Unit 2: Festivals and Celebrations

Every society sets aside special days to remember its past, thank nature and enjoy life together. This unit takes you from an orange-throwing carnival in northern Italy to harvest thanksgivings on five continents. You will meet vivid travel writing and a clear piece of factual description, then learn how to report questions, and practise writing a festival essay and a news story.

2.1 Battle of the Oranges

About the text

"Battle of the Oranges" is a first-person travel account by Margherita, published on the travel blog The Crowded Planet (the textbook adapts it). It describes the Carnevale di Ivrea, held every year in the town of Ivrea, about an hour north of Turin in northern Italy, on the last days of Carnival. The writer goes as a visitor and ends up a participant. It is a narrative of personal experience: it uses I, the present tense for immediacy, vivid sensory detail and dialogue.

What the text says

The narrator is hit in the chest by an orange and falls into a heap of orange mush. Her first thought is to check that her red hat is still on her head. During Carnival, public notices tell everyone, especially tourists, to wear the red hat; people without it count as "fair targets" for orange-throwing. The hat, the berretto frigio, is the symbol of the carnival itself and of freedom: in Roman times it was worn by freed slaves, and in the Middle Ages by peasants who rose against their feudal lords.

She is hit again on the forehead. When she wipes her face she is horrified to see red — she thinks it is blood and fears she will need stitches or has a concussion — then she remembers that some oranges are blood oranges. Relief follows the shock.

Retreating to the back of the square, she watches the battle: nine teams of aranceri (orange-throwers) on foot, in uniform, hurl oranges at opponents riding in horse-drawn carts, who wear padded costumes and leather helmets that remind her of the television hero Doctor Who. After an hour the square is covered with a sludge of orange pulp and horse manure that smells "sharp, sweet-and-sour". Whenever a cart approaches, the aranceri charge and bombard it; the horses halt for a moment, oranges explode, then the cart moves off and the aranceri chase it, throwing their last oranges. They wear no protection; some have broken noses or sore ribs, yet they hold their heads high and shout their team's war cry.

She talks to Silvia, who holds half an orange on her swollen eye. This, says Silvia, is "the moment we wait for all year"; she believes the carnival is good for psychological health because for three days people can "let it all out" — the frustrations of the year. The narrator wonders whether to join in. Volunteers advise visitors to stay behind protective nets, but Massi, an arancere of the Morte team, says "Forget the nets": to live the carnival, you must be in the middle of the battle, and a black eye is a small price for the rush. He invites her to throw away her hat and join him; she is tempted but declines.

At the end of the full article Silvia later hands her a bag of oranges, and she does throw — and feels light, free and "liberated" (this part is outside the textbook extract, so do not use it in an exam answer unless the question asks for it).

Background

The battle is said to re-enact a medieval revolt against a tyrant. According to local legend, a miller's daughter, Violetta, refused to submit to a feudal lord and killed him, which led the townspeople to burn his castle. In the battle the aranceri on foot stand for the people, and the carts stand for the lord's soldiers. Historians think the orange-throwing itself grew from a nineteenth-century custom of tossing oranges at parades as a sign of respect. Thousands of tonnes of oranges are used, and afterwards they are turned into compost. (Treat these background facts as extra information, not as textbook content.)

Vocabulary

Word	Meaning	Example
mush	a soft, thick mass	She fell into a pile of orange mush.
jerk	to make something move with a sudden sharp movement	His head jerked back.
concussion	temporary loss of consciousness after a blow to the head	The boxer suffered a concussion.
hurl	to throw violently	Boys hurled stones into the river.
pulp	the soft inner part of fruit	The pulp of the orange was red.
clutch	to hold tightly	She clutched her bag.
sip	to drink in very small amounts	He sipped hot tea.
sludge	thick, soft, wet mud-like mixture	The square was covered in sludge.
charge	to rush forward to attack	The aranceri charge the carts.

Themes and ideas

• Freedom and rebellion. The red hat and the story of the revolt make the festival a celebration of freedom from tyranny.
• Release of tension. Silvia treats it as a safety valve for frustration; the festival lets people be wild in a safe, agreed way.
• Insider and outsider. The narrator starts as a nervous observer; Massi and Silvia invite her to belong. Her decision to refuse shows how hard it is to cross that line.
• Danger and fun together. Broken noses and black eyes are accepted as "a small price".

Questions and model answers

Objective questions (1 mark each)

1. Write True or False: Tourists are told by public notices to wear a red hat. [1]
2. The aranceri are the [1]acart ridersborange-throwers on footcpolicedjudges
3. After an hour of battle the square is covered with [1]asnowborange pulp and horse manurecpaperdwater
4. Write True or False: The narrator accepts Massi's offer. [1]
5. "Jerk" means [1]ato throwbto drinkcto move with a sudden sharp movementdto hold

Answers

1. True.

2. (b).

