Nationals Holidays

The United States observes holidays derived from events in American history, religious traditions, and national patriarchs.

Thanksgiving has become a traditional American holiday which evolved from the custom of English pilgrims to “give thanks” for their welfare. Today, Thanksgiving is generally celebrated as a family reunion with a large afternoon feast. European colonization has led to many traditional Christian holidays such as Easter, Lent, St. Patrick’s Day, and Christmas to be observed albeit celebrated in a secular manner by many Americans today.

Independence Day (colloquially known as the Fourth of July) celebrates the anniversary of the country’s Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. It is generally observed by parades throughout the day and the shooting of fireworks at night.

Halloween is thought to have evolved from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain which was introduced in the American colonies by Irish settlers. It has become a holiday that is celebrated by children and teens who traditionally dress up in costumes and go door to door trick-or-treating for candy. It also brings about an emphasis on eerie and frightening urban legends and movies. The celebration of Halloween has become continuously popular among university students in the U.S. Both University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ohio University in Athens, Ohio are known across the country for their Halloween street fairs.

Additionally, Mardi Gras, which evolved from the Catholic tradition of Carnival, is observed notably in New Orleans, St. Louis, and Mobile, Alabama as well as numerous other towns.

Federally recognized holidays are as follows:

January 1

New Year's Day.

Celebrates beginning of the Gregorian calendar year. Festivities include counting down to midnight (12:00 AM) on the preceding night, New Year's Eve. Traditional end of holiday season.

Third Monday in January Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., or Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Honors Martin Luther King, Jr., Civil Rights leader, who was actually born on January 15, 1929; combined with other holidays in several states.

First January 20 following a Presidential election 

Inauguration Day.

Observed only by federal government employees in Washington D.C., and the border counties of Maryland and Virginia, in order to relieve the traffic congestion that occurs with this major event. Swearing-in of President of the United States and Vice President of the United States. Celebrated every fourth year. Note: Takes place on January 21 if the 20th is a Sunday (although the President is still privately inaugurated on the 20th). If Inauguration Day falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, the preceding Friday or following Monday is not a Federal Holiday.

Third Monday in February 

Washington's Birthday.

Washington's Birthday was first declared a federal holiday by an 1879 act of Congress. The Uniform Holidays Act, 1968, shifted the date of the commemoration of Washington's Birthday from February 22 to the third Monday in February. Many people now refer to this holiday as "Presidents' Day" and consider it a day honoring all American presidents. However, neither the Uniform Holidays Act nor any subsequent law changed the name of the holiday from Washington's Birthday to Presidents' Day.

Last Monday in May     

Memorial Day.

Honors the nation's war dead from the Civil War onwards; marks the unofficial beginning of the summer season. (traditionally May 30, shifted by the Uniform Holidays Act 1968).

July 4    

Independence Day.

Celebrates Declaration of Independence, also called the Fourth of July. First Monday in September Labor Day Celebrates the achievements of workers and the labor movement; marks the unofficial end of the summer season.

Second Monday in October       

Columbus Day.

Honors Christopher Columbus, traditional discoverer of the Americas. In some areas it is also a celebration of Italian culture and heritage. (traditionally October 12); celebrated as American Indian Heritage Day and Fraternal Day in Alabama; celebrated as Native American Day in South Dakota. In Hawaii, it is celebrated as Discoverer's Day, though is not an official state holiday.

November 11    

Veterans Day.

Honors all veterans of the United States armed forces. A traditional observation is a moment of silence at 11:00 a.m. remembering those killed in war. (Commemorates the 1918 armistice, which began at "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.")

Fourth Thursday in November 

Thanksgiving Day.

Traditionally celebrates the giving of thanks for the autumn harvest. Traditionally includes the consumption of a turkey dinner. Traditional start of the holiday season.

December 25   

Christmas.

Celebrates the Nativity of Jesus. Some people consider aspects of this religious holiday, such as giving gifts and decorating a Christmas tree, to be secular rather than explicitly Christian.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estados_Unidos

Actividad.
What can you say about Nationals Holidays of  the United States?

AMERICAN CULTURE

The culture of the United States of America is a Western culture, having been originally influenced by European cultures. It has been developing since long before the United States became a country with its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore. Today, the United States of America is an ethnically and racially diverse country as result of large-scale immigration from many different countries throughout its history.

Its chief early influences came from English and Irish settlers of colonial America. British culture, due to colonial ties with Britain that spread the English language, legal system and other cultural inheritances, had a formative influence. Other important influences came from other parts of western Europe, especially Germany, France, and Italy.

