IELTS Vocabulary: from my essay

Here's a list of phrases from my 'festivals' essay that the examiner would consider "less common" (most IELTS candidates probably wouldn't use them):

• we no longer remember
• treat them as opportunities to
• have become times for celebration
• people are most concerned with
• a holiday period, rather than a time to practise religion
• similar behaviour can be seen
• non-religious festivals
• people associate this occasion with
• the underlying meaning of such festivals
• songs which have a religious content
• perform nativity plays
• families play a role in
• passing knowledge on to the next generation
• festivals' deeper significance
• the same is true for
• a historical background
• in the sense that
• at an early age
• they are still aware of

Note:
The vocabulary above is not 'difficult'. The difficult thing is to use words together in correct collocations and phrases. Maybe you could try using some of the above phrases in your own full sentences.