3. (b).

4. False — she declines.

5. (c).

Short-answer questions (2 marks each)

1. What does the red hat symbolise? [2]
2. How does the narrator feel when she wipes her face? [2]
3. What does the square look like after an hour of battle? [2]
4. How do the aranceri chase the cart? [2]
5. Does Silvia enjoy the carnival? [2]
6. Why does Massi say, "Forget the nets"? [2]

Model answers

1. The red hat symbolises the carnival itself and freedom. In Roman times freed slaves wore it, and in the Middle Ages peasants who rebelled against feudal lords wore it.

2. She feels shocked and frightened. She thinks the red liquid is blood and that she may have a concussion; then she realises it is only blood-orange juice and feels relieved.

3. It is covered with a thick sludge of orange pulp and horse manure, and it smells sharp and sweet-and-sour.

4. They run behind it and throw their last oranges at it as it moves away.

5. Yes. She calls it the moment they wait for all year and says she will be happy to have a black eye tomorrow, because the carnival is good for their mental health.

6. Massi thinks that anyone who wants to live the carnival must be in the middle of the battle, not safe behind nets.

Long-answer questions (4 marks each)

1. Describe the Battle of the Oranges as the narrator saw it. [4]
2. Collect information about one other unique festival and describe it briefly. [4]

Model answers

1. The narrator sees a fierce but joyful battle in the main square of Ivrea. Nine teams of aranceri on foot throw oranges at opponents who ride in horse-drawn carts and wear padded costumes and helmets. When a cart arrives, the aranceri charge and bombard it; the horses stop, oranges burst, then the cart moves on and is chased. The fighters wear no protection and some are hurt, but they proudly shout their war cries. After an hour the square is covered with a stinking sludge of pulp and manure. Visitors must wear a red hat, the symbol of freedom, or they become targets. The narrator is hit twice and, at first, thinks she is bleeding.

2. Bisket Jatra is celebrated in Bhaktapur at Nepali New Year in Baisakh. Two chariots carrying images of Bhairav and Bhadrakali are pulled through the streets in a tug-of-war between the eastern and western parts of the city. A tall wooden pole (yosin) is raised and, the next day, brought down. The festival lasts about nine days. People wear traditional dress, play music, eat special food and welcome visitors, so it keeps the culture of Bhaktapur alive.

2.2 Thanksgiving Around the World

About the text

This is an informative article. It shows that Thanksgiving, which many people think of as an American holiday, has cousins across the world: people everywhere thank nature or God for the harvest, enjoy food together and honour their ancestors. The text takes you country by country, giving for each the name of the festival, the date, its reason and its special food or activity. Such description by example is a common reading task.

What the text says

Country	Festival	When / why	Special features
USA	Thanksgiving	Fourth Thursday of November; remembers the feast the Pilgrims held after the first harvest in 1621 (attended, the text says, by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims)	Family dinner; roast turkey (about 45 million eaten each year), mashed and sweet potatoes, corn; parades such as Macy's in New York with floats and giant balloons
South Korea	Chuseok (Harvest Moon Festival)	15th day of the 8th lunar month; thanks for the fall harvest and respect for ancestors	People return to their hometowns; food and wine offered to ancestors; songpyeon (crescent-shaped rice cakes steamed on pine needles); visits to graves; games such as tug-of-war, archery and Korean wrestling; hanbok worn
Brazil	Dia de Ação de Graças	Started in 1949 by President Gaspar Dutra after he admired the American holiday	Mass of thanks, lively carnival, crowds go to the beach; turkey with a sauce of jabuticaba, the "Brazilian grape", since cranberries do not grow there
Liberia	Thanksgiving	Begun in the 19th century by freed American slaves, giving thanks for freedom	Church service; roast chicken, green-bean casserole and mashed cassava; an evening of dancing and singing
Barbados	Crop Over	May to August, ending with the Grand Kadooment; began in the 1780s to mark the sugar-cane harvest	Carnival, calypso bands, flamboyant dancers
Ghana	Homowo ("to hoot at hunger")	May to August–September; celebrates the end of a famine	Palm-nut soup with fish and kpokoi (corn-dough grits); a ban on drumming first, then a night of loud drumming and dancing
Iran	Mehregan	196th day of the Iranian year; dates back at least to the 4th century BC; celebrates harvest and the goddess Mehr	New clothes, community blessings, a feast on a table with marjoram; sherbet; kohl rubbed round the eyes for luck; seeds thrown over each other