Languages
The national dialect is known as American English. There are four major regional dialects in the United States: northeastern, south, inland north, and midwestern. The Midwestern accent (considered the "standard accent" in the United States, and analogous in some respects to the received pronunciation elsewhere in the English-speaking world) extends from what were once the "Middle Colonies" across the Midwest to the Pacific states.


Literature
Mark Twain is regarded as among the greatest writers in American history.

The right to freedom of expression in the American constitution can be traced to German immigrant John Peter Zenger and his legal fight to make truthful publications in the Colonies a protected legal right, ultimately paving the way for the protected rights of American authors.

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, American art and literature took most of its cues from Europe. During its early history, America was a series of British colonies on the eastern coast of the present-day of the United States. Therefore, its literary tradition begins as linked to the broader tradition of English literature. However, unique American characteristics and the breadth of its production usually now cause it to be considered a separate path and tradition.

Writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the nineteenth century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, would be recognized as America's other essential poet. Eleven U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Toni Morrison in 1993. Ernest Hemingway, the 1954 Nobel laureate, is often named as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.

A work seen as capturing fundamental aspects of the national experience and character—such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925)—may be dubbed the "Great American Novel". Popular literary genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fiction were developed in the United State.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_the_United_States

Activity
Answer the following questions:

1.Do you think America has been influenced by another cultures?

2.What would them be?
3.Which accent is considered the standard?
4.What is the national dialect of the United States of Ameria?
5.Can you name the four major regional dialects?
6.Who was Mark Twain?
7.Name some writers of the United States?

History of the USA.

A BRIEF HISTORY of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA.

Activity

What do you think about this video?

Did you enjoy the way the story is related?

Who invented the pistol?

Do you really think that American people worked hard to build their country?

What about the racism, they respected black people?

A Brief History of the United States of Amarerica.(In Spanish)

Fine American Gastronomy

Monday, January 14, 2011

If I say “American cuisine”, most Europeans endowed with rich gastronomical culture would cynically giggle and think of nasty sodium-filled hamburgers, occasionally de-Frenchised, but “all-American” fries, on-the-go hot dogs, cholesterol ridden barbecue ribs and thousand-calorie triple chocolate cookies. Today, even the mere term “American cuisine” sounds a little too elegant in view of the culinary clichés associated with the US, suggesting that microwave-ready junk meals and fast food belongs to the gastronomical premier league.

But strikingly enough, most Americans I talked to about US cooking culture were swollen with pride about their amazingly tasty “authentic” meals like a good Tex-Mex or cheese steak. I overheard American remarks in the finest restaurants in Paris how much they are longing for a good bucket of Buffalo Wings. I snobbishly rolled my eyes thinking they know nothing about good food, these people. Then traveling around this vast country I came to two basic realizations.

Number one: 
the maxim is indeed true that “what is food to one, is to others bitter poison.” Some fall for steaks and some fall for snails. Both can be ill-prepared and well-prepared. I happen not to go nuts for steaks, BBQs, fries, casseroles, doughnuts, corn flakes and fudge. But millions here do and maybe it’s just a matter of conditioning your taste buds and tummy to more hearty dishes.

Number two:
Americans do have their own heritage of quality cuisine it just happened to be systematically shattered by the golden-arched junk food culture that is both cheaper and more time efficient.

Today, 96 per cent of kids recognize Ronald McDonald (only Santa tops him) and the world famous “golden” M is more widely recognized in this most religious Western country than the Christian cross (see Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation on other shocking culinary observations).
It has not always been like this.

Before Big Mac conquered the hearts of Joe, before Happy Meal started to mean nuggets and cheap toys, before women entered the labor market to generate more disposable income… American moms had and took time to cook and they cooked a variety of tasty meals. Back in the 1940s when GM was associated with automotives and not jumbo size yellow tomatoes of questionable origin, less than one fourth of American’s food dollars went to meals-away-from-home. Nowadays almost half of the average American household’s food spending contributes to the thriving of fast food chains, restaurants, delis, etc.

Waist-sizes doubling, diabetes booming and the nationwide obesity epidemic are its domestic implications. But as internationally the gastro-flagships of America became KFC, Pizza Hut and MacDo, the image of US cuisine around the world degraded to the lowest quality of consumable foodstuff that one can imagine. No wonder most people think that “American” and “cuisine” is an embellishment, oxymoron or a bad joke. 

Too bad, because there’s some good stuff that tastes great over here that’s as American as apple pie.

http://bigcitylife-st.blogspot.com/2008/01/fine-american-gastronomy.html

Activity

According to the article, answer the follow:

What do you think is the most common meal in the United States?

What do you think about American food?

Do you think that American food is better than European food?

What does the author mean with “what is food to one is to others bitter poison.”?

Why do you think that children prefer junk food like “big mac”?

What do you think about this article?

Cultural Approach