British holidays and Festivals
Introduction
Knowing a little bit about British holidays and customs and their origins is a good way of understanding what Britons find important in their lives and communities. Throughout the year the British celebrate many holidays which reflect the religious, historical, social and cultural diversity of their country. Some holidays are celebrated throughout the country and mark important events of the Christian calendar. Other holidays are based on local customs and traditions which reflect the variety of experience in different regions. What almost all of the holidays have in commo n—whether they are local, regional or nationa l—is that they provide an opportunity for families and friends to get together to visit, eat, exchange good wishes and enjoy each other?s company and hospitality.
Religious Holidays
Although Britain remains a mainly Christian nation, most Britons do not go to church regularly or engage in Christian worship. Because of immigration and changing beliefs, most of the world?s religions are practiced in Britain, with sizeable Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh communities and numerous smaller groups. The result is that although many Christian festivals are observed they have been adapted to fit the needs of a modern, secular society. It is not unusual to find non-Christian as well as Christians participating in some of the activities surrounding Christians and Easter.
Christmas ( December 25) is the biggest and best loved British holiday. Schools close for the holiday period, as do shops and offices, so people can spend time at home with their families. While Christmas has Christian meanin g—it commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ—celebrations of the Winter Solstice have taken place since ancient times and some “traditions”such as decorating the house with evergreen plants like holly and ivy, or kissing under a twig of mistletoe, are actually Celtic or Pagan traditions. Nowadays, Christmas cards, preparing holidays foods, and decorating homes and workplaces with coloured lights, Christmas trees and ornaments.
There are three Christmas traditions which are particularly British: one is the Christmas Pantomime, a comical musical play. The “panto”is usually based on a version of a traditional children?s story like Cinderella, written to include songs and jokes which can be enjoyed by adults and children. The main male characte r—the “ princ ipal boy”—is played by a young woman.
In the days when women wore long skirts, it was considered rather naughty to see a woman appear in an outfit which revealed the shape of her legs. The main female character is a middle-aged, often a famous actor or sportsman. When he appears in heavy make up, skirts and woman?s shoes, it is considered very humorous. The audience is encouraged to cheer the hero on and boo when the villain appears.
Another British Christmas tradition is to hear the Queen give her Christmas message to her realm over television and radio. The British Queen is also the Queen of other nations, like Canada and Australia, and so her message is broadcast to her millions of subjects throughout the world. She usually talks about the year that has passed and expresses her hopes for the future.
A third British tradition, which is also celebrated in countries with British heritages, is boxing Day, which falls on the day after Christmas. Traditionally, it was on boxing Day that people gave Christmas gifts or money to their staff or servants. Now that most British people do not have servants, this custom is no longer observed and most people cannot even tell you what one is supposed to do on boxing Day. Some think it involves the sport of boxing and others think it has something to do with Boxer uprising in China. However, a new Boxing Day custom has emerged, in the cities at least: shopping. Shops open up to sell off all their Christmas stock decorations, food, cards and gift items at low prices. But for most people, however, Boxing Day is a day for visiting, eating and relaxing.
For church goers it is Easter, not Christmas, which is the most important Christian festival. Easter commemorates the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It occurs in the spring, when schools and universities close for a break. While Christians attend many church services over the Easter period, for most people the main symbol of Easter is the Easter egg, originally a Christian symbol of new life. Nowadays people give each other chocolate or candy Easter eggs which are often very large, elaborate and expensive. Rabbits and chicks are also animals traditionally associated with Easter and widely appear in chocolate form around this time.
Christmas and Easter have been adopted and celebrated by non-Christian people who emphasise the secular rather than the religious aspects of the holidays. There are also many non-Christian festivals which are observed by people with different beliefs and many schools and workplaces will allow such people to take time off to allow them to celebrate a particular special day. For example, there are about 1.5 millio n Muslims in Britain, many who observe traditional Islamic festivals such as Ramadan, a fast which lasts 29 days during which nothing can be eaten or drunk between dawn and nightfall, and ends with a festival. There also Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and even Pagan groups which observe days which are important to their communities. In London, the overseas Chinese community marks Chinese New Y ear with Dragon dances, fireworks, parades and family celebrations.
National Holidays
One of Britain?s most impressive and colourful festivals happens on the second Saturday in June when the Queen?s birthday is officially celebrated by “Trooping the colour” around Buckingham Palace in London. The UK, unlike most countries, does not have a “national day”, but the pomp and ceremony surrounding the Queen inspecting her troops draws hundreds of people. The ceremony derives from old military traditions in which regimental flags were paraded before the monarch. In the 18th century such pageantry used to occur daily, but early in Victoria?s reign it was
decided that this ceremony should only be held on the sovereign?s birthday. British diplomats abroad will often have a special party or event to celebrate the Queen?s birthday.
