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
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
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.
Ëèòåðàòóðà:
1. Ãîëèöûíñêèé Þ. “Great Britain” èçä. «Êàðî» ã. Ñ.-Ïåòåðáóðã, 1999ã.;
2. Êîëóôìàí Ê.È. «Ñòðàíèöû Áðèòàíñêîé èñòîðèè» èçä. «Òèòóë» ã. Îáíèíñê,
1999ã.;
3. Êîñòåíêî Ã.Ò. “Reader for summer” èçä. «Ïðîñâåùåíèå» ã. Ìîñêâà 1985ã.;
4. Ìèíüÿð-Áåëîðó÷åâà À.Ï. «Àíãëèéñêèé ÿçûê äëÿ àáèòóðèåíòîâ è øêîëüíèêîâ»
èçä. «Ìîñêîâñêèé ëèöåé» 1999ã.;
5. Îùåïêîâà Â.Â. “Britain in Brief” èçä. «Ëèñò» ã. Ìîñêâà 1999ã.;
6. Ðèñ-Ïàðìåí “Christmas”, æóðíàë «Àíãëèÿ» ¹69 ñòð. 113-119;
7. Ðèñ-Ïàðíàë Õèëàðí “Hello and goodbye”, æóðíàë «Àíãëèÿ» ¹73 ñòð. 115-
117;
8. Ðèñ-Ïàðíàë «Ðîæäåñòâî», æóðíàë «Àíãëèÿ» ¹77 ñòð.107-109;
9. Ñòèâåí Ðàáëåé “Customs and traditions in Britain” èçä. “Longman
Group”, ÈÊ, 1996ã.;
10. Óñîâà Ã.Ñ. “British history” èçä. «Ëàíü» ã. Ñ.-Ïåòåðáóðã 1999ã.;
11. Õèøóíèíà Ò.Í. “Customs, traditions and holidays in Britain” èçä.
«Ïðîñâåùåíèå» ã.Ñ.-Ïåòåðáóðã 1975ã.;
12. Öâåòêîâà È.Â. «Àíãëèéñêèé äëÿ ïîñòóïàþùèõ â âóçû» èçä. «Ãëîññà» ã.
Ìîñêâà 1997ã.;
13. Öâåòêîâà È.Â. æóðíàë «Speak out» èçä. «Ãëîññà» ã. Òóëà 1997ã. ñòð.2-8. |
