1. Reading about celebrations
Brazil's Famous Carnival Holiday
Renata Pauperio from Brazil
Carnival is the most famous
holiday in Brazil. It is not
about a big moment in
history or about a famous
person, but it is important
for the people because it's a
time of camaraderie,
freedom, and almost a whole
week without work.
People can choose between
parties or rest, and most
Photo: Renata people choose parties, day
Pauperio after day, night after night.
Wearing a costume
is part of the fun It starts forty days before
of Carnival in Easter. It's based on the
Brazil. Christian calendar, but it
isn't approved by the Church
very well.
It lasts four days and four nights. It starts on
Saturday and finishes on a Thursday. People put on
their costumes and go out into the streets or to clubs.
There are also the Samba schools which make a
parade showing their music, fantasies, and allegorical
cars. They are followed by the people. Every year the
parade tell a different story. Each city has one or
more schools like this.
3. Johanna For more than 1,000 years, we
Some like to wear the in Bulgaria have celebrated
Martenitsa around our national holiday on March
their wrists. 1st called ‘Baba Marta,’
Grandma March. ‘Mart’ in
Bulgarian is the name for the
month of March. This holiday
symbolizes the coming of
spring.
Bulgarians wear a small
special ornament made of red
and white yarn on this day,
Photo from Todor called ‘Martenitsa.’ We wear it
Bozhinov until March 22, and some
Sometimes people tie people wear it until they see a
Martenitsas to the stork or the first buds of a
branch of a tree or tree.
bush to leave there.
You can find the Some like to wear the
Martenitsas hanging Martenitsa around their wrists.
there in the branches Sometimes people tie it to the
as you walk outside. branch of a tree or bush to
leave there. You can find the
Martenitsas hanging there in the branches as you walk
outside.
The belief is that if you wear the Martenitsa, Baba Marta
will help you, and spring will come more quickly. People
often give a Martenitsa as a gift to a friend or relative.
The tradition comes from the following legend:
Khan Asparuh, the first Bulgarian king, had a sister called
Huba. She was held captive in another kingdom. Asparuh
sent a message to his sister that he had found a land where
they could settle down south of the Danube River, a place
that nowadays is Bulgaria.
When Huba got the good news from her brother, she
managed to escape from captivity and run away. She rode
on horseback without stopping until she reached the
4. Danube River. She looked for some way to cross the mighty
river but couldn’t find a ford to pass across. So then she
tied a thread of white yarn to one of the legs of a falcon
sent by her brother and let him fly up into the air, holding
the other end of the thin thread in her hands.
The falcon flew away to find a ford for passage across the
river and just then, when he found a place, an arrow shot
by an enemy pierced the falcon, and he fell to the ground
dead. The yarn became red from his blood. Huba followed
the thread she was holding and so she found the way to
cross the great river and reach the country where her
brother Asparuh had made his new home. Then they lived
free and happy in the new land they called Bulgaria.
That day was March 1st, the new year in the tradition of
those times. They called the white and red threads of yarn
after the name of the month March, and named it
‘Martenitsa.’
The Martenitsa became a symbol of peace and love, health
and happiness. The white color symbolizes purity and
honesty in relationships, and the red color means life,
passion, and cordiality in friendship
and mutual love.
Since that time the red and white
threads of yarn have come to
symbolize the strong bond among
Bulgarians around the world.
This special national holiday on March
1st reminds us of the values which the
Rositsa
Martenitsa has carried down through
Ruseva is
the centuries.
the author
And all Bulgarians everywhere wear it of this
as an ornament on this special day, article.
and for three weeks after that, until
spring begins.
7. Día de los Muertos in Mexico
Francisco Javier Montes from Mexico
Photo: Sandy Peters
Mexicans buy
smiling candy
skulls with the
names of the
people, family and
friends written on
the forehead.
These skulls are
made of sugar,
and the children
eat them like
candies.
Photo: Sandy Peters
They make small
8. toys that look like Halloween in Mexico
skeletons, and (called Los Dias de los
they tell funny Muertos in Spanish) is
stories about a different celebration
death. This from Halloween in all
skeleton is playing the other countries.
a musical
instrument. Even though, it's the
day of death in
Mexico, death brings
laughter, and in that
celebration, the
Mexican people play
with death, making
people laugh.
The celebration
Photo: Sandy Peters includes jokes,
Pan de Muerto parties, dancing,
(bread of the music, and a lot of
dead) is a delightful food.
traditional bread
Everyone buys smiling
offered to loved
candy skulls with the
ones who have
names of the people,
passed away.
family and friends
written on the
forehead.
These skulls are made of sugar, and the
children eat them like candies.
Los Dias de los Muertos is a traditional
Mexican holiday honoring the dead. It is
celebrated every year at the same time as
Halloween and the Christian holy days of All
Saints Day and All Souls Day (November 1st
and 2nd).
The towns people dress up as ghouls,
9. ghosts, mummies and skeletons and parade
through the town carrying an open coffin.
The Mexican people celebrate the deceased
people by making offers of food and drink
(ofertas) to these dead people and making a
party of death.
They make candy skulls and toys that look
like skeletons, and they tell funny stories
about death.
There is a saying that says: "Through the
Mexicans, death makes laughter." All the
Mexicans participate in these celebrations.
They are traditions in our country, and
almost everyone enjoys them.
10. Easter day
People celebrate Easter according to their beliefs and their
religious denominations. Christians commemorate Good Friday
as the day that Jesus Christ died and Easter Sunday as the day
that He was resurrected. Protestant settlers brought the custom
of a sunrise service, a religious gathering at dawn, to the United
States.
Who is the Easter Bunny?
Today on Easter Sunday, many children wake up to find that the
Easter Bunny has left them baskets of candy. He has also hidden
the eggs that they decorated earlier that week. Children hunt for
the eggs all around the house. Neighborhoods and organizations
hold Easter egg hunts, and the child who finds the most eggs
wins a prize.
The Easter Bunny is a rabbit-spirit. Long ago, he was called the
"Easter Hare", hares and rabbits have frequent multiple births so
they became a symbol of fertility. The custom of an Easter egg
hunt began because children believed that hares laid eggs in the
grass. The Romans believed that "All life comes from an egg."
Christians consider eggs to be "the seed of life" and so they are
symbolic of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
11. Why we dye, or color, and decorate eggs is not certain. In
ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and Persia eggs were dyed for
spring festivals. In medieval Europe, beautifully decorated eggs
were given as gifts.
