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  • Special days in Britain

    Watch the video about holidays, traditions and special days in Britain. Then do the exercises below.

    1 Group the words. Which words can go to more categories?

    band, boat, card, carol, conker, cracker, dancing, drums, firework, ghost, gunpowder, guy, hat, hill, Hindu, hit, kisses, Ladies’ Day, London, maypole, music, parliament, party, plot, presents, pudding, race, River Thames,  romantic, rose,  singer, turkey, university, witch

    Guy Fawkes Night  
    Valentine’s Day
    Hallowe’en
    May Day
    Gloucester Cheese Rolling
    Oxford-Cambridge
    Royal Ascot
    Glastonbury Festival
    Notting Hill Carnival
    Diwali
    Chestnut Day
    Christmas

    2 Match the dates and the events.

    December 24-26; June 14-18 in 2016; March 27 in 2016; May 1; October 31, February 14, November 5, August 28-29 in 2016; June 22-26 in 2016; May 30 in 2016.

  • The Photo Album

    Who are these Royals?

    Can you name the Windsors on the photos from the family album?

  • The Royal Mews

    When you visit Buckingham Palace you can also see the beautiful coaches of the Royal Family at The Royal Mews.

    The word “mew” comes from the 14th century. The place was home of the royal hawks. Mew was moulting time, when the birds left their feathers behind.

    The building burnt down in a fire and in 1534 it was rebuilt as stables (home for horses).

    Do you know what a coach is? And a cart or a chariot? You can find the answer below.

  • Changing the Guard

    The men you can see in front of Buckingham Palace are the Queen’s guard. They are mostly Foot Guards (The Grenadier Guards, The Coldstream Guards, The Scots Guards, The Irish Guards, The Welsh Guards).

    You can also see them at other royal palaces together with Household Cavalry.

    You can make a difference among the royal regiment uniforms by this picture.

    royalregiments

    From May to July the Changing of the Guard takes place every day at 11:30 a.m. in front of Buckingham Palace. At other times of the year the ceremony takes place on alternate days.

    Due to weather conditions or other reasons, the ceremony can be cancelled. It is Captain of the Guard responsibel for that decision and it can be made right before the ceremony officially starts (10.45 a.m.)

  • Queen – extra

    Interesting facts about Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:

    • The Queen can speak French fluently.
    • She is 5ft 4in tall (162 cm).
    • She has about 25 horses in each racing season.
    • There are about 150 painted portraits of her.
    • The Queen is on YouTube and on Facebook (The British Monarchy)
    • Her Majesty sends a telegraph (a special greeting card) to people of the Commonwealth who have their 100th birthday.
    • The Queen gives Christmas presents to Buckingham Palace staff every year. Some get some personal gifts but all get Christmas pudding.

    The Queen and Scottish Veterans (Photo: Press Association)
    The Queen and Scottish Veterans (Photo: Press Association)

  • Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

    queen-parkgeunhye-princephilip
    The Queen, Korean president Park Geun-Hye and the Duke of Edinburgh (Photo: The British Monarchy, Facebook)

    She has important roles. The Queen is:

    • Head of State, so she visits other kings and queens, presidents, prime ministers or other important people. She also invites world leaders to London. These are official meetings.
    • Head of the Armed Forces;
    • Head of the English (Anglican) Church. The spiritual leader is the Archbishop of Canterbury.

    The Queen isn’t always busy. Can you find out what she does in her spare time? Unscramble the words.

    1 INTAKG SOTHPO
    2 HCNIGWAT VT
    3 NILWAKG ERH OGSD

    Were you right?

    Her Majesty loves taking photos, watching TV (especially BBC-sitcoms and soap operas) and walking her dogs. Watch how the Queen, her dogs and James Bond entered the Olympic Stadium at the opening ceremony of London Summer Olympic Games 2012.

    beaverslothjaguarHer Majesty loves animals, especially dogs. She owns corgis and dorgis (a daschund-corgi crossbreed). The Queen often gets presents from famous people and she also gets animals. However, they don’t stay at Buckingham Palace, they all go to the London Zoo. Her Majesty has already had an elephant, some black beavers, some sloths and even a jaguar.

    If you are very lucky, you can meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace. If you aren’t, you can still see her every day: the Queen’s head is on banknotes, coins and stamps.money-stampQueen Elizabeth II has two birthdays. One for the family (the private on April 21) and another one for the public. It is in June when the Queen can see all her soldiers in uniform.

    Here you can watch Trooping the Colour 2015:

  • Hallowe’en

    Watch the video and find out about Halloween traditions in Britain.

  • The Welsh Dragon

    Y Ddraig Goch
    Y Ddraig Goch

    On the Welsh flag, there is a red dragon. It is the official symbol of the country. It became symbol of Wales in 1901.
    The Welsh name is Y Ddraig Goch. You can listen to the pronunciation HERE.

    There are a lot of legends about the Red Dragon. They say there were two dragons – a red one and a white one. They fought each other over hundreds and hundreds of years. Those fight were bloody. Bu the winner was neither of the dragons, it was the legendary King Arthur.

    Here is the story of the dragon in Welsh, told by a Welsh bard.

  • Royal Gallery

    The current Line of Succession to the throne

    Credits: bbc.com

    Who are these Windsors?

  • Queen Elizabeth II and her family

    Look at the family tree of The House of Windsor.

    Can you tell what family relations there are?

    • mother, father (parents)
    • grandmother, grandfather (grandparents)
    • wife, husband
    • great-grandmother, great-grandfather (great-grandparents)
    • daughter, son (children)
    • granddaughter, grandson (grandchildren)
    • sister, brother (siblings)
    • aunt, uncle
    • cousin

    E.g.: The Queen is Prince Charles’s mother.

    William is Diana and Charles’s son.

    Royal Family 2015-09-jo