Madame Tussauds is established on Baker Street

1802: Madame Tussaud takes her exhibition on tour to the British Isles, leaving behind her husband.

1835: With her sons, Madame Tussaud establishes a base in London at The Baker Street Bazaar.'

1846: Punch Magazine coins the name Chamber Of Horrors for Madame Tussaud's 'Separate Room', where gruesome relics of the French Revolution are displayed.

1850: Madame Tussaud dies.

1884: Marie's grandsons move the attraction to its current site on Marylebone Road

1925: The attraction is devastated by fire.

1928: Restoration is completed with the addition of a cinema and restaurant.

1940: Madame Tussauds is struck by a German World War II bomb destroying 352 head moulds, and the cinema.

1958: Madame Tussauds opens the Commonwealth's first Planetarium.

1990-1993: The attraction undergoes extensive refurbishment, with the inclusion of new interactive, themed areas.

1993: The Spirit Of London, a spectacular animatronic ride, arrives at Madame Tussauds. The London Planetarium is

re-opened after a £4.5 million re-development, including the installation of the world's first Digistar II star projector.

1995: A new star show 'Planetary Quesf opens at Tussauds' Planetarium. Later, the Planetarium dome is transformed into the

biggest red nose in the universe for Comic Relief.

1996: Madame Tussauds opens a special display in conjunction with Time Magazine, portraying some of the publication's nominated Top 100 people of the 20th century.

1997: Madame Tussauds opens a special exhibition of wedding dresses made for its Diana, Princess Of Wales, Sarah, Duchess Of York and Sophie, Countess Of Wessex.

1999: Major new star show 'Wonders Of The Universe' opens at The London Planetarium

2000: Madame Tussauds introduces timed entry for visitors who prefer to book in advance

2001: A new area 'Premiere Night' opens showcasing Hollywood's hottest celebrities. The attraction also removes the ropes and poles surrounding figures - allowing guests to fully interact with the great and good.

2002: The first of a series of special temporary attractions opens. Goal! gives guests the chance to relive the moment England qualified for the 2002 World Cup finals. The infamous Marylebone Road queue disappears with the opening of a new 'pre show' area where guests are entertained in comfort whilst waiting to purchase tickets.

2003: Madame Tussauds unveils new 'Blush' area, taking guests behind the usually closed doors of an A-list party

2004: The Journey To Infinity' show opens At The London Planetarium.

2005: Reality TV phenomenon Big Brother comes to Madame Tussauds, offering guests a chance to sit in the fabled Diary Room and meet presenter Davina McCall.

2006: Prince Harry is unveiled as part of Madame Tussauds' popular royal attraction, and Johnny Depp, in character as Capt'n Jack Sparrow, arrives in a new Pirates Of The Caribbean experience. The London Planetarium closes, paving the way for an exciting new cinematic show created by Aardman Animations.

2007: Madame Tussauds introduces supermodel Kate Moss. Other A-listers to arrive include Justin Timberlake, Nicole Kidman, Leonardo DiCaprio and a fourth version of Kylie Minogue. World Stage relaunches following an extensive, Ј1m refurbishment - guests can enjoy brand new, fully interactive Sports, Royal, Culture, Music and Political Zones. A special History Zone also opens, sharing some of the secrets behind figure-making with visitors and highlighting Madame Tussauds world famous 200-year heritage. Madame Tussauds wins the Bronze Award at Visit London's Awards for Marketing/PR Campaign of the Year.

2008: The first figure to be launched is Bollywood superstar, Salman Khan, followed by Hollywoods favourite girls, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz. Two European political heavyweights in the fom of Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy whilst Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, is voted out of the attraction by the public. Jim Carey is launched with a fully interactive set.

St Paul'sCathedral is an Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The present building dates from the 17th century and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It is generally reckoned to be London's fifth St Paul's Cathedral, all having been built on the same site since AD 604. The cathedral is one of London's most famous and most recognisable sights. At 365 feet (111m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also among the highest in the world.

Important services held at St. Paul's include the funerals of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Sir Winston Churchill; Jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; the launch of the Festival of -Britain and the thanksgiving services for both the Jolden Jubilee and 80th Birthday of Her Majesty the Queen. The Royal Family holds most of its important marriages, christenings and funerals at Westminster Abbey, but St Paul's was used for the marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. St Paul's Cathedral is still a busy working church, with hourly prayer and daily services.

