As well as national costume, national dishes and a national sport, a nation should have a dance. Argentina has its tango, Poland has the polka, Russia has the russkaya plyasovaya and England has the morris.

Every May Day, outside the village pubs of England, you can see strangely dressed people jumping into the air, waving handkerchiefs and sticks, with bells jingling from their clothing. They perform a traditional morris dance and welcome the return of spring.

The origins of morris dancing have been lost in history, but most specialists agree that it goes back at least to the 15th century.
There are many styles of morris dancing. The most well-known of them is the Cotswold Morris dance (the Cotswolds is a hilly region in south-west England).
In addition to the dancers there are often other characters involved. The most common is a fool, who keeps the public amused and the dancers in order. The fool has another important job - that of collecting money from the audience.

The previous part of the story about Easter is here.

Easter is the time for holidays, festivals and a time for giving chocolate Easter eggs. But Easter means much more. It is the oldest and the most important Christian Festival, the celebration of the death and coming to life again of Jesus Christ. For Christians, the dawn of Easter Sunday with its message of new life is the high point of the year.

The story

Easter is the story of Jesus’ last days in Jerusalem before his death. The Easter story includes Maundy Thursday (the Last supper leading to the Eucharist), Good Friday (the day on which Jesus was crucified) and Easter Sunday (the day on which Jesus came back to life).

Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day)

Shrove Tuesday is one of the moveable feasts in the church calendar and is directly related to the date on which Easter falls. Shrove Tuesday always falls 47 days before to Easter Sunday, so the date varies from year to year and falls between February 3 and March 9. Shrove Tuesday is a day of celebration as well as penitence, because it’s the last day before Lent.

April 1st: This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three-hundred and sixty-four.
Mark Twain

April Fool’s Day or All Fools’ Day, though not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible.

Superstitions

Traditionally, pranks are supposed to be performed before noon. Those done afterwards are supposed to bring bad luck to the perpetrator. This limitation is not, however, universally adhered to since it is believed to have been contrived by annoyed parents and school teachers wanting a respite from the day of pranks, as well as since many of the hoaxes listed below first appeared after noon. Anyone who fails to respond in the proper spirit of tolerance and amusement to the tricks played on them is also said to be liable to suffer bad luck. It is (unreliably) said that being fooled by a pretty girl will be compensated by marriage to, or at least friendship with her. Another superstition is that marriage on April Fool’s Day is not a good idea for a man, for he will be permanently ruled by his wife. It is furthermore believed that children born on this day will experience good luck in most matters, but will only meet with disaster when it comes to gambling.

Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s Day
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window
To be your Valentine.

William Shakespeare
from “Hamlet”, Act IV, Scene V

Valentine’s Day falls on February 14, and is the traditional day on which lovers in certain cultures let each other know about their love, commonly by sending valentine’s cards, which are often anonymous. The history of Valentine’s Day can be traced back to an obscure Catholic Church feast day, said to be in honor of Saint Valentine. The day’s associations with romantic love arrived after the High Middle Ages.

The day is now most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of “valentines”. Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of the winged Cupid. Starting in the 19th century, the practice of hand writing notes has largely given way to the exchange of mass-produced greeting cards. The Greeting Card Association estimates that, world-wide, approximately one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association also estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.