Celebration days in Northern Ireland

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Celebration days in Northern Ireland
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New years

• New Years Eve is celebrated on the 31st December.
• Celebrations take place all over the country from
  bars and restaurants to celebrating with the
  stars on a TV show.
• 2 minutes to midnight preparations are made to
  start the countdown to midnight when the
  fireworks are lit and the champagne poured.
• New Years day is usually celebrated as a family
  day when new years resolutions are made.

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St Patrick's day

• St Patricks day is celebrated annually on 17th
  March in honour of Irelands patron Saint
  St.Patrick.
• Patrick eventually returned to Ireland as a
  missionary and succeeded in converting the Irish
  to Christianity. He used a shamrock to explain
  the Trinity to potential converts. The three
  leaves of the shamrock represented the father,
  son, and holy spirit. Patrick is also reported to
  have driven all of the snakes, a pagan symbol,
  out of Ireland and into the sea where they
  drowned.

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Easter

• Easter is usually celebrated in April with a 2
  week holiday off school.
• For those people that work, they are entitled to
  a four day holiday, these holidays are Good
  Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday and Easter
  Tuesday.
• We associate Easter with chocolate Easter eggs
  and the Easter bunny.

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12th July

• The marching season runs from April through
  November, but hits its peak during the July 12th
  fortnight, celebrating the victory of Protestant
  King Billy, over Catholic King James at the
  Battle of the Boyne in 1609.
• The bands parade playing different songs with
  their followers marching and dancing behind them.

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Halloween

• Halloween is celebrated as a day of scary antics
  and fireworks.
• People usually dress up as scary characters for
  Halloween night.
• Fireworks are usually set off from family homes
  or tourist attractions in the country.

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Christmas

• In Northern Ireland we celebrate Christmas as a
  family occasion.
• Christmas Day we get up really early to open
  presents and have a big Christmas breakfast
  before visiting family and friends.
• We then prepare our large Christmas dinner which
  consists of a starter, a main course and dessert.
• Starter consists of home made vegetable soup or
  a prawn cocktail.
• Christmas dinner consists of turkey, ham,
  potatoes, vegetables, gravy and stuffing
• Dessert is usually Christmas pudding, pavlova,
  profiteroles, chocolate fudge cake or Christmas
  cake