Реферат: Traditions and holidays of Great Britain

Реферат: 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,

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.

Литература:

1. Голицынский Ю. “Great Britain” изд. «Каро» г. С.-Петербург, 1999г.;

2. Колуфман К.И. «Страницы Британской истории» изд. «Титул» г. Обнинск,

1999г.;

3. Костенко Г.Т. “Reader for summer” изд. «Просвещение» г. Москва 1985г.;

4. Миньяр-Белоручева А.П. «Английский язык для абитуриентов и школьников»

изд. «Московский лицей» 1999г.;

5. Ощепкова В.В. “Britain in Brief” изд. «Лист» г. Москва 1999г.;

6. Рис-Пармен “Christmas”, журнал «Англия» №69 стр. 113-119;

7. Рис-Парнал Хиларн “Hello and goodbye”, журнал «Англия» №73 стр. 115-117;

8. Рис-Парнал «Рождество», журнал «Англия» №77 стр.107-109;

9. Стивен Раблей “Customs and traditions in Britain” изд. “Longman Group”,

ИК, 1996г.;

10. Усова Г.С. “British history” изд. «Лань» г. С.-

Петербург 1999г.;

11. Хишунина Т.Н. “Customs, traditions and holidays in

Britain” изд. «Просвещение» г.С.-Петербург 1975г.;

12. Цветкова И.В. «Английский для поступающих в вузы»

изд. «Глосса» г. Москва 1997г.;

1. Цветкова И.В. журнал «Speak out» изд. «Глосса» г. Тула 1997г.

   стр.2-8.