There are all kinds:

     The sick joke – reclining lady on the front, and inside she will “kick you in the ear”.

     The satirical – “You are charming, witty, intelligent, etc.”, and “if you believe all this you must be …” – inside the card you find an animated cuckoo clock.

     And the take-off of the sentimental – “Here’s the key to my heart … use it before I change the lock”.

     And the attempts to send a serious message without being too sickly, ending with variations of “mine” and “thine” and “Valentine”.

     So in the 20^th century, when there are no longer any bars to communication between the sexes, the love missives of an older, slower time, edged carefully over the counters by the publishers and shopkeepers, still surge through the letter boxes. 

PANCAKE DAY

 

     Pancake Day is the popular name for Shrove Tuesday, the day preceding the first day of Lent. In medieval times the day was characterized by merrymaking and feasting, a relic of which is the eating of pancakes. Whatever religious significance Shrove Tuesday may have possessed in the olden days, it certainly has none now. A Morning Star correspondent who went to a cross-section of the people he knew to ask what they knew about Shrove Tuesday received these answers:

     “It’s the day when I say to my wife: ‘Why don’t we make pancakes?’ and she says, ‘No, not this Tuesday! Anyway, we can make them any time.’”

     “It is a religious festival the significance of which escapes me. What I do remember is that it is Pancake Day and we as children used to brag about how many pancakes we had eaten.”

     “It’s pancake day and also the day of the student rags. Pancakes – luscious, beautiful pancakes. I never know the date – bears some relationship to some holy day.”

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

     Elfrica Viport, in her book on Christian Festivals, suggests that since the ingredients of the pancakes were all forbidden by the Church during Lent then they just had to be used up the day before.

     Nancy Price in a book called Pagan’s Progress suggests that the pancake was a “thin flat cake eaten to stay the pangs of hunger before going to be shriven” (to confession).

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     In his Seasonal Feasts and Festivals E. O. James links up Shrove Tuesday with the Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) festivals or warmer countries. These jollifications were an integral element of seasonal ritual for the purpose of promoting fertility and conquering the malign forces of evil, especially at the approach of spring.”

     The most consistent form of celebration in the old days was the 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.

     E. O. James in his book records instances where the Shrove Tuesday celebrations became pitched battles between citizens led by the local church authorities.

     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 and Ashbourne’s Shrovetide Football are the best known. Shrovetide is also the time of Student Rags. 

ST DAVID’S DAY

 

     On the 1^st of March each year one can see people walking around London with leeks pinned to their coats. А leek is the national emblem of Wales. The many Welsh people who live in London — or in other cities outside Wales — like to show their solidarity on their national day.

     The day is actually called Saint David’s Day, after а sixth century abbot who became patron saint of Wales. David is the nearest English equivalent to the saint’s name, Dawi.

     The saint was known traditionally as “the Waterman”, which perhaps means that he and his monks were teetotallers. А teetotaller is someone who drinks nо kind of alcohol, but it does not mean that he drinks only tea, as many people seem to think.

     In spite of the leeks mentioned earlier, Saint David’s emblem is not that, but а dove. No one, not even the Welsh, can explain why they took leek to symbolize their country, but perhaps it was just as well. After all, they can't pin а dove to their coat!  
 

     MOTHERING SUNDAY (MOTHERS’ DAY) 

      Mothers’  Day is traditionally observed on the fourth Sunday in Lent (the Church season of penitence beginning on Ash Wednesday, the day of which varies from year to year). This is usually in March. The day used to be known as Mothering Sunday and dates from the time when many girls worked away from home as domestic servants in big households, where their hours of work were often very long Mothering Sunday was established as a holyday for these girls and gave them an

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opportunity of going home to see their parents, especially their mother. They used to take presents with them, often given to them by the lady of the house.

      When the labour situation changed and everyone was entitled to regular time off, this custom remained, although the day is now often called “Mothers’ Day”. People visit their mothers if possible and give them flowers and small presents. If they cannot go they send a “Mothers’ Day card”, or they may send one in any case. The family try to see that the mother has as little work to do as possible, sometimes

the husband or children take her breakfast in bed and they often help with the meals and the washing up. It is considered to be mother’s day off. 

St. Patrick’s Day

 

     It is not a national holiday. It’s an Irish religious holiday. St. Patrick is the patron of Ireland. Irish and Irish Americans celebrate the day. On the day they decorate their houses and streets with green shamrocks and wear something green. In large cities long parades march through the streets. Those who aren’t Irish themselves also wear green neckties and hair ribbons and take part in the celebration. 
 

ESTER

 

      During the Easter Holidays the attention of the progressive people in Great Britain and indeed throughout the world is riveted first and foremost on the Easter Peace Marches, which took place for the first time in 1958 and have since become traditional. The people who participate in these marches come from different sections of society. Alongside workers and students march university professors, doctors, scientists, and engineers. More often than not the columns are joined by progressive people from abroad.

