Public holydays in Great Britain, Детальна інформація

In medieval times the day was characterised by merrymaking and feasting, a relic of which is the eating of pancakes. Whatever religious significance the day may have possessed in the olden days, it certainly has none now.

The origin of the festival is rather obscure, as is the origin of the custom of pancake eating.

The most consistent form of celebration in the old days was all over town ball game or tug-of-war in which everyone let rip before the traditional feast, tearing here and tearing there, struggling to get the ball or rope into their part of the town. It seems that several dozen towns kept up these ball games until only a few years ago. Today the only custom that is consistently observed throughout Britain is pancake eating, though here and there other customs still seem to survive. Among the latter, Pancake races, the Pancake Greaze custom are best known.

Remembrance Day (Poppy Day)

h(

h(

d

x

gd(

gd(

gd(

gd(

gd(

gd(

gd(

gd(

gd(

gd(

gd(

gd(

gd(

gd(

gd(

rs come forward to lay wreaths at the foot of the Cenotaph. Then comes the march past the memorial of ex-servicemen and women, followed by an endless line of ordinary citizens who have come here with their personal wreaths and their sad memories.

On that day artificial poppies a symbol of mourning, are traditionally sold in the streets everywhere, and people wear them in their buttonholes. The money collected in this way later used to help the men who had been crippled during the war and their dependants.