Category: Celebrations & Holidays

University and college Rag Weeks once had the reputation of being an outlet for the rebellious spirit of some young adults on first leaving home. The cover for student capers and parades was provided by charity fund-raising, but Rag Weeks did not always begin with that intention. It appears that there were nonsensical ‘battles’ between rival universities, but when serious injuries resulted, the charity angle was re-emphasised and Rag Weeks became more light-hearted from the 1950s onwards.

‘Ragging’ is behaving in a disorderly, mischievious fashion, but today’s much more sedate ‘R.A.G. Weeks’ have been turned into ‘Raising And Giving Weeks’. Presumably because this does not have the same allure of fun and high jinx, less money is raised because fewer students participate, but some universities stimulate competition between their various clubs and societies, to see who can raise the most.

Activities take place both on campus and in local streets, with prior permission, but unlike the raucous scene in the video below, they do not involve binge-drinking but comprise suitably priced sessions of pottery and yoga, for example, or selling secondhand clothes in a market. Online fund-raising is also utilised but is a far cry from Rag Weeks of old!

(Top image of Leeds University students ‘decorating’ a car in 1968: alh1 at Flickr.com / CC BY-ND 2.0)

Trade with China in the 1800s brought about a small, close-knit settlement of Chinese sailors and their families in the Limehouse district of East London, next to the River Thames, but this was bombed during WW2. The community then moved 5 miles west along the Thames to the Soho area, particularly Gerrard Street, and this is where London’s Chinatown became established.

Servicemen returning from the Far East brought with them an appreciation of the comparatively exotic food they had tried and so the Chinese restaurants flourished. New immigrant workers came from Hong Kong (a former British territory) and elsewhere. The Chinese New Year celebration, being a major event in their homelands, came too and London’s modern-day version is said to be the biggest outside of Asia.

It stretches from Shaftesbury Avenue to Trafalgar Square via Charing Cross Road, Leicester Square and the National Gallery and while it lasts a fortnight in China, here it occupies one Sunday some time between late January and mid-February. The time-honoured dragon parades, lion dances, pyrotechnics, martial arts displays, food stalls and themed family activities are also hosted by other cities, such as Liverpool, Glasgow and of course Manchester, with the UK’s second largest Chinese population.

(Top image of Manchester CNY 2016: David Dixon at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Medieval fairs were travelling or occasional marketplaces for traders, with a few refreshment stalls on the periphery. In the 18th and 19th centuries, markets became more permanently housed and fairs gradually evolved into events where a variety of games, entertainments and trinkets could be had for the amusement of the working man and woman in their few hours of leisure time.

Fairs have since developed in two ways ~ one commercial, with mechanised rides (funfairs), the other amateur, raising money for good causes and charities. A fair of this kind may also be called by the French word fête (with the anglicised pronunciation, ‘fate’) or spelled ‘fayre‘ if a traditional feel is sought. Schools, churches, community centres, Guides, Scouts or any type of voluntary organisation or group that needs to raise extra funds will generally have a fête/fair/fayre at the top of their ideas list, with summer and Christmas being the favourite times of the year in which to hold them.

The cake stall is always the first to sell out! The tombola and the Lucky Dip both guarantee a prize, by ticket or blind grab respectively. Then there’s the face painting, crafts, guess-the-number-of-sweets-in-the-jar, raffle, dance displays, bouncy castle, welly wanging……

(Image of church summer fète: Ron Adams at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Twelfth Night is usually taken to expire at midnight on 5th January but some argue for 6th January or even 31st December. The first two options are the result of counting the ’12 days of Christmas’, or Twelvetide, either from Christmas Day or, by Christians who regard 25th December as separate, from Boxing Day.

The third option places the starting-point on the eve of the Winter Solstice, i.e. 20th December, known as Mothers’ Night or Módraniht in ancient Paganism and a time to honour female ancestors. In most households today, Twelfth Night serves only as the customary deadline for packing away all the Christmas decorations and preparing to recycle the tree, even though this originates in the superstitious belief that non-compliance would result in goblins coming to your house!

A more enjoyable, though long-forgotten tradition was to bake a cake with a dried bean in one half and a dried pea in the other, and to give slices to guests as they arrived for a Twelfth Night party, carefully ensuring that a male received the bean and a female the pea. These two would be King and Queen for the evening and everyone had to obey their commands, no matter how silly.

(Image: Gerald England at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sunrise on the day of the Summer Solstice ranges from about 3.35am to 4.45am north to south of the UK, with sunset as late as 10.30pm in the far north (the Shetland Islands). This gives roughly 16¾ to 19 hours of daylight, the longest amount of the year. The date is either 20th or 21st June (though very rarely it may be the 22nd) and it is also known as Midsummer’s Day.

Naturally enough, it is an important time in the agricultural cycle and it was widely celebrated prior to the Industrial Revolution. It is also a significant event for Pagans, who see it as a testimony to Earth’s connection to the Sun and the seasons.

