Question
Talk about a national festival in your country.
Sample answer
New Year day is one of the most widely celebrated festivals in our country. This is the occasion that people celebrates with great joy, hope, festivity and different cultural and other programs.
New Year is the time when a new calendar year begins and the year count is incremented. According to Gregorian calendar, this festival falls on the first January each year.
People start the arrangement to celebrate this festival about one week prior to the 1st January. On the 31st night, people gather together, eat western foods and sometimes the traditional foods, make prayer for the prosperity of for the New Year and stay awake till late night to enjoy the night.
In my country, people groom well in the first January. To some extend people believe that the first January is important to them as it the starting of a new year. They believe that, remaining happy, eating good foods and wearing nice clothes would make them happy and prosperous for the whole year.
People greet others, give and receive gifts, visit the amusement parks and do many other activities. Some fares held on for the occasion and a great gathering is observed there. So of the big trade fares, book fares starts on the 1st day of the year.
This is an important festival for us. We along with the whole world take this day as an important festival day. In our tradition, we start the year with the hope of eliminating the bitterness and failure of the past year and start a fresh year with the hope of fortune and happiness.
Tips for talking about this Cue Card Topic:
The national festival depends on your country and you must talk about a famous national festival in your country. The festival can be historical and related to the liberation war (if it’s applicable for your country) of your country, can be major religious festival like Christmas, Puja, Eid, Vesak etc. Since the cue card has not restricted you from talking about any nationally celebrated festival like New Year or any other celebration day, you can talk about those festivals as well.
Pick the festival which is nationally and widely celebrated in your country and take note on the questions asked with this cue card. Note the following points:
• The name of the festival.
• The historical/ religious/ cultural relevance and significance of the festival.
• The month or time when this festival is celebrated. Since the big national festival is celebrated once in a year, mention the exact date of the festival. Some festivals might lasts for more than a day and for such kind of festival give the idea of its length.
• Next mention the reason people in your country celebrates it. Mention the significance of this festival in details at this part and give some reasons why it is important for the people to celebrate this occasion.
• Now give details of the festival, how people prepare for this festival, what special items they prepare and what they do. Add some of your own activities at the end of this part.
• To answer the final question ‘why this festival is important to you’, you should remind that the historical/ religious or cultural importance of this festival and also mention how deeply you enjoy this festival.
Keep in mind that, you should give enough information to the examiner so that answers of the cue card questions are fully given and in addition, you answer some relevant questions that might have popped up in the examiner’s mind.
If you can answer this cue card topic you should also be able to answer the following cue cards also:
1. Talk about a celebration in your country.
2. Describe a national day that you celebrate each year.
3. Describe a major festival in your country.
4. Talk about a celebration you recently had.
5. Describe a historically significant day in your country.
