Around the world :

• Online Schools: Holiday Zone
  " Ever wondered what other countries do around the holidays?
  Do you want to learn about how others celebrate?
  These resources provide activities and lessons for K-6 students.
  Learn about diverse customs through games, food and fun lesson plans."
  (onlineschools.org)
  Recommended by Kelly Buckley

• List of historical anniversaries From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Holidays From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Festivals Around the World (Fact Monster)

• The Earth Calendar is a daybook of holidays and celebrations around the world.
  (Pour un jour donné, vous obtenez toutes les fêtes de ce jour dans le monde entier)
  (Earth Calendar)

• Culture Quest World Tour -
  "Join Parsifal and Ophelia as they sample the delicious cuisines, play the games, see the museums full of arts, crafts and history, hear the folktales and learn about the holidays & festivals of many of the world's cultures." (ipl.org)

• National holidays - (festivals.com)
  "Click on a region of the world to explore the countries and their national days."

• Birthday traditions from around the world. (kidsparties)

• Comparing December Celebrations (Education World) :
  Christmas / Hanukah / Kwanzaa / Las Posadas / Ramadan
  ( Date - Countries - Foods - Symbols - Key Words / Decorations - Songs - Gifts - Stories - Light/Candles )

• CUISINE : Recettes (epicurious.com)

EUROPE :

• EUROPEAN FESTIVALS AND TRADITIONS (european-schoolprojects)
  (Partner schools in France, Germany, Romania, Scotland and Spain)

UK / US :

• Holidays and Traditions by month
  

• UK summer music festivals - text + vocabulary explained (BBC)
  
  

• British Culture, British Customs and British Traditions (learnenglish.de)
  

• English Customs and Traditions (written by kids - Woodlands Junior School Kent)
  English dos and don'ts - Facts about England - Traditional Foods - Festivals and Special Days - Royal Traditions -
  Flags and Emblems - Education in Britain - Songs, Sayings and Superstitions

• Special Weeks and Days in Britain (Woodlands Junior School - Kent)

• British Customs and British Traditions in July (learnenglish.de) :
  - St Swithins Day - July 15th - See Interactive games and British Customs and British Traditions
  
  

  The science of St Swithun's 40-day weather forecast
  "Last Friday it poured down in the UK - not an uncommon occurrence in the British summer.
  But Friday 15 July was St Swithun's Day, and according to legend, Brits now face a miserable August."
  (newscientist.com)

  St Swithun's day if thou dost rain 
  For forty days it will remain 
  St Swithun's day if thou be fair 
  For forty days 'twill rain nae mare

  
  
  - The Tolpuddle Procession - Third Week in July
  
  - Royal Garden Parties - Throughout July
  - Rushbearing Ceremonies - Throughout July/August/September

• Pentecost / Whitsun :
  
  

  Pentecost Clipart (faithclipart.com) Whitsun (Pentecost) in England - Customs and Traditions (woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk)   Whitsuntide - "Pentecost or Whitsun is observed on the seventh Sunday after Easter." (traditions-uk)

  
  
  
  

Up Helly Aa :

• Up Helly Aa in pictures: Viking festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands
  "Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands and has employed this theme since 1870.
  Up Helly Aa is held on the last Tuesday in January every year, whatever the weather."
  (telegraph.co.uk)

• Up Helly Aa
    "refers to any of a variety of fire festivals held in Shetland, in Scotland, annually in the middle of winter to mark the end of the yule season.
  The festival involves a procession of up to a thousand guizers in Lerwick  and considerably lower numbers in the more rural festivals, formed into squads who march through the town or village in a variety of themed costumes...
  The procession culminates in the torches being thrown into a replica Viking longship or galley."
  (Wikipedia)

SHROVE TUESDAY and LENT :

• Fat Tuesday Photos: Inside the Mardi Gras Mayhem - New Orleans, Feb. 21, 2012 - 7 photos (time.com)

• Pancake Day 2012: Shrove Tuesday celebrations in pictures - 17 images (telegraph.co.uk)

  

• Lent - PowerPoint Presentation (primaryresources.co.uk)
  R.E. RESOURCES / Christianity

  

• Parliamentary pancake race
  "The House of Lords team have won the annual Rehab Parliamentary Pancake Race against their rivals from the Commons.
  The race, which is contested outside the Houses of Parliament, is held every Shrove Tuesday and sees Lords and MPs from all major parties flipping pancakes around Victoria Gardens, Westminster.
  The contest is held to raise awareness for the charity Rehab, which supports people with disabilities, others with brain and spinal injuries and mental health difficulties."
  (telegraph.co.uk)
  

  

• Shrove Tuesday and Lent - présentation PowerPoint (primaryresources.co.uk)
  
  

• Shrove Tuesday / Pancake Day (woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk)

• Shrove Tuesday (Wikipedia)
  1 Shrove Tuesday traditions in Britain, Ireland, and Australia
  1.1 Pancake Day
  2 Shrove Tuesday traditions particular to England
  2.1 Pancake Races
  2.2 The Pancake Greaze
  2.3 Shrove Tuesday Football
  3 Other cultures that eat a particular food on the day before Ash Wednesday
  4 Dates

