Christmas crackers is a very popular custom in Britain mostly. Most people around the world don't really know what it is about. Most of my pupils, as well, haven't ever heard about it.
Let's first talk about what christmas crackers are. They are short tubes of cardboard wrapped with coloured paper and twisted at both ends. They usually contain a small toy, a riddle, a joke or a party hat (like a kind of crown). They will be found decorating Christmas dinner table settings throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland, some Commonwealth countries - and elsewhere, including the Netherlands.
But what do you do with them? You grasp the ends and pull them apart. The sound they make, when they are pulled apart, is like a "crack!" and that is due to an explosive snap they contain. Then the suprise gift falls out. The cracker is usually pulled by two people, but that's not always the case. It can also be done by one person as well. And now you will ask "Who takes the gift?" Well, the gift goes either to the person who originally had the cracker in his plate or to the one who is left with the larger share of the torn cracker.
Where do crackers come from though? How did they end up becoming a tradition at the Christmas table? There's an interesting story behind this, as we read in the article at the BBC webpage (with the title "Ten Ages of Christmas"):
"The story of the Christmas cracker is really a testament to one man's ingenuity and determination. Tom Smith was a confectioner's apprentice in London in the early 19th century. On a trip to Paris in 1840, he admired the French sugared almond bon-bons, wrapped in coloured tissue paper, and decided to introduce them in London. These bon-bons were popular, but not quite as Smith had hoped.
For seven years he worked to develop the bon-bon into something more exciting, but it was not until he sat one evening in front of his fireplace that his great idea came to him. Watching the logs crackle, he imagined a bon-bon with a pop. He made a coloured paper wrapper and put in it another strip of paper impregnated with chemicals which, when rubbed, created enough friction to produce noise. He knew that bangs excited children (and were said to frighten evil spirits) - and the mottoes and poems he inserted inside the crackers amused adults."
If you are interested in making your christmas dinner table more festive, you can make your own crackers at home. Here's an easy way to make crackers. Have fun and Merry Christmas!
http://bitaboutbritain.com/the-custom-and-origins-of-christmas-crackers/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/ten_ages_gallery_06.shtml
Σχόλια
Δημοσίευση σχολίου