Modern-day Pagans and other interested folk gather at dawn at ancient stone monuments and on hilltops for their Summer Solstice mystical experience. In fact, it will not be the earliest sunrise of the year ~ that occurs a few days beforehand and the latest sunset likewise occurs a few days afterwards. Nevertheless, on Midsummer’s Day the timings align to produce ‘the longest day’ and to be at Stonehenge, for instance, witnessing the first rays of sunshine is a moment to appreciate and feel part of Creation.

(Top image of Summer Solstice sunrise at a historic Druidic spot in Anglesey: TheJaySpearing at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)

The start of a new year has been set variously at 1st January, 1st March and 25th March in times past, but Britain finally reverted to 1st January for its New Year’s Day from 1752 onwards. Each of these dates relates to a re-birth or change, either through seasonal onset or by religious association. 1st January was originally chosen because Janus, a Roman god, was the bringer of beginnings and endings, portals and passages.

As New Year’s Eve celebrations revolve around staying up for midnight and beyond, it is only fair that New Year’s Day should be a Bank Holiday, thereby circumventing mass absence from work! It is the last day of the Christmas & New Year holiday (except in Scotland) and the school Spring Term begins immediately afterwards.

Making a New Year’s Resolution to improve or challenge yourself is traditional, as is ‘first-footing’; to bring luck for the coming year, the first visitor after midnight should be a dark-haired man bearing at least one gift ~ a lump of coal, some salt, shortbread, whisky or a silver coin. Some say a blonde-haired man (resembling a Viking) would be positively unlucky, while others the reverse. Either way, an empty-handed first-footer is deemed unlucky.

(Image: pxhere.com)

Before industrialisation, Plough Monday was a popular event in farming communities on the first or second Monday of the year, between 7th-13th January. The church had a role from the start and is the source of the modern-day Plough Sunday derivative.

What they share is the blessing of the work of the farm and prayers for good weather. On Plough Sunday, a local farmer may kindly park a big, shiny tractor in the churchyard for a few hours but that is the extent of the ‘entertainment’ ~ unless, that is, you’re in this Essex village:-

Plough Monday, on the other hand, called for singing, dancing and demands for cash donations on pain of having your path ploughed up! This seems to have begun with community-owned ploughs needing annual maintenance. They were stored on church premises during winter and on Plough Monday the priest blessed the plough and lit the church’s plough-light ~ a candle continually kept alight.

The young farm labourers, called Plough Stotts/Bullockers/Jags or Jacks, dressed in gaudy costumes and disguises, and hauled the plough round the village. One dressed as ‘Betty’/’Bessy’ ~ an old woman ~ and collected the money, some of which doubtless paid for drinks at the inn afterwards!

(Top image of British vintage tractor and plough: Tudor Barker at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Robert (Rabbie) Burns (1759-96) was born in Ayrshire to tenant farmers, but found he had a gift for writing poetry and lyrics. His friends held a tribute dinner in the cottage of his birth on the night of what would have been his 42nd birthday. Thus began the annual Burns Night commemorations on 25th January.

Burns’s most popular work was in the Scottish dialect. His literary success helped finance his passion for women and whisky. He fathered 12 children and died aged 37 after lying drunk by the roadside one rainy night. Whisky, haggis, bagpipes, poems and witty put-downs directed by the men to the women and vice-versa are all features of Burns Night Suppers.

The traditional running order is:-

1. Piping in the guests.
2. Host’s welcome.
3. Piping in the haggis.
4. ‘Address to a Haggis’ (1786) recited by host who stabs it and holds it aloft.
5. Toast to the haggis before it is piped back to the kitchen.
6. 3-course traditional Scottish dinner.
7. 1st entertainment – poem or song.
8. Speech and toast “to the immortal memory of Robert Burns!”
9. 2nd entertainment.
10. Toast to the Lassies by the men.
11. Reply from the Lassies.
12. 3rd entertainment – possibly a Scottish dance.
13. Vote of thanks.
14. ‘Auld Lang Syne’ (1788) sung by all.

(Top image: Ashley Van Haeften at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

Until the Bank Holidays Act of 1871, the idea of taking a day off with pay for non-sacred or non-medical reasons would have been considered revolutionary by most of the working population at that time. Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day were the only days normally allowed, especially in industrial and service occupations.

Yet Sir John Lubbock (1834-1913), coming from a family of London bankers, pushed through the Act soon after becoming an MP in 1870. He was highly praised for this contribution to what is now called the ‘work-life balance’ and it was wittily suggested that his ‘Bank’ Holidays ~ extra days when the banks are shut and employers follow suit ~ should be called ‘St. Lubbock’s Days’ in the style of the church’s feast days.

The 6 Bank Holidays shared throughout the UK are: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Early May (first Monday in May), Spring (last Monday in May), Christmas Day and Boxing Day. England, Wales and N.Ireland also have Easter Monday and Summer (last Monday in August), totalling 8 days, but N.Ireland also has St. Patrick’s Day and Orangemen’s Day (12th July), giving them 10. Meanwhile, Scotland has 9 days with 2nd January (end of Hogmanay), Summer (first Monday in August) and St. Andrew’s Day.

(Image of Early May Bank Holiday in a London park: It’s No Game at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)