• Pancakes - a VIDEO (YouTube)
  
  
  
  
  

THE BIG EGG HUNT :

• The Big Egg Hunt - 12 images
  "The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt takes place throughout London from Feb 21 - March 31. For its duration, over 200 eggs decorated by different designers, artists and celebrities will be strewn across the capital. The project will raise funds for the charities Action for Children and Elephant Family."
  (telegraph.co.uk)

  

Abbots Bromley Horn Dance :

• The Ancient English Horn Dance! - Still Folk Dancing...After All These Years, Preview - BBC Four
  "Renowned folk singers, Rachel and Becky Unthank, visit Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire for the annual horn dance.
  This dance, which was first performed in Abbots Bromley in the year 1226, is one of the few ritual rural customs to have withstood the passage of time."
  (YouTube)

• Abbots Bromley Horn Dance
  It is on the Monday dated between September 6 and September 12.
  (Wikipedia)

• The Horn Dance
  "The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, performed at the Barthelmy Fair in August 1226, is one of the few ritual rural customs to survive the passage of time.
  Today the Horn Dance, which takes place annually on Wakes Monday, offers a fascinating day out attracting visitors from all over the world..."
  (abbotsbromley.com)

   

CALENDARS :

• Surfing the Calendar - avec des liens vers les évènements importants et les fêtes (surfnetkids)
  

• Holiday Calendar 2007 (Enchanted Learning)
  
  
  
  
  

ENCYCLOPEDIA :

• Birthday-Related Words with pictures (Enchanted Learning)

• Celebrations (about.com)
  "The words ... are some of the most important used when talking about Celebrations."
  (with Pronunciation, Example Sentences and Definitions )
  
  

CLIPARTS and FLASHCARDS :

• Cliparts : All Major Holidays (about.com)

• Holiday Images (esl-library.com) :
  Christmas Images - Easter - St Patrick's Day - Valentines Images
  (aussi en ESPAGNOL) flashcards
  Click on FLASHCARD LIBRARY.

• Birthday-Related Words with pictures (Enchanted Learning)
  
  

CARDS :

• Cartes à envoyer (123Greetings)
  
  
  

EXERCISES :

• American Holidays - "Put the words into the right box." - exercise created by Renée Maufroid.
  
  
• American Holidays and suggestions - Matching exercise (Les phrases commencent par 'Let's...')
  
  
• The World (with listening exercises) : Holiday Traditions (Difficult) - (esl-lab)

• A quelle occasion mange-t-on ces plats ? Exercice d'association (interactif) - (Ac. de Limoges)
  
  

• Events - Matching exercise (with pictures) - interactive (csmm.qc.ca)

• Celebrations - "Match each picture on the left with its celebration on the right." (interactive) - (absolutenglish-972)

• Celebrations - Vocabulary - "Match the words on the left with their definition on the right." (interactive)
  (absolutenglish-972)

• Celebrations - Dates - "Match the celebration on the left with its date." (interactive) -
  (absolutenglish-972)

• USA Holiday Matching Game with pictures (Teacher Vision)

  
  
  

LESSON PLANS :

• December: A Month of Multicultural Holiday Celebrations (Education World)
  "Handfuls of great teaching lessons and resources!"

  

• celebrations and events - a lesson proposed by Randall S. Davis (esl-lab) with :
  - a list of commonly-used vocabulary with a recording of the words in RealMedia format.
  - a short quiz to test students' comprehension of some of the words,
  - a Follow-Up exercise for expanding students' use of the vocabulary in a conversation with a partner or group.

• Holidays and Observances: Looking at Diversity and Culture - a lesson plan (thirteen.org)
  Introductory Activity : What We Already Know
  Activity 1: Writing About a Favorite Holiday
  Activity 2: Research on Holidays
  Culminating Activity : Making a Display about Holidays and Culture

• Carnival for Pre-Intermediate - Intermediate (Reward English)
  
  

WEBQUESTS :

• HOLIDAYS - SCAVENGER HUNT (erp.oissel.onac)
  (Labor Day, Grandparents'Day, Columbus Day, Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day, Boxing Day, Valentine's Day,
  St Patrick's Day, Easter, Arbor Day.)

• CELEBRATIONS - a webquest to know about foreign countries. - different tasks (absolutenglish-972)
  
  

• Holiday Scavenger Hunt
  "research the origins of these holidays by using multimedia encyclopedias, books, and the Internet." (newbedford.k12.ma.us)

INTERACTIVE games :

• Weather quiz - interactive
  Sun, rain, thunder - test yourself on the British summer
  "The weather on St Swithin's Day was a typical British mixture - sunny spells and cloud, heavy showers and light drizzle.
  The Magazine tests your knowledge of all things summertime with a weather quiz, starting with the legend of St Swithin himself."
  (BBC)

  

• Bank Holidays
  "Watch the animation , then try to unjumble the words."
  Activity created by: Renée Maufroid

  

Games TO PRINT :

• Word Search Puzzle: Holidays (free-online-word-search-puzzles.com)

• see Games to print (Fêtes et Traditions)