1. Read and translate the texts.

2. Retell one of the texts. Ukrainian Tradition

As each country in the world Ukraine is rich in its national traditions. Some of them are common in the world and some of them are uncommon. First of all we celebrate our Independence Day on the 24th of August. To my mind, this holiday is young because my country as an independent one is very young too. It’s only eighteen years old. But in future, I think it will be a big holiday. I’d like to tell you about some old traditions in my country. They are Easter and Christmas. My people began to celebrate these holidays since the baptizing of Kyivska Rus in 988 by Prince Volodyrnyr. We celebrate Easter in spring, according to the Julian calendar that’s why it doesn’t coinside with the western world. This holiday is always in April or at the beginning of May. Easter symbolizes the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Everybody makes cakes so called pasha and dye eggs. Easter cakes are sold at every backery, but home-made ones are always much tastier. All the provision must be baptized in the church early in the morning. Another holiday is Christmas. We mark it on the 7th of January. In Europe and in theUSA it’s celebrated in December. On Christmas people celebrate the birth of JesusChrist. There are some dates and events in the life of our country that are memorable to every Ukrainian citizen. The most memorable date is the Victory Day which is kept on the 9th of May. On this day the anniversarv of the victory over fascism in Second World War is celebrated. There is one more holiday which is loved by children and adults. This is New Year’s Eve. People decorate New year trees with toys and lights and all people are given presents. On the New Year night people don’t sleep, they visit their friends or just stay at home and watch TV.

These are national holiday, people don’t work on these days. As for me, I like to celebrate these days

Holidays and Imported Days in Ukraine

The word “Holiday” comes from the word “holy day”. Holidays were first religious festivals. Now many holidays have nothing to do with religion. Every country has holidays honoring important events in its history. Every year starts with New Year. It’s a very great holiday, when everybody make wishes for a new year; make the new hope to the future. It’s everybody’s favorite holiday. People get a lot of presents, greetings. March the 8th is a Women’s Day. This date was introduced in 1910 by the 2nd International Conference of women-socialists. Nowadays this holiday has lost its political meaning and become just a day when we give presents, flowers, words of gratitude to our mothers, grandmothers, teachers. On March 9th we celebrate the birthday of great Ukrainian poet, writer, artist Taras Shevchenko. Finally his dreams have come true, the Ukraine has become independent. Easter Day comes to the lunar calendar. The day we celebrate Christ’s rising from death. The holidays comes on Sunday. On May the 9th we celebrate the anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. On that day people express their thankfulness to veterans of the World War II.

On August, the 24th, Ukrainian independence was proclaimed and new era in Ukrainian history began.

Active Words and Word Combinations:

memorable – пам‘ятний

Easter — Великдень

Resurrection — воскресіння

adult — дорослий

baptizing – хрещення

Questions:

1. What memorable dates in the history of Ukraine are known to you?

2. Are there any holidays of religious origin?

3. Describe the New Year’s Eve celebration?

4. When did our people begin to celebrate Easter and Christmas?

5. What other national holidays do you know?

Teacher ________________I.S.Kokovihin

Theme 12: text “OUTSTANDING PEOPLE OF UKRAINE”