Bratain the country and its people: an intruduction for learners of english James O’Driscoll Oxford Contents

23 HOLIDAYS AND SPECIAL ACCASIONS

Britain is a country governed by routine. It has fewer public holidays than any other country in Europe and fewer than North America. (Northern Ireland has two extra ones, however). Even New Year’s Day was not an official public holiday in England and Wales until quite recently (but so many people gave themselves a holiday anyway that it was thought it might as well become official!). There are almost no semi-official holidays either. Most official holidays occur either just before or just after a weekend, so that the practice of making a ‘bridge’ is almost unknown. Moreover, there are no traditional extra local holidays in particular places. Although the origin of the word ‘holiday’ is ‘holy day’, not all public holidays (usually known as ‘bank holidays’) are connected with religious celebrations.

The British also seem to do comparatively badly with regard to annual holidays. These are not as long as they are in many other countries. Although the average employee gets four weeks’ paid holiday a year, in no town or city in the country would a visitor ever get the impression that the place had ‘shut down’ for the summer break. (In fact, about 40% of the population do not go away anywhere for their holidays.)

Traditional seaside holidays

The British upper class started the fashion for seaside holidays in the late eighteenth century. The middle classes soon followed them and when they were given the opportunity (around the beginning of the twentieth century), so did the working classes. It soon became normal for families to spend a week or two every year at one of the seaside resort towns which sprang up to cater for this new mass market . The most well-known of these are close to the larger towns and cities (► Holiday resorts in England).

These seaside towns quickly developed certain characteristics that are now regarded as typical of the ‘traditional’ English holiday resort. They have some hotels where richer people stay, but most families stay at boarding houses. These are small family businesses, offering either ‘bed and breakfast’ or, more rarely, ‘full board’ (meaning that all meals are provided). Some streets in seaside resorts are full of nothing but boarding houses. The food in these, and in local restaurants, is cheap and conventional with an emphasis on fish and chips.

Stereotypically, daytime entertainment in sunny weather centres around the beach, where the children make sandcastles, buy icecreams and sometimes go for donkey rides. Older adults often do not bother to go swimming. They are happy just to sit in their deck chairs and occasionally go for a paddle with their skirts or trouser- legs hitched up. The water is always cold and, despite efforts to clean it up, sometimes very dirty. But for adults who swim, some resorts have wooden huts on or near the beach, known as ‘beach cabins’, ‘beach huts’ or ‘bathing huts’, in which people can change into their swimming costumes. Swimming and sunbathing without any clothing is rare. All resorts have various other kinds of attraction, including more-or-less permanent funfairs.

For the evenings, and when it is raining, there are amusement arcades, bingo halls, dance halls, discos, theatres, bowling alleys and so on, many of these situated on the pier. This unique British architectural structure is a platform extending out into the sea. The large resorts have decorations which light up at night. The ‘Blackpool illuminations’, for example, are famous.

Another traditional holiday destination, which was very popular in Britain in the 1950s and I 960s, is the holiday camp, where visitors stay in chalets in self-contained villages with all food and entertainment organized for them. Butlin’s and Pontin’s, the companies which own most of these, are well-known names in Britain. The enforced good-humour, strict meal-times and events such as ‘knobbly knees’ competitions and beauty contests that were characteristic of these camps have now given way to a more relaxed atmosphere.

► Rock

There is one kind of sweet associated with holiday resorts. This is ‘rock’, a hard thick stick of sugar. Each resort has the letters of its name appearing throughout the stick, so that one hears of‘Brighton Rock’, ‘Blackpool Rock’ and so on.

Modern holidays

Both of the traditional types of holiday have become less popular in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The increase in car ownership has encouraged many people to take caravan holidays. But the greatest cause of the decline of the traditional holiday is foreign tourism. Before the 1960s, only the rich took holidays abroad. By 197 I, the British were taking 7 million foreign holidays and by 1987, 20 million. These days, millions of British people take their cars across the channel every year and nearly half of all the nights spent on holidays away from home are spent abroad.

Most foreign holidays are package holidays, in which transport and accommodation are booked and paid for through a travel agent. These holidays are often booked a long time in advance. In the middle of winter the television companies run programmes which give information about the packages being offered. People need cheering up at this time of the year! Ill many British homes it has become traditional to get the holiday brochures out and start talking about where to go in the summer on Boxing Day (oCalendar of special occasions). Spain is by far the most popular package-holiday destination.