Vocabulary

Word	Meaning	Example
rejoice	to feel or show great happiness	The town rejoiced at the news.
bountiful	plentiful, abundant	A bountiful harvest fills the barns.
commemorate	to remind people of an important event or person from the past	The festival commemorates a great victory.
intermittently	at irregular intervals, not continuously	It rained intermittently all day.
typically	in a way that shows the usual qualities of a type	Typically, dinner is served at seven.
crescent	a curved shape wide in the middle, pointed at both ends	The moon was a thin crescent.
vibrant	full of life and energy	The market is vibrant on festival days.
reveller	a person having noisy fun, usually in a group	Revellers filled the streets.
exotic	from another country; exciting and unusual	Exotic fruits were on sale.
pervade	to spread through and be noticeable everywhere	The smell of incense pervades the temple.
flamboyant	brightly coloured and attention-seeking	The dancers wore flamboyant costumes.
frantic	done quickly and with a lot of activity, not well organised	The frantic drumming grew louder.

Themes and ideas

• Gratitude is universal. Different foods and dates, one reason: thanks for harvest, food and survival.
• Remembering the past. Festivals recall history — freedom for Liberians, the end of famine for the Ga of Ghana, ancestors for Koreans.
• Food and family. Feasts, home-coming and sharing strengthen community.
• Borrowing and adapting. Brazil took the idea from the USA but changed the sauce; traditions travel and change.

Questions and model answers

Objective questions (1 mark each)

1. In which country do people eat songpyeon on Chuseok? [1]aIranbSouth KoreacGhanadBrazil
2. Homowo means [1]ato love the harvestbto hoot at hungercto honour ancestorsdto thank the moon
3. Which festival is celebrated for 12 weeks and ends in Grand Kadooment? [1]aMehreganbCrop OvercChuseokdHomowo
4. "Frantic" means [1]acalmbdone quickly with much activity but poorly organisedcbeautifuldsilent

Answers

1. (b).

2. (b).

3. (b).

4. (b).

Matching. Name the country: (a) families feast in the evening with dancing and singing; (b) new clothes and community blessings; (c) palm-nut soup, fish and kpokoi; (d) people return to their hometowns; (e) crowds go noisily to the beach; (f) parades in the streets; (g) food and wine offered to forefathers.

Answers

(a) Liberia; (b) Iran; (c) Ghana; (d) South Korea; (e) Brazil; (f) the USA; (g) South Korea.

Short-answer questions (2 marks each)

1. What is the main feature of American Thanksgiving? [2]
2. What do parades include in America? [2]
3. When and why is Chuseok celebrated in Korea? [2]
4. How did Thanksgiving begin in Brazil? [2]
5. Who started Thanksgiving in Liberia, and why? [2]
6. What is Homowo celebrated for in Ghana? [2]

Model answers

1. The main feature is the family dinner, with roast turkey and other foods native to America; Americans eat more on this day than on any other.

2. They include marching bands, floats and giant balloons, often cartoon characters, as in Macy's parade in New York.

3. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month to thank nature for the fall harvest and to honour ancestors.

4. President Gaspar Dutra visited the USA, liked the holiday and started it in Brazil in 1949.

5. Freed American slaves founded it in the nineteenth century to give thanks for their freedom.

6. It celebrates the end of a long famine and mocks hunger with feasting, drumming and dancing.

Long-answer question (4 marks)

1. How do people in your community show gratitude for food and harvest? [4]

Model answer

1. In my community, farmers thank the land when the rice is ripe. In Mangsir the first rice of the new harvest is cut and a small part is offered to the household gods and to cattle before the family eats. This is Nwagi among the Newars and Nabanna in the Tarai. Neighbours share newly harvested grain, and in Tihar we worship cows and oxen, which work in the fields. At the end of the harvest, villagers hold a feast with songs and dances. All of these customs show that we remember that our food depends on nature and on the labour of animals and neighbours.

2.3 Grammar and writing tasks of the unit

Grammar: Reported questions

A direct question becomes a statement-shaped clause when reported: no question mark, no auxiliary verb in front, no inversion.

Rules

1. Use the reporting verb asked (or wanted to know, enquired, inquired), not said.
2. Yes/No questions (those that begin with a verb such as is, are, do, did, have, can, will) take if or whether.
3. Wh-questions (what, where, when, why, how, who) keep the question word.
4. Use statement word order: subject first, then verb. Drop do/does/did.
5. Backshift the tense and change pronouns, time and place words as for statements.
6. End with a full stop, not a question mark.

Direct question	Reported question
"Are you working tonight?"	She asked if/whether I was working that night.
"Is this the road to the station?"	He asked if/whether that was the road to the station.
"Did you do your homework?"	The teacher asked if/whether I had done my homework.
"Have you been to Paris?"	She asked if/whether I had been to Paris.
"Where will you stay tonight?"	He asked where I would stay that night.
"How long have you been working in this company?"	She asked how long I had been working in that company.
"What flavour ice cream did you have at the party?"	He asked what flavour ice cream I had had at the party.

