The New Year's London Parade

Ever wondered how one of the World’s great turn of year traditions came about?
The New Year’s Day Parade – London has evolved in to one of the World’s great street spectaculars with up to 10,000 performers from across continents, hundreds of thousands of spectators on the streets – and a live television audience of tens of millions.
But way back in the 20th Century in the event’s formative years – the parade was a relatively humble affair.
The first "Lord Mayor of Westminster's Big Parade", as it was then known, took place on 1st January 1987 and even though a lot smaller than today London had never seen anything quite like it.
It provided a feast of free entertainment for all the family on what had probably become the dreariest day of the year. Featuring hundreds of dancers and musicians from home and abroad, it put real American style razzmatazz onto the streets of London. It received such an overwhelming ‘thumbs up’ from Londoners, tourists and indeed also from the authorities, that it looked like it was here to stay.

Nearly 25 years on, the New Year’s Day Parade London is the biggest event of its kind in the world, boasts a street-side audience approaching 1/2 a million, receives a huge amount of international media coverage, has a list of Patrons that represent the very highest levels of officialdom, and also enjoys the recognition and support of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Put simply, the event has grown from something that started big to something that is now colossal.

Boxing Day

In Britain, Boxing Day is usually celebrated on the following day after Christmas Day, which is 26th of December. However, strictly speaking, Boxing Day is the first weekday after Christmas (see definition in the Oxford English Dictionary).

Like Christmas Day, Boxing Day is a public holiday. This means it is typically a non working day in the whole of Britain. When Boxing Day falls on a Saturday or Sunday the following Monday is the public holiday.

Why is 26 December called Boxing Day?
Traditionally, 26 December was the day to open the Christmas Box to share the contents with the poor. And what is a Christmas Box? The Christmas box was a wooden or clay container where people placed gifts.

Boxing Day origins; Christmas Boxes were used in different ways:

-To protect ships: Exploration ship during the Age of Exploration, when great sailing ships were setting off to discover new land, A Christmas Box was used as a good luck device. It was a small container placed on each ship while it was still in port. It was put there by a priest, and those crewmen who wanted to ensure a safe return would drop money into the box. It was then sealed up and kept on board for the entire voyage. If the ship came home safely, the box was handed over to the priest in the exchange for the saying of a Mass of thanks for the success of the voyage. The Priest would keep the box sealed until Christmas when he would open it to share the contents with the poor.

-Church To help the poor: An 'Alms Box' was placed in every church on Christmas Day, into which worshippers placed a gift for the poor of the parish. These boxes were always opened the day after Christmas, which is why that day became know as Boxing Day.

-A present for the workers: Many poorly paid workers were required to work on Christmas Day and took the following day off to visit their families. As they prepared to leave, their employers would present them with Christmas boxes.
During the late 18th century, Lords and Ladies of the manor would "box up" their leftover food, or sometimes gifts and distribute them the day after Christmas to tenants who lived and worked on their lands.

And the tradition still continues today ......
The tradition of giving money to workers still continues today. It is customary for householders to give small gifts or monetary tips to regular visiting trades people (the milkman, dustman, coalman, paper boy etc.) and, in some work places, for employers to give a Christmas bonus to employees.

Schools across the country gather together gifts to be put in Christmas Boxes that are sent to poorer countries.

English Afternoon Tea

Afternoon tea (because it was usually taken in the late afternoon) is also called "low tea" because it was usually taken in a sitting room or withdrawing room where low tables (like a coffee table) were placed near sofas or chairs generally in a large withdrawing room. There are three basic types of Afternoon, or Low Tea:

Cream Tea - Tea, scones, jam and cream

Light Tea - Tea, scones and sweets

Full Tea - Tea, savories, scones, sweets and dessert

In England, the traditional time for tea was four or five o'clock and no one stayed after seven o'clock. Most tea rooms today serve tea from three to five o'clock. The menu has also changed from tea, bread, butter and cakes, to include three particular courses served specifically in this order:

Savories - Tiny sandwiches or appetizers

Scones - Served with jam and Devonshire or clotted cream

Pastries - Cakes, cookies, shortbread and sweets.

Prior to the introduction of tea into Britain, the English had two main meals, breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was ale, bread, and beef. During the middle of the eighteenth century, dinner for the upper and middle classes had shifted from noontime to an evening meal that was served at a fashionable late hour. Dinner was a long, massive meal at the end of the day.

Tea Etiquette

In order for one not to spill the hot liquid onto oneself, the proper way to hold the vessel of a cup with no handle is to place one’s thumb at the six o'clock position and one’s index and middle fingers at the twelve o'clock position, while gently raising one’s pinkie up for balance.