     The character of the marches has changed over the years. The high-point was reached in the early sixties; this was followed by a lapse in enthusiasm when attendance fell off during the middle and late sixties. More recent years have seen a rise in the number of people attending the annual Easter March, as global problems have begun to affect the conscience of a broader section of the English population. 

London’s Easter Parade

 

     London greets the spring, and its early visitors, with a truly spectacular Easter Parade in Battersea Park on Easter Sunday each year. It is sponsored by the London Tourist Board and is usually planned around a central theme related to the history and attractions of London. The great procession, or parade, begins at 3 p. m., but it is

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     advisable to find a vantage-point well before that hour. The parade consists of a great many interesting and decorated floats, entered by various organizations in and outside the metropolis. Some of the finest bands in the country take part in the parade. At the rear of the parade is usually the very beautiful Jersey float, created from thousands of lovely spring blooms and bearing the Easter Princess and her attendants. It is an afternoon to remember.

APRIL FOOLS’ DAY

 

     April Fools’ Day or All Fools’ Day, named from the custom of playing practical jokes or sending friends on fools’ errands, on April 1^st. Its timing seems related to the vernal equinox, when nature fools mankind with sudden changes from showers to sunshine. It is a season when all people, even the most dignified, are given an excuse to play the fool. In April comes the cuckoo, emblem of simpletons; hence in Scotland the victim is called “cuckoo” or “gowk”, as in the verse: On the first day of April, Hunt the gowk another mile. Hunting the gowk was a fruitless errand; so was hunting for hen’s teeth, for a square circle or for stirrup oil, the last-named proving to be several strokes from a leather strap. 
 

May Day in Great Britain

 

      As May 1^st is not a public holiday in Great Britain, May Day celebrations are traditionally held on the Sunday following it, unless, of course, the 1^st of May falls on a Sunday. On May Sunday workers march through the streets and hold meetings to voice their own demands and the demands of other progressive forces of the country. The issues involved may include demands for higher wages and better working conditions, protests against rising unemployment, demands for a change in the Government’s policy, etc.

May Spring Festival

 

      The 1st of May has also to some extent retained its old significance —  that of а pagan spring festival. In ancient times it used to be celebrated with garlands and flowers, dancing and games on the village green. А Maypole was erected — a tall pole wreathed with flowers, to which in later times ribbons were attached and held by the dancers. The girls put on their best summer frocks, plaited flowers in their hair and round their waists and eagerly awaited the crowning of the May Queen. The most beautiful girl was crowned with а garland of flowers. After this great event Веге was dancing, often Morris dancing, with the dancers dressed in fancy costume, usually  

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representing characters in the Robin Hood legend. May-Day games and sports were followed by refreshments in the open.

     This festival was disliked by the Puritans and suppressed during the Commonwealth, 1649 — 60. After the Restoration it was revived but has gradually almost died out. However, the Queen of May is still chosen in most counties, and in mаnу villages school Maypoles are erected around which the children dance. The famous ceremony of the meeting of the 1st of May still survives at Oxford, in Magdalen College. At 6 o’clock in the morning the college choir gathers in the upper gallery of the college tower to greet the coming of the new day with song.  
 

TROOPING ТНE COLOUR 

     During the month of June, а day is set aside as the Queen’ s official birthday. This is usually the second Saturday in June. On this day there takes place on Horse Guards’ Parade in Whitehall the magnificent spectacle of Trooping the Colour, which begins at about 11.15 а. m. (unless rain intervenes, when the ceremony is usually postponed until conditions are suitable).

     This is pageantry of rаrе splendour, with the Queen riding side-saddle on а highly trained horse.

     The colours of one of the five regiments of Foot Guards are trooped before the Sovereign. As she rides on to Horse Guards’ parade the massed array of the Brigade of Guards, dressed in ceremonial uniforms, await her inspection.

     For twenty minutes the whole parade stands rigidly to attention while being inspected by the Queen. Then comes the Trooping ceremony itself, to be followed by the famous March Past of the Guards to the music of massed bands, at which the Queen takes the Salute. The precision drill of the regiments is notable.

     The ceremony ends with the Queen returning to Buckingham Palace at the head of her Guards.

     The Escort to the Colour, chosen normally in strict rotation, then mounts guard at the Palace.  

Midsummer's Day

 

     Midsummer's Day, June 24th, is the longest day of the year. On that day you can see a very old custom at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, England. Stonehenge is one of Europe's biggest stone circles. A lot of the stones are ten or twelve metres high. It's also very old. The earliest part of Stonehenge is nearly 5,000 years old.