'Old St Paul's' The fourth St Paul's, known when architectural history arose in the 19th century as Old St Paul's, was begun by the Normans after the 1087 fire. Work took over 200 years, and a great deal was lost in a fire in 1136. The roof was once more built of wood, which was ultimately to doom the building. The church was consecrated in 1240, but a change of heart led to the commencement of an enlargement programme in 1256. When this 'New Work' was completed in 1314 — the cathedral had keen consecrated in 1300 — it was the third-longest church in Europe. Excavations by Francis Penrose in 1878 showed it was 585 feet (178 m) long and 100 feet (30 m) wide (290 feet or 87 m across the transepts and crossing), and had one of Europe's tallest spires, at some 489 feet (149 m).

By the 16th century the building was decaying. Under Henry VIII and Edward VI, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and Chantries Acts led to the destruction of interior ornamentation and the cloisters, charnels, crypts, chapels, shrines, chantries and other buildings in St Paul's Churchyard. Many of these former religious sites in the churchyard, having been seized by the Crown, were sold as shops and rental properties, especially to printers and booksellers, who were often Puritans. Buildings that were razed often supplied ready-dressed building material for construction projects, such as the Lord Protector's city palace, Somerset House.

Crowds were drawn to the northeast corner of the Churchyard, St Paul's Cross, where open-air preaching took place. In 1561 the spire was destroyed by lightning and it was not replaced; this event was taken by both Protestants and Catholics as a sign of God's displeasure at the other faction's actions.

England's first classical architect, Inigo Jones, added the cathedral's west front in the 1630s, but there was much defacing mistreatment of the building by Parliamentarian forces during the Civil War, when the old documents and charters were dispersed and destroyed (Kelly 2004). "Old St Paul's" was gutted in the Great Fire of London of 1666. While it might have been salvageable, albeit with almost complete reconstruction, a decision was taken to build a new cathedral in a modern style instead. Indeed this had been contemplated even before the fire.

Wren's St Paul's; Design and construction St, Paul's went through five general stages of design. Wren initially began surveying the property and drawing up designs before the Great Fire of 1666, and these drawings for the most part included the addition of a dome on the existing building to replace the dilapidated spire, and a restoration of the interiors that would complement the 1630 Inigo Jones-designed facade. After the fire, the ruins of the building were still thought to be workable, but ultimately the entire structure was demolished in the early 1670s to start afresh. Wren's second design, the first to be a completely new building, was a Greek cross, which was considered to be too radical by his critics because it lacked the programme necessary to conduct mass.

Wren's third proposal for the new St. Paul's used many of the same design concepts as his Greek cross design, though it had an extended nave. This design was embodied in his creation in 1673 of the "Great Model". The model, made of oak and plaster, cost over £500 (approximately £32,000 today) and was over 13' tall and 2 Г long. His critics, members of a committee commissioned to rebuild the church and members of the clergy, decried the design as being too dissimilar from churches that already existed in England at the time to suggest any continuity within the Church of England. Clergymen also preferred a Latin cross plan for services. Another problem was that the entire design would have to be completed all at once because of the eight central piers that supported the dome, instead of being completed in stages and opened for use before construction finished, as was customary. Wren considered the Great Model his favourite design, and thought it a reflection of Renaissance beauty.' After the Great Model, Wren resolved to make no more models or publicly expose his drawings, which he found to do nothing but "lose time, and subject his business many times, to incompetent judges".

Wren's fourth design, the Warrant design, sought to reconcile the Gothic, the predominant form of English churches, to a "better manner of architecture." Wren attempted to integrate the same concepts of Renaissance harmony into a much more Gothic style. This design was rotated slightly on its site so that it aligned not with true east, but with sunrise on Easter of the year construction began. This small change in configuration made by Wren was informed by his knowledge of astronomy. His design of the portico was influenced by Inigo Jones's addition to Old St. Paul's.

The final design as built differs largely in its ornamentation from the official Warrant design. Wren

received permission from the king to make "ornamental changes" to the submitted design, and Wren took great advantage of this. Many of these changes were made over the course of the thirty years as the church was constructed, and the most significant was to the dome: "He raised another structure over the first cupola, a cone of brick, so as to support a stone lantern of an elegant figure... And he covered and hid out of sight the brick cone with another cupola of timber and lead; and between this and the cone are easy stairs that ascend to the lantern" (Christopher Wren, son of Sir Christopher Wren). The final design was strongly rooted in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The saucer domes that were eventually added to the design were inspired by Francois Mansart's Val-de-Grace, which Wren had seen during a trip to Paris in 1665. The first stone of the cathedral was laid in 1677 by Thomas Strong, Wren's master stonemason.

On Thursday, 2 December 1697, thirty-two years and three months after a spark from Farryner's bakery had caused the Great Fire of London, St Paul's Cathedral came into use. The widower King William III had been scheduled to appear but, uncomfortable in crowds and public displays, had bowed out at the last minute. The crowd of both the great and the small was so big, and their attitude towards William so indifferent, that he was scarcely missed. The Right Reverend Henry Compton, Bishop of London, preached the sermon. It was based on the text of Psalm 122, "I was glad when they said unto me: Let us go into the house of the LORD." The first regular service was held on the following Sunday.

