British-Festivals

							Festivals and Customs

       Prof ADama
New Year’s Day (1 January)
The year should begin happily, so that it will end
happily
Children in Scotland, Wales and the English
border countries rise early so that they may make
the round of their friends and neighbours
They do not always get money, sometimes have
mince pies or apples.
Gifting must be finished by midday.
St Valentine’s Day (14 February)
Every year about 7 million pounds worth of
flowers are delivered
An extra 40 million chocolates are sold
Greetings-card manufacturers collect 25 million
pounds
Thousands of people travel to a tiny village on
Scotland’s border with England (Gretna Green)
In this small place, at least one couple gets
married, on average, every day of the year
Weddings for St Valentine’s Day have to be
booked three months in advance
          Shrove Tuesday
  (Forty-seven days before Easter)
  Also known as Pancake Day
  In the past and nowadays it is a special day for children in
  some parts of England where it is kept as a school holiday
  Pancake Bells are rung in some regions of Britain
  All the streets are crowded with children running,
  skipping, and jumping
  Events assosiated with Shrove Tuesday:
- pancake tossing contest – how many pancakes can you
  throw into the air and catch within a certain time?
- pancake race – contestants have to run while continuosly
  tossing a pancake
 St Patrick’s Day (17 March)
Ireland’s greatest national holiday which celebrates Saint
Patrick - one of the patron saints of Ireland
The St. Patrick's Day parade was first held in Boston in 1761,
organized by the Charitable Irish Society.
Green is the colour of the day with thousands of little cloth
shamrocks worn by people
Both Christians and non-Christians celebrate the secular version
of the holiday by wearing green or orange, eating Irish food
and/or green food, drinking Irish drink (such as Guiness or
Baileys Irish Cream) and attending parades.
parade in Dublin, Ireland is part of a five-day festival
Over 500,000 people attended the 2006 parade in Dublin
The largest Saint Patrick's Day parade in Britain is held in
Birmingham (claimed to be the third biggest parade in the world
after Dublin and New York
        Mother’s Day
 (the fourth Sunday in Lent)