     But what was Stonehenge? A holy place? A market? Or was it a kind of calendar? We think the Druids used it for a calendar. The Druids were the priests in Britain 2,000 years ago. They used the sun and the stones at Stonehenge to know the

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start of months and seasons. There are Druids in Britain today, too. And every June 24th a lot of them go to Stonehenge. On that morning the sun shines on one famous stone - the Heel stone. For the Druids this is a very important moment in the year. But for a lot of British people it's just a strange old custom.

LATE SUMMER BANK HOLIDAY

 

     On Bank Holiday the townsfolk usually flock into the country and to the coast. If the weather is fine many families take а picnic-lunch or tea with them and enjoy their meal in the open. Seaside towns near London, such as Southend, are invaded by thousands of trippers who come in cars and coaches, trains, motor cycles and bicycles. Great amusement parks like Southend Kursaal do а roaring trade with their  scenic railways, shooting galleries, water-shoots, Crazy Houses, Hunted Houses and so on. Trippers will wear comic paper hats with slogans such as “Kiss Ме Quick”, and they will eat and drink the weirdest mixture of stuff you can imagine, sea food like cockles, mussels, whelks, shrimps and fried fish and chips, candy floss, beer, tea, soft, drinks, everything you can imagine.

     Bank Holiday is also an occasion for big sports meetings at places like the White City Stadium, mainly all kinds of athletics. There are also horse rасe meetings all over the country, and most traditional of all, there are large fairs with swings, roundabouts, coconut shies, а Punch and Judy show, hoop-la stalls and every kind of side-show including, in recent years, bingo. These fairs are pitched on open spaces of common land, and the most famous of them is the huge one on Hampstead Heath near London. It is at Hampstead Heath you will see the Pearly Kings, those Cockney costers (street traders), who wear suits or frocks with thousands of tiny pearl buttons stitched all over them, also over their caps and hats, in case of their Queens. They hold horse and cart parades in which prizes are given for the smartest turn out. Horses and carts are gaily decorated. Many Londoners will visit Whipsnade Zoo. There is also much boating activity on the Thames, regattas at Henley and on other rivers, and the English climate being what it is, it invariably rains. 
 

Happy Hampstead 

     August Bank Holiday would not be а real holiday for tens of thousands of Londoners without the Fair on Hampstead Heath!

     Those who know London will know were to find the Heath – that vast stretch of open woodland which sprawls across two hills, bounded by Golders Green and Highgate to the west and east, and by Hampstead itself and Ken Wood to the south and north.

     The site of the fair ground is near to Hampstead Heath station. From that station to the ground runs а broad road which is blocked with а solid, almost

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immovable mass of humanity on those days when the fair is open. The walk is not more than а quarter of а mile, but it takes an average of half-an hour to cover it when the crowd is at its thickest.

     But being on that road is comfortable compared with what it is like inside the fair ground itself. Неге there are, hundreds of stalls arranged in broad avenues inside a huge square bounded by the caravans of the show people and the lorries containing the generating plants which provide the stalls with their electricity.

     The noise is deafening. Mechanical bands and the cries of the “barkers” (the showmen who stand outside the booths and by the stalls shouting to the crowds to come and try their luck are equalled by the laughter of the visitors and the din of machinery.

     The visitors themselves are looking for fun, and they find it in full measure. There are fortune-tellers and rifle-ranges and “bumping cars”, there are bowling alleys and dart boards and coconut shies. There is something for everybody.

     And for the lucky ones, or for those with more skill than most, there are prizes — table lamps and clocks and а hundred and one other things of value.

     А visit to the fair at Happy Hampstead is something not easily forgotten. It is noisy, it is exhausting — but it is as exhilarating an experience as any in the world. 
 

HENRY WOOD

PROMENADE CONCERTS

 

“Ladies and gentlemen — the Proms!”  

     Amongst music-lovers in Britain — and, indeed, in very many other countries — the period between July and September 21 is а time of excitement, of anticipation, of great enthusiasm.

     We are in the middle of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts — the Proms.

     London music-lovers are particularly fortunate, for those who are able to obtain tickets can attend the concerts in person. Every night at 7 о'clock (Sunday excepted) а vast audience assembled at the Royal Albert Hall rises for the playing and singing of the National Anthem. А few minutes later, when seats have been resumed, the first work of the evening begins.

     But even if seats are not to be obtained, the important parts of the concerts can be heard — and are heard — by а very great number of people, because the ВВС broadcasts certain principal works every night throughout the season. The audience reached by this means is estimated to total several millions in Britain alone, and that total is probably equalled by the number of listeners abroad.

     The reason why such а great audience is attracted is that the Proms present every year а large repertoire of classical works under the best conductors and with the best artists. А season provides an anthology of masterpieces.