Half of all the holidays taken within Britain are now for three days or less. Every bank-holiday weekend there are long traffic jams along the routes to the most popular holiday areas. The traditional seaside resorts have survived by adjusting themselves to this trend. (Only the rich have second houses or cottages in the countryside to which they can escape at weekends.) But there are also many other types of holiday. Hiking in the country and sleeping at youth hostels has long been popular (see chapter 5) and so, among an enthusiastic minority, has pot-holing (the exploration of underground caves). There are also a wide range of‘activity’ holidays available, giving full expression to British individualism. You can, for example, take part in a ‘murder weekend’, and find yourself living out the plot of detective story.

An increasing number of people now go on ‘working’ holidays, during which they might help to repair an ancient stone wall or take part in an archaeological dig. This is an echo of another traditional type of‘holiday’ — fruit picking. It used to be the habit of poor people from the east end of London, for example, to go to Kent at the end of the summer to help with the hop harvest (hops are used for making beer).

► Seaside postcards

Humorous postcards like the one below can still be bought at seaside resorts. The joke always has an element of sexual innuendo in it.

The traditional seaside holiday in the first half of the twentieth century represented a relaxing of Victorian restrictions on overt reference to sex. These days, of course, no such restrictions exist, so these postcards are mainly enjoyed in a spirit of nostalgia for the past.

People also buy Christmas trees (a tradition imported from Germany in the nineteenth century). Almost every househcVl has a tree decorated in a different way (in many cases, with coloured lights). Most people also put up other decorations around the louse. Exactly what these are varies a great deal, but certain symbols oi Christmas, such as bits of the holly and mistletoe plants, are very common, and the Christmas cards which the household has receivd are usually displayed. A ‘crib’, which is a model depicting the birth of Christ, also sometimes forms part of the Christmas decorations. In December, as Christmas gets closer, carols (usually, but not always, with a religious theme) are sung in churches and schools, often at special concerts, and also, though less often than in the past, by groups of people who go from house to house collecting money for charitable causes.

The role of Father Christmas (or Santa Claus) and the customs associated with the giving of gifts vary from family to family. Most households with children tell them that Father Christmas comes down the chimney on the night of Christmas Eve (even though most houses no longer have a working chimney!). Many children lay out a Christmas stocking at the foot of their beds, which they expect to see filled when they wake up on Christmas morning. Most families put wrapped presents around or on the Christmas tree and these are opened at some time on Christmas Day.

Other activities on Christmas Day may include the eating of Christmas dinner (► Christmas dinner) and listening to the Queen’s Christmas message. This ten-minute television broadcast is normally the only time in the year when the monarch speaks directly to ‘her’ people on television. (When, in 1993, a national newspaper published the text of her speech a few days beforehand, it was a national scandal.)

The general feeling is that Christmas is a time for families. Many of the gatherings in houses on Christmas Day and Boxing Day consist of extended families (more than just parents and children). For many families, Christmas is the only time that they are all together (so it is often a time of conflict rather than harmony, in fact).

Parties on New Year’s Eve, on the other hand, are usually for friends. Most people attend a gathering at this time and ‘see in’ the new year with a group of other people, often drinking a large amount of alcohol as they do so. In London, many go to the traditional celebration in Trafalgar Square (where there is an enormous Christmas tree which is an annual gift from the people of Norway).

In Scotland, where the Calvinists disapproved of parties and celebrations connected with religious occasions (such as Christmas), New Year, called Hogmanay, is given particular importance - so much importance that, in Scotland only, 2 January (as well as New Year’s Day) is also a public holiday (so that people have two days to recover from their New Year’s Eve parties instead of just one!). Some British New Year customs, such as the singing of the song Auld Lang Syne, originated in Scotland. Another, less common, one is the custom of ‘first footing’, in which the first person to visit a house in the new year is supposed to arrive with tokens of certain important items for survival (such as a lump of coal for the fire).

As a well-known Christmas carol reminds people, there are twelve days of Christmas. In fact, most people go back to work and school soon after New Year. Nobody pays much attention to the feast of the epiphany on 6 January (the twelfth day of Christmas), except that :his is traditionally the day on which Christmas decorations are taken down. Some people say it is bad luck to keep them up after this date.

