Category: Celebrations & Holidays

North Devon is blessed with many long, sandy beaches, three of which have played host to the UK’s National Sandcastle Competition. This annual event is a fund-raiser for the North Devon Hospice in Barnstaple and began around 1995 on the popular 3-mile stretch of golden sand at Woolacombe. It then moved a little further down the coast to Croyde, where it remained until the whole thing took a 4-year hiatus in 2015-18.

In 2019 it reappeared even further down the Devon coastline, at Westward Ho! (the only British place-name with an exclamation mark). Thousands of visitors attend the event, now held in June (August previously) and anyone can enter, even businesses. Adult teams are limited to six members, children’s to four. Adults have three hours to create their masterpieces while children have one hour. Everyone must bring their own tools, which must be basic, i.e. no power tools, diggers or scaffolding!

Each team is allocated a 23x23ft plot of sand and must not encroach upon or steal from other plots. However, while ‘competition’ is in the name, fun is the objective, all in a good cause. Prize-winning designs have included Daleks, dragons, turtles, spaceships, Simpsons characters, action heroes.. oh, and castles, of course.

(Image: www.visitwestwardho.co.uk / CC0)

Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022) had four official Jubilees, the most of any British monarch. The previous longest-reigning sovereign, Queen Victoria (1819-1901), died 4 years after her Diamond Jubilee (60 years on the throne), whereas Queen Elizabeth II died a few months after her Platinum Jubilee (70 years) in 2022. There was an extra day’s Bank Holiday given for the festivities but the Queen’s frailty made it a rather subdued event.

The Silver Jubilee (25 years) in 1977 set the tone for the milestones to follow ~ the Golden Jubilee (50 years) of 2002 and the Diamond in 2012. Each has seen street parties, Union flags a-plenty, parades, the lighting of beacons, open-air concerts, fireworks, balcony appearances at Buckingham Palace and fly-pasts. Famously in 2002, Concorde flew down The Mall in formation with the Red Arrows, a feat they performed on just a handful of occasions.

In 1977 the Queen and Prince Philip (1921-2021) made special visits to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In 2002 they toured the UK. By 2012 the Prince was in poor health; however, the royal family took part in a huge river pageant on the Thames, even though it rained and was windy. Each Jubilee was well supported by the public, who take the opportunity to show their appreciation for the Queen’s dedication.

(Top image: Michael Chu at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The Winter Solstice takes place on or adjacent to 21st December and is the day with the longest period of darkness ~ approximately 16 hours 10 minutes.  Modern-day Druids gather at Stonehenge and other ancient sites to witness the rays of the sunrise and sunset align with the monoliths and to echo our ancestors’ grateful thanks for this sign of the continuing solar cycle.

Its observance has greatly diminished today, but when the country was focused on hunting or animal husbandry and home-grown crops for food, people were much more conscious of the sun’s essential role. The belief was that the sun actually stood still for twelve days, hence the Latin ‘sol’ (sun) put with ‘sistere’ (to halt) to form the word’s root.

Some of the old customs included burning a ‘Yule‘ log brought from the forest for each of those twelve days to encourage the sun to move on, and adorning doorways with branches of oak mistletoe for good luck. Such customs morphed into the subsequent rituals of Christmas. Municipalities such as Penzance and Brighton have developed their own Winter Solstice festivals in recent times. Here is a glimpse of Brighton’s annual ‘Burning of the Clocks’, another reference to time standing still:

(Top image of winter solstice sunrise at Stonehenge: Mark Pilkington at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Advent is a 4-week period in the Christian calendar starting on the fourth Sunday before Christmas or the Sunday closest to 30th November, the Feast of St. Andrew. Whilst that marks a commemoration of the prelude to Jesus’s arrival on Earth, today’s Advent calendars cater more for the run-up to the arrival of Santa Claus on 25th December with his sack of presents.

Advent calendars are designed to be used from 1st December to either the 24th or 25th December. One little numbered door, or flap, is folded back each day and fifty years ago they would have revealed just a picture, but in the late 20th century the chocolate manufacturers introduced calendars with tiny chocolate shapes behind each flap.

The commercial success of this type of Advent calendar has been such that there are now calendars of all shapes, types and prices. Calendars filled with small toys, beauty products, perfumes, liqueurs, wine, preserves and spreads can all be found, along with calendars for pets and reusable calendars with empty slots that are filled with your own choice of trinkets. No longer exclusively a children’s game, adults can indulge in their own countdown to the big day as well.

(Image: blende12 at pixabay.com)

The visibility of a distinctive regimental flag is of great importance on a crowded battlefield, as is the practice of drills and getting into formation. These requirements crystallised into the Trooping the Colour military parade, held annually since 1760. The ‘colour’ is the flag and ‘trooping’ is marching that flag up and down battalion lines to familiarise the soldiers with it.

Times change but the ceremony endures as a much-loved part of the monarch’s Official Birthday. The Royal Artillery and the seven regiments of the Household Division ~ the Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Welsh and Irish Guards infantry, plus the Blues & Royals and the Life Guards cavalry ~ take part and the flag to be trooped is selected in rotation. For example, in 2019 it was the turn of the 1st Battalion Grenadiers, while in 2020 the honour fell to the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards.

The monarch is usually on horseback for the inspection of the troops but Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022) can be forgiven for riding in a horse-drawn open carriage in her later years. She would cast her eye over more than 1,400 soldiers, 200 horses and 400 bandsmen, taking their salutes and thoroughly enjoying the spectacle, culminating in a Buckingham Palace balcony appearance and an RAF fly-past.

