British/local traditions

KaEllen

00mam00 - I thought it was greeting card manufacturers who invented mothering sunday!!

No, they invented Mother's Day which is different.

Mothering Sunday is the fourth Sunday in Lent, a time when people, often servants working away, went home to their Mother church.

wassailling the apple trees

00mam00 - I thought it was greeting card manufacturers who invented mothering sunday!!

LuckyFour

I can't add to the wonderful list supplied by you gransnetters. I'm hoping to have a holiday in Scotland next year and would love to see some welly wanging. And what are Mischief Night and Up Helly in the Shetlands?

I don’t know about Mischief Night, but the main Up Helly Aa in Lerwick, Shetland, is a torchlight procession ( women not allowed, if I remember correctly), followed by the burning of a Viking longboat. I think it’s meant to mark the end of the Christmas season.

The Mummers

Isle of Man TT motorcycle races

London to Brighton vintage car race

The Knaresborough bed race

Afternoon tea

Swan Upping

Here in Oxfordshire we have a local tradition of the of the local councillors throwing 4000 buns to the commoners below! Also of course May Day is celebrated (though not this year) by thousands gathering on the High Street, Oxford to listen to the choir heralding the dawn (though it tends to be drowned out by revellers!)

The Viking Festival, held in York February half term

The Haxey Hood - Lincolnshire/outskirts of Doncaster. Held 6 January, the twelfth day of Christmas, dates back to 14th century.

Morris Dancing

Stilton cheese rolling

Yorkshire Pudding boat race, Brawby, North Yorkshire.

Black pudding throwing, Ramsbottom

Just google local traditions and lots more things will come up.

Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory sung on the Last Night of the Proms.

I think there is a marbles competition somewhere.

What a waste of black pudding! Does it get eaten after it’s been chucked?

My children celebrated Halloween attending parties etc. but it wasn’t on my radar as a child Guy Fawkes was a community affair with two opposing bonfires being built in opposite corners of a field. Highly competitive and a certain amount of misappropriation of burnable items and trying to bury them in the depth. Penny for the guy arrived quite late. Some happily contributed whilst others muttered about begging!

Sorry. Didn’t check. Well, no pumpkins for a start...

GrannyAnnie2010

I'm interested in "proper" Halloween - what is it?

Week, no pumpkin ps for a start. Carved turnips as Jack O’Lanterns and definitely no trick or treating!

Black pudding chucking.

All of the above - every time I thought of a couple I found they had already been suggested.

Another one, in Cumbria - stone skimming. Championship held yearly.

Gurning! In Cumbria we have the world gurning championships ?

Hop-tu-Naa on the Isle of Man. Celebrated on the Isle of Man on 31st October predates Halloween and marks the end of summer in the Celtic calendar. In contrast to the British tradition; children carry lanterns carved from turnips, rather than pumpkins, and sing traditional Hop-tu-naa songs.

MellowYellow

Some Cornish Traditions....
Helston Flora Dance.
Penzance May Horns.
St. Piran's Day.
Stargazy pie.
Feast Week.
Cornish Hurling.
Padstow 'Obby 'Oss.
Cornish Cream Tea.
The World Pasty Championships.
Falmouth Sea Shanty Festival.
Christmas Day Dip.

Plus singing the Cornish National Anthem at every opportunity!

Cornish life is built on traditions.

Mên-an-Tol
It is said that if a woman passes through the ancient holed stone near Madron backwards seven times at full moon she will soon become pregnant.

Another legend has it that passing through the stone will cure a child of rickets. For centuries, naked children were passed through the hole nine times. The stones, which are though to date back to ether the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age, are guarded by a fairy or piskie.

Afternoon tea. Scones with real clotted cream (not double cream which other countries use when trying to emulate British traditions.) Tea drinking from china cups with milk (not lemon.)

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Mothering Sunday. All the other ‘Days’ are recent and probably started by greeting card manufacturers.