Exercise A — Change into reported questions

1. "Are you working tonight?" (She asked me …)
2. "Is this the road to the station?" (He asked …)
3. "Did you do your homework?" (The teacher asked me …)
4. "Have you been to Paris?" (She asked me …)
5. "How long have you been working in this company?" (He asked her …)
6. "Where will you stay tonight?" (I asked him …)
7. "How many players were shown the yellow card by the referee?" (He wanted to know …)
8. "Who was that beautiful woman, Usha?" said Sunita.
9. "How is your mother?" said Gaurab to Yang Dolma.
10. "How often do you go to the cinema?" said Krishna.

Exercise B — Choose the correct alternative

1. Sujita asked her mother (when her father would come home / when will her father come home).
2. The tourist inquired (whether I belonged / whether I am belonging) to Banepa.
3. The little girl asked us what time (we were supposed / were we supposed) to come back.
4. The head teacher asked her (whether she had filled out / whether had she filled out) the exam form the week before.
5. Renuka asked me (if I had called / if had I called) her.

Exercise C — Find the direct question

A student interviewed her teacher about the Newar ritual Ihi and reported: "Nihar asked what Ihi was, why it was done, why it was started, what age group performed it, how long the ritual lasted and what things were done during the two days." Write the questions Nihar actually asked.

Writing I: An essay on a festival

An essay has an introduction, a body of three or four paragraphs, and a conclusion. When describing a festival, plan your paragraphs around the points the task lists: history, people involved, main activities, religious or social importance, duration, and drawbacks.

Writing II: A news story from clues

A news story answers who, what, where, when, why and how in its first paragraph, then adds details in order of importance. It has a headline, a dateline, is written in the past tense and in the third person, and uses reported speech for quotations.

Task. Write a news story from these clues: Vitamin A capsules given to children — health assistants give Vitamin A capsules, 19–20 October — children from six months to five years — deworming tablets to children between 1 and 5 — announced by the Department of Health Services — programme continuing since 2050 BS.

Chapter summary

• Battle of the Oranges (Margherita, The Crowded Planet) describes the Carnevale di Ivrea, Italy: orange-throwing teams (aranceri) fight carts, visitors wear the red hat, the symbol of freedom.
• The narrator's shock (blood or blood orange?), Silvia's view (a release of stress) and Massi's "Forget the nets" are the key moments.
• Thanksgiving Around the World describes harvest thanksgivings: USA (Thanksgiving), South Korea (Chuseok), Brazil (Dia de Ação de Graças), Liberia, Barbados (Crop Over), Ghana (Homowo) and Iran (Mehregan).
• Reported questions use asked/wanted to know, if/whether for yes/no questions, the same wh-word for wh-questions, statement word order, backshift, and a full stop.
• A festival essay covers history, people, activities, importance, duration and drawbacks; a news story answers who, what, when, where, why and how.

Practice questions

Objective questions (1 mark each)

1. The red hat in Ivrea is called the [1]aberretto frigiobhanbokcturbandberet rouge
2. Chuseok is also called the [1]aHarvest Moon FestivalbFestival of LightscCrop OverdMehregan
3. In reported speech, "Where do you live?" is introduced by [1]asaidbaskedcshouteddadded
4. Which word is used for yes/no reported questions? [1]athatbifcwhichdwhat

Answers

1. (a).

2. (a).

3. (b).

4. (b).

Short answer questions (2 marks each)

1. Why did the narrator think she was bleeding? [2]
2. Why is Liberia's Thanksgiving celebrated? [2]
3. Report: "What are you going to do at the weekend?" my friend asked. [2]
4. Report: "Did Phadindra arrive on time?" Niraj said to Luniva. [2]

Answers

1. An orange hit her on the forehead and, when she wiped her face, she saw red juice and thought it was blood; in fact it was from a blood orange.

2. It is celebrated to thank God for freedom, since it was started by freed American slaves who founded Liberia.

3. My friend wanted to know what I was going to do at the weekend.

4. Niraj asked Luniva if/whether Phadindra had arrived on time.

Long answer questions (4 marks each)

1. Write an essay of about 200 words on "A Festival of My Community". [4]
2. Write a news story: Students clean the river bank — Nepal Scouts, 5 June, World Environment Day — 300 students — 20 sacks of plastic collected — mayor praised. [4]

Answers

1. Use the plan in the Tihar model: introduction (name, date, who celebrates); history/belief; people and activities; importance; duration; drawbacks and conclusion.

2. Model: Students Clean the River Bank. BHAKTAPUR, 5 June — About 300 students and Scouts cleaned the river bank on World Environment Day. They collected 20 sacks of plastic waste. The mayor praised their effort and said that the municipality would put up bins along the river.