UK Music Festivals

Summer in the UK is traditionally the time when people go on holidays. It is also the time for outdoor music festivals. Let’s look at some of the most famous ones.

·Glastonbury Festival

The Glastonbury Festival first started in 1970, and is often seen as the standard to judge other festivals by. It takes place on a farm in the south-west of England over 3 days, and visitors camp in the fields around the site.

·Reading Festival

While Glastonbury tries to keep an air of peace and love, the Reading Festival is a noisier, more aggressive weekend. It is much easier to attend as it is in the centre of the city of Reading. Although you can camp, you can also go just for the day. Up to 55,000 people are expected to attend on the weekend of the August Bank Holiday, and top British acts such as Franz Ferdinand and The Kaiser Chiefs will entertain the crowds.

·Creamfields Festival

If you prefer house music to rock, then Creamfields is probably the place for you. Since 1998, this festival of dance music has taken place in Liverpool, also on the final weekend of August, but only for one day, so there is no need to bring your tent. Instead, just enjoy a boogie to top DJs and live acts.

·Knebworth Festival

Knebworth is a huge manor house and the festival takes place in the gardens. It first took place in 1974, and since then acts such as The Rolling Stones, Queen, Elton John and Paul McCartney have all featured.

So, whatever your tastes in music, there is a festival taking place in England to suit you. Just don’t forget to pack your raincoat.

Thailand has several unique holidays. One of them is King’s Birthday, which is a national holiday. On this day, each city is decorated with bright colored lights, and in the evenings the Thai walk around together looking at the decorations. Traditional dishes and family favourties are eaten, and meals always include steamed whole chicken with hot pepper dipping sauce and sliced roast pig’s head.

New Year’s Day is also important in Thailand. Brown eggs are boiled and then cooked in soy sauce, sugar, fish sauce and five spices. These eggs represent good life in the coming year. The Thai will also eat special egg rolls, dipped in namplaprig, a sweet and sour sauce. Decorations for the New Year include fruit like bananas, coconuts, pineapples and papayas.

Songkran is a three-day water festival that comes in April. For this holiday, people douse each other and everything they have with water in thanks for rain and in the hope of good luck. April is the hottest month in Thailand, so this festival is refreshing and fun. The celebrations also include a big dinner, at which curries, usually yellow ones, and long noodles are eaten. These noodles symbolize long life.

Loy Krathong is a November holiday that involves making bamboo boats and putting lighted candles into them. As these little boats float down the river, they are supposed to carry away sin and pay honor to the spitits of the water. After watching the boats, people eat a large meal that includes grilled chicken, fish, coconut and egg yolks. No matter what they are celebrating, Thai holidays always include family and good food.

Who first proposed the holiday for workers? It’s not entirely clear, but two workers can make a solid claim to the Founder of Labor Day title.

Some records show that in 1882, Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, suggested setting aside a day for a “general holiday for the laboring classes”. But many believe that machinist Matthew Maguire, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday.

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883. By 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday, and on June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September of each year a national holiday.

Many Americans celebrate Labor Day with parades (游行), picnics and parties — festivities very similar to those outlined by the first proposal for a holiday, which suggested that the day should be observed with a street parade to exhibit “the strength and spirits of the trade and labor organizations” of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day.

Speeches by important official men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civil significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909,the Sunday before Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to (致力于) the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

American labor has raised the nation’s standard of living and contributed to the greatest production the world has ever known and the labor movement has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy.