Comparison of Belarusian & British Traditions

10th week after Easter

Dzesiatooha

In some regions people were afraid of thunder on this day

June 8

Tador

If there is a lot of dew on Tador morning - the hemp crops will be good.

June 12

Anoofryj

-

June 13

Akoolina-hrachyshnitsa

Sowing of buckwheat

June 21

Kupalle

-

June 24

Ivan

-

June 29

Piatro

-

June 30

Symon i Iuada

-

July 1

Kooz'ma i Dziam'ian

First haymaking time

July 8

Kazan' God Mother

-

July 12

Prokl

Since St. Prokl Day there are strong morning dews. So it was important to dry the hay until Prokl.

July 19

Makryna

If this day is rainy - the rest of the summer will be rainy

July 20

Iliia

-

July 24

Barys i Hlieb

-

July 25

Hanna

Stuck hay sheafs

August 1

Pershy Spas, makavej

Sanctifying poppy field

August 6

Druhi (vialiki) Spas

-

August 15

Pershaia Prechystaia

Sanctifying of the wheat and rye fields

August 16

Maly (treci) Spas

Sowing winter wheat and rye

August 18

Flor i Laur

Cannot use horses on this day. In some places its a holiday of herdsmen

August 23

Loopa

-

August 25

Varfalamij (Bautramej)

If you haven't started to sow on Spas, then you can start on this day

August 28

Maisej (Moses)

Protecting against alcoholism

August 29

Ivan Halavasek

-

September 1-8

Babina Leta (women's summer)

Babina Leta (women's summer)

September 1

Symon

Birds start leaving South

September 6

Tsooda (tsoody)

One cannot start fire on this day

September 8

Dryhaia (malaia) prychystaia

-

September 14

Uzvizhanne

-

September 26

Ivan Bahaslou

Secret marriage arrangements are begun on theseday by svaty (chosen match-makers)

October 1

Pakrovy

-

October 7

Siarhej

Beginning of winter

October 18

Luka

A holiday of icon artists

October 26

Zmicer

The soil freezes solid

October 28

Paraskeva Piatnica

Crafts are forbidden (making textiles , etc.)

November 1

Kooz'ma i Dziam'ian

Good for a day of marriage. Threshing-time. Holiday of blacksmiths.

November 7

Tador

-

November 14

Zapooski na Pilipauku

Beginning of evening gatherings and doing home crafts

November 15

Beginning of Pilipauka

-

November 21

Uvodziny

It was believed that the weather on this day determines the weather throughout the winter

November 22

Prakop

The roads are covered by snow

November 24

Kaciaryna

-

November 26

Autumn Yury

Unlocks jaws to wolfs and they start attacking cattle from this day

November 30

Andrej

-

December 1

Navoom

Beginning of teaching to read for peasants children

December 4

Varvara

Rivers get locked with ice

December 5

Sava

-

December 6

Winter Mikola

Horses are kept indoors since this day

December 9

Winter Hanna

-

December 24

Great (fast) Kuccia

Beginning of Kaliady

December 25 - January 7

Kaliady

-

December 27

Sciapan

-

December 31

Bahataia (fat) Kuccia

-

2.5 Religious Views of People in Belarus

Belarus religion includes four major groups of the people belonging to the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Hinduism in Belarus, Belarusian Greek Catholic Church and the Roman Catholicism in Belarus. Roman Catholicism is a part of the Roman Catholic Church with 17% of the total population of the country following this religion in Belarus. Roman Catholicism has always been the dominant religion of Belarus, specially of the Belarusian nobility.

There are up to 25 religious confessions in Belarus, the number of religious communities amounts to more than thousand.

Religious Confession	Religious Community
Roman Catholics	almost 400 churches
Protestants	over 500 communities including Lutherans, Mormons, Baptists, Calvinists
Jews	more than 40 Hebrew communities
Muslims	27 communities and 9 mosques

Table 5: Religious Confessions and Communities of Belarus, 2010

2.6 Stereotypes

The first thing that's remarkable about the country is that it is (for the most part) ignored. Yet, if you look at any map of Europe, it's by no means a small country. If you join Austria and the Czech Republic together that's probably about the size; then put about 10 million people in there. That's a fair number of people in Europe to accidentally overlook. Having decided to go there the next question is who do I talk with? I wanted to leave politics alone because that is the only thing we ever hear about when it comes to Belarus. Let's take the situation of women. It is quite difficult to be a woman in Belarus if you are independently minded. This is a very conservative society; you have to be married very early, before you are 25 but you have to work too and you are expected to produce children and be something like a top model etc.

One thing I kept hearing time and again from the people I spoke with was this. Please don't go back home and paint a picture of our country using the old stereotypes of a backward soviet-style country with a mad dictator; our country has a lot more to offer. What may sound remarkable is that despite all the negative things, most people love their country. And overall, I can say it was a very positive experience being there and people generally aren't miserable. They were very happy to see me and happy that there was someone from outside of Belarus talking about their country.

2.7 Belarusian and Russian

The history of Belarus is a story of domination by foreign powers, forced division and re-unification of the land, devastation during war and authoritarian rule following its 1991 independence.

The final unification of Belarusian lands within its modern borders took place in 1939, when the ethnically Belarusian lands that were part of interwar Poland were annexed by the USSR and attached to the Soviet Belarus. The territory and its nation were devastated in World War II, during which Belarus lost about a third of its population and more than half of its economic resources. After seven decades as a constituent republic of the USSR, Belarus declared its sovereignty on July 27, 1990, and independence from the Soviet Union on August 25, 1991. It has retained closer political and economic ties to Russia than any of the other former Soviet republics.

2.8 Belarusian Cuisine

Belarusians are honored as the connoisseurs of food. Vegetables, dairy products, meat and fish comprise the Belarusian food. Vegetables are extensively eaten in Belarus. Belarusian food also consists of a number of wild herbs. The edible wild herbs used are: nettle, orache, sorrel, field garlic, meadow onions.

The cereal crops that are widely used in the making of Belarusian food are: rye, wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat.

Mushrooms, peas and berries are also consumed in large scale. Breads comprise the main food in Belarus. A round loaf decorated with dough in the shapes of birds, animals and men at the top is a delicacy here. Potatoes are called second breads in Belarus as they are consumed in a great quantity also. They form one of the major foods of Belarus people. Belarusians also eat pork, mutton and poultry but the consumption of meat is far less than vegetables. Raw carrots, cucumbers, onions, garlic, black radish, turnips and blackberries, raspberries, cranberries, wild strawberries, cow berries, great bilberries form the major fruits and vegetables eaten by the people of Belarus. Major dairy products include milk, curds, cheese and butter sour cream. Kvass, porridge, pancakes are the main food of the Belarus peasants. Kvass is a mild alcoholic drink made from fermented rye, bread, yeast or berries.

2.9 Family Life in Belarus

Modern Belarus is a part of the industrialized world. But certain cultural traits, which are observable today, might be traced back to the past. Today men and women do the same jobs and they might even be compensated equal wages. But ethnographic sources confirm a strong division of labor by gender existing in the beginning of the twentieth century. They relate to eating and childrearing patterns. One of them is the obligation of setting the dinner table, which is exclusively a woman's job. It is usually a mother or wife who is responsible for the arrangements. A man would not interfere with this obligation; it may even be considered degrading for a man to perform this task. Also, children under fourteen years old traditionally were under mothers' care and fathers would not interfere.

Gender roles in Belarus remain very traditional. Men are considered the more powerful gender and as breadwinners, while women are required to take care of the children and household. This traditional structure is slowly changing, and women are beginning to gain more recognition and power. Men occupy all top positions in various spheres of the economy and politics. After some gains, a considerable decline in the professional and social status of women has been observed recently. Traditionally, marriage was a matter of mutual consent between the young, but the custom also required the consent of the families involved. The young couple had to live with the husband's family and often marriage was a compromise. The most sought qualities of a woman were for her to be a good field worker and housekeeper. Personal beauty and wealth were of secondary importance. Belarusians required high moral qualities from their spouses and virginity of the bride, and occasionally also the groom, was a prerequisite for marriage. The wedding was celebrated in both houses and expenses were shared. Divorce was also by mutual consent.

Until modern times households based on extended kinship relations (zadruga - joint families) were popular. The traditional zadruga household includes the father and all his sons living on one piece of land. Each married son would have his own hut, but the land, animals, and equipment were owned by the entire family. The family also worked and ate together. Such extended family may have included as many as fifty members united under the authority of one senior. The family's head was not always the natural father or grandfather. The extended family often included distant relatives or even strangers who may have been adopted as family members. Usually, the father would assume the position of the family's head and after his death any of his sons (usually the oldest), or his brother, or even a stranger, could take up his position in the family. There was no official title of the position, although several folk terms exist. The kinship also regulated profit sharing. Some remains of this kin structure persisted until the Soviet times.

