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The noise is deafening. Mechanical bands and the cries of the
“barkers” (the showmen who stand outside the booths and by the stalls shouting to the crowds to come and try their luck are equalled by the laughter of the visitors and the din of machinery.

The visitors themselves are looking for fun, and they find it in full measure. There are fortune-tellers and rifle-ranges and “bumping cars”, there are bowling alleys and dart boards and coconut shies. There is something for everybody.

And for the lucky ones, or for those with more skill than most, there are prizes — table lamps and clocks and а hundred and one other things of value.

А visit to the fair at Happy Hampstead is something not easily forgotten. It is noisy, it is exhausting — but it is as exhilarating an experience as any in the world.

HENRY WOOD

PROMENADE CONCERTS

“Ladies and gentlemen — the Proms!”

Amongst music-lovers in Britain — and, indeed, in very many other countries — the period between July and September 21 is а time of excitement, of anticipation, of great enthusiasm.

We are in the middle of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts — the Proms.

London music-lovers are particularly fortunate, for those who are able to obtain tickets can attend the concerts in person. Every night at 7 о'clock (Sunday excepted) а vast audience assembled at the Royal Albert
Hall rises for the playing and singing of the National Anthem. А few minutes later, when seats have been resumed, the first work of the evening begins.

But even if seats are not to be obtained, the important parts of the concerts can be heard — and are heard — by а very great number of people, because the ВВС broadcasts certain principal works every night throughout the season. The audience reached by this means is estimated to total several millions in Britain alone, and that total is probably equalled by the number of listeners abroad.

The reason why such а great audience is attracted is that the Proms present every year а large repertoire of classical works under the best conductors and with the best artists. А season provides an anthology of masterpieces.

Holidays and traditions in English – speaking countries.

The Proms started in 1895 when Sir Henry Wood formed the Queen’s Hall
Orchestra. The purpose of the venture was to provide classical music to as many people who cared to come at а price all could afford to pay, those of lesser means being charged comparatively little — one shilling — to enter the Promenade, where standing was the rule.

The coming of the last war ended two Proms’ traditions. The first was that in 1939 it was nо longer possible to perform to London audiences — the whole organization was evacuated to Bristol. The second was that the Proms couldn’t return to the Queen’s Hall after the war was over — the Queen’s
Hall had become а casualty of the air-raids (in 1941), and was gutted.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween means "holy evening" and takes place on October 31st.
Although it is а much more important festival in the USA than in Britain, it is celebrated by many people in the United Kingdom. It is particularly connected with witches and ghosts.

At parties people dress up in strange costumes and pretend they are witches. They cut horrible faces in potatoes and other vegetables and put а candle inside, which shines through their eyes. People play different games such as trying to eat an apple from а bucket of water without using their hands.

In recent years children dressed in white sheets knock on doors at
Halloween and ask if you would like а “trick” or “treat”. If you give them something nice, а “treat”, they go away. However, if you don’t, they play а
“trick” on you, such as making а lot of noise or spilling flour on your front doorstep.

GUY FAWKES NIGHT (BONFIRE NIGHT) — NOVEMBER 5

Guy Fawkes Night is one of the most popular festivals in Great
Britain. It commemorates the discovery of the so-called Gunpowder Plot, and is widely celebrated throughout the country. Below, the reader will find the necessary information concerning the Plot, which, as he will see, may never have existed, and the description of the traditional celebrations.

Gunpowder Plot. Conspiracy to destroy the English Houses of Parliament and King James I when the latter opened Parliament on Nov. 5, 1605.
Engineered by а group of Roman Catholics as а protest against anti-Papist measures. In May 1604 the conspirators rented а house adjoining the House of Lords, from which they dug а tunnel to а vault below that house, where they stored 36 barrels of gunpowder. It was planned that when king and parliament were destroyed the Roman Catholics should attempt to seize power. Preparations for the plot had been completed when, on October 26, one of the conspirators wrote to а kinsman, Lord Monteagle, warning

Holidays and traditions in English – speaking countries.

him to stay away from the House of Lords. On November 4 а search was made of the parliament vaults, and the gunpowder was found, together with Guy
Fawkes (1570 — 1606), an English Roman Catholic in the pay of Spain (which was making political capital out of Roman Catholics discontent in England).
Fawkes had been commissioned to set off the explosion. Arrested and tortured he revealed the names of the conspirators, some of whom were killed resisting arrest. Fawkes was hanged. Detection of the plot led to increased repression of English Roman Catholics. The Plot is still commemorated by an official ceremonial search of the vaults before the annual opening of Parliament, also by the burning of Fawkes's effigy and the explosion of fireworks every Nov. 5.

Thanksgiving Day

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