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In London crowds usually gather round the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus and welcome the New Year. 

February 14th

When all the fun of Christmas and New Year is over, there's a feeling of anti-climax. The rest of January is dreary and cold. But before long the empty shops seem to come to life once again with displays of attractive and brightly coloured «I love you» Valentine cards.

St. Valentine was a priest who lived in Rome and died for his faith in A.D. 170. His feast happens to fall on February 14th -the traditional day for lovers. But this is mere coincidence. He was not noted for helping lovers in distress and was not therefore the true patron saint of lovers.

There was in early times a strong belief that on this day birds choose their mates. To some extent this might explain why lovebirds seem to be such popular motifs on Valentine cards. A fourteenth-century poet wrote: «On Valentine's Day all the birds of the air in couples do join». And Shakespeare carried on the tradition when Theseus says in «A Midsummer Night's Dream»:

St. Valentine is past:

Begin these wood-birds

but to couple now?

But antiquarians maintain that St. Valentine's Day celebrations are a continuation of a Roman festival of Pan and Juno.

There used to be a custom in England (and probably in other countries) on St. Valentine's Day, mentioned by Chaucer, Shakespeare and Pepys: the names of young, unmarried men

and girls were mixed up and drawn out by chance. The person of the opposite sex whose name came out after yours was your chosen «Valentine» for the year.

Just over a century ago it became fashionable to send pretty lace-edged cards. Earlier, ludicrous and sometimes vulgar cartoons were sent to friends and strangers on this day.

In our own time, too, the Valentine tradition has undergone a sort of revival in Britain. There seems to be no limit to the variety of cards on sale for this celebration. They are happy or sad, romantic or humorous, serious or ridiculous. The card manufacturers, realising they're on to a good thing, cater for all tastes — including the vulgar. You can pay anything from 10p to 10 pounds, depending on the depth of your love and the depth of your pocket! If you really want to get rid of some money you can always use the St. Valentine's Day Greetings Telegram — a service put on specially for February 14th by the Post Office, for the really love-sick.

Of all the Valentine cards on the market the humorous variety seem to be the most popular, but some of them are so cruel you would have to be quite heartless to send them, even to your worst enemy. Anonymity is, of course, part of the thrill of sending Valentine cards -- you must not say who you are. The person receiving it must be left to wonder. You can send cards to anyone you like, or, for that matter, even people you don't like. There are cards specially printed to My Wife, My Husband, Mother, Father, Sweetheart, and, would you believe it, Grandmother and Grandfather. At least it is good to know that in this troubled world love is still living and spreading a little happiness, especially in dreary February.

Easter. Easter is a Christian holiday in March or7 April, when Christians remember the death of Christ and his return to life. The holiday is marked by going to church and then having a celebration dinner. Easter is connected in people's minds with spring, with the coming to life of the earth after winter. The most popular emblem of Easter is the Easter egg: a hard-boiled egg painted in different colours. Easter eggs are traditional Easter presents for children. Nowadays Easter eggs are usually made of chocolate. Children get chocolate Easter eggs, and also chocolate Easter rabbits. They are either hollow or have a filling, and are usually covered with brightly coloured silver paper.

Each year, on Easter Sunday, London greets spring with a traditional spectacular Easter Parade in Battersea Park. The Parade is a great procession of many richly decorated floats, that is large moving platforms on wheels, on which actors and amateurs perform shows. The most beautifully decorated float moves at the back of the procession and carries the Easter Princess and her attendants.

May Spring Festival. The May Spring Festival, which is celebrated on the 1st of May, has to some extent retained its old significance -that of a pa gan spring festival. Nowadays it is celebrated by children and young people in many schools in different parts of Britain. It is celebrated with garlands of flowers, dancing and games on the villag green, where they erect a maypole - a tall pole decorated with flowers and ribbons. The girls put on their best summer dresses, put flowers in their hair and round their waists, and wait for the crowning of the May Queen. The most beautiful girl is crowned with a garland of flowers. After this great event there is dancing, and the dancers wear fancy costumes representing characters from the Robin Hood legends. Spring Bank Holiday. Spring Bank Holiday is celebrated on the last Monday in May. It is an official holiday, when all the offices are closed and people don't go to work. Many people go to the country on this day and have picnics. 