Tea cups with a handle are held by placing one’s fingers to the front and back of the handle with one’s pinkie up again allows balance. Pinkie up does mean straight up in the air, but slightly tilted. It is not an affectation, but a graceful way to avoid spills. Never loop your fingers through the handle, nor grasp the vessel bowl with the palm of your hand.

Do not stir your tea, with your tea spoon, in sweeping circular motions. Place your tea spoon at the six o'clock position and softly fold the liquid towards the twelve o'clock position two or three times. Never leave your tea spoon in your tea cup. When not in use, place your tea spoon on the right side of the tea saucer. Never wave or hold your tea cup in the air. When not in use, place the tea cup back in the tea saucer. If you are at a buffet tea hold the tea saucer in your lap with your left hand and hold the tea cup in your right hand. When not in use, place the tea cup back in the tea saucer and hold in your lap. The only time a saucer is raised together with the teacup is when one is at a standing reception.

Milk is served with tea, not cream. Cream is too heavy and masks the taste of the tea. Although some pour their milk in the cup first, it is probably better to pour the milk in the tea after it is in the cup in order to get the correct amount.

When serving lemon with tea, lemon slices are preferable, not wedges. Either provide a small fork or lemon fork for your guests, or have the tea server can neatly place a slice in the tea cup after the tea has been poured. Be sure never to add lemon with milk since the lemon's citric acid will cause the proteins in the milk to curdle.

COUNTY OF YORKSHIRE

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom.Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as a geographical territory and cultural region.The name is familiar and well understood across the United Kingdom and is in common use in the media and the military,and also features in the titles of current areas of civil administration, such as Yorkshire and the Humber and West Yorkshire.

Within the borders of the historic county of Yorkshire are areas which are widely considered to be among the greenest in England, due to the vast stretches of unspoiled countryside in the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors and to the open aspect of some of the major cities.Yorkshire has sometimes been nicknamed God's Own County.The emblem of Yorkshire is the white rose of the English royal House of York, and the most commonly used flag representative of Yorkshire is the White Rose on a dark blue background,which after years of use, was recognised by the Flag Institute on 29 July 2008.Yorkshire Day, held on 1 August, is a celebration of the general culture of Yorkshire, ranging from its history to its own language.

The Battle of England

In Hitler’s morbid world view not only existed a hierarchy of races but countries too. And probably amongst the great nations of the world, the one he most admired and feared at once was Great Britain. For that reason, after defeating and occupying Poland, Holland, Belgium, and France he tried to sign an armistice with the UK. He considered his dreamed-of continental empire (from France till the very east of Russia) perfectly compatible with the great old overseas British Empire. But Britons, unlike Stalin or the Japanese, didn’t want to come to any agreement with Hitler’s Germany. It was too late. After five years of appeasement policy and several invaded countries there was no choice but war.

Hence Hitler planned the invasion of the isle. The plan was going to be carried out on September 15th (1940) in the southern part of Britain and consisted in landing a great number of troops through the English Channel. But before, all German generals fully agreed they needed unavoidably to reach complete aerial supremacy through subduing the British Royal Air Force (RAF).

In the first stages of the battle, the German air force (Luftwaffe) focused their efforts to attack the shipping traffic in the English Channel in order to make the Britons use all their air force resources to protect the very important supplies from America and the colonies. By the end of July it was clear that it was going to be impossible to do the German invasion of England on time, so they commended Luftwaffe the task of destroying as soon as possible the whole enemy’s air force. A new great offensive started on August 13th and it lasted until September de 17th. During this 35 days the fights in the air were constant. The German planes bombed aerodromes and radar stations, and in several moments they were about to make collapse the attack protection system which was decisive for the Great Britain defence. From July 10th to October 31st the RAF lost about 800 planes in this battle, and the Luftwaffe more than 1300.

We can say the battle of England marked a historical milestone because was the first time that military plans of Hitler went off the rails. The first time that German army had to go back without achieving success. And the first time that Luftwaffe, which had shown great effectiveness supporting land troops in Poland and France, exhibited weaknesses against a modern air force and motivated pilots.
Churchill summarised those weeks saying: ``Never before so many people (British people, but the whole humanity too) had never owed so much (freedom, independence) to so few (the pilots of the RAF)´´
The battle slowly became in a nocturnal bombing of the English big cities, specially London. These attacks lasted till May 1941 and had a bigger impact in civil population, although were not able demoralize them.