Conversation Topics / Festivals & Celebrations
Festivals & Celebrations Conversation Questions for Adult ESL Classes
Twenty ESL conversation questions about festivals and celebrations for adult classes (A2–C1). Part 1 draws on personal memories — national days, parades, food, and family gatherings. Part 2 debates what festivals cost, who they include, and how traditions should change. Each part opens with a vocabulary warm-up and runs about thirty minutes.
Reviewed by Brando Oxley · 6 Aug 2026
Part 1
How We Celebrate
Focus: sharing experience, describing, comparing, evaluating, and planning
Think of one thing people eat at a festival, one verb connected to celebrating, and one place where celebrations happen.
Describe each word without saying it directly. Your teacher or partner must guess the word.
EXPERIENCE
What is your favourite festival or holiday of the year? Walk your partner through the day from morning to night.
DESCRIBE
How does your country usually celebrate its national day? Describe the sounds, food, and crowds.
COMPARE
Compare a big public celebration — fireworks, parades, concerts — with a small family gathering. Which means more to you?
ANALYZE
Does your country have a festival connected to farming or the harvest, like Crop Over in Barbados? What does it celebrate now?
PREFERENCE
Would you enjoy joining a large costume parade? Why or why not?
EVALUATE
Which parts of a national celebration are most meaningful to you — and which parts feel like empty routine?
PLAN
How do people in your country usually spend a long holiday weekend? Plan an ideal one for yourself.
ADAPT
Should cities cancel fireworks or bonfires when there is a serious safety or environmental risk? What could replace them?
PROBLEM-SOLVE
How can a public event include people of different ages and abilities — children, older adults, wheelchair users?
ADVISE
A foreign friend can visit your country for exactly one festival. Which one do you send them to, and what must they do there?
Part 2
Tradition, Money, and Identity
Focus: analyzing, reflecting, discussing, defining, connecting ideas, and creating solutions
In one minute, think of two festivals in your country, two things people wear or carry at celebrations, two words describing festival feelings, and one problem big events cause.
DISCUSS
Should governments spend public money on large cultural celebrations? What do festivals give back to a city?
ANALYZE
How do festivals affect local businesses in your country — who wins, and who just gets traffic jams?
DEFINE
What traditional event best represents your country’s identity? What story does it tell about your people?
REFLECT
Do national holidays bring people together in your country, or are they mainly days off work? Has this changed in your lifetime?
BALANCE
In your opinion, should old traditions change when society or the environment changes? Where is the line?
CULTURE
Why do you think regions in the same country sometimes celebrate different holidays, as Canada’s provinces do in August?
EVALUATE
What role should technology — drones, apps, live streams — play in traditional celebrations like Singapore’s National Day show?
IMPROVE
Choose one festival in your country and suggest two changes that would make it more welcoming without losing its meaning.
CONNECT
What achievement or moment from your country’s history would you include in a national celebration, and why?
CREATE
Invent a brand-new public holiday for your country. What does it celebrate, and what do people do on the day?
Lessons on this topic
Full reading + discussion lesson plans that pair with these questions.
How Singapore Marks National Day at the National Stadium
Everyday Life & Culture
Why Canada's August Holiday Has Different Names
Everyday Life & Culture
Why Barbados Ends Crop Over with Grand Kadooment
Everyday Life & Culture
Why Switzerland Celebrates Its National Day on August 1
Everyday Life & Culture