England: Facts & Stats

CULTURE

Traditions:

English people are famous for their habit of politeness. It is considered polite to give up one's seat to a woman who is standing, to open a door for her, carry things for her, and so on. Most British people expect the person in front of them to hold the door open for them. People think you are rude, if you don't do this. Most British people queue when they are waiting for a bus or waiting to be served in a shop. But during the rush hour, when a bus or train arrives, people often push forward to make sure they get on. This is called jumping the queue.

British people keep their old traditions and are very proud of them. They are famous for their sense of humour. English people show great love for animals. And, of course, English people are fond of sports. Many continentals think life is a game; the English think cricket is a game. To many Englishmen cricket is both a game and a standard of behaviour. When they consider something unfair, they say "That isn't cricket".

The traditional love of English people for tea is well known. They like to drink tea with milk. They have their five-o'clock tea not only at home or in offices, but also in tea-rooms and tea-shops, which can be found in every town.

Celebrations:

Shrove Tuesday is known as Pancake Day in England. It was traditionally a day to make pancakes and use up all the butter and eggs that would not be allowed during Lent, which starts the following day, Ash Wednesday. Some families still make pancakes at home on Pancake Day. In an annual race held in Olney since 1945, women run carrying a pan and a pancake that must be flipped three times.

Mothering Sunday, traditionally the fourth Sunday in Lent, is a day to visit and bring gifts to one’s mother. On 1 April, April Fool’s tricks are played.

May Day is celebrated on the first Monday of May. On Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night (5 November), fireworks and bonfires on which effigies of Guy Fawkes are burned celebrate Fawkes's failure in his attempt to blow up the houses of Parliament on 4 November 1605.

On the second Sunday in November, Remembrance Day honors veterans. Red paper poppies are sold by the British Legion to raise money for veterans.

During Christmas dinner (25 December), the traditional “cracker” is supposed to be laid beside each plate. Those seated next to each other pull the ends of each other’s crackers, which make a loud bang! Inside there is a crepe-paper hat and a trinket. Boxing Day (26 December), so called for small earthenware boxes that tradespeople and civil servants traditionally carried around to collect tips, is now simply a leisure day and a very busy day in the sporting calendar. Many offices, but not shops, close for all of the Christmas-to-New Year period.

New Year’s Day (1 January), Good Friday (the Friday preceding Easter), and Easter Monday (the Monday following Easter) are three of England’s traditional “bank holidays,” on which banks and other businesses close. The other bank holidays include May Day, the spring and summer bank holidays (the last Monday in May and the last Monday in August, respectively), Christmas Day, and Boxing Day.

Most employees get four to five weeks’ annual vacation. Most people take their main two- or three-week vacation in July or August. A sizable minority also take a winter vacation, usually to go skiing or to somewhere warm and sunny. Short trips of two to five days to other parts of the country or to continental Europe have become increasingly popular.

Alcohol:

The legal drinking age for most alcohol is 18, but there are some antiquated loopholes - you can drink a port or sherry with a meal in a pub from the age of 16, at the Landlord's discretion.

Sports and Hobbies:

There are many sports which have been codified by the English, and then spread worldwide, including badminton, cricket, croquet, football, field hockey, lawn tennis, rugby league, rugby union, table tennis and thoroughbred horse racing. Association football, cricket, rugby union and rugby league are considered to be the national sports of England. England, and the other countries of the United Kingdom, compete as a separate nations in some international sporting events, especially in football, cricket and rugby union. The England cricket team actually represents England and Wales. However, in the Olympic Games, England competes as part of the Great Britain team. Supporters are nowadays more likely to carry the Cross of Saint George flag whereas twenty years ago the British Union Flag would have been the more prominent.

Football maintains a consistent popularity across the country and is often indicative of trends across wider culture in England, such as in clothing and music. The increase in hooliganism amongst football fans in the 1970s and 1980s can in part be attributed to a parallel rise in unemployment. As England, and the United Kingdom as a whole, returned to a more affluent and stable financial position in the late 1990s, violent football culture was transformed into a culture where families were welcome, and nationalism lost its aggressive edge.

Different sports directly represent the different social classes within England. Rugby league, for instance, was traditionally associated with the old mill towns of north-west England, whereas cricket and rugby union have their origins in the private schools of the 18th and 19th centuries respectively.

However, since the English Rugby World Cup victory in 2003, the sport has seen a revival in widespread popularity across the class system. Likewise, after the Ashes victory of 2005, cricket has regained much of the popularity it had lost throughout the 1990s.

Tennis is also one of England's major sports. One of the most prestigious tournaments in tennis, Wimbledon, is held in England.

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