Late Summer Bank Holiday

On Bank Holiday the towns' folk usually flock into the country and to the coast. If the weather is fine many families take a picnic-lunch or tea with them and enjoy their meal in the open. Seaside towns near London, such as Southend, are invaded by thousands of trippers who come in cars and coaches, trains, motor cycles and bicycles. Great amusement parks like Southend Kursaal do a roaring trade with their scenic railways, shooting galleries, water-shoots, Crazy Houses, Hunted Houses and so on.Trippers will wear comic paper hats with slogans such as «Kiss Me Quick» and they will eat and drink the weirdest mixture of stuff you can imagine, seafood like cockles, mussels, whelks, shrimps and fried fish and chips, candy floss, beer, tea, soft drinks, everything you can imagine.

Bank Holiday is also on occasion for big sports meetings at places like the White City Stadium, mainly all kinds of athletics. There are also horse race meetings all over the country, and most traditional of all, there are large fairs, with swings, roundabouts, coconut shies, a Punch and Judy show, hoopla stalls and every kind of side-show including, in recent years, bingo. These fairs are pitched on open spaces of common land, and the most famous of them is the huge one on Hampstead Heath near London. It is at Hampstead Heath you will see the Pearly Kings, those Cockney costers (street traders), who wear suits or frocks with thousands of tiny pearl buttons stitched all over them, also over their caps and hats, in case of their Queens. They hold horse and cart parades in which prizes are given for the smartest turn out. Horses and carts are gaily decorated. Many Londoners will visit Whipsnade Zoo.There is also much boating activity on the Thames, regattas at Henley and on other rivers and the English climate being what it is, it invariably rains.

Guy Fawkes. Night. Guy Fawkes Night is one of the most popular festivals in Britain. It commemorates the discovery of the so-called Gunpowder Plot, and is widely celebrated all over the country.

The story goes that there was a plot to destroy the Houses of Parliament and kill King James I during the ceremony of opening Parliament on November 5, 1605. The plot was organized by a group of Roman Catholics. In 1604 the conspirators rented a house near the House of Lords. From this house they dug a tunnel to a vault below the House of Lords and put into the vault 36 barrels of gunpowder. The plot was discovered because one of the conspirators wrote a letter to his relative, a member of the House of Lords, warning him to stay away from the House of Lords on the 5th of November. On November 4, a search was made of the parliament vaults, and the gunpowder was found, together with Guy Fawkes, who was to set off the explosion. Guy Fawkes was hanged.

The historical meaning of the event is no longer important, but this day is traditionally celebrated with fireworks and a bonfire, on which the figure of a man called Guy is burnt.

November 5 is a day on which children are allowed, under proper supervision, to let off fireworks, to make a bonfire and to burn on it a guy made of old clothes, straw and — if possible — one of father's old hats. On 5 he days before November 5, one may see groups of children going about the streets with their faces blackened and wearing some fancy clothes. Sometimes they have a little cart with a guy in it. They ask the passers-by to give them a penny for the guy. With this money they buy fireworks for the festival.

Christmas. Christmas is the main public holiday in Britain, when people spend time at home with their families, eat special food and drink a lot. Christmas is a Christian festival to remember the birth of Jesus Christ.

Long before Christmas time shops become very busy, because a lot of people buy Christmas presents. A lot of money is spent on the presents, but many people enjoy it. Every day television and newspapers say how many days are left before Christmas. People also buy Christmas cards to send to their friends and relatives. The cards have the words Merry Christmas and pictures of the birth of Christ, Santa Glaus, a Christmas tree, a robin, or scenes of old-fashioned Christmases.

In churches people sing Christmas carols - special religious songs. Sometimes groups of people walk about the streets and sing carols at the doors of houses. One of the well-known carols is "Silent Night".

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