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SEASONAL CELEBRATIONS
Here you will find articles and features about
seasonal celebrations around the UK, such as the customs for
celebrating Christmas and New Year, Easter and May Day, to name but
a few!
A Tudor
Christmas
The twelve days of
Christmas would have been a most welcome break for the workers on
the land, which in Tudor times would have been the majority of the
people. All work, except for looking after the animals, would stop,
restarting again on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth
Night. For the gentry, Christmas was a time for serious
feasting....
A
Victorian Christmas
Christmas trees, carol singers, Christmas cards, Santa Claus and
crackers - integral parts of a traditional Christmas, but why?
Christmas
Traditions in Wales Including the unique Boxing Day
custom of beating young girls with boughs of holly......
New Year's Eve
Celebrations in Scotland: Hogmanay
Only
one nation in the world can celebrate the New Year or Hogmanay with
such revelry and passion – the Scots!
But
what are the actual origins of Hogmanay, and why should a tall dark
stranger be a welcome visitor after midnight?
Robert "Rabbie"
Burns Burns
Night - January 25th.
Robert Burns is the best loved Scottish poet, admired not only for
his verse and great love-songs, but also for his character and wit,
his high spirits, 'kirk-defying', hard drinking and womanising!
St Dwynwen St Dwynwen's Day.
St Dwynwen is the Welsh patron saint of
lovers, which makes her the Welsh equivalent of St Valentine......
February 29th - or
bachelors beware!
Leap years are very special years, and the 29th
February itself is an especially important day......
Pancake Day (Shrove
Tuesday)
Large numbers of people, often in fancy dress, racing down streets
tossing pancakes...yes, it's Pancake Day again!
Easter Customs and Festivals Egg
rolling, morris dancing, pace-egging, bottle kicking and the nutters
dance....
May Day in Merrie Olde England Down through
the centuries May Day has been associated with fun, revelry and perhaps
most important of all, fertility......
Michaelmas - 29th September
Michaelmas, or the Feast of Michael and All Angels, is celebrated on
the 29th of September every year. As it falls near the equinox, the
day is associated with the beginning of autumn and the shortening of
days...
Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe’en is celebrated across the world on the night
of 31st October. Modern celebrations generally involve groups of
children dressed in scary costumes roaming from house to house,
demanding “trick-or-treat”. The origins of these celebrations
however date back thousands of years, to pagan times......
Remember,
Remember the 5th of November.... Bonfire Night - why do
the British celebrate with fireworks, bonfires - and set fire to
'Guy'?
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