► The Christmas party

In thousands of companies throughout Britain, the last working afternoon before Christmas is the time of the annual office party, at which a lot of alcohol is often consumed. Sexual feelings, hidden throughout the year, come into the open. This is a problem for company bosses. By law, an employer is responsible for sexual harassment at work and may have to pay as much as £ 10,000 in compensation. The peak time for complaints of sexual harassment is in January - just after the annual office party. Many employers now insure themselves against claims for compensation at this time.

► Christmas dinner

The traditional meal consists of stuffed roast turkey with roast potatoes and some other vegetable (often Brussel sprouts). Other foods associated with Christmas are Christmas pudding, an extremely heavy sweet dish made of dried fruits (it is traditional to pour brandy over it and then set it alight) and Christmas cake, an equally heavy fruit cake, with hard white icing on top.

Other notable annual occasions

Easter is far less important than Christmas to most people in Britain. Although it involves a four-day ‘weekend’, there are very few customs and habits associated generally with it, other than the consumption of mountains of chocolate Easter eggs by children. Some people preserve the tradition of eating hot cross buns on Good Friday ► Calendar of special occasions). Quite a lot of people go away on holiday at this time.

None of the other days of the year to which traditional customs are attached is a holiday, and not everybody takes part in these customs. In fact, many people in Britain live through occasions such as Shrove Tuesday, April Fools’ Day or Hallowe’en (► Calendar of special .erosions) without even knowing that they have happened.

There is one other day which, although many people do not mark

any special way, is very difficult to ignore. This is s November, the day which celebrates a famous event in British history - the z -npowder plot. It is called Guy Fawkes’ Day — or, more commonly, Be r.fire Night. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, a group :: Catholics planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament while King 'arr.es I was in there. Before they could achieve this, one of them, B Fawkes, was caught in the cellars under Parliament with the z —".powder. He and his fellow-conspirators were all killed.

► Panto

The Christmas and New Year holiday seasons bring with them a popular theatrical tradition. This is pantomine (often shortened to ‘panto’), staged in hundreds of theatres and specifically designed to appeal to children. It usually involves the acting out of a well- known folk tale with plenty of opportunity for audience participation.

There are certain established conventions of panto. For example, the cast includes a ‘principal boy’ (the young hero), who is always played by a woman, and a ‘dame’ (an older female character), who is always played by a man.

The continuing popularity of panto is assisted by the fact that these leading roles are today frequently taken by well-known personalities from the worlds of television or sport

At the time, the failure of the gunpowder plot was celebrated as a victory for British Protestantism, over rebel Catholicism. However, it has now lost its religious and patriotic connotations. In most parts of Britain, Catholic children celebrate it just as enthusiastically as Protestant children - or, for that matter, children brought up in any other religious faith. (As with Christmas, most of the customs associated with this day are mainly for the benefit of children.) Some children make a ‘guy’ out of old clothes stuffed with newspaper several weeks beforehand. They then place this somewhere on the street and ask passers-by for ‘a penny for the guy’. What they are actually asking for is money to buy fireworks with.

On Guy Fawkes’ Night itself there are ‘bonfire parties’ throughout the country, at which the ‘guy’ is burnt. Some people cook food in the embers of the bonfire, especially chestnuts or potatoes. So many fireworks are set off that, by the end of the evening, the air in all British cities smells strongly of sulphur. Every year, accidents with fireworks injure or even kill several people. In an effort to make things safer, some local authorities arrange public firework displays.

Finally, one other day should be mentioned. This is a different day for everybody - their birthday. Once again, it is most important for children, all of whom receive presents on this day from their parents, and often from other relatives as well. Adults may or may not receive presents, depending on the customs of their family and their circle of friends. Many will simply be wished ‘Happy birthday’ (not, by the way, ‘Congratulations’, unless it is a special birthday, such as a twenty-first). Some children and adults have a party, but not all. Moreover, nobody, including adults, is automatically expected to extend hospitality to other people on this day, and it is not expected that people should bring along cakes or anything to share with their colleagues at work, although some people do.

► St Valentine’s Day and Gretna Green

Despite the unromantic reputation of the British, on this day every year about £7 million worth of flowers are delivered (orders from men outnumber those from women by forty to one), an extra 40 million chocolates are sold and greetings-card manufacturers collect £2$ million.

