that aside from due notification of certain major events in their lives ( two marriages, two births, one divorce ), Christmas and Easter cards of the traditional sort had been the only thin link she had with them through the widowed years.

Cider is the most popular beverage of the middle and lower economic classes at Christmas and New Year ( the upper classes proverbially preferring to celebrate with locally produced champagne, although real old-line " creole " aristocrats will still drink cider, which is much more traditional ).

Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes have become traditional on certain holidays: chocolate bunnies and eggs are popular on Easter, chocolate coins on Hanukkah, Santa Claus and other holiday symbols on Christmas, and chocolate hearts or chocolate in heart-shaped boxes on Valentine's Day.

A traditional Christmas meal in Poland includes fried carp and borscht ( beetroot soup ) with uszka ( ravioli ).

This imagery is also found in the traditional Catholic Christmas hymn " Gaudete.

In the Western world, Christmas carols and other traditional songs preserve religious lore in song form.

Thirteen desserts in Provence are the traditional Christmas dessert, e. g. quince cheese, biscuits, almonds, nougat, apple, and fougasse.

A traditional figure in English folklore, Father Christmas is identified with the old belief in the Old English god Woden.

Tolkien, have insisted on the traditional form of Father Christmas in preference to Santa Claus.

Lewis, a children's author and Christian, preferred the traditional Father Christmas because of his clear connection with the Christian holiday of Christmas.

After Braddock's defeat in 1755, royal approval for a new regiment, as well as funds, were granted by Parliament just before Christmas 1755 – hence the regiment's traditional birthday of Christmas Day.

Kutia is often the first dish in the traditional twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper ( also known as Svyatah Vecherya ).

Nutcrackers have long been a traditional symbol of Christmas.

In English and American culture during the Christmas season, it is traditional to have a Christmas caroling party.

Puritans did not celebrate traditional holidays e. g. Christmas which they believed to be in violation of the regulative principles.

A traditional Julskinka | Christmas ham in modern Sweden

For some Italians, especially from the region of Calabria ( Reggio Calabria ), fried smelts are a traditional part of Christmas Eve dinner consisting of multiple courses of fish.

Additionally, Yule is the traditional name used for Christmas in Scotland in the Scots Language.

A Yule log is a large and extremely hard log which is burned in the hearth as a part of traditional Yule or Christmas celebrations in several European cultures.

In the most traditional of the Catalan homes, the old custom of " fer cagar el tió " is still followed for Christmas.

The badnjak is a central feature in the traditional Serbian Christmas celebration.

Egg rolling is also a traditional Easter egg game played with eggs at Easter.

Egg dance is a traditional Easter game in which eggs are laid on the ground or floor and the goal is to dance among them without damaging any eggs which originated in Germany.

* Magiritsa, the traditional Easter soup made with lamb offal, thickened with avgolemono.

Small olive branches are also often used to decorate traditional Easter cakes, along with other symbols of birth, like eggs.

The reason for the reform was that the average length of the year in the Julian calendar was too long – it treated each year as 365 days, 6 hours in length, whereas calculations showed that the actual mean length of a year is slightly less ( 365 days, 5 hours and 49 minutes ) As a result, the date of the actual vernal equinox had slowly ( over the course of 13 centuries ) slipped to 10 March, while the computus ( calculation ) of the date of Easter still followed the traditional date of 21 March.

* Colomba Pasquale, a traditional Italian Easter bread ( Easter Dove )

Byrd also bowed to tradition by setting two carols in the traditional form with alternating verses and burdens, and even included an anthem, a setting of the Easter prose Christ rising again which also circulated in church choir manuscripts with organ accompaniment.

Horseradish ( often grated and mixed with cream, hard-boiled eggs, or apples ) is also a traditional Easter dish in Slovenia and in the adjacent Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia ; it is used also in the other nearby Italian region of Veneto.

Today Easter is still celebrated by Cajuns with the traditional game of ' paque ', but is now also celebrated in the same fashion as Christians throughout the United States with candy-filled baskets, " Easter bunny " stories, dyed eggs, and Easter Egg hunts.

Påskebryg ( Danish for Easter Brew ), is a strong pilsener, and the Albani Breweries ' traditional beer for the Easter season.

Major annual community events largely reflect traditional small town American life and include the Easter Egg Hunt, Buck Creek Festival, 4th of July Picnic, concert and fireworks, Fall Carnival, Spring Fling, and the Christmas Parade.

The Easter Bowl, however, was abandoned in the early ' 80s, and the traditional services and animal parade are no longer held.

The paper-and-pin Easter Lily of the IRA was the traditional commemorative badge of the Easter Rising, whereas the self-adhesive Easter Lily of the Officials was a novel invention, symbolic of the divergence of opinion between them.

The Arts Festival and Fringe Arts Festival take place every year at the end of June, the traditional Pace Egg plays are an annual Easter event, and the midsummer Hebden Bridge Handmade Parade is a vivid, non-commercial variation on the small town parade.

Some restaurants and groceries in North America offer French fries made from sweet potatoes instead of traditional white potatoes.

At the traditional meal for that holiday, apple slices are dipped in honey and eaten to bring a sweet new year.

This is a great advantage over traditional fish farms ( e. g. sweet water farms ) for which the farmers buy feed ( which is expensive ).

At the traditional meal for that holiday, apple slices are dipped in honey and eaten with blessings recited for a good, sweet new year.

The far higher crop yields from sweet potato gardens radically transformed traditional agriculture ; sweet potato largely supplanted the previous staple, taro, and gave rise to a significant increase in population in the highlands.

Examples of traditional coming of age celebrations include the North American sweet sixteen party and the Latin American quinceañera.

Recent animal studies have shown that sweet potatoes, if consumed plain and in modest amounts ( i. e., the opposite of how they are served in traditional soul food dishes ), can stabilize blood sugar levels and lower insulin resistance.

A traditional Southern meal is pan-fried chicken, field peas ( or black eyed peas ), greens ( such as collard greens or mustard ), mashed potatoes, cornbread or corn pone, sweet tea, and a dessert that is usually a pie ( sweet potato, chess, shoofly, pecan, and peach are traditional southern pies ), or a cobbler ( peach, blackberry, or mixed berry are traditional cobblers ).

In Slovenia, tarragon is used as a spice for a traditional sweet cake called potica.

* Alfajor: a traditional South American cookie typically consisting of two round sweet biscuits joined together with a sweet jam, generally dulce de leche ( milk jam ), and sometimes covered in chocolate.

A traditional method of preparation is baking, sometimes in a pie or pastry, though at present " possum pie " most often refers to a sweet confection containing no meat of any kind.

In the Middle East, green cardamom powder is used as a spice for sweet dishes, as well as traditional flavouring in coffee and tea.

Another traditional variation is to add pink-colored sugar to the corn mix and fill it with raisins or other dried fruit and make a sweet tamal de dulce.

It lends its name to the Mysore style of painting, the sweet dish Mysore Pak, the Mysore Peta ( a traditional silk turban ) and the garment known as the Mysore silk saree.

These pastries are not sweet and are often served with congee, a traditional rice porridge.

Fánk is a sweet traditional Hungarian cake.

The first one, simply called " donuts " ( in reference to the most famous commercial brand name for this type of food ) or " berlinas " ( a more traditional name ), refer to the American-style donut, that is, a deep fried, sweet, soft, ring of flour dough.