This document provides information about various British and Armenian holidays and traditions. It discusses Halloween, Christmas, New Year's Day, Shrove Tuesday, Lent, Easter, April Fool's Day and Mother's Day. For each holiday, it describes traditions, religious origins and how they are celebrated in Britain and/or Armenia through activities like attending church, exchanging gifts, eating special foods, and spending time with family.

1. BRITISH HOLIDAYS

2. • Every nation and every country has its own traditions
and customs. Traditions make a nation special. Some
of them are very old and many people remember
them, others are part of people’s life. Some British
customs and traditions are known all over the world.
From Scotland to Cornwall, Britain is full of customs
and traditions. A lot of them have a very long history.
Some of them are funny and some are strange. But
they all are interesting. They all are part of the British
way of life.
English traditions can be classified into several
groups: traditions concerning the Englishmen’s private
life (child’s birth, wedding, marriage, wedding
anniversary); which are connected with families
incomes; state traditions; national holidays, religious
holidays, public festivals, traditional ceremonies.

4. • Halloween (a shortening of All Hallows’
Evening), also known as Hallowe'en or All
Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday
observed around the world on October 31, the
night before All Saints' Day . Typical festive
Halloween activities include trick-or-treating,
attending costume parties, carving
jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, visiting
haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling
scary stories, watching horror films, as well as
the religious observances of praying, fasting
and attending church services.

12. Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual
commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ
, celebrated generally on December 25 as a
religious and cultural holiday by billions of
peoplearound the world. The original date of
the celebration in Eastern Christianity was
January 6, and that is still the date of the
celebration for theArmenian Apostolic Church
and in Armenia, where it is a public holiday.

13. Christmas (Surb Tsnund)
Armenians celebrate this day as a major Christian
religious holiday, together with the Epiphany (baptism)
and attend church services in their neighborhoods.
Part of the ritual is the “Blessing of Water, when water
is blessed with the holy chrism symbolic of Christ’s
baptism.
The most beautiful and meaningful parts of the holiday
occur at home and in church. Many families go to
church on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.
Then they sit down to enjoy a traditional Christmas
dinner. According to tradition, the main dish is fish and
rice prepared with butter. Wine is served with dinner.

15. • Jesus was born to Mary, assisted by her
husband Joseph, in the city of Bethlehem.
• According to popular tradition, the birth
took place in a stable, surrounded by farm
animals. Mary wrapped him in clothes and
placed him in a manger, because there
was no guest room available for them" .
• Shepherds from the fields surrounding
Bethlehem were told of the birth by an
angel, and were the first to see the child.

22. • New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first
day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as
well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome.
With most countries using the Gregorian calendar as
their main calendar, New Year's Day is the closest
thing to being the world's only truly global public
holiday, often celebrated with fireworks at the stroke
of midnightas the new year starts. All over the
world, people welcome the new year for it is one of
the oldest of all holidays. Most New Year
celebrations focus on family and friends. It is a time
to reflect on the past and envision a future, perhaps,
in a world where people live together in harmony.

23. • For ages, New Year in Armenia is celebrated
on the 21st of March. New Year in Armenia
also marks the beginning of spring and the
birthday of the mythical God Vahangn.
Armenian New Year is characterized by huge
feasts, merriment and also to celebrate the
sweet season of spring.
However, during the 18th Century in Armenia,
January 1st was accepted as the beginning of
the New Year. But many regions in Armenia
like Suni, Artzah and Udik, continues to
celebrate New Year on Navasardi .
Gradually at the end of the 20th century all
Armenians adopted the January 1 st as the
official first day of the New Year.

25. • One of the most important Armenian New Year table
"accessories" is the pork leg (Khozi bud, Խոզի բուդ), but
some families also use turkey, little pig or some fish.
• Other traditional things for the table are meat snacks
(ershik, basturma, sujukh etc), various salads
-"olivier", chicken breast with nuts or mushrooms and
other), …
On the table you can find pastry (mostly eastern ones
- with sweet honey syrup and nuts, since they can stay
eatable longer because there's no milk cream), fruits
various nuts (pistachio, hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts,
etc...), and the sweet sudjukh - walnuts, threaded and
soaked in thick syrup of grape or mulberry juice. Dried
sweet snacks from all kinds of fruits (sometimes also
vegetables) is also a must-have for the table.

