Valentine's Day originated as a pagan festival celebrated on February 15th that honored fertility. It later became associated with Saint Valentine in the 3rd century. Guy Fawkes Day commemorates a failed assassination attempt on King James I in 1605 and is celebrated each year on November 5th with bonfires and fireworks. The traditional English breakfast consists of eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread, baked beans and mushrooms, though a more common modern breakfast is cereal and toast.

2. Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day started over two thousand
years ago, as a winter festival, on 15 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 lived in the third century.
The Roman Emperor at the time, Claudius
II, was not a Christian.

3. 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 of a man who worked in the prison.
The day he died, he sent a note to this girl,
and at the end of the note, he said: ‘Your
Valentine.’

4. 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
send Valentine’s cards to the person they loved
on 14 February.
The cards had pictures of flowers and birds
on, and words inside like:
Roses are red, my love,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet, my love,
But not as sweet as you.

5. 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.
A lot of people go out to restaurants for the
evening and have dinner for two, with candles
and soft music.

7. Guy Fawkes Day
In 1604, the King of England was James I
and a Protestant. Many people did not like him
because they were Catholics and wanted a
Catholic king.
A Catholic called Guy Fawkes, and his
friends, had a plot (a kind of plan) to kill King
James, and his government, when he opened
Parliament in London on 5 November 1605.
They put thirty six boxes of gunpowder in
a room underneath the Houses of Parliament.
They wanted to kill everyone at the same time.

8. But the plan did not work. One of Guy
Fawkes’ friends wrote a note to someone about
it. At about midnight on 4 November, the
King’s soldiers found Guy Fawkes and the
gunpowder.
They sent him to prison but he did not want
to give the names of his friends. They did
terrible things to him for eight days until he
said all their names.
Parliament decided that Guy Fawkes and
the other plotters had to die. In January 1606,
when people heard the news that the plotters
were dead, they made many fires in the streets
to celebrate. King James was alive and well!

9. Every year on 5 November, in most parts of
Britain, people build a big fire outside, with all
the dead leaves and old pieces of wood they do
not want. The fire is called a bonfire.
They made a dummy (called a ‘guy’) of
Guy Fawkes, from old clothes.
Sometimes children carry the guy around
the streets to show people.
They say: ‘Penny for the guy’, and ask
people for money for fireworks.

10. Some people have a bonfire with fireworks
in their garden, but fireworks are expensive, so
often people get together and have one big
party in a park or a field.
It is usually very cold in November, so they
have hot food and drinks to keep warm.
Many children learn these old words about
Guy Fawkes’ Day:
Remember, remember,
The fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.

11. Thanksgiving
In September 1620, a group of English people
called the Pilgrim Fathers sailed from Plymouth,
England across the Atlantic Ocean, in a ship called
The Mayflower. to Cape Cod in North America.

12. They went away from England because of
their religion, and because they wanted land for
their families. They wanted to grow food for
themselves – not for other people.
The pilgrims sailed – for sixty-six
dangerous days – across the Atlantic Ocean.
When they arrived, they called their new
home New England, but they were not the first
people to live there.
The Indians were there first.

13. Sometimes the Pilgrims fought with the
Indians but they also learned a lot from them.
The Indians showed them how to live from
their new land, for example, and how to grow
and cook new kinds of fruit and vegetables.
The first winter was difficult. Many of the
Pilgrims died because it was very cold and they
had little food.
In the spring they started to grow food,
helped by some friendly Indians, and in the
autumn of 1621 they celebrated their first
harvest.

14. The pilgrims wanted to give thanks, not
only for the harvest, but for their new home,
new life and new friends.

15. A pantomime
Pantomimes, also called pantos, are traditionally
put on in theatres throughout Britain for several
weeks before and after Christmas.
Most are intended for children.

