Дополнительные материалы на английском языке на тему «День Святого Валентина».
В нашей стране этот английский праздник в последнее время стал очень популярным и почитаемым.
Предлагаемые ниже тексты, стихи, песни, конкурсы, гадания, ребусы, можно использовать как на уроках, так и во внеклассной работе при подготовке конкурсов, вечеров.
Знакомство с подобным материалом, способствует расширению познавательной активности по теме: «Традиции и обычаи страны изучаемого языка», а так же развитию интереса к изучению английского языка.
ВВЕДЕНИЕ
Настоящее учебное пособие предназначено для учащихся старших классов и преподавателей английского языка и может быть использовано на уроках,
на факультативных занятиях, во внеклассной работе.
Надеюсь, что данное пособие даст учащимся импульс к дальнейшему знакомству со страной изучаемого языка.
Contents
- Введение
- Traditions and customs
- The first paper Valentine
- Valentine symbols and the story of Cupid
- Valentines in America
- Language of flowers
- How to write a love letter
- The Valentine poems
- The custom of telling fortunes
- Study skills
Traditions and Customs.
No one really knows the actual origin of Valentine’s Day. Many historians, however, seem to trace it to an ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia. This was held on February 15 to honor Faunas, the god of animal life, hunting, herding, the patron of husbandry, and the guardian of the secret lore of nature. After Christianity spread, some think this pagan festival eventually became Valentine’s Day.
Other experts connect Valentine’s Day with two saints of the early Christian church. According to one story, St. Valentine was a priest who would marry young couples against the orders of the Roman Emperor Claudius II, who believed that single young men made better soldiers. This story goes back to about A.D. 200.
There also was another St. Valentine who was a good friend to children. Become he would not worship the gods decreed by the Roman emperor, he was put in prison. While he was imprisoned, the children that he had befriended missed him and brought him loving notes. Many of the notes expressed the thought that “absent makes the heart grow fonder”. He was supposedly executed on February 14 in A.D. 270. Some people think this is why we exchange friendly and caring messages on the this day.
Others believe that the word valentine came from a Norman word galatine, which means a “gallant” or a “lover”.
Some people connect the celebrating of Valentine’s Day with an old English belief that birds choose their mates on February 14. This, too, is possible, since spring was less than a month away. The calendar used before 1582 was slightly different from the one we use now. Spring arrived on March 11 on the old calendar.
The First Paper Valentine.
The first paper valentine was made in 1415. A Frenchman, Charles, Duke of Orleans, was captured by the English in a battle. He was put in prison in the Tower of London. There he wrote valentine poems. Many of them were saved and can be seen today in the British Museum.
The idea of paper valentines spread through Europe. They began to take the place of valentine gifts. Paper valentines were especially popular in England.
For a long time valentines were made by hand. The sender often wrote his own message in verse. Sometimes he used pretty colored paper and even colored ink.
In the early 1800’s, factories began to make valentines. Black and white pictures were printed on pretty paper. Some of them were painted by workers in the factory. But most people bought plain pictures and did their own painting. Some valentines had verses printed on them.
Valentine symbols and the story of cupid.
The ornaments that decorate valentines are symbols of love and friendship. Ornaments for early valentines were made by hand. Each had a special meaning. A fan meant “Open up your heart”. A ribbon meant “You are tied up”, or “You are my girl”. Lace is the same on a valentine meant, “You have caught my heart in a net”.
At valentine parties romantic symbols were sometimes hidden in a cake. Each guest got a slice and if he was lucky, a symbol. The symbol told his fortune. Sometimes the symbols were put in gift packages instead.
Rice meant a wedding. A ring meant a wedding too, or an engagement. A coin meant the person would marry someone wealthy. Sometimes a boy got a red mitten. “To get the mitten” meant his girl did not like him.
Hearts are the most common romantic symbol. Candy, cookies, and even cakes are made in heart shapes for valentine parties.
Little hearts appear on valentines themselves. Wedding rings and lovers’ knots tie the couple together. Angels and children bless a happy marriage. Harps and lyres play romantic music.
One of the most famous valentine symbols is Cupid with his bow and arrow. He goes back to Roman times. Here is a story the Romans told about him.
Cupid was the son of a beautiful goddess, Venus. Wherever Venus went Cupid went too. He was a gay little god and he liked to see people happy. He went around shooting gold tipped arrows into the hearts of humans. Then they fell in love.
Valentines in America
Valentines probably came to this country with the earliest English settlers. Puritans from English settled Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. John Winthrop was their first governor. Before he left for American he started a letter to his wife. “February 14. 1629. You must be my valentine”.
At first the colonists were so busy batting the wilderness that they did not have time to make many valentines. But as the years went by valentines became more common. During the winter months in American there was little farm work. A young man could spend many hours making a valentine if he wished. When February 14 came he folded his valentine and sealed it with sealing wax. Then he delivered it himself. Mail in colonial times was expensive and irregular.
Men often sent valentines as proposals of marriage. Sometimes the young lady sent one in return, saying yes. Of course, there were far more valentines of all kinds sent by men than by women.
Some of the senders were fine artists. Their valentines were beautifully drawn and colored. The writing was beautiful too.
Cutouts were popular. The paper was folded several times and then cut with scissors or a sharp knife. When it was unfolded, it showed a design.
Often a lock of hair was enclosed in a valentine. It was means as a love token. Silhouettes were also popular. The young man sent a solhouette picture of himself. If the young lady liked it she might hang the picture on the wall.
Books called valentine writers were sold as early as 1823. These had many valentine verses. People who could not think up their own greetings copied verses from the book.
These lines, used in the 1700’s, are still popular today.
“The rose is red, the violet blue,
Lilies are fair and so are you”.
Sometimes the sender folded his valentine this way and that, as he wrote his verse.
Then he opened the paper. The lady who got the valentine had to figure out how to fold it back again so she could read the message.
In the late 1700’s, stores started selling special letter for valentines: There were decorations printed around the edges. The sender wrote his verses in the middle.
Language of Flowers
In the 1600’ a language of flowers developed in Constantinople and in the poetry of Persia. Charles II introduced the poetry to Europe, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu brought the flower language from Turkey to England in 1716.
It spread to France and became a handbook of 800 floral messages known as the Book Le Langage des Fleurs. Lovers exchanged messages as they gave each other selected flowers or bouquets. A full red rose meant beauty. Red and white meant untidy. Crocus said “abuse not’, while a white rosebud warned that one was too young for young for love. Yellow roses were for jealousy, yellow iris for passion, filbert for reconciliation ivy for marriage. The message would grow in complexity with combinations. A full rose placed over two buds meant secrecy. Remove the thorns from a rosebud and you ‘ I fear no longer’. Remove the leaves also your message becomes “There is nothing to hope or fear”. Want to say “Your unconscious sweetness has fascinated me”? Then offer a Lily of the Valley and Ferns.
Roses have endured as the traditional flower of Valentine s Day, and perhaps we also owe that to the Romans. In legend, a women, Rodanthe, was pursued dy many suitors who finally became so impassioned they broke down the doors of her house. This enraged the goddess Diana, who turned the women into a flower and her suitors each into a thorn. Perhaps that’s where we also get the expression “a thorny situation”.
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