meant for children, but adults enjoy is just as much. It is a very old form
of entertainment, and can be traced back to 16th century Italian comedies.
There have been a lot of changes over the years. Singing and dancing and
all kinds of jokes have been added; but the stories that are told are still
fairy tales, with a hero, a heroine, and a villain.
In every pantomime there are always three main characters. These are
the “principal boy”, the “principal girl”, and the “dame”. Pantomimes are
changing all the time. Every year, someone has a new idea to make them more
exciting or more up-to-date.
December 26th is Boxing Day. Traditionally boys from the shops in each
town asked for money at Christmas. They went from house to house on
December 26th and took boxes made of wood with them. At each house people
gave them money. This was a Christmas present. So the name of December 26th
doesn’t come from the sport of boxing – it comes from the boys’ wooden
boxes. Now, Boxing Day is an extra holiday after Christmas Day.
Traditionally Boxing Day Hunts is a day for foxhunting. The huntsmen
and huntswomen ride horses. They use dogs, too. The dogs (fox hounds)
follow the smell of the fox. Then the huntsmen and huntswomen follow the
hounds. Before a Boxing Day hunt, the huntsmen and huntswomen drink not
wine. But the tradition of the December 26th hunt is changing. Now, some
people want to stop Boxing Day Hunts (and other hunts, too). They don’t
like foxhunting. For them it’s not a sport – it is cruel.
In England people celebrate the New Year. But it is not as widely or
as enthusiastically observed as Christmas. Some people ignore it completely
and go to bed at the same time as usual on New Year’s Eve. Many others,
however, do celebrate it in one way or another, the type of celebration
varying very much according to the local custom, family tradition and
personal taste.
The most common type of celebration is a New Year party, either a
family party or one arranged by a group of young people. And another
popular way of celebrating the New Year is to go to a New Year’s dance.
The most famous celebration is in London round the statue of Eros in
Piccadilly Circus where crowds gather and sing and welcome the New Year. In
Trafalgar Square there is also a big crowd and someone usually falls into
the fountain.
Every Year the people of Norway give the city of London a present.
It’s a big Christmas tree and it stands in Trafalgar Square. Also in
central London, Oxford Street and Regent Street always have beautiful
decorations at the New Year and Christmas. Thousands of people come to look
at them.
In Britain a lot of people make New Year Resolutions on the evening of
December 31st. For example, “I’ll get up early every morning next year”, or
“I’ll clean, my shoes every day”. But there is a problem. Most people
forget their New Year Resolutions on January 2nd.
But New Year’s Eve is a more important festival in Scotland then it is
in England, and it even has a special name. It is not clear where the
‘Hogmanay’ comes from, but it is connected with the provision of food and
drink for all visitors to your home on 31st December.
There is a Scottish song that is sung all over the world at midnight
on New Year’s Eve. It was written by Robert Burns, the famous Scottish
poet, and you may find some of the traditional words a bit difficult to
understand, but that’s the way it’s always sung – even by English people!
It was believed that the first person to visit one’s house on New
Year’s Day could bring good or bad luck. Therefore, people tried to arrange
for the person of their own choice to be standing outside their houses
ready to be let in the moment midnight had come.
Usually a dark-complexioned man was chosen, and never a woman, for she
would bring bad luck. The first footer was required to carry three
articles: a piece of coal to wish warmth, a piece of bread to wish food,
and a silver coin to wish wealth. In some parts of northern England this
pleasing custom is still observed. So this interesting tradition called
“First Footing”.
On Bank holiday the townsfolk usually flock into the country and to
the coast. If the weather is fine many families take a picnic – lunch or
tea with them and enjoy their meal in the open. Seaside towns near London,
such as Southend, are invaded by thousands of trippers who come in cars and
coaches, trains and bicycles. Great amusement parks like Southend Kursoal
do a roaring trade with their scenic railways, shooting galleries, water-
shoots, Crazy houses and so on. Trippers will wear comic paper hats with
slogans, and they will eat and drink the weirdest mixture of stuff you can
imagine, sea food like cockles, mussels, whelks, fish and chips, candy
floss, tea, fizzy drinks, everything you can imagine.
