Christmas Crackers
All over Britain on Christmas Day, families can be found sitting
around their dining tables enjoying a traditional lunch of roast
turkey with all the trimmings - and all, regardless of age, wearing
coloured paper hats. So why this quaint tradition? Where do these
paper hats come from? The answer is the Christmas Cracker....
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......