(Top image: Jon’s pics at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

The story of the man named Piran, Pyran, Perran or even Ciarán is debatable but the date he died seems to be agreed by all ~ 5th March 480 ~ and so this marks the annual St. Piran’s Day which is celebrated in Cornwall. Nobody knows when or where he was born, though most seem to think he was Irish or, at a stretch, that he came from South Wales.

The significant points for those who celebrate St. Piran’s Day are that he arrived on a beach in Cornwall, preached there and recognised the presence of Cornish tin, for which he was made the patron saint of tinners. Cornish towns host street processions featuring officials in traditional dress, live music, re-enactments of Piran’s arrival and parades by schools and youth organisations carrying Cornish flags and banners.

Some fanciful parts of St. Piran’s legend are that..

• angry Irish heathens tied a mill-stone round his neck, pushed him off a cliff into a stormy sea which was immediately becalmed and he miraculously floated all the way to Cornwall
• his first converts were a fox, a badger and a bear
• although he lived for ‘200 years’ his demise occurred when, intoxicated, he fell down a well. Woops!

(Image [cropped]: Tom Goskar at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

V.E. Day (Victory in Europe) commemorates the ending of WW2 on the European continent on Tuesday 8th May 1945. Although there were euphoric celebrations all over the UK, people felt mixed emotions. Millions had died, including 450,000 Britons, so all subsequent anniversaries are generally quite sombre.

The milestones receive the most attention, such as the 75th, for which the Early May Bank Holiday was shifted to coincide with it. On these occasions there are various events of a military and religious nature, as well as parades of the key workers during the War, such as the Land Army girls, the Air Wardens and the Merchant Navy. Schools and other youth organisations may also have themed activities.

Queen Elizabeth II has said that the actual day was one of the most memorable of her life. Her parents, King George VI (1895-1952) and Queen Elizabeth (1900-2002), emerged onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace eight times to wave to the enormous gathering below and she and her sister, Princess Margaret (1930-2002), were allowed to go down into the crowds in time for the eighth appearance. Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) spoke to the nation at 3pm on the radio and stood on the balcony himself at 5.30pm to rapturous acclaim.

(Top image of VE Day parade in 2015: John Pannell at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

While a husband-to-be can traditionally hold his ‘stag do‘ as late as the night before the wedding, the bride-to-be could not possibly risk looking worse for wear at the big event. Therefore, her ‘hen party‘ takes place at least a week beforehand.

‘Hen’ is a Scots endearment, while a ‘henpecked’ husband is one dominated by his wife. The term ‘hen party’ is a ladies-only gathering and was first documented in 1887, though it really came into general usage in the 1960s. Until then, if the bride-to-be had a pre-wedding celebration it would be a works leaving do, to mark her progression to housewife and future mother. In the new age of female empowerment, many hen parties are almost identical to the male stag do.

It is all down to personal preference. Some brides-to-be will have a meal out, some will have a night in a male stripclub, while others will rent a house for a whole weekend of tipsy hilarity (provided one can be found that accepts hens and stags). It is not uncommon to see hens wearing fancy dress, sashes or T-shirts customised with the name of the host hen, who herself wears a veil or other distinguishing attire.

(Image: Garry Knight at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

Cornwall is the long protruding county in south-west England with coastline stretching all around up to its border with Devon. As such, the setting of a chain of bonfires from one end to the other at midsummer is an evocative image. Their ancient purpose was to implore the Sun to shine on the crops for the rest of the summer until harvest-time. These fire festivities were eventually halted in the 1890s due to ‘health and safety’ concerns.

However, the Cornish Midsummer’s Eve Bonfires were resumed in the late 1920s, albeit in a more toned down fashion. The ‘Eve’ refers to 23rd June, the day before the feast of St. John the Baptist, as this pagan tradition was adjusted to fit into the Christian calendar.

In Penzance it is called the Golowan Festival and it extends over a weekend. In fishing towns it is the eve of the feast of the fisherman St. Peter, 28th June, which is celebrated instead. Generally the bonfire is accompanied by Cornish songs and prayers and the throwing of herbs and flowers into the flames. Sometimes there is even a performance of a breathtaking old custom (not to be tried at home, folks), as seen here:

(Top image: Talskiddy at Wikimedia Commons: CC BY 3.0)

Notting Hill is a district in west London and in the 1950s it became home to immigrants from the West Indies and elsewhere. Claudia Jones (1915-64) had the idea of organising a week-long event to bring the community together. This was the indoor Notting Hill Fayre & Pageant, first held in 1959 in local halls. She is often credited as being the ‘mother’ of the Notting Hill Carnival (NHC), but there is another claimant ~ Rhaune Laslett (1919-2002), organiser of the first outdoor event in 1966.

Women are very much behind the success of what has become the world’s second biggest carnival (after Brazil’s Rio), not least in the numerous hours spent sewing the glittery, sequin- and feather-adorned costumes and masks. NHC takes place every year at August Bank Holiday, come rain or shine, over three nights and two days.

Up to two million visitors and 12,000 police officers fill the streets, which are closed to traffic. The carnival procession makes its way along Great Western Road, Westbourne Park, Ladbroke Grove and Kensal Road. The fun includes steel band competitions, calpyso music, sound systems, Afro-Caribbean food, dancing, street and stage performers, and thousands of volunteers help to make NHC the main celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture in the country.

(Image: Maja Kucova at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)