Hi everyone! I have taken a sabaticle from this website for at least a year. Last time I got lots of helpful info on France and am very grateful for all the input! I had a very memorable trip to France due in large part to members on this board!

I am now trying to get info on British customs, and thought it might be nice to start a list on this site. If anyone knows of any customs that they remember from travelling or living in Great Britain, please pass them along.

Thanks a million for your time!
Patricia

p.s anyone know of some great websites for Anglophiles with forums?

If you use Google for English folk customs you start to see the great range. Then you do the same for Welsh, Irish and Scottish. Again, Google will give you notes on anything I can think of, and list here. I am a Londoner

Kept up partly for tourists, but partly by habit, are these
Morris dancing
Easter egg rolling
Pancake races
Scottish country games
Bell ringing

Kept up chiefly or wholly for natives
Punch and Judy shows
Carol singing door to door
Irish line dancing
Scottish country dancing
Bagpipes
Collecting for Guy Fawkes night (bonfire night), and the night itself
Kissing under the mistletoe
Pancake night
Hot Cross Buns
Three-legged races
Birthday cake: blowing out the candles, and slicing
Action songs mostly for small children: Ring a ring a roses and the hokey-cokey
Playground games: hopscotch
Paiting large flowers on barges and on roundabout (carousel) horses

New
A habit of motorists waving each other forward, and (recently) of thanking other drivers with a wave
Shouting and whistling appreciation of great orchestras after great concerts

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Hi Patricia.

There are a lot of customs here. The mix of people - who change every 50 miles or so - means that the list, as Ben has demonstrated, is endless.

The main one which springs to mind is the British pub. It is as essential to the way of life here as crossing the street. You can drink, eat, smoke, read, talk and just generally hang out. I have been to areas in England and Wales where the pubs are definitely 'male' but that's ok. I wouldn't expect locals to change their way of life just for me.

Another main distinction is London vs The Rest of the Country or, in fact, Town vs Country. Like any country, there is a big difference but I think it is REALLY big here. In some parts of Britain, life has not changed very much. You can go to a livestock market in a small town in Wales and see the farmers in their flatcaps, smoking and talking (in Welsh!) whilst leaning against a wall. You could compare that against a photo from 50 years ago and not see many differences. For some of them, a trip to London may as well be a trip to the moon. They're just not interested. And that's fine. That's the wonderful charm of this amazing place and while sometimes the level of service and general standards can be low, I always remind myself that I don't want a homogenous world anyway.

Other than that, I think you can't go wrong here if you're polite, stand in line, wait your turn, etc. I learned very early on here that if you're standing at the bar, you get served faster if you hold a £10 note in your hand . I have also learned that 'teatime' is still observed, just not as formally (they don't crack open the scones. it's just tea). In British offices and homes, they generally will start making tea at around 4pm. It's amazing! I have also noticed the strict observance of mince pies at Xmas and hot cross buns at Easter. If it's your birthday, YOU get to buy everyone drinks at the pub, not the other way round. The British, like the Germans, have an enormous capacity for sugar, in the form of chocolate and biscuits/cookies. Baking may not involve as many spices (the British have a low tolerance level for cinnamon) but there are still a lot of pies, buns, pasties etc. consumed. Sunday roast is still a big deal. If you are not fortunate to have one in a British house, you can always get one in the pub. Also, beer in pubs, particularly lager, can be mixed with other things. Try a 'lager shandy' (lemonade) or 'lager and lime' (lime cordial). Another thing is British wit/sarcasm. They are masters at this - particulary the men - so don't even try to compete unless you are at their level!! They love ribbing people of other nationalities (hey, they love ribbing each other) but it's 100% harmless and (usually) well meant. The word 'Yank' is used continuously. They don't even think about it. I have stood and listened to some very amusing exchanges of wit in the last 10 years and it has made me realise that it's almost a sport here. Speaking of sport, football (footie) is a religion here. Nothing else comes close.

