Learn English with American Primary School Textbooks

Chapter 55 Custom Custom Culture (8)
True natural eggs do not belong to a particular season, of course, but are available all year round (duck eggs are rare in the UK, and bird eggs are even rarer, purely a luxury for the rich and powerful).Eggs are people's daily food, cheap and nutritious, especially suitable for breakfast.Because hens start laying eggs after winter, they have been associated with spring longer than the production of chocolate eggs.Some places in the UK play a game of "get out" with real eggs at Easter.The eggs are boiled first, and then sent to the contestants, who roll the eggs down a slope, and whoever rolls the eggs first to the bottom wins.On Easter morning, some families put the eggs for breakfast in several pots filled with vegetable dyes of different colors, so that the eggs served are no longer white or light brown, but yellow or pink. blue or green.Of course, the dye will not penetrate the shell.

Most British kids would be very disappointed if there were only these eggs for Easter.Once Christmas is over, chocolate Easter eggs are displayed in candy stores.The smallest and simplest ones are so cheap that children can buy them with their pocket money.There are two kinds of easter eggs listed during this period.The small ones, called fondant, are a little over an inch long and have a thin layer of chocolate on the outside and a sweet, soft dough inside, and are then wrapped in colorful tinfoil into various shapes.The other is an empty egg, which is slightly larger, generally larger than a duck egg.There is nothing inside, just a chocolate shell.Just break the crust and eat the chocolate chips.

As Easter approaches, candy store windows will be filled with eggs even better than these.They were made as gifts and the large ones were expensive.Various manufacturers compete to launch beautiful and ingenious easter eggs.Chocolate eggs are often sold in china cups or baskets, so that people can keep some lovely souvenirs after the chocolate is eaten and forgotten.There are also various small gifts for sale to attract children.It is decorated with a fluffy woolen chicken with its beak and feet glued to the card.In addition to chocolate eggs, there are also chicks and bunnies made of chocolate.A lucky child may get several of these gifts from relatives and friends.

During Easter, there is an egg-shaped cardboard box on the market, which is not made of chocolate, so it cannot be eaten.But they are just as pretty as chocolate eggs.It has decorative patterns and is often tied with lace, ribbons or artificial flowers.They are often used to hold items that the giver thinks the recipient will like.Usually small gifts, such as handkerchiefs, scarves or ties.Sometimes it may be a small piece of jewelry that is packaged.

The purpose of Easter eggs is to bring joy to people - and it is.Beautiful and decorative, they represent people's good wishes and the shared joy of changing seasons.Manufacturers seem to be able to come up with different colors and patterns every year.But for me, there is no joy in spring that compares to watching a hen hatch her eggs.One week after another passed, the hen squatted quietly.Then you will find that one of the eggs has broken its shell.Then there was another.Then you hear the faint chirp of the chicks as they peck through their shells and struggle to get out.The hair of the newly hatched chicks is wet and sticky, but it doesn't take long for their hair to dry out.In a few minutes, they stepped out of the egg shells, with slender and thin red feet, bright eyes, and pale yellow fluff, they were extremely graceful.Thanks to modern egg-laying methods, the joy of early spring is rarely experienced these days, and it is even more distant from the lives of most British children.

Exercise
Did you spend Easter like a British kid?

11 Holy Bath

A paper suit is a risky thing to wear to the beach. It's even riskier if you plan to go into the water. But that doesn't matter to the people of Oporto', northern Portugal. Every year on the eve of Saint Bartholomew's Day which is due on August 24, they happily don their colorful paper outfits and swarm down to the strand en masse. One costumed man, designated Neptune―for a day―presides over a mock battle between paper-clad “pirates” and equally paper- clad “landlubbers”. Afterwards, “Neptune” rides his carriage straight into the waves and everyone piles in after him. Locals maintain that their festival, flimsy garb and all, is of ancient origin, and that the communal dip taken this day is a "holy bath", worth seven ordinary baths in its power to cleanse the swimmer of evil and sin.
Vocabulary
risky ["riski] adj. Dangerous, adventurous, (works, etc.) indecent
eve [i: v] n. Eve, evening, moment of major events
mock [m? k] vt. Mock, imitate;
vi. to mock;

n. mockery, imitation
flimsy ["flimzi] adj. fragile, shallow;
n. Thin paper, carbon paper, typing paper
Practice
Can you make clothes with paper?

Translation
Wearing a paper suit to the beach is risky, and it's even more risky if you plan to wear it in the water.But people in the city of Porto in northern Portugal don't care much.Every year, on the eve of St. Bartholomew's Day on August 8, they happily don colorful paper costumes and flock to the beach.One of them, dressed as Neptune, presides over a mock duel between paper-suited pirates and landlubbers for the day.Afterwards, Poseidon drove his chariot straight into the waves, and everyone flocked after him.The locals believe that their festivals, including the customs made of tissue paper, have a long history, and believe that this kind of collective bathing on this day is a "holy bath", and its power to wash away the evil and crimes of swimmers is equivalent to 24 times that of ordinary bathing. times.

Exercise
Can you make a suit out of paper?

12 Rificolona Paper Lantern Festival
Florence and Siena, now a pair of well-preserved Renaissance heirlooms, used not to be so genteel. Throughout the Middle Ages, the neighboring city-states were forever at each other's throats. One of the high points of the ongoing skirtmish came in 1230 , when the Florentines crouched outside Siena's walls, catapulting quantities of human excrement and putrid donkey corpses over the top, in hopes of starting a plague. In 1260 the Florentine troops launched another fierce attack; in response, the Sienans tore into their enemies with a brutal fury.
Three hundred years later, Florence's Cosimo de Medici once and for all annexed Siena. He became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany. To celebrate his victory, Florentines initiated the Rificolona festival. In times of yore, people came from all over the surrounding region, carrying picnic lunches of cheese, bread, fruit, and anise-and-fennel-spiked sweets. At night, they carried colored paper lanterns down to the banks of the Arno River and set them afloat. Today's celebrations also include picnics and lanterns— as well as floats, folk singing, and street dancing.
Vocabulary
Skirmish ["sk?: mi?] n. Small conflict, small dispute;
vi. to have a skirmish, to have a small argument

catapult ["k?t?p?lt] n. Ejection rate, bullet crossbow

putrid ["pju:trid] adj. Corrupt, rotten, disgusting

yore [j? :] n.

Practice
A third of days in Italy are holidays, what else do you know?

Translation
Both Florence and Siena have been well preserved as treasure cities of the Renaissance.Yet historically they have not been so refined.During the Middle Ages, these two neighboring city-states were constantly at war.Skirmishes continued throughout the year, the most violent of which occurred in 1230.That time the Florentines crouched outside the walls of Siena, throwing a lot of dung and rotting donkey carcasses in order to cause a plague. In 1260, the Florentine army launched another fierce offensive, and the Sienese fought back frantically, severely injuring the enemy.

(End of this chapter)