The Tomatina Festival (西红柿节) is a festival that is held in a town named Bunol in Spain, on which people throw tomatoes for fun. It is held on the last Wednesday of August each year.

In 1945, during a parade (游行) in the town one day, young men who wanted to be in the parade started a fight in the town square. They used tomatoes as weapons (武器) . 【小题1】

At around 10: 00 a. m. on Wednesday, activities that are organized to celebrate the festival begin. 【小题2】 When a person is climbing, some people sing and dance. When the person drops the ham off the pole, the tomato fight starts. The tomatoes come from Extremadura. 【小题3】 The number of tomatoes used is about 150, 000. After exactly one hour, the fight ends. 【小题4】 Then hoses are used to clean the square and to wash away the tomato juice on people’s bodies. After that, the town goes back to the way it was.

【小题5】 One of them is as follows: People have to squash (把……挤软) the tomatoes before throwing in order not to hurt other people.

The Tomatina Festival has inspired other similar celebrations in other parts of the world, for example, in the city of Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China, a tomato fight is held on October 19th.

During lunch all my friends were talking about their families’ plans for winter break, and I was a little jealous since my parents couldn’t take a vacation during Christmas week.

I came home from school that day to find a newsletter from the Jewish CommunityCenter, which contained an ad for an “alternative vacation” community-service trip to New Orleans during Christmas week. I wondered whether cleaning neighborhoods destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag were really the way I wanted to spend Christmas vacation. I sent in an application anyway, went for an interview, and was actually very excited when I was accepted into the program.

We arrived in New Orleans on December 23. First, we had dinner at a pizza place that had been destroyed by the hurricane. The owners told us about what they had gone through to rebuild their homes.

On Christmas Eve, we spent the day removing garbage as part of a beautification project in the Lower Ninth Ward, which was most heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

On Christmas Day, we worked at a center for homeless people. The people really appreciated our work, and we felt like we had made Christmas a little more special for them. My favorite project was helping at an animal rescue center. We walked the animals, cleaned their places, and fed them. Six thousand dogs and cats, separated from their owners, were rescued by that shelter after the hurricane.

When I returned to New York and told my friends about my trip, I realized how ridiculous I had been to be jealous of their Christmas plans. I looked around at my house, my dog, my family and everything I owned and felt really spoiled. All the things I saw in New Orleans, all the amazing people I met and the small ways l was able to contribute to the rebuilding of the city made that week  the  most memorable vacation I can imagine.

In the United States, the word "holiday" is synonymous with celebration. The following ten holidays per year are proclaimed by the federal government.

Independence Day

Independence Day is annually celebrated on July 4 and is often known as "the Fourth of July”. It is the anniversary of the publication of the declaration of independence from Great Britain in 1776. Now it is celebrated in all the states. The army marks the occasion by firing a 13-gun salute every year. Ceremonies may include parades, official speeches, visits to historic monuments and fireworks displays.

Memorial Day

This holiday, on the fourth Monday of every May, is a day on which Americans honor the dead. Originally a day on which flags and flowers were placed on graves of soldiers who died in the American Civil War, now it has become a day on which the dead of all wars and all other dead are remembered the same way.

Veterans Day

Veterans Day was established to honor Americans who had served in World War I. It falls on November 11, the day when that war ended in 1918, but it now honors veterans of all wars in which the United States has fought Veterans' organizations hold parades or other special ceremonies, and the US president customarily places a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. It has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863. Today, people celebrate Thanksgiving to remember these early days. The most important part of the celebration is a traditional dinner. Thanksgiving dinner almost always includes some of the foods served at the first feast: roast turkey, cranberry sauce potatoes pumpkin pies. Before the meal begins, families often pause to give thanks.