a bonfire. If a person’s stone was missing the next morning, he or she
would die within a year.
Much later, when Christianity came to Great Britain and Ireland, the
Church wisely let the people keep their old feast. But it gave it a new
association when in the 9th century a festival in honour of all saints (All
Hallows) was fixed on November 1. In the 11th century November 2 became All
Souls’ Day to honour the souls of the dead, particularly those who died
during the year.
Christian tradition included the lighting of bonfires and carring
blazing torches all around the fields. In some places masses of flaming
staw were flung into the air. When these ceremonies were over, everyone
returned home to feast on the new crop of apples and nuts, which are the
traditional Halloween foods. On that night, people related their experience
with strange noises and spooky shadows and played traditional games.
Halloween customs today follow many of the ancient traditions, though
their significance has long since disappeared.
A favourite Halloween custom is to make a jack-j’-lantern. Children
take out the middle of the pumpkin, cut hole holes for the eyes, nose and
mouth in its side and, finally, they put a candle inside the pumpkin to
scare their friends. The candle burning inside makes the orange face
visible from far away on a dark night – and the pulp makes a delicious
pumpkin-pie.
People in England and Ireland once carved out beets, potatoes, and
turnips to make jack-o’-lanterns on Halloween. When the Scots and Irish
came to the United States, they brought their customs with them. But they
began to carve faces on pumpkins because they were more plentiful in autumn
than turnips. Nowadays, British carve faces on pumpkins, too.
According to an Irish legend, jack-o’-lanterns were named for a man
called Jack who was notorious for his drunkenness and being stingy. One
evening at the local pub, the Devil appeared to take his soul. Clever Jack
persuaded the Devil to “have one drink together before we go”. To pay for
his drink the Devil turned himself into a sixpence. Jack immediately put it
into his wallet. The Devil couldn’t escape from it because it had a catch
in the form of a cross. Jack released the Devil only when the latter
promised to leave him in peace for another year. Twelve months later, Jack
played another practical joke on the Devil, letting him down from a tree
only on the promise that he would never purse him again. Finally, Jack’s
body wore out. He could not enter heaven because he was a miser. He could
not enter hell either, because he played jokes on the Devil. Jack was in
despair. He begged the Devil for a live coal to light his way out of the
dark. He put it into a turnip and, as the story goes, is still wandering
around the earth with his lantern.
Halloween is something called Beggars’ Night or Trick or Treat night.
Some people celebrate Beggars’ Night as Irish children did in the 17th
century. They dress up as ghosts and witches and go into the streets to
beg. And children go from house to house and say: “Trick or treat!”,
meaning “Give me a treat or I’ll play a trick on you”. Some groups of
“ghosts” chant Beggars’ Night rhymes:
Trick or treat,
Smell our feet.
We want something
Good to eat.
In big cities Halloween celebrations often include special decorating
contests. Young people are invited to soap shop-windows, and they get
prizes for the best soap-drawings.
In old times, practical jokes were even more elaborate. It was quite
normal to steal gates, block house doors, and cover chimneys with turf so
that smoke could not escape. Blame for resulting chaos was naturally placed
on the “spirits”.
At Halloween parties the guests wear every kind of costume. Some
people dress up like supernatural creatures, other prefers historical or
political figures. You can also meet pirates, princesses, Draculas,
Cinderellas, or even Frankenstein’s monsters at a Halloween festival.
At Halloween parties children play traditional games. Many games date
back to the harvest festivals of very ancient times. One of the most
popular is called bobbing for apples. One child at a time has to get apples
from a tub of water without using hands. But how to do this? By sinking his
or her face into the water and biting the apple!
Another game is pin-the-tail-on-the –donkey. One child is blind folded
and spun slowly so that he or she will become dizzy. Then the child must
find a paper donkey haging on the wall and try to pin a tail onto the back.
And no Halloween party is complete without at least one scary story.
It helps too create an air of mystery.
Certain fortunetelling methods began in Europe hundreds of years ago
and became an important part of Halloween. For example, such object as a
coin, a ring, and a thimble were baked into a cake or other food. It was
believed that the person who found the coin in the cake would become
wealthy. The one who found the ring would marry soon, but the person who
got the thimble would never get married.