27. • Valentine's Day is celebrated in the memory of
Saint Valentine, the Christian martyr who gave
his life in the honor of love. King Claudius
decapitated Saint Valentine in 269 A.D. for
performing illegal marriages of Roman soldiers.
Almost two centuries later, in 496 A.D., Pope
Gelasius resolved to honor this sacrifice by
observing February 14 as a feast day, without
little thought or idea on the kind of
consequence it would have on the entire world
1,500 years later. Today, Saint Valentine has
come to be regarded as the patron of love, and
Valentine's Day.

28. Shrove Tuesday
(Pancake Day)

29. • Some town also hold pancake races on that
day. The tradition is said to have originated
when a housewife fromOlney was so busy
making pancakes that she forgot the time until
she heard the church bells ringing for the
service. She raced out of the house to church
while still carrying her frying pan and pancake.
The pancake race remains a relatively common
festive tradition in the UK, and England in
particular, even today. Participants with frying
pans race through the streets tossing pancakes
into the air, catching them in the pan while
running.

31. LENT
• Lent is traditionally described as lasting for forty
days, in commemoration of the forty days which
Jesus spent fasting in the desert before the
beginning of his public ministry, where he endured
temptation by The traditional purpose of Lent is the
penitential preparation of the believer—through
prayer and self-denial.
• During Lent, many of the faithful commit to fasting
or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of
penitence. /ապաշխարանք /.Many Roman Catholic and
some Protestant churches bare their altars of
candles, flowers, and other devotional offerings.

34. • Easter is preceded by
Lent, a forty-day period
of fasting, prayer, and
penance. The last week
of Lent is called
Holy Week, and it
contains
Maundy Thursday,
commemorating
Maundy/
բարեգործություն / and the
Last Supper, as well as
Good Friday,
commemorating the
crucifixion and death of Je
.

41. • The Easter
Bunny or Easter
Rabbit (sometimes Spring
Bunny in the U.S. is a
character depicted as a
rabbit bringing Easter eggs,
who sometimes is depicted
with clothes. In legend, the
creature brings baskets
filled with colored eggs,
candy and sometimes also
toys to the homes of
children.

42. • Eggs boiled with some flowers change
their color, bringing the spring into the
homes. Many Christians of the
Eastern Orthodox Church to this day
typically dye their Easter eggs red, the
color of blood, in recognition of the blood
of the sacrificed Christ (and, of the
renewal of life in springtime).

45. • Easter (Zatik) is the favourite and the most anticipated
holiday in the Christian world. Everybody greets each
other on this day: “Christ has raisen"-“Blessed is the
resurrection of Christ". During the Lenten fasting
season of 40 days before Easter, Armenian families
put lentils or other sprouting grains on a tray covered
with a thin layer of cotton, and keep it in a light place
of the house until Easter when sprouts appear. These
green sprouts, symbolizing spring and awakening of
nature, are the “grass" on which people place colored
eggs to decorate the Easter table. “When Christ was
crucified, his mother took some eggs and bread
wrapped in the shawl. When the Mother saw her Son
crucified and his arms bleeding, she cried. The
Mother’s tears and Son’s blood dropping on the shawl
colored the eggs and bread. Then the Mother put the
shawl on her head. Since that day people began
coloring eggs red on Easter day and women began
wearing shawls when visiting church.

47. Easter feast

48. In Armenia the meals associated with Easter are fish,
rice, verdures. Fish is usually whether fried or boiled.
Rice is usually made with raisins and dried fruits and
is served with fried lavish .Fried verdures are the
necessary components of traditional table.They are
called “Panjar” or “Jingyal”. They are served whether
fried with eggs or in pastry, which is more common in
Kharabakh and is called “Jingyalov huts”. It’s very
tasty!!Eggs are eaten rolled in lavash with lots of
verdures mainly tarragon, which is also an Armenian
verdure with mild menthol taste. Red wine is the main
beverage on Easter table.

49. APRIL FOOL’S DAY
April Fools' Day is celebrated in different
countries on April 1 every year.
Sometimes referred to as All Fools' Day,
April 1 is not a national holiday, but is
widely recognized and celebrated as a
day when people play practical jokes on
each other.

51. MOTHER’S Day
• Mother's Day is a celebration honouring
mothers and celebrating motherhood,
maternal bonds and the influence of
mothers in society. It is celebrated on
various days in many parts of the world,
yet most commonly in March, April, or
May.In the Great Britain it is celebrated on
the Fourth Sunday in Lent .This year it
was on the March 18.

53. • In the US, Mother's Day is not connected with
any older celebrations of Motherhood.
However, in some other countries and cultures,
other celebrations of Motherhood have become
known as Mother's Day (for example, in the UK
flowers and gifts were traditionally brought to
mothers onMothering Sunday, and this date is
now called Mother's Day in the UK) or the date
of Mother's.