English traditions- overview.

 

 

Every country and every nation has its own customs and traditions. You cannot speak about England without speaking about its traditions and customs. Englishmen are proud of their traditions and carefully keep them up.

The English are stay-at-home people. “There is no place like home”, they say. When they don’t work they like to spend their days off at home with their families.

Englishmen are very fond of fireplaces, that’s why many of them prefer the open fire to central heating.

They like to live in small houses with a small garden. People all over the world know the saying “The Englishman’s home is his castle”.

They say that English people keep to their traditions even in meals. Porridge is the dish Englishmen are very fond of. Many of them eat porridge with milk and sugar for breakfast. As for the Scots, for example, they never put sugar in their porridge, they always put salt in it.

By the way, breakfast time in England is between seven and nine.

Then, between 12 and 2 there comes lunch time. In some English houses lunch is the biggest meal of the day — they have meat or fish, vegetables, fruit or pudding.

In the afternoon, at tea-time the English like to have a cup of tea with milk.

Some Englishmen have their dinner late in the evening. For dinner they have soup, fish or meat, vegetables, pudding or fruit. For supper they usually have a glass of milk and a cake or a cup of tea and a sandwich.

The English are tea-drinkers. They have it many times a day. Some Englishmen have tea for breakfast, tea at lunch time, tea after dinner, tea at tea-time and tea with supper. Some English families have “high tea” or big tea and no supper. For high tea they may have cold meat, bread and butter, cakes, and, of course, a lot of tea. The Englishmen always drink tea out of cups, never out of glasses.

It has been the law for about three hundred years that all the theatres are closed on Sundays. No letters are delivered, only a few Sunday papers are published.

To this day an English family prefers a house with a garden to a flat in a modern house with central heating. English people like gardens.

Holidays are especially rich in old traditions and are different in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England. Christmas is a great English national holiday, and in Scotland it is not kept at all, except by clerks in banks; all the shops, mills and factories are working. But six days later, on New Years Eve the Scotch begin to enjoy themselves. All the shops, mills and factories are closed on New Years Day.

People invite their friends to their houses and "sit the Old Year out and the New Year in".

When the dock begins to strike twelve, the head of the family goes to the entrance door, opens it wide and holds it until the last stroke. Then he shuts the door. He has let the Old Year out and the New Year in.