Bank holiday is also an occasion for big sports meeting at places like
the White City Stadium, mainly all kinds of athletics. There are also horse
race meetings all over the country, and most traditional of all, there are
large fairs with swings, roundabouts, a Punch and Judy show, hoop-la stalls
and every kind of side-show including, in recent, bingo. There is also much
boating activity on the Thames.
Although the Christian religion gave the world Easter as we know it
today, the celebration owes its name and many of its customs and symbols to
a pagan festival called Eostre. Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of
springtime and sunrise, got her name from the world east, where the
sunrises. Every spring northern European peoples celebrated the festival of
Eostre to honour the awakening of new life in nature. Christians related
the rising of the sun to the resurrection of Jesus and their own spiritual
rebirth.
Many modern Easter symbols come from pagan time. The egg, for
instance, was a fertility symbol long before the Christian era. The ancient
Persians, Greeks and Chinese exchanged eggs at their sping festivals. In
Christian times the egg took on a new meaning symbolizing the tomb from
which Christ rose. The ancient custom of dyeing eggs at Easter time is
still very popular.
The Easter bunny also originated in pre-Christian fertility lore. The
rabbit was the most fertile animal our ances tors knew, so they selected it
as a symbol of new life. Today, children enjoy eating candy bunnies and
listening to stories about the Easter bunny, who supposedly brings Easter
eggs in a fancy basket.
Also there is a spectacular parade on Easter. It is a truly
spectacular Easter Parade in Battersea Park. It is sponsored by the London
Tourist Board and is usually planned around a central theme related to the
history and attractions of London. The great procession, or parade, begins
at 3 p.m. but it is advisable to find a vantage-point well before that
hour.
On October 31st British people celebrate Halloween. It is undoubtedly
the most colourful and exciting holiday of the year. Though it is not a
public holiday, it is very dear to those who celebrate it, especially to
children and teenagers. This day was originally called All Hallow’s Eve
because it fell on the eve of All Saints’ Day. The name was later shortened
to Halloween. According to old beliefs, Halloween is the time, when the
veil between the living and the dead is partially lifted, and witches,
ghosts and other super natural beings are about. Now children celebrate
Halloween in unusual costumes and masks. It is a festival of merrymaking,
superstitions spells, fortunetelling, traditional games and pranks.
Halloween is a time for fun.
Few holidays tell us much of the past as Halloween. Its origins
dateback to a time, when people believed in devils, witches and ghosts.
Many Halloween customs are based on beliefs of the ancient Celts, who lived
more than 2,000 years ago in what is now Great Britain, Ireland, and
northern France.
Every year the Celts celebrated the Druid festival of Samhain, Lord of
the Dead and Prince of Darkness. It fell on October 31, the eve of the
Druid new year. The date marked the end of summer, or the time when the sun
retreated before the powers of darkness and the reign of the Lord of Death
began. The Dun god took part in the holiday and received thanks for the
year’s harvest.
It was believed that evil spirits sometimes played tricks on October
31. They could also do all kinds of damage to property. Some people tried
to ward of the witches by painting magic signs on their barns. Others tried
to frighten them away by nailing a piece of iron, such as a horseshoe, over
the door.
Many fears and superstitions grew up about this day. An old Scotch
superstition was that witches – those who had sold their souls to the devil
– left in their beds on Halloween night a stick made by magic to look like
themselves. Then they would fly up the chime attended by a black cat.
In Ireland, and some other parts of Great Britain, it was believed,
that fairies spirited away young wives, whom they returned dazed and
amnesic 366 days later.
When Halloween night fell, people in some places dressed up and tried
to resemble the souls of the dead. They hoped that the ghosts would leave
peacefully before midnight. They carried food to the edge of town or
village and left it for the spirits.
In Wales, they believed that the devil appeared in the shape of a pig,
a horse, or a dog. On that night, every person marked a stone and put it in
