Traditions and holidays of Great Britain.
    Every nation and every country has its own traditions and customs. Traditions make a nation special. Some of them are old-fashioned and many people remember them, others are part of people's life. Some British customs and traditions are known all the world.
    From Scotland to Cornwall, Britain is full of customs and traditions. A lot of them have very long histories. Some are funny and some are strange. But they are all interesting. There is the long menu of traditional British food. There are many royal occasions. There are songs, saying and superstitions. They are all part of the British way of life.
    You cannot really imagine Britain without all its traditions, this integral feature of social and private life of the people living on the British Isles that has always been an important part of their life and work.
    English traditions can classified into several groups: traditions concerning the Englishmen's private life (child's birth, wedding, marriage, wedding anniversary); which are connected with families incomes; state traditions; national holidays, religious holidays, public festival, traditional ceremonies.
    What about royal traditions? There are numerous royal traditions in Britain, some are ancient, others are modern.
    The Queen is the only person in Britain with two birthdays. Her real birthday is on April 21st, but she has an "official" birthday, too. That is on the second Saturday in June. And on the Queen's official birthday, there is a traditional ceremony called the Trooping of the Colour. It is a big parade with brass bands and hundreds of soldiers at Horse Guard's Parade in London. A "regiment" of the Queen's soldiers, the Guards, march in front of her. At the front of the parade there is the regiment's flag or "colour". Thousands of Londoners and visitors watch in Horse Guards' Parade. And millions of people at home watch it on television. This custom is not very old, but it is for very old people. On his or her one hundredth birthday, a British person gets a telegram with congratulations from the Queen.
    The changing of the Guard happens every day at Buckingham Palace, the Queen's home in London. The ceremony always attracts a lot of spectators - Londoners as well as visitors - to the British capital.
    So soldiers stand on front of the palace. Each morning these soldiers (the "guard") change. One group leaves and another arrives. In summer and winter tourists stand outside the palace at 11:30 every morning and watch the Changing of the Guard.
    Traditionally the Queen opens Parliament every autumn. But Parliament, not the Royal Family, controls modern Britain. The Queen travels from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament in a gold carriage - the Irish State Coach. At the Houses of Parliament the Queen sits on a "throne" in the House of Lords. Then she reads the "Queen's Speech". At the State Opening of Parliament the Queen wears a crown. She wears other jewels from the Crown Jewels, too.
    Every year, there is a new Lord Mayor of London. The Mayor is the city's traditional leader. And the second Saturday in November is always the day for the Lord Mayor's Show. This ceremony is over six hundred years old. It is also London's biggest parade.
    The Lord Mayor drives to the Royal Courts of Justice in a coach. The coach is two hundred years old. It is red and gold and it has six horses.
    As it is also a big parade, people make special costumes and act stories from London's history.
    In Britain as in other countries costumes and uniforms have a long history.
    One is the uniform of the Beefeaters at the tower of London. This came first from France. Another is the uniform of the Horse Guards at Horse Guard's Parade, not far from Buckingham Palace. Thousands of visitors take photographs of the Horse Guards.
    Britannia is a symbol of Britain. And she wears traditional clothes, too. But she is not a real person.
    Lots of ordinary clothes have a long tradition. The famous bowler hat, for example. A man called Beaulieu made the first one in 1850.
    One of the British soldiers, Wellington, gave his name to a pair of boots. They have a shorter name today - "Wellies".
    There is a very special royal tradition. On the River Thames there are hundreds of swans. A lot of these beautiful white birds belong, traditionally, to the king or queen. In July the young swans on the Thames are about two months old. Then the Queen's swan keeper goes, in a boat, from London Bridge to Henley. He looks at all the young swans and marks the royal ones. The name of this strange nut interesting custom is Swan Upping.
    There are only six public holidays a year in Great Britain, that is days on which people need not go in to work. They are: Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Spring Bank Holiday and Late Summer Bank Holiday, Boxing Day.
    So the most popular holiday in Britain is Christmas. Christmas has been celebrated from the earliest days of recorded history, and each era and race has pasted a colourful sheet of new customs and traditions over the old.
    On the Sunday before Christmas many churches hold a carol service where special hymns are sung. Sometimes carol singers can be heard in the streets as they collect money for charity. There are a lot of very popular British Christmas carols. Three famous ones are: "Good King Wenceslas", "The Holly and The Ivy" and "We Three Kings".
    Each year, hundreds of thousands of people all over the world send and receive Christmas cards. ............