The 'topping out' of the Cathedral (when the final stone was placed on the lantern) took place in October 1708 and the cathedral was declared officially complete by Parliament in 1710. It cost £736,750 (£87.5 million as of 2010).

The consensus was as it is with all such works: some loved it ("Without, within, below, above the eye. Is filled with unrestrained delight."); some hated it ("...There was an air of Popery about the gilded capitals, the heavy arches...They were unfamiliar, un-English..”); while most, once their curiosity was satisfied, didn't think about it one way or another.

Sir Christopher Wren

Said, "I am going to dine with some men.

If anyone calls,

Say I am designing St Paul's. "

A clerihew by Edmund Clerihew Bentley

Structural engineering The walls of the cathedral are particularly thick to avoid the need for large flying buttresses. The windows are set into deep recesses in the walls. The upper parts of the cathedral walls are reinforced with small flying buttresses, which were a relatively late design change to give extra strength. These are concealed behind a large curtain wall, which was added to keep the building's classical style intact.

The large crossing dome is composed of three layers. The inner and outer layers are catenary curves, but the structural integrity to support the heavy stone structure atop the dome is provided by a intermediary layer which is much steeper and more conical in shape. The dome is restrained round its base by a wrought iron chain to prevent it spreading and cracking.

Description The cathedral is built of Portland stone in a late Renaissance style that represents England's sober Baroque. Its impressive dome was inspired by St Peter's Basilica in Rome. It rises 365 feet (108 m) to the cross at its summit, making it a famous London landmark. Wren achieved a pleasing appearance by building three domes: the tall outer dome is non-structural but impressive to view, the lower inner dome provides an artistically balanced interior, and between the two is a structural cone that supports the apex structure and the outer dome. Wren was said to have been hauled up to the rafters in a basket during the building of its later stages to inspect progress.

The nave has three small chapels in the two adjoining aisles - The Chapel of All Souls and The Chapel of St Dunstan in the north aisle and the Chapel of St. Michael and St. George in the south aisle. The main space of the cathedral is centred under the inner dome, which rises 108.4 metres from the cathedral floor and holds three circular galleries - the internal Whispering Gallery, the external Stone Gallery, and the external Golden Gallery.

The Whispering Gallery runs around the inside of the dome 99 feet (30.2 m) above the cathedral floor. It is reached by 259 steps from ground level. It gets its name because, as with any dome, a whisper against its wall at any point is audible to a listener with an ear held to the wall at any other point around the gallery. A low murmur is equally audible.

The base of the inner dome is 173 feet (53.4 m) above the floor. Its top is about 65 m above the floor, making this the greatest height of the enclosed space. The cathedral is some 574 feet (175 m) in length (including the portico of the Great West Door), of which 223 feet (68 m) is the nave and 167 feet (51 m) is the choir. The width of the nave is 121 feet (37 m) and across the transepts is 246 feet (75 m). The cathedral is thus slightly shorter but somewhat wider than Old St Paul's.

The quire extends to the east of the dome and holds the stalls for the clergy and the choir and the organ. To the north and south of the dome are the transepts, here called the North Choir and the South Choir.

Details of the towers at the west end (illustration, left) and their dark voids are boldly scaled, in order to read well from the street below and from a distance, for the towers have always stood out in the urban skyline. They are composed of two complementary elements, a central cylinder rising through the tiers in a series of stacked drums, and paired Corinthian columns at the corners, with buttresses above them, which serve to unify the drum shape with the square block plinth containing the clock.

Post-Wren history This cathedral has survived despite being targeted during the Blitz- it was struck by bombs on 10 October 1940 and 17 April 1941. On 12 September 1940 a time-delayed bomb that had struck the cathedral was successfully defused and removed by a bomb disposal detachment of Royal Engineers under the command of Temporary Lieutenant Robert Davies. Had this bomb detonated, it would have totally destroyed the cathedral, as it left a 100-foot (30 m) crater when it was later remotely detonated in a secure location. As a result of this action, Davies was awarded the George Cross, along with Sapper George Cameron Wylie.

On 29 December 1940, the cathedral had another close call when an incendiary bomb became lodged in the lead shell of the dome but fell outwards onto the Stone Gallery and was put out before it could ignite the dome timbers. A photograph taken that day showing the cathedral shrouded in smoke became a famous image of the times.

