Starting off

Discuss the questions below with a partner:

1. How many days in the year are there in your country when people do not have to go to work or school? Work with a partner and make a list.

2. What do you do on each day? Do you usually spend it alone? With your family? With friends? Are there any special tradition on each day in your country (e.g. eating carp on Christmas Eve, painting eggs at Easter)?

Compare what you do with other people in your class. Do they do similar things to you?

Before you read

For Irish people March 17^th - St. Patrick's Day - is a special day. How much do you know about Irish culture?

Work with a partner and try to answer the questions below:

1. Which colour is traditionally the colour of Ireland?

a. red b. yellow c. green

2. Who or what is a leprechaun?

a. a kind of dance

b. a kind of monster

c. a small magical old man

3. Which country was St. Patrick from?

a. Ireland b. England c. Scotland

4. There are no snakes in Ireland.

True or False?

5. St. Patrick's Day is only celebrated in Ireland.

True or False?

First reading

Read the text and see if your ideas were right. Read as quickly as you can and remember that you don't need to read everything, just to find what the numbers mean.

Vocabulary 1

Find and underline the words below in the text.

Paragraph 1: `celebrations' ➙ ………………………...

Paragraph 2: `symbols' ➙ ………………………...

Paragraph 2: `disappear' ➙ ………………………...

Paragraph 3: `top' ➙ ………………………...

Paragraph 4: `more' ➙ ………………………...

Paragraph 5: `around' ➙ ………………………...

Now try to find another word in each paragraph with the same meaning as these words.

Vocabulary 2

Find words in the text to match the definitions below.

Paragraph One (`March 17^th - a festival of all things Irish')

1. When you talk about two things together, and you mean not only one of them but two (all) of them

Paragraph Two (`Symbols of Ireland')

2. After rain, if the sun shines you can see one of these in the sky

3. Money is made of banknotes and...

Paragraph Three (`Who was St. Patrick?')

4. An action done by God, which is impossible according to the laws of nature (e.g. changing water into wine)

5. A person, event, or thing that makes something else happen

Paragraph Four (`St. Patrick's Day traditions in Ireland')

6. The city where a country's government is, usually the most important city (in England, London; in Russia, Moscow)

7. A public celebration with music, bands and people moving through the streets

Paragraph Five (`St. Patrick's Day around the world')

8. To use a substance to change the colour of something (your hair, your clothes, for example)

9. Something which you think is big, good, expensive, important etc.

Vocabulary 3

Work in the same groups and complete the sentences below using items from Vocabulary 1 and 2.

1. The Rio de Janeiro carnival is famous for its wonderful ………………………….

2. I don't know what colour to ………………………… my hair. What do you think - black or blonde this time?

3. The ………………………… of Mount Everest is almost 9000 metres above sea level.

4. I have a ten euro note and maybe sixty cents in ………………………….

5. One day he was at work as usual, the next day he simply …………………………. Nobody knew where he went.

6. I have a cat and a dog. I love them ………………………….

7. The eagle is the ………………………… of several European countries: Germany, Poland and Russia, for example.

8. Quick, come to the window! There's a beautiful ………………………… in the sky. Look at the colours!

Second reading

Five phrases have been taken out of the text, one from each paragraph. Read the text once again and try to decide where they should go.

Paragraph 1: `the national colour of Ireland'

Paragraph 2: `who like to play tricks on us'

Paragraph 3: `top'

Paragraph 4: `both north and south of the border'

Paragraph 5: `and not only where there are Irish people!'

Speaking

Imagine you are going to organise a day celebrating your country and culture, just as St. Patrick's Day celebrates Irish culture. Work in a group and discuss the questions below.

1. What kind of celebration would be best - parades, concerts, speeches, private parties, organised displays or something else?

2. Where would the most important parts of the celebrations be organised?

3. What colours would be used? Would people wear any special clothes?

4. What music would be played? Would you invite any particular group or singer to perform?

5. Who would lead the celebrations? Which people would you say best represent your country?

6. What would you call the day?

Present your ideas to the rest of the class and explain your thinking. Were your ideas similar?

A Monthly Newsletter for Teachers of English

March 2009

© Pearson Longman 2009 PHOTOCOPIABLE

A C T I V I T I E S S H E E T

March 2009

March 17^th - a festival of all things Irish Every year on March 17^th Irish men and women everywhere organise celebrations for Lá Fhéile Pádraig - St. Patrick's Day. The colour green is everywhere and the day is a national holiday in both parts of Ireland. Symbols of Ireland The colour of Ireland is green but there are many other emblems of the country. The most famous, perhaps, is the shamrock or clover (below). Finding a four-leafed clover is still thought to be very lucky.

Another symbol of Ireland is the leprechaun (right) - magical little old men. According to legend, if you see a leprechaun then it cannot disappear as long as you look at it, but when you look away it can vanish. Leprechauns are usually very rich, but their gold is hidden, buried in the ground at the ends of rainbows. A third symbol of Ireland is the Irish harp (right), which is found on Irish coins, Irish uniforms and, of course, on the black thick beer of Ireland, Guiness. Who was St. Patrick? St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. Historically, he was probably an English missionary who worked in Ireland around 400 A.D - over 1,500 years ago. According to legend, Patrick converted the Irish to Christianity and performed many miracles. Irish legend says that it is because of Patrick that there are no

An Irish Leprechaun snakes in Ireland today. According to this legend, Patrick climbed to the top of Croagh Patrick - a hill or mountain with a peak about 850m high, causing all the snakes to leave the island. St. Patrick's Day traditions in Ireland The largest St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Ireland take place in the capital, Dublin, each year, though there are celebrations in many more cities. In Dublin the St. Patrick's Festival lasts five days and is a celebration of Irish culture, the Irish language, Irish food and drink and Irish traditions in art and music. The most important parts of the celebrations are parades with music and dancing. Over half a million people came to

the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin in 2006, for example. St. Patrick's Day around the world St. Patrick's Day is celebrated all over the world. In London there is a parade in Trafalgar Square and in 2008 the water in the fountains there was dyed green. In the United States the biggest St. Patrick's Day parades are in Chicago. The parades are an impressive sight, especially when they cross the river: every year Chicago dyes the water of the Chicago River bright green for the celebrations. Even the river is green on St. Patrick's Day! The Chicago River

- 4 -

---