Traditions and holidays of Great Britain
Traditions and holidays of Great Britain.
Every nation and every country has its own traditions and customs.
Traditions make a nation special. Some of them are old-fashioned and many
people remember them, others are part of people’s life. Some British
customs and traditions are known all the world.
From Scotland to Cornwall, Britain is full of customs and traditions.
A lot of them have very long histories. Some are funny and some are
strange. But they are all interesting. There is the long menu of
traditional British food. There are many royal occasions. There are songs,
saying and superstitions. They are all part of the British way of life.
You cannot really imagine Britain without all its traditions, this
integral feature of social and private life of the people living on the
British Isles that has always been an important part of their life and
work.
English traditions can classified into several groups: traditions
concerning the Englishmen’s private life (child’s birth, wedding, marriage,
wedding anniversary); which are connected with families incomes; state
traditions; national holidays, religious holidays, public festival,
traditional ceremonies.
What about royal traditions? There are numerous royal traditions in
Britain, some are ancient, others are modern.
The Queen is the only person in Britain with two birthdays. Her real
birthday is on April 21st, but she has an “official” birthday, too. That is
on the second Saturday in June. And on the Queen’s official birthday, there
is a traditional ceremony called the Trooping of the Colour. It is a big
parade with brass bands and hundreds of soldiers at Horse Guard’s Parade in
London. A “regiment” of the Queen’s soldiers, the Guards, march in front of
her. At the front of the parade there is the regiment’s flag or “colour”.
Thousands of Londoners and visitors watch in Horse Guards’ Parade. And
millions of people at home watch it on television. This custom is not very
old, but it is for very old people. On his or her one hundredth birthday, a
British person gets a telegram with congratulations from the Queen.
The changing of the Guard happens every day at Buckingham Palace, the
Queen’s home in London. The ceremony always attracts a lot of spectators –
Londoners as well as visitors – to the British capital.
So soldiers stand on front of the palace. Each morning these soldiers
(the “guard”) change. One group leaves and another arrives. In summer and
winter tourists stand outside the palace at 11:30 every morning and watch
the Changing of the Guard.
Traditionally the Queen opens Parliament every autumn. But Parliament,
not the Royal Family, controls modern Britain. The Queen travels from
Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament in a gold carriage – the
Irish State Coach. At the Houses of Parliament the Queen sits on a “throne”
in the House of Lords. Then she reads the “Queen’s Speech”. At the State
Opening of Parliament the Queen wears a crown. She wears other jewels from
the Crown Jewels, too.
Every year, there is a new Lord Mayor of London. The Mayor is the
city’s traditional leader. And the second Saturday in November is always
the day for the Lord Mayor’s Show. This ceremony is over six hundred years
old. It is also London’s biggest parade.
The Lord Mayor drives to the Royal Courts of Justice in a coach. The
coach is two hundred years old. It is red and gold and it has six horses.
As it is also a big parade, people make special costumes and act
stories from London’s history.
In Britain as in other countries costumes and uniforms have a long
history.
One is the uniform of the Beefeaters at the tower of London. This came
first from France. Another is the uniform of the Horse Guards at Horse
Guard’s Parade, not far from Buckingham Palace. Thousands of visitors take
photographs of the Horse Guards.
Britannia is a symbol of Britain. And she wears traditional clothes,
too. But she is not a real person.
Lots of ordinary clothes have a long tradition. The famous bowler hat,
for example. A man called Beaulieu made the first one in 1850.
One of the British soldiers, Wellington, gave his name to a pair of
boots. They have a shorter name today – “Wellies”.
There is a very special royal tradition. On the River Thames there are
hundreds of swans. A lot of these beautiful white birds belong,
traditionally, to the king or queen. In July the young swans on the Thames
are about two months old. Then the Queen’s swan keeper goes, in a boat,
from London Bridge to Henley. He looks at all the young swans and marks the
royal ones. The name of this strange nut interesting custom is Swan Upping.
