English traditions

Every country and every nation has its own traditions and customs. We cannot speak about England without speaking about its traditions and customs. Englishmen are proud of their traditions and carefully keep then up. London has preserved its old ceremonies and traditions to a greater extent than any other city in England.

Most of these traditions have been kept up without interruption since the thirteenth century.

Uniforms are rather characteristic of this fact. When one sees the warders at the Tower of London with their funny bats and unusual dresses with royal monograms, one feels carried back to the age of Queen Elizabeth I.

Even in the unromantic everyday life of English businessmen we can see the same formal traditions. In the City of London there may be seen a number of men in top-hats. These are the bank messengers who bad to put on these bats according to tradition. The same tradition makes the Eton boys (the boys of Eton College) put on a silk bat, a very short jacket and long trousers.

All of you,.of course, have seen English films and noticed official black dresses and white wigs of judges andadvocates, though wigs have not been used for nearly two hundred years in other countries.

One of the most impressive and popular ceremonies is "Changing the Guard", which takes place at Buckingham Palace every day at 11.30. The uniforms of the guards are extremely coloured - red tunics, blue trousers and bearskin caps, and they always attract London sightseers.

Another formal display is the "Ceremony of Keys" which takes place every night at 9.53 p.m. when the Chief Warder of the Tower of London lights a candle lantern and carries the keys makes his way with the Escort to the gates of the gates and locks them. This ceremony takes place every night without interruption. It is said that on the night of April 16, 1941, air bombing stopped the ceremony, knocking out members of the Escort. Despite this the duty was completed.

The English are stay-at-home people. "There is no place like home" they say. And when the man is not working be is at home in the company of his wife and children and busies himself with the affairs of the home. "The Englishman’s home is his castle" is a saying known, all over the world. Englishmen are very fond of chimneys, that’s why many of then prefer the open fire to central beating. They like to live in small houses with a small garden. A typical house of this kind is built with two floors. Many British people give their house a name.

English people keep to their traditions even in meals. Porridge is the dish Englishmen are very fond of. Many of the” eat porridge with milk for breakfast. As for the Scotch they never put sugar in their porridge, they always put salt in it.

The English are tea-drinkers. They have it many times a day. They usually drink tea with milk.

The national drink in England is beer as a tradition the English people enjoy Christmasvery much. They celebrate it on the 25th of December.

Дата добавления: 2015-08-05