Every St Valentine’s Day, thousands of people travel to a tiny village on Scotland’s border with England. Many of them go to get married, and many more couples go through mock wedding ceremonies. The village is Gretna Green. Its romantic reputation began in I 7 £4. In England in that year, marriage for people under the age of twenty-one without permission from parents was banned. In Scotland, however, this permission was not required, and Gretna Green was the first stop across the border. The laws that brought fame to Gretna Green no longer apply. But its reputation is secure. In this small place, at least one couple gets married, on average, every day of the year. Weddings for St Valentine’s Day have to be booked three months in advance.

► P’ Shrove Tuesday

This day is also known as Pancake Day. In past centuries, Lent was a time of fasting. Both meat and eggs were forbidden throughout the six weeks. The tradition was to eat up all your meat on the Monday before Lent, and all your eggs on the Tuesday - in pancakes. Now, the fasting has gone and only the eating remains.

Two events are associated with Shrove Tuesday. One of them is the pancake tossing contest (how many pancakes can you throw into the air and catch within a certain time?). The other is the pancake race. Contestants have to run while continuously tossing a pancake. Anyone who drops his or her pancake is disqualified.

Calendar of special occasions

New Year’s Day (i January)

2 January is also a public holiday in

Scotland.

St Valentine’s Day (14 February)

Shrove Tuesday (Forty-seven days before Easter)

St Patrick’s Day (I 7 March)

This is a public holiday in Northern Ireland.

Mother’s Day (The fourth Sunday in Lent)

£$o million worth of flowers are bought for this day. Cards are also sent.

April Fools Day (I April)

It is traditional for people to play nicks or practical jokes on each other on this day. Children are the most enthusiastic about this custom, but even the BBC and serious newspapers sometimes have ‘joke’ (i.e. not genuine) features on this day.

Good Friday

The strange name in English for the day commemorating Christ’s crucifixion.

Easter Monday (The day after Easter Sunday)

May Day (The first Monday in May) In Britain this day is associated more with ancient folklore than with the workers. In some villages the custom of dancing round the maypole is acted out.

Spring Bank Holiday (The last Monday in May)

There used to be a holiday on ‘whit Monday’ celebrating the Christian feast of Pentecost. Because this is seven weeks after Easter, the date varied. This fixed holiday has replaced it.

Father’s Day (The third Sunday in June)

This is probably just a commercial invention - and not a very successful one either. Millions of British fathers don’t even know they have a special day.

Queen’s official Birthday (The second or third Saturday in June)

It is ‘official’ because it is not her real one. Certain public ceremonies are performed on this day.

Orangemen’s Day (I 2 July)

This is a public holiday in Northern Ireland only. In this way, the holiday associated with the Catholic part of the community (St Patrick’s Day) is balanced by one associated with the other part, the Protestants (see chapter 4).

Summer Bank Holiday (The last Monday in August)

Hallowe’en (31 October)

This is the day before All Saints’ Day in the Christian calendar, and is associated with the supernatural. Some people hold Hallowe’en parties, which are fancy-dress parties (people dress up as witches, ghosts etc.). However, this day is observed much more energetically in the USA than it is in Britain.

Guy Fawkes’ Day (5 November)

Remembrance Sunday (Second Sunday in November)

This day commemorates the dead of both World Wars and of more recent conflicts. On and before this day, money is collected in the street on behalf of charities for ex-service- men and women. The people who donate money are given paper poppies to pin to their clothes. No politician would be seen on this day without a poppy!

Christmas Eve (24 December)

Christmas Day (2£ December)

Boxing Day (26 December) Explanations for the origin of this name vary. One is that it was the day on which landowners and householders would present their tenants and servants with gifts (in boxes), another is that it was the day on which the collecting boxes in churches were opened and the contents distributed to the poor.

New Year’s Eve (31 December)

QUESTIONS

1 Why, do you think, have the two traditional types of holiday (at seaside boarding houses and at holiday camps) in Britain become less popular in the last quarter of the twentieth century? Is the modern pattern of British holidaymaking the same as it is for people in your country?

2 What aspects of Christmas in Britain, and the customs associated with it, are different from those in your country?

3 In Britain, you are generally considered to be unfortunate if your birthday is in the last half of December. Why? What special days do you have in your country for individuals to celebrate which British people don’t celebrate?

4 There is a science-fiction story in which beings from outer space fly over Britain one night and conclude that planet Earth is full of barbaric, cruel people. Which night was it? How did they form this impression?

SUGGESTIONS

• A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens (which features the famous character of the miserly Scrooge), paints a picture of the Victorian idea of Christmas, which is influential to this day.

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