50 million pounds worth of flowers are
bought for this day
Cards are also sent
April Fools’Day (1 April)
It is traditional for people to play tricks or
practical jokes on each other on this day
Children are the most enthusiastic about this
custom
Even BBC and serious newspapers
sometimes have „joke” features on this day
In Scotland the day is generally known as
”Huntigowk Day”
              Good Friday
The strange name in English for the day
commemorating Christ’s crucifixion
Some people preserve the tradition of eating
hot cross buns on Good Friday
                     Easter
Far less important than Christmas to most people
in Britain although it involves a four – day
”weekend”
It includes the consumption of mountains of
chocolate Easter eggs by children
The idea of Easter eggs coloured or otherwise
decorated in a wide variety of techniques,
including dyeing, painting and etching
Quite a lot of people go away on holiday
at that time
           May Day
(the first Monday in May)
Associated with ancient folklore
‘Kissing the dew‘ - young maidens rise early and go out into the
dawn, as they have done for centuries, to wash their faces in the
May dew
The girls do so to ensure that they shall have a beautiful
complexion for the rest of the year
It is believed that if, on the first of May, a girl washes her face
in the morning dew she will marry the first man she meets
thereafter
Little groups of children are formed and a May Queen is chosen
The custom of dancing round the maypole is acted out in some
villages
           Father’s Day
    (the third Sunday in June)
Probably just a commercial invention – and not
very successful either
Millions of British fathers don’t even know they
have a special day
Children use it to give their fathers a chance to rest
and relax, and to do things they enjoy, such as
fishing, golf, etc.
Usually family buy Dad a card, take him to eat
and play.
               Guy Fawkes’ Day
                 (5 November)
Traditionally this is done to remember the time when Guy
Fawkes (Catholic) tried (but failed) to destroy the British
Houses of Parliament with gunpowder in the 17th century
The failure of the gunpowder plot was celebrated as a
victory for British Protestantism over rebel Catholicism
Nowadays, it has lost its religious and patriotic connotation
In Britain, people light bonfires and let off fireworks
Some children make a ”guy” out of old clothes stuffed with
newspaper
There are ”bonfire parties” troughout the country, at which
the ”guy” is burnt
Every year, accidents with fireworks injure or even kill
several people (because of it some local authorities
arrange public firework displays)
      Halloween (31 October)
In the past, people believed that the spirits of dead people
appeared on this day
 Today children celebrate Halloween by dressing up as
witches and ghosts and going 'trick or treating'
They go out in groups and knock on people's doors,
shouting 'Trick or treat!' People usually give them sweets
or small presents as a treat.
Many children attend Halloween parties. ‘The best thing
about the party,’ says one girl, ‘is that you should go in
fancy dress.
The games traditionally played at Halloween are mostly
peculiar (special) to this night.
       Remembrance Sunday
   (second Sunday in November)
Commemorates the dead of both World Wars and
of more recent conflicts
On and before this day, money is collected in the
street on behalf of charities for ex-serviceman and
women.
The people who donate money are given paper
poppies to pin to their clothes
No politician would be seen on this day without a
poppy!
                         Christmas
The fact that Christmas in modern times is as much a secular feast as a
religious one, has had little effect on these traditions
Even people who consider themselves to be antireligious quite happily
wish each other a ”Happy Christmas” or a ”Merry Christmas”
„Commertialisation” of Christmas has itself become part of tradition
Most people buy presents for the other members of their household
especially children and even close friends
People send Christmas cards
Almost every household has a tree decorated in a different way
There are other decorations around the house and inside the house as
well (bits of the holly, mistletoe plants, a crib)
Carols are sung in churches and schools, often at special concerts
The role of Father Christmas (or Santa Claus) and the customs
associated with the giving of gifts is present
The eating of Christmas dinner and listenning to the Queen’s
Christmas message
    Boxing Day (26 December)
    Explanations for the origin of this name:
-   it was the day on which landowners and householders would present
    their tenants and servants with gifts (in boxes)
-   It was the day on which the collecting boxes in churches were opened
    and the contents distributed to the poor
    Boxing Day is a public holiday in the United Kingdom
    Masters, visitors, customers, and others would put donations of money
    into the box situated in the shop and then, after Christmas, all the
    contents of the box would be shared among the workers of the shop
    The term "Christmas box" now refers generally to a gift or pay bonus
    given to workers
    Boxing Day is a day when stores launch one of the year's biggest sales
    periods
    Boxing Day in the UK is traditionally a day for sporting activity:
    originally fox hunting (now banned), nowadays football, horse racing
    and rugby
New Year’s Eve (31 December)
In Wales and in the north of Britain almost all children are allowed to
stay up until midnight, or are woken up then, so that they can watch
the customs which let the Old Year out and bring the New Year in
Just before midnight, the ashes are cleaned from the fireplace so that
the year will be begun afresh
silver money, bread and a piece of coal are placed outside as well to
ensure health, wealth, and happiness to the household
In many English homes, as well as Scottish, they await the ”first-
footer” who, when he arrives, is welcomed with the warmest
hospitality
A few minutes before twelve o’clock all the doors of the houses are
opened to allow the spirit of the old year to depart
When the clock strikes twelve, the church bells ring and everyone
wishes everyone else ”A Guid New Year". Then toasts, kisses,
handshakes and usually ”Auld Lang Syn” is sung
The rest of the night is spent in eating, drinking. singing, and dancing
  Summer Music Festivals

In the 1970s, hundreds of thousands of people would gather for
a weekend in a park or country setting to listen to contemporary
rock musicians
In the past these festivals were seen as a sign of the decadence
of youth by many older people in Britain, are now accepted as a
natural part of the British summer
Today thousands of young people attend rock festivals
at Reading, Cambridge and Glastonbury
They camp out in all weathers to enjoy a holiday, good music,
and the company of friends
The original idea has developed and includes all musical genres
(reggae, country and western music, jazz, folk, bluegrass)
The Glastonbury Festival
It first took place in 1970
1,500 people met in a large field in the South West of
England to listen to rock music, enjoy themselves, and
spend time together in the countryside
In its early days it was seen as a festival for hippies,
but now it attracts people of many types and ages who
come to listen to different kinds of music
In 2000, the Glastonbury Festival was attended
by over 100,000 people.
Edinburgh’s Festivals
Edinburgh is the Festival City
It’s where people come together to share their passion
for arts, culture and ideas
With 12 festivals throughout the year there’s a
phenomenal number of events, performances and
spectacles to choose from.
With the hectic summer season behind it the world's
leading Festival city is gearing up for winter, and
another of it's legendary Festivals
Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is home to the world's largest
New Year's Eve street party