Unfortunately now most people do not believe in evil spirits. They
know that evil spirits do not break steps, spill garbage or pull down
fences. If property is damaged, they blame naughty boys and girls. Today,
Halloween is still a bad night for the police…
March 1st is a very important day for Welsh people. It’s St. David’s
Day. He’s the “patron” or national saint of Wales. On March 1st, the Welsh
celebrate St. Davids Day and wear daffodils in the buttonholes of their
coats or jackets.
On February 14th it’s Saint Valentine’s Day in Britain. It is not a
national holiday. Banks and offices do not close, but it is a happy little
festival in honour of St. Valentine. On this day, people send Valentine
cards to their husbands, wives, girlfriends and boyfriends. You can also
send a card to a person you do not know. But traditionally you must never
write your name on it. Some British newspapers have got a page for
Valentine’s Day messages on February 14th.
This lovely day is widely celebrated among people of all ages by the
exchanging of “valentines”.
Saint Valentine was a martyr but this feast goes back to pagan times
and the Roman feast of Lupercalia. The names of young unmarried girls were
put into a vase. The young men each picked a name, and discovered the
identity of their brides.
This custom came to Britain when the Romans invaded it. But the church
moved the festival to the nearest Christian saint’s day: this was Saint
Valentine’s Day.
Midsummer’s Day, June 24th, is the longest day of the year. On that
day you can see a very old custom at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, England.
Stonehenge is on of Europe’s biggest stone circles. A lot of the stones are
ten or twelve metres high. It is also very old. The earliest part of
Stonehenge is nearly 5,000 years old. But what was Stonehenge? A holy
place? A market? Or was it a kind of calendar? Many people think that the
Druids used it for a calendar. The Druids were the priests in Britain 2,000
years ago. They used the sun and the stones at Stonehenge to know the start
of months and seasons. There are Druids in Britain today, too. And every
June 24th a lot of them go to Stonehenge. On that morning the sun shines on
one famous stone – the Heel stone. For the Druids this is a very important
moment in the year. But for a lot of British people it is just a strange
old custom.
Londoners celebrate carnivals. And one of them is Europe’s biggest
street carnival. A lot of people in the Notting Hill area of London come
from the West Indies – a group of islands in the Caribbean. And for two
days in August, Nutting Hill is the West Indies. There is West Indian food
and music in the streets. There is also a big parade and people dance day
and night.
April 1st is April Fool’s Day in Britain. This is a very old tradition
from the Middle Ages (between the fifth and fifteenth centuries). At that
time the servants were masters for one day of the year. They gave orders to
their masters, and their masters had to obey.
Now April Fool’s Day is different. It is a day for jokes and tricks.
One of the most interesting competitions is the university boat race.
Oxford and Cambridge are Britain’s two oldest universities. In the
nineteenth century, rowing was a popular sport at both of them. In 1829
they agreed to have a race. They raced on the river Thames and the Oxford
boat won. That started a tradition. Now, every Spring, the University Boat
Race goes from Putney to Mortlake on the Thames. That is 6,7 kilometres.
The Cambridge rowers wear light blue shirts and the Oxford rowers wear dark
blue. There are eight men in each boat. There is also a “cox”. The cox
controls the boat. Traditionally coxes are men, but Susan Brown became the
first woman cox in 1981. She was the cox for Oxford and they won.
An annual British tradition, which captures the imagination of the
whole nation is the London to Brighton Car Rally in which a fleet of
ancient cars indulges in a lighthearted race from the Capital to the Coast.
When the veteran cars set out on the London – Brighton run each
November, they are celebrating one of the great landmarks in the history of
motoring in Britain – the abolition of the rule that every “horseless
carriage” had to be preceded along the road by a pedestrian. This extremely
irksome restriction, imposed by the Locomotives on Highways Act, was
withdrawn in 1896, and on November of that year there was a rally of motor-
cars on the London - Brighton highway to celebrate the first day of freedom
– Emancipation Day, as it has known by motorists ever since.
Emancipation is still on the first Sunday of the month, but nowadays
there is an important condition of entry – every car taking part must be at
least 60 years old.
