3 se of
ppics
need.
Match the key phrases with the three correct
paragraph topics in exercise 1.
ing
KEY PHRASES O Formal letters
1 In our opinion,
2 I represent
3 For this reason,
4 On the other hand, ... .
5 We have therefore decided to ... .
on
laining
According to N. M. of M. Galkovsky, "in Midsummer festival combines two elements: pagan and Christian"[1].
The holiday is known as the Midsummer among the Eastern Slavs, and in Podlasie and Mazovia (Poland). The night before surpasses himself, Ivan Kupala day in its ritual context. In addition to the Eastern Slavic countries, Midsummer day (English), has an old tradition of celebrating almost all over Europe, in many countries is a national religious prednisoneburstga researchers rituals of the holiday is associated, in the spirit of "mythological school", with the summer solstice. With the spread of Christianity, these rituals are to be attached to the Nativity of John the Baptist.
The date of the Nativity of John the Baptist was calculated on the basis of the Evangelical witness of the 6-month difference in age between John and Christ[2]. The holiday was close to the summer solstice as the birth of Christ was timed for the winter. Thus, under the sign of Christ the sun (and the day length begins to increase, and under the sign of John must decrease (according to the words of John, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (see Jn. 3:30). Church interpreters, such as Augustine[3] or James Valaginsky, used this solar symbolism as an instrument for the transmission of theological doctrines, while in pagan folklore analogy was deeper.
With the name of John the Baptist is due to the national holiday name in different countries. As the Russian Orthodox Church lives according to the Julian calendar, the day of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist falls on July 7, new style, so in Russia, the party lost the match astronomical solstice. Strict compliance is not astronomy, and in the countries of the Gregorian Dating - Midsummer there note 24 Ionian the name of the holiday is unknown. Belarusians, Galician poles and Carpathian Slovaks Midsummer fires were called Sobotka[14] - from Zap.-Slav. sobota "the Sabbath (day of rest)"[15].
The name of Ivan Kupala has a folk-Christian Slavic origin and is a variant of the name John the Baptist[16], because the epithet John - translates from Greek as "kopatel, pile drive" (gr. βαπτιστής)[17]. Is the name of the holiday was due and Slavic views: Preslav. kǫpati meant ritual washing, cleansing, which was carried out in open water[18]. Therefore, on the one hand, this verb was used to translate the epithet "the Baptist", and on the other hand, the name of the holiday was later reinterpreted folk etymology and linked with ritual bathing in the rivers during this holiday.
Some popular science and neopagan publications associate the holiday with pagan deity Kupala. This view is not shared by scientists, because it is doubtful the former existence in Slavic paganism that very deity. First deity "Kupala" mentioned in late Gustynskogo chronicle (XVII century), and is the result of a misunderstanding: the chronicler, knowing about the "devilish games" Ivan Kupala, took the name of the holiday for the name of a pagan God. Subsequently, this mistake was repeated by copyists, and then by the earlier researchers in Slavic mythology, resulting in the Slavic Pantheon has a new "deity"[19]. In fact, bathed the deity has never been and could appear in the popular imagination only as folklore personification of the holiday, reflected, for example, in the songs[20].