16. They are a British tradition which has
developed over several centuries. A pantomime
combines a fairly tale with comedy, music and
singing, acrobatics and verse.
Among the most popular stories are
Aladdin, Babes in the Wood, Cinderella, Dick
Whittington and, Jack and Beanstalk.
The audience usually takes an active part in
a performance: characters on stage speak to the
audience directly and they shout back their
answer.

17. Pantomimes often also include several
animal characters played by actors in animal
costume.
Many of the most successful pantomimes
performed in professional theatres have well-
known television or sports personalities
playing leading roles. Hundreds of amateur
pantomimes are also put on each year.
Pantomimes of this kind do not exist in the
US where the word pantomime means a play or
entertainment performed without words.

18. Religion in Britain
The various Christian denominations in
Britain are the result of various schisms that
divided the Church.
It is possible to make a very general
distinction on a geographical basis between
England, which is Anglican; Scotland, which
is Presbyterian; Wales, which is Calvinistic
Methodist; and Northern Ireland, which is
Protestant.

19. Obviously, there are also large Jewish
communities, while immigrants from India,
Pakistan and the Middle East have also
introduced Eastern religious.
Indeed, it is now estimated that there are
more practicing Muslims than members of any
Christian faith in Britain.

20. Food & Drink in Britain
The first meal of the day is breakfast.
The traditional full English breakfast served in
many British hotels may include fruit juice,
cereal, bacon and eggs, often with sausages and
tomatoes, toast and marmalade, and tea or
coffee.
Few people have time to prepare a cooked
breakfast at home and most have only cereal or
toast with tea or coffee.

21. Others buy coffee and a pastry on their way
to work. Lunch, which is eaten any time after
midday, is the main meal of the day for some
British people, though people out at work may
have only sandwiches.
English Breakfast
Most people around the world seem to
think a typical English breakfast consists of
eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread, mushrooms
and baked beans all washed down with a cup of
coffee.

22. Now-a-days, however, a typical English
breakfast is more likely to be a bowl of
cereals, a slice of toast, orange juice and a
cup of coffee.
Many people, especially children, in
England will eat a bowl of cereal.
They are made with different grains such as
corn, wheat, oats etc. In the winter many
people will eat "porridge" or boiled oats.

24. The traditional English breakfast
consists of eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread,
baked beans and mushrooms.
Even though not many people will eat this
for breakfast today, it is always served in hotels
and guest houses around Britain.
The traditional English breakfast is called
the 'Full English' and sometimes referred to as
'The Full English Fry-up'.

25. Some people also refer to the midday meal
as dinner. Most workers are allowed about an
hour off work for it, called the lunch hour, and
many also go shopping.
Many schools offer a cooked lunch (school
lunch or school dinner), though some students
take a packed lunch of sandwiches, fruit, etc.

26. Lunch
Many children at school and adults at work
will have a 'packed lunch'.
This typically consists of a sandwich, a
packet of crisps, a piece of fruit and a drink.
The 'packed lunch' is kept in a plastic container.
Sandwiches are also known as a 'butty' or
'sarnie' in some parts of the UK.
My favourite sandwich is prawn and
mayonnaise. I also love tuna and mayonnaise
and ham and pickle sandwiches.

27. Dinner
The evening meal is usually called 'tea',
'dinner' or 'supper'.
A typical British meal for dinner is "meat
and two veg". We put hot brown gravy,
(traditionally made from the juices of the roast
meat, but more often today from a packet!) on
the meat and usually the vegetables.
One of the vegetables is almost always
potatoes.

28. The traditional meal is rarely eaten
nowadays, apart from on Sundays. A recent
survey found that most people in Britain eat
curry! Rice or pasta dishes are now favoured as
the 'British Dinner'.
Vegetables grown in England, like
potatoes, carrots, peas, cabbages and onions,
are still very popular. The Sunday Roast
Dinner- lunch time is a typical time to eat the
traditional Sunday Roast.

29. Traditionally it consists of roast meat, (cooked
in the oven for about two hours), two different
kinds of vegetables and potatoes with a Yorkshire
pudding. The most common joints are beef, lamb
or pork; chicken is also popular.