With certain exceptions for unmarried daughters, men and women were equal to family property. Whatever they brought in to the marriage remained theirs forever. Only the common investments were considered as family holdings. After the death of the spouse, the property went back to their legal heirs or was returned to the home of their origin. All money that a woman made from selling her garden products was her property and the family had no right over such assets. Also, a daughter's earnings outside a farm, although handed over to the family, were her private property. The wife was not responsible for her husband's debts, but the husband was for his wife's. Belarusian married women enjoyed relative equality in decision-making and economic share. But daughters had no share in the family estates, and brothers were under the obligation to marry off their sisters. When there were only daughters in the family, they inherited the whole estate, and the husband of the eldest one was under obligation to take care of the younger until they married.



3. Comparison of Belarusian and British Traditions

Belarus is situated in the center of Europe, the UK is the territory of north-west cost of Europe totally lying off the number of islands. The total land area of the UK may comprise the whole territory of Belarus and Guinea-Bissau. The population of Great Britain & Northern Irland is 6 times bigger than Belarusian's. Moreover, the population density per sq. m in Belarus is less by 5.3 times. The Uk is surrounded by the sea, whereas Belarus has land borders with 5 European countries. The latter is situated at the crossroads of the trade routes from west to east and from north to south.

Both countries experienced a lot of waves of foreign invasions. In general, Belarus was historically dependend on its neighbours. At the same time, Britain became one of the most powerful country all over the wold.

The climate of Britain & Belarus is mild and humid. The popular belief that it rains all the time in Britain is simply not true. Belarus was famous as wet and foggy land as well. The global changes may have an influence on this image.

Ethnic Belarusians constitute 81.2% of Belarus's total population. The similar situation is in Britain, i.e. 83.4% of Britains are English. Belarus has two official languages - Russian and Belarusian. English is common for the whole territory of the UK. There are slight difference in music and fluency of the pronanciation between Belarusian regions as well as with native Russians. Belarusians are easily understanded but quickly defined by Russians. All the people in the UK know standard English. The difference in dialects depends on the first language spoken, educational background, family traditions, and class. The most prestigious accent in Britain is known as RP, i.e. the combination of standard English spoken with an RP accent.

The British continue to be very bad about learning other peoples' languages. Fluency in any European language other than English is generally regarded as exotic. In recent time Belarusians strive to learn languages. Among others English is the most popular.

Friendly is distinct from polite. As a rule, Britons are very polite. However, this translates into a greater sense of distance and insistence on propriety that approaches dourness as one travels north into Scotland. Belarusian people are friendly as well as polite to strangers. Most Belarusians are warier of people they don't know. If you travel to Belarus you will see the sign "Sardechna zaprashayem!" which is the traditional expression used when welcoming guests, who are usually presented with bread and salt. Shaking hands is the common form of greeting. Hospitality is part of the Belarusian tradition; people are welcoming and friendly; and gifts are given to friends and business associates.

British women are far more reserved than Belarusian ones. Belarusian girls are prettier and more approachable but higher maintenance. British men typically consider to be humorous and talkative. Belorussians are considered to be more romantic or macho. Nonetheless, for both sexes, individual characteristics far exceed national stereotypes.

In recent years, Britain has experienced an inflow of the kind of fundamentalist evangelical Christianity, it is now young people and denizens of London - traditionally the most secular groups - that are becoming the most fundamentalist. That said, most Britons and Belarusians remain mostly agnostic, atheistic, or mystical-pagan in a way that sidesteps traditional dogma.

Family Life.The family in Britain is changing. The once typical British family headed by two parents has undergone substantial changes during the twentieth century. In particular there has been a rise in the number of single-person households, which increased from 18 to 29 per cent of all households. The situation in Belarus is close to Britain's. People are generally getting married at a later age now and many women do not want to have children immediately. They prefer to concentrate on their jobs and put off having a baby until late thirties.

Cuisine.Traditional British cuisine is substantial, yet simple and wholesome. They have long believed in four meals a day. Belarusians are honored as the connoisseurs of food. Vegetables, dairy products, meat and fish comprise the Belarusian food. Vegetables are extensively eaten in Belarus. Belarusian food also consists of a number of wild herbs. Like Britains, Belarusians used to eat a lot of cereals. They prefer simple, substantial food especially at winter time.

