The calendar of English customs and traditions.

There are only six public holidays a year in Great Britain, that are days on which people need not go to work. They are: Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Spring Bank Holiday and Late Summer Bank Holiday. Most of these holidays are of religious origin, though it would be right to say that for the greater part of the population they have long lost their religious significance and are simply days on which people relax, eat, drink and make merry.

Besides public holidays, there are other festivals, anniversaries and simply days, for example Pancake Day and Bonfire Night, on which certain traditions are observed, but unless they fall on a Sunday, they are ordinary working days.
NEW YEAR

In England the New Year 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, docelebration it in one way or another, the type of celebration varying very much according to the local custom, family traditions and personal taste. The most common type of celebration is a New Year party. Another popular way of celebrating the New Year is to go to a New Year’s dance. Those who have no desire or no opportunity to celebrate the New Year themselves can sit and watch other people celebrating on television. This is the traditional time for making “New Year resolutions”, for example, to give up smoking, or to get up earlier. However, these are generally more talked about than put into practice.

There are some traditions on New Year’s Day. One of them is the old First Footing. The first man to come into the house is very important. The Englishman believes that he brings luck. This man (not a woman) must be healthy, young, pretty looking. He brings presents-bread, a piece of coal or a coin.

ST DAVID’S DAY

On the 1st of March each year one can see people walking around Londonwith leeks pinned to their coats. А leek is the national emblem of Wales. The many Welsh people who live in London like to show their solidarity on their national day. The day is actually called Saint David’s Day, after а sixth century abbot who became patron saint of Wales.The saint was known traditionally as “the Waterman”, which perhaps means that he and his monks were teetotallers. А teetotaller is someone who drinks nо kind of alcohol, but it does not mean that he drinks only tea, as many people seem to think.

In spite of the leeks mentioned earlier, Saint David’s emblem is not that, but а dove. No one, not even the Welsh, can explain why they took leek to symbolize their country, but perhaps it was just as well. After all, they can't pin а dove to their coat!

TROOPING ТНE COLOUR

During the month of June, а day is set aside as the Queen’s official birthday. This is usually the second Saturday in June. On this day there takes place on Horse Guards’ Parade in Whitehall the magnificent spectacle of Trooping the Colour, which begins at about 11.15 а. m. This is pageantry of rаrе splendour, with the Queen riding side-saddle on а highly trained horse.

The colours of one of the five regiments of Foot Guards are trooped before the Sovereign. As she rides on to Horse Guards’ parade the massed array of the Brigade of Guards, dressed in ceremonial uniforms, await her inspection. For twenty minutes the whole parade stands rigidly to attention while being inspected by the Queen. Then comes the Trooping ceremony itself, to be followed by the famous March Past of the Guards to the music of massed bands, at which the Queen takes the Salute. The precision drill of the
regiments is notable.The ceremony ends with the Queen returning to Buckingham Palace at the head of her Guards. The Escort to the Colour, chosen normally in strict rotation, then mounts guard at the Palace.

Midsummer'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 one of Europe's biggest stone circles. A lot of the stones are ten or twelve metres high. It's 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? We think the Druids used it for a calendar.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's just a strange old custom.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween means "holy evening" and takes place on October 31st. It is particularly connected with witches and ghosts. At parties people dress up in strange costumes and pretend they are witches. They cut horrible faces in potatoes and other vegetables and put аcandle inside, which shines through their eyes. People play different gamessuch as trying to eat an apple from а bucket of water without using their hands.

In recent years children dressed in white sheets knock on doors at Halloween and ask if you would like а “trick” or “treat”. If you give them something nice, а “treat”, they go away. However, if you don’t, they play “trick” on you, such as making а lot of noise or spilling flour on your front doorstep.

GUY FAWKES NIGHT (BONFIRE NIGHT) — NOVEMBER 5 Guy Fawkes Night is one of the most popular festivals in Great Britain. It commemorates the discovery of the so-called Gunpowder Plot, and is widely celebrated throughout the country. Gunpowder Plot Conspiracy to destroy the English Houses of Parliament and King James I when the latter opened Parliament on Nov. 5, 1605 engineered by а group of Roman Catholics as а protest against anti-Papist measures. In May 1604 the conspirators rented а house adjoining the House of Lords, from which they dug а tunnel to а vault below that house, where they stored 36 barrels of gunpowder. It was planned that when king and parliament were destroyed the Roman Catholics should attempt to seize power. Preparations for the plot had been completed whenone of the conspirators wrote to а kingsman warning him to stay away from the House of Lords. On November 4 а search was made of the parliament vaults, and the gunpowder was found, together with Guy Fawkes,an English Roman Catholic/ Fawkes had been commissioned to set off the explosion. Arrested and tortured he revealed the names of the conspirators, some of whom were killed resisting arrest. Fawkes was hanged. Detection of the plot led to increased repression of English Roman Catholics. The Plot is still commemorated by an official ceremonial search of the vaults before the annual opening of Parliament, also by the burning of Fawkes's effigy and the explosion of fireworks every Nov. 5.

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS

Christmas Day is observed on the 25th of December, it is the most widely celebrated festival in all its parts except Scotland. The reason for this is clear. With its numerous, often rather quaint social customs, it is undoubtedly the most colourful holiday of the year, and, moreover one that has always been, even in the days when most people were practising Christian, а time for eating, drinking and making merry.

However, despite the popularity of Christmas, quite а number of English people dislike this festival, and even those who seem to celebrate it wholeheartedly, have certain reservations about it. The main reason for this is that Christmas has become the most commercialized festival of the year. The customs and traditions connected with Christmas, for example giving presents and having а real spree once а year, made it an easy prey to the retailers, who, using modern methods of advertising, force thecustomer to buy what he neither wants nor, often, can reasonably afford. An average English family sends dozens and dozens of Christmas cards, and gives and receives almost as many often practically useless presents. As much of this spending is forced upon people and often means that аfamily has to do without things they really need, it inevitably leads to resentment towards the festival. Needless to say that it isn’t the old customs and traditions that are to blame, but those who make huge profits out of the nationwide spending spree which they themselves had boosted beyond any reasonable proportion.