English speaking countries and their celebrations

Otázka: English speaking countries and their celebrations

Jazyk: Angličtina

Přidal(a): Terka

English speaking countries

There are five English-speaking countries: The United Kingdom, The United States of America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
all these countries, except the USA, are members of the commonwealth of nations, which means that their head of a country is British king Charles III.

United Kingdom

The UK is situated on the British Isles in Europe.
It consists of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland
The capital city is London
the UK is a monarchy, the king is Charles the third.

United States of America

The next country is the United States of America
the USA is in North America.
It’s the 4th largest country and thanks to its size it has many different climates and landscapes.
The capital city is Washington DC, and the biggest cities are New York and LA.

Canada

Canada is the 2nd biggest country; it is located in north America.
The capital city is Ottawa.
Most people live in cities near the southern border because of the climate, which is very cold.
The official languages are English and French, because people from Canada are mostly from British and French origins.

New Zealand

New Zealand is a small country near Australia.
It consists of two islands: the South Island and the north island.
Both the capital city Wellington and the biggest city Auckland are located on the north island.
For millions of years New Zealand has been isolated, so there are a lot of unique birds and animals, such as kiwi or kakapo.

Australia

Australia is the smallest continent and the 6th largest country.
It’s surrounded by the Indian and pacific oceans
Around 25 million people live there.

The capital city and government

A lot of people think that the capital city is Sydney, but it is Canberra. In the late 19 century, they argued if the capital city should be Sydney or Melbourne, so they decided to build a new capital city between these two cities.
Australia has 6 states and 2 territories
Australia is a member of the commonwealth of nations, which is a political association of former territories of the British Empire.
The head of the country is British King Charles III., he is represented by the Governor-general.

Symbols

the national symbols consist of a flag, anthem, emblem, national animal, and a plant
the flag is blue with a union jack and six stars.
The national emblem is called the coat of arms of Australia. It shows symbols of six states, and kangaroo and an emu, which are national animals.

History

Australia was inhabited by aboriginal people.
The first European people who discovered Australia were the Dutch
and then the explorer James Cook made Australia a part of Britain
British used it as a prison colony, they deported criminals and prisoners there

Geography and attractive places

Australia has a varied landscape, there are deserts in the west, rainforests in the north and mountains in the east.
the oldest and the biggest city In Australia is Sydney. It has population of 5 million inhabitants.
Sydney has many attractions like the opera house, harbour bridge, darling harbour, or Sydney tower eye. There are also a lot of museums and beaches, the most popular is Bondi beach.
One of the most popular places is the great barrier reef. It is located along the coast of Queensland; its length of 2000 km makes it the biggest coral reef in the world.
In the centre of Australia, called the outback, there is a big monolithic sandstone formation called Uluru or Ayers Rock.
There are over 600 national parks in Australia, in fact it is a country with the most national parks in the world. One of them is Kakadu national park in northern territory near the town Darwin. People can see a lot of endangered animals and plants here.
Perth is a big city located in Western Australia, it’s the world’s most isolated city, its closest neighbouring city is Adelaide, which is more than 2000km away.

Culture and famous people

Australia is located on the south hemisphere, which means that they have summer when there is winter in Europe.
On Christmas the weather is hot, they celebrate on the beach.
A few of the famous people from Australia are Hollywood actors Chris Hems worth and Nicol Kidman.

Why I would like to visit

I want to visit Australia because I would like to see its nature in national parks and animals like kangaroos, koalas and especially parrots.
I also would like to visit a city gold coast. It’s mainly known for beautiful beaches and surfing but what I find interesting about this city are its canals. Those canals are called waterways and there are more of them than in Venice.

English and American celebrations

England and America have a lot of celebrations, many of them aren’t celebrated in the Czech Republic.

Valentine’s day

Valentine’s day is a holiday on the 14th of February. It is named after saint Valentine, who was a priest in Rome. During the time he lived, soldiers weren’t allowed to marry, and Valentine helped them to marry in secret. He was put in jail and after he escaped, he fell in love with a blind girl. People believed that he cured her blindness, but he was executed on the 14 of February. Nowadays it’s celebrated as a day of love. People give their loved one’s gifts such as flowers or chocolate. There are a lot of red hearts in shops.

saint Patrick´s day

Then there is saint Patrick´s day on the 17th of march. St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. He was born in England, but he was kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave to Ireland. After he escaped, he had a vision, and he went back to Ireland and converted the Irish people to Christianity. He used a shamrock to teach Irish people about the holy trinity.
Saint Patrick’s Day is originally from America. Irish people living in America wanted to show their national pride and remember the country. On his day, people usually drink green beer or Irish coffee, wear green clothes, and watch a parade. Rivers are also green.

Easter

Easter is celebrated on a different day every year, but it´s on the first Sunday after the first spring full moon. There are a lot of traditions. There are a lot of sweets and chocolates in shops. On Easter Sunday people give these chocolate Easter eggs as presents or they hide them in the garden and children must find them. It’s called an egg hunt. Another tradition is egg rolling. People decorate eggs with different colours, then take the eggs to the top of a hill and let them roll down. Some women and girls decorate hats with flowers, it’s called Easter bonnets and they wear them in parades. Hot cross buns are bread buns with a cross on the top of them and people eat them a lot on easter.

Halloween

Then another popular holiday is Halloween, its mainly celebrated in America but it started in Europe as a celebration of the end of the summer. It’s celebrated on the 31 of October. Kids in costumes knock on people’s doors and say „trick or treat „and the owner gives them candy. If they don’t give them any candy, kids will do tricks like throwing eggs at their house. The most famous symbol of Halloween is the jack-o-lantern. It’s a pumpkin with a carved face and a candle inside. Before people carved turnips and left them at a window to scare evil spirits and stingy jack.

Guy Fawkes night

Guy Fawkes night or bonfire night is an English holiday on the 5 of November. Guy Fawkes was part of a group Gunfire that planned to blow up the house of lords. But their plan didn’t work out and they were captured. This holiday celebrates the fact that the king survived, there are bonfires lit in London.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. It’s a very important holiday because people visit their families, which often live very far away.
The first thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621. English settlers feasted with native Americans, who helped the settlers to survive their first year. But a few years later, there was a conflict, and a lot of native Americans died or were sold as slaves. So, thanks to that, some people prefer to hold an unthanks giving day.
The traditional food is a roasted turkey with stuffing, gravy, potatoes, and sauces. Every year at Thanksgiving, the president at a White House ceremony pardons the National Thanksgiving Turkeys so they can live on a farm. There are a lot of football games and discounts in shops.

Christmas

Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December. Typical Christmas dinners consist of roasted turkey with gravy and vegetables and a Christmas pudding as a dessert. People open presents the next day in the morning, on a boxing day. People in America like to decorate the outsides of their houses with lights and sometimes even statues of Santa Claus. He delivers the presents, and a lot of people leave him a glass of milk and cookies as a snack. A popular tradition is also Christmas crackers – they are tubes of cardboard that look like sweets. To open them you need to pull the two ends apart.