Each and every country has its customs and traditions.0:03
A lot of them are food traditions.0:07
For example, the British are famous for their love of tea.0:10
Drinking lots of tea is one of the best known British traditions.0:15
Altogether, British people drink about 2 billion cups of tea a day.0:20
This means nearly 1040 cups of tea a year for each person.0:26
Tea, mostly green tea from China, came to Britain in the late 1500s.0:33
But it was only for very rich people.0:40
Tea became cheaper about 300 years later, when they began to plant it in India and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.0:43
It was the time when British people from all classes started drinking tea.0:53
Soon, a lot of them began putting milk in it.0:59
They hoped to make their tea healthier, although scientists are not sure that milk can make tea better for health.1:02
Now, traditional British tea is tea with milk.1:11
People usually drink it with biscuits, cakes or sugar.1:15
If somebody asks you if you would like a cuppa, they are asking you if you would like a cup of tea.1:20
If somebody says, shall I be mother?1:27
They mean, shall I pour out the tea from the teapot?1:30
Russian people also have their own traditions of tea drinking.1:34
Some time ago, it was popular in countryside villages, towns and cities to drink tea from a samovar.1:38
Families and their guests sat around the table drinking one cup of tea after another.1:47
They often drank it with sugar, sweets or honey.1:53
Sometimes tea followed a bigger meal.1:57
On special days, they baked pancakes and ate them with honey or jam.2:01
Pancakes are traditional Russian food.2:07
Russians love eating them.2:10
There is one week in the year when people eat a lot of maslinica, the festival that celebrates the end of winter and the beginning of spring, which many Russian people enjoy.2:12
During this festival, people invite their nearest and dearest to visit them all together.2:26
They eat hot, tasty pancakes with butter, sour cream, fish, caviar, honey, sugar or jam.2:32
They go out into the streets, sing, dance, play traditional games.2:40
Sometimes people make fires on which they burn symbolic figures of winter.2:46
Tea is not only a drink.2:53
In fact, it is a chance for people to sit and talk over their cuppa.2:55
Maybe that is why ceremonies of tea drinking are popular not only in Britain and Russia, but in many other countries as well.3:01
Клик по слову — перевод и «+ в мои слова» (в любом режиме). Клик по строке или таймкоду — перейти к этому месту записи.