There are only six public holidays a year in Great Britain, that is
days on which people need not go in to work. They are: Christmas Day, Good
Friday, Easter Monday, Spring Bank Holiday and Late Summer Bank Holiday,
Boxing Day.
So the most popular holiday in Britain is Christmas. Christmas has
been celebrated from the earliest days of recorded history, and each era
and race has pasted a colourful sheet of new customs and traditions over
the old.
On the Sunday before Christmas many churches hold a carol service
where special hymns are sung. Sometimes carol singers can be heard in the
streets as they collect money for charity. There are a lot of very popular
British Christmas carols. Three famous ones are: “Good King Wenceslas”,
“The Holly and The Ivy” and “We Three Kings”.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people all over the world send and
receive Christmas cards. Most of people think that exchanging cards at
Christmas is a very ancient custom but it is not right. In fact it is
barely 100 years old. The idea of exchanging illustrated greeting and
presents is, however, ancient. So the first commercial Christmas card was
produced in Britain in 1843 by Henry Cole, founder of the Victoria and
Albert Museum, London. The handcoloured print was inscribed with the words
’A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to you’. It was horizontally
rectangular in shape, printed on stout cardboard by lithography.
A traditional feature of Christmas in Britain is the Christmas tree.
Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, brought the German tradition (he
was German) to Britain. He and the Queen had a Christmas tree at Windsor
Castle in 1841. A few years after, nearly every house in Britain had one.
Traditionally people decorate their trees on Christmas Eve – that’s
December 24th. They take down the decorations twelve days later, on Twelfth
Night (January 5th).
An older tradition is Christmas mistletoe. People put a piece of this
green plant with its white berries over a door. Mistletoe brings good luck,
people say. Also, at Christmas British people kiss their friends and family
under the mistletoe.
Those who live away try to get back home because Christmas is a family
celebration and it is the biggest holiday of the year. As Christmas comes
nearer, everyone is buying presents for relatives and friends. At Christmas
people try to give their children everything they want. And the children
count the weeks, than the days, to Christmas. They are wondering what
presents on December 24th. Father Christmas brings their presents in the
night. Then they open them on the morning of the 25th.
There is another name for Father Christmas in Britain – Santa Claus.
That comes from the European name for him – Saint Nicholas. In the
traditional story he lives at the North Pole. But now he lives in big shops
in towns and cities all over Britain. Well, that’s where children see him
in November and December. Then on Christmas Eve he visits every house. He
climbs down the chimney and leaves lots of presents. Some people leave
something for him, too. A glass of wine and some biscuits, for example.
At Christmas everyone decorates their houses with holly, ivy colourful
lamps.
In Britain the most important meal on December 25th is Christmas
dinner. Nearly all Christmas food is traditional, but a lot of the
traditions are not very old. For example, there were no turkeys in Britain
before 1800. And even in the nineteenth century, goose was the traditional
meat at Christmas. But not now.
A twentieth-century British Christmas dinner is roast turkey with
carrots, potatoes, peas, Brussels sprouts and gravy. There are sausages and
bacon, too. Then, after the turkey, there’s Christmas pudding. Some people
make this pudding months before Christmas. A lot of families have their own
Christmas pudding recipes. Some, for example, use a lot of brandy. Others
put in a lot of fruit or add a silver coin for good luck. Real Christmas
puddings always have a piece of holly on the top. Holly bushes and trees
have red berries at Christmas time, and so people use holly to decorate
their houses for Christmas. The holly on the pudding is part of the
decoration.
Crackers are also usual at Christmas dinner. These came to Britain
from China in the nineteenth century. Two people pull a cracker. Usually
there is a small toy in the middle. Often there is a joke on a piece of
paper, too. Most of the jokes in Christmas crackers are not very good. Here
is on example:
Customer: Waiter, there’s a frog in my soup.
Waiter: Yes, sir, the fly’s on holidays.
A pantomime is a traditional English entertainment at Christmas. It is