Anyway, I could go on and on. All I can say is that this is a fascinating place and the average tourist only scratches the surface when he/she visits. I have lived here 10 years and I'm still learning!!!

Thanks Ben and Ally! Wow! There's alot of great info there. And while I guess I knew I could find info on basic topics online, I was looking for the more intimate personal recollections of customs as seen by different people --basically I was just looking for some interesting stories on different customs that people have experienced--something I could only get by asking real people.

Ally, I really appreciate your candidness. I can almost picture the pubs...and the farmers rolling cigarettes and talking about politics amidst the sheep in the background. I will have to read it again to get some more of the nuances. I am wondering, if you are working now in England and if it was hard to get a job there? (if you are not working now, just ignore this).

Thanks so much both of you, for your input! There's obviously alot of things I still have to learn.
Patricia

Mostly language differences from North American usage come to mind:
lift = elevator
car boot = car trunk
petrol = gasoline
jumper = pullover
anorak = wind breaker
chips = french fries
crisps = chips
prawns = shrimp
after dinner sweet = dessert
starters = appetizers
chemist's = pharmacy (except in Scotland where pharmacy = pharmacy)
loo = toilet
W.C. (water closet) = toilet
football = soccer
Mind the Gap = Watch Out for the space between the subway train and the platform - Believe me sometimes "Mind the bloody enormous crevass" would be even more appropriate.

My list was indeed personal. The only items that I have not myself experienced are
Easter egg rolling, pancake races and Scottish country games. Anecdotes do not really arise: these are simply part of life. I suppose I could tell you of my fourth birthday party, but it was like any other except that my mother told me thirty years later that we all had measles. Now, the two customs that most make my heart leap are bellringers in the City of London and pipers in Edinburgh.

Ben Haines

Thanks everyone! Ben, sorry didn't mean to imply that these experiences weren't personal. It's just that it looked more like a list and some of the things I don't understand the significance of --like say hot cross buns, pancake night, and morris dancing? Sorry, I guess I'm just not very aware of some of these customs. What do they mean and in what scenarios are they celebrated?

Many thanks to all!!!
Patricia

To answer only a few questions: hot cross buns are an Eastertime treat, pancake night is Shrove Tuesday, before Lent begins, morris dancing is what they do on BBC programs and involves dancing around a pole with lots of ribbons. Nothing much to be concerned with, Patricia. In fact, if you want a jumpstart on the British, tune in to all those old sitcoms they show on PBS stations--To the Manor Born, Mr. Bean, Lovejoy, to name a few. I can't say they'll acurately portray Brits but they will certainly clue you in on the British sense of humor! In regard to language differences, if someone says to you "How about a kip?" as did my Windsor-born husband, he is NOT trying to romance you. HaHa! And as AllyPally mentioned, the wit/sarcasm. We tend to be heavy on the sarcasm; short on the wit, unfortunately. Not them! My husband is the kindliest of men and very quiet to boot, but he comes out with these astute little comments that leave you reeling. That wit thing. Last thing I can remember for now. The daily big newspapers usually have topless dollies on page two. Not something you'd find in ours!

Hot cross buns, pancake night, and morris dancing each have good links in Google, so I think I shall leave you to look into these strange goings-on. Pancake night on Shrove Tuesday marks the clearing of the house of sugar, honey and other goodies for the forty day fast of Lent. Hot cross buns at Easter mark the Crucifixion of Christ. Morris dancing in summer may well have pagan origins (the maypole, associated, almost certainly does, and Freudian, too), but is now simply a good time to watch grown men in ribbons and bells engage in formation dancing while a Fool belabours them with a balloon.

I hope others, probably visitors to our shores, can give you the notes you seek. As you see, my problem is that any adequate reply would take us far into token, taboo, and medieval folk religion. Moreover, I might well need to tell you about Lent and Easter, which are fine, but hard to summarise.

Ben Haines

PATRICAV2
Thanks for the post.!! I'm heading to London in a few weeks....all of the responses are refreshing my memories!!!
My favorite British custom....being called "luv"....ah...music to me ears!!