Holidays in the 4 Nations
It is the local festivals of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland that the distinctive cultural and political identities of the four nations of the United Kingdom can be seen. Many festivals and customs have been invented, adopted and used to serve political or religious functions in times of conflict. For example the historic battles between the protestants and Catholics in the 17th century are commemorated, often with symbolic or even real violence, in England and Northern Ireland. Special days in Scotland and Wales demonstrate their national pride more to the UK than “the English” and “England”.
England
The English do not celebrate their famous writers or battles or patron saints, although they have all these things. However, one truly English holiday is Bonfire nigh t—sometimes called Guy Fawkes Nigh t—celebrated in the early autumn. While many people do not do anything special on Bonfire night, nearly everyone knows this poem:
Remember, remember the Fifth of November
Gunpowder, Treason and plot
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
On the evening of 5 November 1605, a plan to blow up the British Parliament, kill the Protestant King and Replace him with a catholic king was discovered. One of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes, was found in the cellars of Westminster with 36 barrels of gunpowder. He and the other members of his gang were arrested, tortured and killed. Protestant politicians decided that the Gunpowder Plot had failed because God wanted the Protestants to continue to rule England. Parliament passed a legal act calling for a “Public Thanksgiving to Almighty God”for revealing the plot, to be held on the anniversary of the event. Nowadays, English people still celebrate this event in the traditional way. In early November, gangs of small children appear on British streets, often with a straw effigy called the “Guy”. They beg for money from passing adults, sometimes singing
Penny for the Guy
Hit him in the eye
Stick him up a lamppost
And there let him die.
The money they receive is spent on fireworks to be set off on Bonfire Night. Most communities have public bonfire, where people gather to cook potatoes and sausages in the fire and watch fireworks displays. Traditionally a “guy”is thrown on the bonfire, although this is falling out of practice because some people feel it is too frightening for small children and others feel that it is inappropriate, as it reminds
Catholics of how they were persecuted in the past.
The biggest Bonfire Night celebration is held in the small medieval town of Lewes, where torchlight parades wind through the narrow streets. The paraders wear costumes and carry models of severed heads on pikes, often dripping blood, which represent Protestantism?s enemies. When paraders reach the Bonfire, fireworks are used to fight mock battles between Catholics and Protestants. At the end of these battles, giant effigies of the Pope and Guy Fawkes are blown up with fireworks.
In London, the cellars of Parliament are still symbolically searched by candlelight by the Beefeaters (the Royal Guard). During the search for Guy Fawkes in 1605, the last cellar contained a wine merchant. The guards asked him to open his wine barrels to see if he was hiding gunpowder in them. The Beefeaters still continue this tradition, with their search of the cellars ending with a drinking session.
Northern Ireland
Another festival which comes from the 17th century battles between Catholics and protestants is the Protestant celebration of their victory at the Battle of the Boyne (12 July) in 1690. The Catholic King JamesⅡwas forced off the throne in 1668. William of Orange, affectionately known as King Billy, was invited to take the throne and James was driven into exile. With the help of the French and the Iris h—both Catholic nation s—James tried to retake the throne but his forces were defeated by King Billy on the banks of the Boyne River in Country Kildare, now a part of Ireland (Eire).
King Billy?s victory is particularly important to Northern Irish Protestants because it symbolizes the Protestant …right”to be in Ireland and the defeat of Catholicism as the national religion. The Twelfth is the high point of what is known as the Marching Season, when Protestant “Orangemen”take to the streets wearing their traditional uniforms of bowler hats, black suits and orange sashes, marching through the streets singing, banging drums and playing in marching bands. The Orangemen often clas h—verbally, legally or sometimes violentl y—with the Catholics as they attempt tom parade through Catholic neighbourhoods, symbolically asserting their continued dominance over the Irish. During Orange Marches there is a massive police and army presence surrounding the parades and the atmosphere can be very tense.
Northern Irish Catholics celebrate the birthday of the patron saint of Ireland, St Patrick, on March 17 each year. Patrick was a Catholic bishop who lived in the 5th century and is thought to have brought Christianity to Ireland. He lived in Great Britain, but at the age of 16 was captured by Irish raiders, taken to Ireland and made a slave. He eventually escaped and returned to Britain, where he had a dream in which the Irish begged him to return. Although his memories of years of slavery in Ireland made him hesitate, he followed this call and had a very successful missionary career. According to popular legend, St Patrick drove snakes (the Christian symbol of evil) out of Ireland. In another legend it is said that he used the three leafed clover , or shamrock, to explain the Christian trinity (Father, Son and Holy Ghost) to the pagan Irish. The shamrock is a popular symbol to wear on St Patrick?s day, and it is also
considered very lucky to wear something green. St Patrick?s Day is celebrated very enthusiastically by Americans. The large Irish communities of the eastern United States hold parades and parties to remind them of their ancestral home.
