VII Международный конкурс научно-исследовательских и творческих работ учащихся
Старт в науке
Discover English traditions away from home
Автор работы награжден дипломом победителя III степени
Полная версия работы доступна во вкладке "Файлы работы" в формате PDF
Discover English traditions away from home
(Изучай английские традиции вдали от дома)
Изучая английский язык, мне всегда были интересны его история, традиции, в особенности такой праздник, как Хэллоуин. У многих людей в нашей стране Хэллоуин вызывает чувство страха и даже ужаса.
Имея возможность посетить страну происхождения этого праздника, изучая все этапы подготовки к нему и само празднование Хэллоуина, я пришел к выводу, что праздник этот совсем не страшный, особенно любят его английские дети, надо просто познакомиться с ним поближе, изучить историю и значение его символов.
Introduction
Let me introduce myself. My name is Sorokin Rostislav. I’m a student of the 5-th form of Gymnasia Number 1, Balashikha.
Today I would like to present you my scientific work. It is called “Discover English traditions away from home”.
To begin with I want to explain why I have chosen this topic. Actually, I am interested in English, British history, culture and traditions. If you ask me “why away from home”, I’ll say that last year I had an opportunity to visit Ireland and discover one of the most famous old English traditions and holidays. It’s Halloween.
The aim of my project is to persuade people, that Halloween is not frightful.
To reach the aim of my work I have set myself the following tasks:
to learn the history of Halloween;
to find out new facts about this holiday;
to prove these facts about Halloween in the country of its origin;
to show the attitude to Halloween in Russia
The objectives of my work are:
to study and research the history of Halloween;
to make photos about celebration of Halloween in Ireland and demonstrate them;
to conduct a social survey among schoolmates and analyse the results.
In the first part of my project I’ll speak about English traditions and the history of Halloween. After that I’ll find out differences between meanings and points of view about Halloween of Russian and English people, analyse the popularity of Halloween in Russia.
English Traditions
Every nation and every country has its own traditions and customs. In Britain traditions play an important role in the life of the people. They say English people are very conservative. They are proud of their traditions and carefully keep them up. But when we speak about English traditions we always remember that there are four parts in Britain – England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Traditions are different in these parts of the country.
The most popular English traditions and holidays are St. Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween. They have also become traditional American holidays. Here are some more facts about my favourite English holiday – Halloween.
The history of Halloween
I began to studythis topicwith the history of Halloween. Halloween is celebrated on the 31st of October. According to an Old English Dictionary the word Halloween was mentioned in XVI century and comes from “All-Hallows-Even”, that is the night before All Hallows Day, which is celebrated on the 1st of November. Halloween has roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people believed that the ghosts of the death returned to earth.
The Celtic people lived 2000 years ago in the area of present Ireland and the UK. They celebrated New Year on November 1. Their year consisted of two parts – summer and winter. This day meant the end of summer and the harvest and beginning of the cold winter. Winter was associated with darkness and human death. The Celts believed that the border between this world and the Other World became thin on this night, allowing spirits to pass through. The Celtic gave to it a great value and, not fall a prey to a shadow death dressed up in animal heads and skins, extinguished the centers in the houses and all frightening kinds frightened off ghosts. The tradition of celebrating was transferred from century to century until in I century of our era Romans have not won territory. Turned into Christian belief, inhabitants of islands of Ireland and Britain have been compelled to refuse many pagan customs. They continued to live and be transferred from generation to generation.
The symbols of Halloween
The main symbol of Halloween is a lantern made from pumpkin and called “Jack-o-lantern”.The Jack-o-lantern custom comes from Irish folklore. The host family in Ireland told me the tale about a man named Jack, who tricked Satan into climbing a tree. After Jack died he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways and access to the Hell too, because he tricked the devil.The devil gave him single amber to light his way through the frigid darkness. The amber was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer. They say that every year at Halloween’s night they can see Jack walking through the streets in Dublin and he will be wandering till the Courting day, shining a way by the slice coal protected from a wind by an ordinary pumpkin.
Halloween is a favourite holiday of Irish people, especially of children. For a few days to Halloween they decorate their houses, gather pumpkins, arrange funny competitions on farm, very popular is “apple bobbing”, because apples symbolize success, buy costumes and make masks of witches, ghosts, devils, skeletons, cats and bats, tell scary stories.
The Irish people wear Halloween costumes, cut out pumpkins and place inside them candles, which are their protection from evil spirits. The celebratory menu is Barmbrack, candy apples, monkey nuts, Halloween cakes, roasted pumpkin seeds, sweet corn. Children like the custom if trick-or-treating very much. They go from house to house, asking for treats such as sweets, with the question – “trick or treating”. I had an opportunity to visit the Halloween festival in Galway. It is Ireland’s biggest Halloween Festival with many fun and free events.
The survey of Halloween’s popularity in Russia
Halloween in Russia is not so popular as in Ireland or the UK. You will not see gleeful kids trick-or-treating on Moscow streets - simply because Halloween is not celebrated among children in Russia, becoming more popular with younger people and it is associated only with pumpkin and horror. A lot of people try to avoid the Halloween’s celebration, because it’s harmful for children and they are afraid of awful skeletons and vampires.
That is why I decided to make a survey among my schoolmates and discover what they know about Halloween. Interviewed students are 57 junior students at the secondary school at the age of 10-15. My questions were about the date of Halloween, its roots, customs, symbols and their meaning. They had to answer: “known”, “heard” and “Haven’t known”. The results I accumulated in the table.
|
57 pupils (10-15 years old) |
Known (percent) |
Heard (percent) |
Haven’t known (percent) |
|
Date of Halloween |
65% |
26% |
9% |
|
Roots of Halloween |
26% |
40% |
34% |
|
Symbols of Halloween |
77% |
18% |
5% |
|
Jack-o-lantern customs and who was Jack |
9% |
54% |
37% |
|
Meaning of pumpkins and costumes |
40% |
35% |
25% |
|
What is “trick or treating” |
79% |
16% |
5% |
|
Traditional food |
58% |
25% |
17% |
According to the survey I have analysed that a lot of students know about the date of Halloween, its symbols, some of them heard and part of them didn’t know about its roots, meaning and traditions.
Conclusions
For this project I have collected the necessary information about the topic, analysed it, conducted the survey and made the project. I found out that that Halloween in Russia causes a feeling of fear by people. This is due to the fact that we don’t understand the meaning of the symbols and traditions of the holiday, although we know them.
Working on the project I came to the conclusion, that Halloween is not frightful, Irish and British children like it very much. You should only get to know it better.
Reference material
1.https://en.wikipedia.org
2. https://www.ireland.com
3. https://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-halloween-in-ireland/
4. https://visitgalway.ie/event/galway-aboo-halloween-festival/