicious food was cooked. The atmosphere of the coming holiday was felt and made me happy and excited. I still look forward to celebrations, though, perhaps, with less enthusiasm.
Our last family holiday was my mother’s birthday. We wanted to make it a special day, since it was her 45th birthday Mother was not very happy about her age, so we tried to do our best to cheer her up saying that she was young as ever and even looked ten years younger than her age. We had selected a nice present for her and my sister and granny had done all the cooking. The table was nicely laid up with a candle and cakes on it, the walls of the sitting-room were pinned up with mother’s photos when she was a baby, a little girl and a young woman. The party was fantastic. All the guests seemed to enjoy themselves a lot.
The only disadvantage of holidays in my opinion is that they are short or, perhaps, it’s one of their attractions. You wouldn’t enjoy things that take place every day.
