American Сulture. Жукова Е.Ф. - 48 стр.

– Always make sure your salt shaker is full on New Year’s Day for good luck
   during the year (The Ozarks)
– If people eat sauerkraut on New Year’s Day they become rich. (Pennsylvania
   Dutch)
– Bad luck comes if a girl is your first visitor: good luck, if a man comes first.
   (Hawaii)
   Even the experts don’t know all the reasons behind these customs.
“There’s many a story about how things started, but a lot of it is speculation, so no
one can say for sure, “ says Janet Langlois, director of the Wayne State University
Folklores Archive in Detroit, Mich.
      Henry Grossi, a Washington, D.C. Food historian, says the reason certain foods
like pork, beans and cabbage are showcased in so many New Year celebrations is
probably because before refrigeration existed, these foods had been preserved and
were readily available during the winter.
      “It could have been a matter of making a necessity into a virtue, “ says Grossi,
whose mother’s family from Croatia not only ate pork on New Year’s, but also
indulged in the tradition of “first-footing.”
      In this custom, people race to be the first person or “first foot ‘ in the door of a
neighbor’s home. Alas, old world customs can be a bit sexist, and in Grossi’s family,
only males were rewarded with money for their efforts.
      In some cases, the weirder the tradition, the longer it lingers in the family. Julie
Routson’s Aunt Doris died in 1975, but her plans for New Year’s are the same as
always. Come midnight, Routson and her family will be banging pots and pans on
their front porch to herald the new year.
      “It’s just something you’ve got to do, “she said.


2. Attitudes Toward Wild Animals and Pets


Many Americans have pets. Pets can be dogs or cats, gerbils, hamsters, mice, guinea
pigs, parakeets, canaries, or tropical fish. Pets usually live in the house and are treated
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