Scotland
While most British people welcome the coming of the New year with parties, in Scotland, New Y ear?s Eve called Hogmanay (31 December)—is the major winter celebration, and overshadows Christmas (called Yule in Scotland) which is a very quiet affair. How Hogmanay is celebrated varies throughout Scotland, but one widely practiced custom is “first footing”. There is a superstitious belief that the first person to cross the threshold of a household in the New Y ear can bring luck and prosperity: the appearance of a young, preferably dark haired and handsome man , is considered particularly lucky. First footers often bring a bottle of spirits, alcohol, a lump of coal or peat as a gift and are given a “dram of whisky” as their rewards.
Each year Scottish people all over the world celebrate their most beloved national poet, Robert Burns(1759—1796), by holding a Burns Super on the evening of his birthday(25 January).
Burns wrote mainly in the Scots dialect and his poems drew on older traditions of Scottish folk songs and stories and so have a wide popular appeal. It is said Burns is more popular in Russia than in England because in his work he championed the rights of ordinary men and women.
Burns nights are celebrated with suppers of haggis and whisky and his poems are recited throughout the evening. A haggis is a loaf of mutton, spices and oatmeal which has been boiled in a sheep?s stomach and is carried in to the assembled diners with great ceremony. A bag-piper enters the dining room, followed by the chef carrying the haggis, who lays it in front of the guest of honor. Then the haggis is punctured with a dagger or sword and Burn?s “Address to a Haggis” is recited…
Halloween(31 October) is a Scottish festival that comes from the great feast of pagan Celts which marked the arrival of the winter half of the year. Halloween is notable for showing the darker, supernatural side of Celtic custo m—communion with the dead, mischief, fortunetelling and masquerades are common practices. Children make “turnip lanterns”. Turnips are hollowed out and holes are cut to make eyes, nose and mouth. Then candles are placed inside the turnip and it is set in the windows to scare away witches and other evil spirits.
Traditionally on Halloween the young men of the village would wear strange, sometimes transvestite costumes, disguise their voices and go about the village, representing the spirits of the dead. Bonfires to burn witches and drive away evil spirits were lit. Nowadays, the bonfires and costumes are still a part of Halloween, especially for children.
For girls, Halloween was an opportunity to use magic spells to see into the future and especially to find out who they would marry. There were many methods: pairs of nuts, peas or orange pips were placed in a fire: if they burned quietly together, the couple would be happy, but if they sparked or rolled apart, the marriage was ill-starred. Blindfolded girls dipped their hands into bowls of water: if the water was clean, the
husband would be a fine young man; if dirty, a widower; if empty, then the girl would remain unmarried. Magic spells were used to divine the identity of future husbands. In a dim room, an apple was cut into pieces in front of a mirror: the girl would hold a piece on a fork over the shoulder, where the ghost of the husband would take shape. Wales
Wales has some of the oldest and richest literary, musical and poetic traditions in Europe. Poems written in the traditional welsh language and style are governed by ancient codes and conventions which can be traced back to the Druids, who instituted rigid rules of composition to help them to correctly memorise and pass on poems and stories. This poetic tradition has been celebrated for centuries in eisteddfod, a Welsh word meaning a gathering where people recite verses and sing songs.
At the eisteddfod, tents and pavilions are erected around a big open space: in the different tents competitions are held to find the best choirs, translators, essayists and poets. The judges of the competitions dress in the style of the ancient druids, wearing long robes trimmed with velvet, ermine and gold, and trupet sound. The highlight is the crowning of the two bards who have written the best poems of the festival.
Conclusion
The British calendar is full of holidays and festivals which demonstrate the different cultures and histories of the people who make up Britain. Holiday customs have changed as times have changed. Ancient pagan traditions were adapted by the church as Britain became a nation of Christians. Now that the Christian church is not as influential as it was in the past, Christian holidays and customs have changed again so they can be shared by people throughout the country whatever their backgrounds and beliefs. Thus Welsh people can celebrate Burns Night, Londoners can watch Dragon Dances at Chinese new Y ear, Muslims can enjoy chocolate easter eggs and Christians can go shopping on Boxing Day. Such holidays remind us of how cultures change and influence each other; they also give us an opportunity to share in the rich cultural heritage of the United Kingdom.