Typical clothes and festivities

National Days in the UK

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Chalkboard blackboard. Prawny. Pixabay. CC0

Each of the countries in the UK have a patron saint and they celebrate a feast every year with parades, festivals and wearing traditional clothes or symbols. Can you guess the names of the four saints?

St. Patrick's Day

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Teamwork team. Geralt. Pixabay. CC0

Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick is a cultural and religious celebration on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick.

Celebrations usually involve public parades and festivals and wearing of green clothes or shamrocks. Do you know why? Because they are symbols of Ireland.

Here you can see two parades in St. Patrick's Day, What do you think about their clothes?

St. Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin. William Murphy. Wikimedia. CC BY-SA / New York City St. Patrick's Day. 12019. Pixabay. CC0

These two characters are part of the parade. Who are them? Why are they important?

St Patrick's Day Parade 1255623 and 1255621. Larsen9236. Pixabay. CC0

What's this? Can you find the relation to the previous pictures? Why is it related to St. Patrick's Day?

St. Patrick's Day pot of gold. TeroVesalainen. Pixabay. CC0

These are symbols of Ireland. What's their name? What's the difference between them?

Clover good luck. Lifestyle power plant. Pixabay. CC0 / Four leaf clover. Relaxus. Pixabay. CC0

Irish music has a Celtic origin and it is very famous. Listen to it and then share your impressions.

Did you know this type of music?
Do you like it?
Is there a similar music in your area?

The Boondock Saints. Luna Bujalesky. Soundcloud. CC BY

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Feedback confirming. Geralt. Pixabay. CC0

Share the answers with your group and then check them with the following activity

History of St. Patrick's Day

Girls read . Kidaha. Pixabay. CC0

Watch the video and complete with the missing words.

The History of St. Patrick's Day. Laurah Gurca. (Accessed on 14/05/2018).

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on M Cloze (1): JXUwMDM5JXUwMDEzJXUwMDExJXUwMDBi 17. It is celebrated in Cloze (2): and all over the word by people of Irish heritage.

When he arrived back in Britain he decided to be a priest. He studied and then he was made a Cloze (3): . He worked in Ireland for forty years, telling people about God.

Two important symbols of St. Patrick's day is the Cloze (4): or three-leaf Cloze (5): and the Cloze (6): , a magical person from Irish folk tales. It is said if you can catch him he has to give you his pot of Cloze (7): JXUwMDNmJXUwMDA4JXUwMDAzJXUwMDA4 . People wear Cloze (8): clothes and eat a traditional Irish meal of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and soda bread. In the United States there are many people with Irish heritage, so there are many Cloze (9): and special celebrations, for example, the city of Cloze (10): dyes the river green!

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St. Andrew's Day

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Chalkboard blackboard. Prawny. Pixabay. CC0

Saint Andrew's Day is the feast day of Saint Andrew. It is celebrated on 30 November - 3rd December. In Scotland and many countries with Scottish connections, Saint Andrew's Day is a celebration of Scottish culture with traditional Scottish food, music and dance. In Scotland the day also means the start of a season of Scottish winter festivals.

There are week-long celebrations in the town of St Andrews and in some other Scottish cities. It is a flag day in Scotland because all the buildings shall fly the official flag. Do you remember the Scottish flag? It is also called the Saltire or Saint Andrew's Cross. Can you guess why? Look at the following pictures.

^{St Andrew's cross. Offnfopt. Wikimedia. CC0 / Flag of Scotland. Hoshie. Wikimedia. CC0}

Here you can see a parade in St. Andrew's Day. They are wearing the typical Scottish clothes. What do you think about them? What accessories are important?

Northern Constabulary Band Pipe (19508976445). Dave Conner. Wikimedia. CC BY / Northern Constabulary Band Pipe (18886496014). Dave Conner. Wikimedia. CC BY

Girls read . Kidaha. Pixabay. CC0

Let's learn more about the Scottish traditional dress. This video is a school project by a Scottish boy, Joel. Pay attention! It can give you ideas for your final project!

While listening write a list of all the elements of the dress and try to answer these questions:

What are the shoes and pouch made of?
What's under the stocking?
What's the name of the "skirt"? What's it made of? What pattern does it have?
What do you think about his accent? Is it difficult to understand?

Scottish Traditional Dress. Callum Trotter. (Accessed on 14/05/2018).

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Feedback confirming. Geralt. Pixabay. CC0

Share the answers with your group and then check them with the following activity

St. David's Day

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Teamwork team. Geralt. Pixabay. CC0

The feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, is on 1 March, the date of Saint David's death.

Traditional festivities include wearing daffodils and leeks, symbols of Wales and Saint David respectively, eating traditional Welsh food including cawl and Welsh rarebit, and women wearing traditional Welsh dress (You can see them in the following video). Can you match these typical things to the pictures?

Cawl Cymreig. Josephinep. Wikimedia. CC0

Narcissus. Olei. Wikimedia. CC BY-SA

Welsh rarebit with an egg. Worm that turned. Wikimedia. CC BY-SA

Leeks supermarket. Raisonho. Wikimedia. CC0

Cawl is a Welsh soup with lamb or beef with leeks, potatoes, swedes, carrots and other vegetables.

Welsh rarebit is a sauce of melted cheese and various other ingredients over slices toasted bread.

Here you can see the parade in Cardiff in 2017.

National St. David's Parade. Daniel Damaschin. (Accessed on 16/05/2018).

Do you like it? Why or why not?
Have you ever been there?
Do you have a similar celebration in your town or region?
Are there parades?
Do people wear traditional clothes? And flags?
What do you think about traditional Welsh dress?

Shhhhh! Pay attention! The Queen is coming!

Do you remember Queen Elizabeth II? She is here to celebrate St. David's Day with Welsh people.

The Queen presents leeks to Royal Welsh. The Royal family channel. (Accessed on 16/05/2018).

Is this the first time you see the Queen?
What do think about her?
What is she giving the guards? Why?
In the video you can see guards wearing different suits. Who are the guards in red and black? Where can you see them if you visit England? Do you like the hat? What's the name of it? Why?
Have you ever seen them? Do you want to go?

St. George's Day

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Teamwork team. Geralt. Pixabay. CC0

Saint George's Day, or the Feast of Saint George, is the feast day of Saint George as celebrated on 23 April, the date of the saint's death.

St George's emblem, a red cross on a white background, is the flag of England and part of the British flag. Other two symbols related to St. George are wearing blue (because it was his favourite colour) and a red rose (because it is associated with his death).

In London, there are St George's Day festivals and parades across the city, but one of the biggest public celebrations is the St. George's Day Festival in the city of Manchester.

Here you can see two celebrations in this day. Why do you think there are horses and a knight?

St. Georges Day in Gravesend, Kent. Glen. Wikimedia. CC BY

English Festival, St. George`s Day, Riverside, Medway. The Local People Photo Archive. Wikimedia. CC BY

Did you guess?

Because there is a dragon story related to St. George. He killed the dragon to rescue the princess and the town. This is a statue of the dragon in London and the red cross, St. George's emblem.