Exercises
1. Here are some days connected with Easter. Match the names with their descriptions .
Ash Wednesday Pancake Day Easter Sunday Good Friday Palm Sunday Easter Eve Maundy Thursday
a) the day of Christ's Resurrection
b) the day of Christ 's Crucifixion
c) the day before the beginning of Lent
d) the day before Christ's Resurrection
e) the day Christ rode to Jerusalem
f) the first day of Lent
g) the day of the Las t Supper
2. Here are some definitions of Easter words . Read them and decide which words from the box
they describe.
a) an oval, hard-shelled food
b) forty days before Easter
c ) to colour
d) a time of year
e) a small animal with long ears
f) a young sheep
g) a running contest
h) a round cake with a cross
i ) the week before Easter
j) to throw
k) not eating certain foods
l) changing its date
movable to dye Lent a hot cross bun Holy Week fasting spring rabbit a race an egg to toss a lamb
Read the following text about Easter customs. Filing the gaps with the correct words from Exercises 1 and 2
Do you remember the date of last year’s Easter? Do you know when we will celebrate in the next year? Probably not, because Easter doesn’t have a set date. I t is a movable holiday. It falls between March and April 25th. It’s hi story y goes back to the pagan celebrations of the arrival of (1) ……… after a long winter.
The first day connected with Easter is (2) …... also known as Shrove Tuesday. On this day people eat pancakes and organize pancake competitions. One of them is a pancake (3) …………. where women with frying pans have to run fast and (4) ………..pancakes at the same time. Pancake Day is the last chance for some fun before (5) …………..begins. The first day of this forty-day period of (6)………..and prayer in preparation for Easter Sunday is (7)………. This name comes from a religious practice where priests put ash on people’s foreheads to remind them that they too must become ash in the end. The Sunday before Easter, (8)………….. reminds us of the day when Christ rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and people greeted Him with palm leaves . On this day (9)………. begins. It tells us of the last days before Christ’s death: (1 0)………….. is the day of the Last Supper, while ( 11 )………… is the day of Christ 's death on the cross . The traditional food on this day is the (12)………….. -a sweet cake with a cross on top. Next comes (13)…………, the day when Christ lay in Hi s grave. Final l y, on (14) ………….. - we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection. There are a lot of Easter symbol. The most important one is, of course, an (15)……….. It is a symbol of new life. Some people (16)……….. eggs, others organize egg games. One such game is an 'egg hunt ', where people hide chocolate eggs for children to find. When you play 'egg- knocking’, you try to break somebody else's egg with your. The eggs, of course, have to be hard-boiled! Where do Easter eggs come from? The Easter (17)………….. , also called the Easter Bunny , is the animal that hides Easter eggs . An old legend says that when children looked for Easter eggs they saw a rabbi t and thought that it left eggs in their garden. Another Easter symbol is a (18)…………, which reminds us of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
Nowadays , people celebrate Easter with their families, they go to Easter parades , play egg games and enjoy the beginning of spring.