Unit1
Festivals
around the world
The Dragon Boat Festival
端午节
The Double Ninth Festival
重阳节
The Spring Festival
Tomb Sweeping Day
清明节
The Lantern Festival元宵节
The Mid-Autumn
Festival 中秋节
The Double
Seventh Festival
七夕节
What kinds of festivals in China do you know about?
Brainstorming
festivals
Spring Festival
Lantern Festival
清明时节雨纷纷，路上行人欲断魂。借问酒家何处有，牧童遥指杏花村。------[唐] 杜牧
Tomb-Sweeping Day
April 5th
Dragon Boat Festival
Mid-Autumn Day
International
Women’s Day
New Year’s Day(元旦)
Children’s Day
National Day
The Youth Day
International Labour Day
What Chinese public holidays do you know ?
Holidays
festivals
Christmas
Apirl Fool’s Day
Valentine’s Day
Easter(Mar--Apirl)
Thanksgiving Day
November
Mother’s Day
May
Father’s Day
June
Halloween
Oct.31
What festivals of foreign countries do you know?
Valentines
February 14th
Pumpkin light
Halloween
Easter
Thanksgiving Day
Foreign Festivals
Pre-reading
What festivals or celebrations do you have in your city or town? What part of a festival do you like best- the activities, the music, the sights, the food or the people who visit?
Reading
How many types of festivals are mentioned in the passage?
1. Ancient festivals
2. Festivals of the Dead
3. Festivals to Honor People
4. Harvest Festivals
5. Spring Festivals
Scanning
What festivals are mentioned in each paragraph?
P1. Ancient festivals
celebrate the end of the cold weather, planting in spring and harvest in autumn; celebrate when hunters catch animals.
Skimming
P 2. Festivals of the Dead
Japan -----Obon
Mexico------Day of the Dead
America------Halloween
P 3. Festivals to Honour People
Dragon Boat Festival
Columbus Day
(India)October 2
Obon（盂兰盆） in Japan
Columbus Day
P 4. Harvest Festivals
Harvest and Thanksgiving Festival
Mid-Autumn festival
P 5. Spring Festivals
Spring festival
Carnival
Easter
Cheery Blossom Festival
Harvest Festivals

Comprehending
I. Read the passage and then fill in the following chart.
1. Festivals of the Dead.
ancestors
Obon
Mexico
Halloween
graves
incense
music
bones
gifts
dress up
Obon
The Day
of the Dead
Halloween
Festivals
2. Festivals to Honour People
Match the person with the festival.
1. Qu Yuan
2. Christopher Columbus
3. Mohandas Gandhi
a. the Dragon Boat Festival
b. an Indian national festival on Oct. 2
c. Columbus Day
a
c
b
3. Harvest Festivals
Choose the best answer.
Many activities can be held in harvest festivals EXCEPT that people ___.
A. get together to have meals
B. decorate houses to admire the moon
C. win awards for their farm produce
D. enjoy mooncakes
B
B. decorate houses to admire the moon
4. Spring Festivals Fill in the blanks.
The Spring
Festival
Carnivals
Easter
Japan
lucky
dragon dances
Parades
colourful
clothing
Spring Festival
Carnivals
Festivals
1). What are festivals of the dead usually for?
Festivals of the dead are for honouring or satisfying dead ancestors or others, who some people believe might return to help or harm living people.
II. Use the information from the reading passage to answer the following question.
2). What makes autumn festivals happy events?
people are thankful that food is ready for winter and the hard farm work is finished.
3). What do people usually do at spring festivals?
people usually have dances, carnivals and other activities to celebrate the end of winter and the coming of spring.
4).What is one important reason to have festivals and celebrations?
we can enjoy life/ be proud of our customs/ forget our work for a little while.
5). Compare the festivals of the dead in Mexico, Japan and China. What things are similar? What things are different?
Similarities: clean their ancestors’ graves, and the Mexicans offer food, flowers and gifts to the dead.
Differences: the Mexicans eat special food that looks like bones, something the Chinese and Japanese do not do.
1. The ancient people needn’t worry about their food.
2. Halloween used to be a festival intended to honor the dead.
F
T
III. True or False
3. Qu Yuan was a great poet who people honor a lot in China.
4. Mid-autumn Festival is held to celebrate the end of autumn.
5. Easter celebrates the birth of Jesus.
T
F
F
Discussion
Which festivals you think are the
most important and which are the
most fun.
Homework
1. Go over the text after class and find the sentences that you don’t understand
2. Finish exercise “discovering useful words and expressions” on Page 4. (Ex1, 2 and 3)
3. Find out as much information as possible about festivals around the world.