Religion. The main religion in Britain is Christianity. Most Christians belong to the Church of England or the Church of Scotland. These are Protestant Churches. There are also many Roman Catholics. Belarus religion includes four major groups of the people belonging to the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Hinduism in Belarus, Belarusian Greek Catholic Church and the Roman Catholicism in Belarus.



Conclusion

Finishing this work I would like to make some conclusions.

Traditions develop gradually over centuries and keep on developing - a spiritual and cultural dynamic growing out of the endeavours, sacrifices, experiences and trials of people who possess an inborn sense of their ancestry, religion, social customs, language, literature, music, games etc. This way "core values" are established and passed on from father to son/mother to daughter, like name or property, and become a way of life that is both virtuous and enduring.

The essentially British traditions of family pride and integrity, dignity of the individual, law and order, "stiff upper lip" self discipline, tolerance of and respect for others goodwill (including eccentrics), tenderness towards the lowly and less fortunate, "playing the game" etc. These are spiritual, moral and cultural values deposited firmly in the minds of people, real but indefinable, which can only be lived and experienced. Family traditions provide great value, and the value lasts far beyond the moment. The value of a tradition isn't in completing the ritual; the value comes from what it provides for those who participate.

First of all, traditions provide stability. Activities that are observed year in and year out become a means by which family members can build trust and security. Regardless of what else may happen, the traditions will not change. So much in our lives these days is temporary. Family traditions provide something for every person to hold on to and to rely upon.

Secondly, traditions give us a sense of identity.  They are one of the things that make us unique to others. Tradition has several key elements. First, it involves some form of ceremonial ritual or ritualistic behavior. Second, tradition involves a group of people; it's collective and social in nature. Third, traditions have guardians such as historians that have access to the knowledge or the truth of tradition's sacred rituals. Fourth, tradition stirs emotion within individuals to bring about a greater sense of self-awareness. In some cultures, these rituals are important to one's self-identity within the context of a larger society. Great Britain has always been good at preserving its traditions. Taking tourists to see Big Ben in London in red buses, teaching English to international students in prison-like boarding schools, making roast dinner each Sunday and uniting people of all races and nationalities in pubs all across the country to watch Manchester United play Arsenal over a pint of beer-these constitute only a small part of centuries-old traditions which makes Britain truly Great.

Whether you are coming to the UK to live, work or study, the country offers you a `complete package' in the form of the fusion of many cultures which promises to make your stay in Britain very unique. As for UK universities, they are world famous for the quality of their programs as well as their diverse student body which sets top institutions apart from their Ivy League competitors.

The people of Belarus are a kind, friendly and good humoured nation. The patience and peacefulness of the Belarusian people has been determined by the nation's history that has been darkened by endless wars which the Belarusians did not start, but fell victim to. Belarus is welcoming to all visitors and interested in sharing its culture, traditions and sense of community with them.

These points I have shown in the theoretical part, after analyzing different books and other sources.

In the practical part of my work I've compared the style of life, the traditions of Belarus and Great Britain, analyzing people, religion, cuisine, holidays and customs. I have tried to find the things that they have in common and the differences. Though, I have discovered much curious things for me, I think that there is a lot of interesting facts left which I will continue studying in future.



Bibliography

1. O'Driscoll, James - Britain. The Country and its People: An Introduction for Learners of English - Oxford University Press - 2000

2. McDowall, David - An Illustrated History of Britain - Pearson Education Limited - 2009

3. Garnett, Sherman W., Legvold Robert - Belarus at the Crossroad - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - 2000

4. Levy, Patricia - Belarus (Cultures of the World) - Benchmark Books (NY) - 1998

5. Project Britain - (Online) Available http://projectbritain.com/ April 15, 2011

6. Arfin, Ferne - The Best of Britain's Weird and Wacky Folk Traditions (Online) Available http://gouk.about.com/od/festivalsandevents/tp/Weird_and_wacky_festivals.htm, April 05, 2011

7. Belorussian Scientists and Professionals - Virtual Guide of Belarus (Online) Available http://www.belarusguide.com/culture1/holidays/index.html, March 10, 2011

8. Countries and their Cultures: Belarus (Online) Available http://www.everyculture.com/A-Bo/Belarus.html#ixzz1KSJ8gvJN, March 12, 2011

9. A Glimpse of Belarus (Online) Available http://www.acorninstitute.org/index.php?id=583, April 24, 2011

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