The Run is not a race. Entrants are limited to a maximum average speed
of 20 miles per hour. The great thing is not speed but quality of
performance, and the dedicated enthusiasts have a conversation all their
own.
The Highland Games – this sporting tradition is Scottish. In the
Highlands (the mountains of Scotland) families, or “clans”, started the
Games hundreds of years ago.
Some of the sports are the Games are international: the high jump and
the long jump, for example. But other sports happen only at the Highland
Games. One is tossing the caber. “Tossing” means throwing, and a “caber” is
a long, heavy piece of wood. In tossing the caber you lift the caber (it
can be five or six metres tall). Then you throw it in front of you.
At the Highland Games a lot of men wear kilts. These are traditional
Scottish skirts for men. But they are not all the same. Each clan has a
different “tartan”. That is the name for the pattern on the kilt. So at the
Highland Games there are traditional sports and traditional instrument –
the bagpipes. The bagpipes are very loud. They say Scots soldier played
them before a battle. The noise frightened the soldiers on other side.
The world’s most famous tennis tournament is Wimbledon. It started at
a small club in south London in the nineteenth century. Now a lot of the
nineteenth century traditions have changed. For example, the women players
don’t have to wear long skirts. And the men players do not have to wear
long trousers. But other traditions have not changed at Wimbledon. The
courts are still grass, and visitors still eat strawberries and cream. The
language of tennis has not changed either.
There are some British traditions and customs concerning their private
life. The British are considered to be the world’s greatest tea drinkers.
And so tea is Britain’s favourite drink. The English know how to make tea
and what it does for you. In England people say jokingly: ‘The test of good
tea is simple. If a spoon stands up in it, then it is strong enough; if the
spoon starts to wobble, it is a feeble makeshift’.
Every country has its drinking habits, some of which are general and
obvious, others most peculiar. Most countries also have a national drink.
In England the national is beer, and the pub “pub”, where people talk, eat,
drink, meet their friends and relax.
The word “pub” is short for “public house”. Pubs sell beer. (British
beer is always warm). An important custom in pubs is “buying a round”. In a
group, one person buys all the others a drink. This is a “round”. Then one
by one all the people buy rounds, too. If they are with friends, British
people sometimes lift their glasses before they drink and say: “Cheers”.
This means “Good luck”.
In the pubs in south-west England there is another traditional drink-
scrumpy.
Pub names often have a long tradition. Some come from the thirteenth
or fourteenth century. Every pub has a name and every pub has a sign above
its door. The sign shows a picture of the pub’s name.
And as you know, the British talk about the weather a lot. They talk
about the weather because it changes so often. Wind, rain, sun, cloud, snow
– they can all happen in a British winter – or a British summer.
Hundreds of years ago, soldiers began this custom. They shook hands to
show that they did not have a sword. Now, shaking hands is a custom in most
countries.
Frenchman shake hands every time they meet, and kiss each other on
both cheeks as a ceremonial salute, like the Russians, while Englishmen
shake hands only when they are introduced, or after a long absence.
Victorian England made nearly as many rules about hand shaking as the
Chinese did about bowing. A man could not offer his hand first a lady;
young ladies did not shake men’s hands at all unless they were old friends;
married ladies could offer their hands in a room, but not in public, where
they would bow slightly.
I have chosen the topic British customs traditions because I enjoy
learning the English language and wanted to know more about British ways of
life and traditions. Working on this topic I have to conclusion that
British people are very conservative. They are proud pf their traditions
and carefully keep them up. It was interesting to know that foreigners
coming to England are stuck at once by quite a number of customs and
peculiarities.
So I think of Britain as a place a lot of different types of people
who observe their traditions.
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1999г.;
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6. Рис-Пармен “Christmas”, журнал «Англия» №69 стр. 113-119;
7. Рис-Парнал Хиларн “Hello and goodbye”, журнал «Англия» №73 стр. 115-
117;
8. Рис-Парнал «Рождество», журнал «Англия» №77 стр.107-109;
9. Стивен Раблей “Customs and traditions in Britain” изд. “Longman
Group”, ИК, 1996г.;
10. Усова Г.С. “British history” изд. «Лань» г. С.-Петербург 1999г.;
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«Просвещение» г.С.-Петербург 1975г.;
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