Traditions in England
I learn something every day here in England. A tradition they have here in England that an english friend of mine told me about today is May Day. On this day, the 1st of May, the britans celebrate that the long winter is over and the flowers start to blossom. This day inclued morris-dancing, growing a May queen and dress out in customs. The britans say that this is the time of love and romance. You can compare this day with what we call “Valborg” in
Sweden. It’s pretty much the same but in Sweden we celebrate it on the 30th of April. That’s also a celebration for getting closer to summertimes, but insted of a May queen we have a huge fire. But if you just think about the activities, it reminded me a lot of midsummer in Sweden. We also dress out in national costumes, at least some of us, and we dance around a rod that we have raised and we sing songs. Pretty much, it’s just a few details and the use (because midsummer in Sweden is celebrated of religious reasons) that divides them.
Another big tradition here is The Notting Hill carnival, I don’t know if you have heard of it but I had not before I went to England. It’s acutally the biggest carnival in the whole Europe. The carnival took place the 29th-31th august and it was amazing! The streets of west London was nothing like I’ve seen before. Wherever your look you see all sorts of colors, feathers, sparkle, dances and smiles. The carnival is set up by the West Indian Community and started 1964. Since then the carnival has grown over the years. I wish we could have a carnival like this in Sweden, I know we have but no carnival that is this much of a tradition. It’s very nice, like a different culture walking cross the streets. I definitly believe we could have this sort of traditions in Sweden since we swedes are very open with people from different cultures. However, we do have the Pride festival in Sweden every year, and I really like how it grows as a tradition! I acutally thought about that when I watched the Notting Hill carnival, it’s totally different people who’s walking the parade but the joy is the same.
/Linn
I thought about what you said about the May Day. In India they celebrate when the spring arrives. They call this celebration Holi. On this day they throw colours on each other. This was something really fun, but my clothes I wore that day are destroyed.
Here in South Africa they have a lot of traditions because of the big mix of different culture. The white people have for example on tradition while some aborigines have some other tradition. That I think is the biggest different from England and South Africa. Yet I haven’t celebrated any tradition, but perhaps I will do that under my visit here.
We have a lot of traditions here in the United States too. But I think that most of them are celebrated the same way as in England, for example christmas.