Memorials The cathedral has a very substantial crypt, holding over 200 memorials, and serves as both the Order of the British Empire Chapel and the Treasury. The cathedral has very few treasures: many have been lost, and in 1810 a major robbery took almost all of the remaining precious artefacts. Christopher Wren was the first person to be interred, in 1723: on the wall above his tomb in the crypt is written, "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice" (Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you).

St Paul's is home to other plaques, carvings, statues, memorials and tombs of famous British figures including:

§ General Sir Isaac Brock

§ Sir Edwin Lutyens

§ John Donne, whose funeral effigy (portraying him in a shroud) but not his tomb survives from Old St Paul's.

§ Lord Kitchener

§ The Duke of Wellington

§ Lord Horatio Nelson

§ Henry Moore

§ Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood

§ Sir William Alexander Smith

§ Sir Winston Churchill

§ Т. E. Lawrence, whose bust faces Nelson's sarcophagus

§ Sir Alexander Fleming

§ Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley

§ Sir Philip Vian

§ John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe

§ David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty

§ Sir Arthur Sullivan

§ Sir Hubert Parry

§ Florence Nightingale

§ J.M.W. Turner

§ Sir Joshua Reynolds

§ Dr. Samuel Johnson

§ Ivor Novello

§ Charles Cornwallis

§ Frederick George Jackson

§ Mandell Creighton and Louise Creighton

§ Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet

Most of the memorials commemorate the British military, including several lists of servicemen who died in action, the

most recent being the Gulf War. There are special monuments to Lord Nelson in the south transept and to the Duke of Wellington in the north aisle; both are buried here. Also remembered are poets, painters, clergy and residents of the local parish. There are lists of the Bishops and cathedral Deans for the last thousand years.

The apse of the cathedral is home to the American Memorial Chapel. It honours American servicemen

In 2007, the World Monuments Fund and American Express awarded St Paul's a grant as part of their Sustainable Tourism initiative. The project will open up rarely seen areas, relieve crowding in the nave - which suffers heavily from foot traffic and fluctuations in humidity - and fund a new Exploration Centre in the crypt. This centre will provide insight into a variety of topics relating to the cathedral, including architecture, history, science, music, and, of course, religion. A lapidarium of recovered medieval stones and the room containing Wren's "Great Model" (currently only seen by appointment) will also be opened to the public.

English holidays. Customs and traditions

Leisure; SPARE TIME British people now have more free time and holidays than they did twenty years ago. Nearly all British people in full-time jobs have at least four weeks' holiday a year, often in two or three separate periods. The normal working week is 35 — 40 hours, Monday to Friday.

Typical popular pastimes in the UK include, listening to pop music, going to pubs, playing and watching sport, going on holidays, doing outdoor activities, reading, and watching TV.

Pubs are an important part of British social life (more than restaurants) and more money is spent on drinking than on any other form of leisure activity. In a recent survey seven out of ten adults said they went to pubs, one third of them once a week or more often. Types of pubs vary considerably from quiet rural establishments with traditional games, such as skittles and dominoes, to city pubs where different sorts of entertainment such as drama or live music can often be found. Some pubs have become more welcoming to families with younger children than in the past, although children under fourteen are still not allowed in the bar.

Holidays is the next major leisure cost. If they have enough money, people travel more (the increase in private cars is an influence) and take more holidays.

The most obvious — and traditional — British holiday destination is the coast. No place in the country is more than three hours' journey from some part of it. The coast is full of variety, with good cliffs and rocks between the beaches, but the un­certain weather and cold sea are serious disadvantages. People who go for one or two weeks' holiday to the coast, or to a country place, tend now to take their caravans or tents to campsites, or rent static caravans, cottages or flats. Many town dwellers have bought old country cottages, to use for their own holidays and to let to others when they are working themselves. People on holiday or travelling around the country often stay at farms or other houses which provide "bed and breakfast". These are usually comfortable and better value than hotels. The number of people going abroad increased from 7 million in the early 1970s to 17 million in the mid-80s, with Spain, France and Greece still the most popular foreign destinations.

England is famous for its gardens, and most people like gardening This is probably one reason why so many people prefer to live in houses rather than in flats. Particularly in suburban areas it is possible to pass row after row of ordinary small houses, each one with its neatly kept patch of grass surrounded by a great variety of flowers and shrubs. Enthusiasts of gardening — or do-it-yourself activities — get ever growing help from radio programmes, magazines and patient shop-keepers. Although the task of keeping a garden is essentially individual, gardening can well become the foundation of social and competitive relationships. Flower shows and vegetable shows, with prizes for the best exhibits, are popular, and to many gardeners the process of growing the plants seems more important than the merely aesthetic pleasure of looking at the flowers or eating the vegetables.

Visitors to provincial England sometimes find the lack of public activities in the evenings depressing. There are, however, many activities which visitors do not see.Evening classes, each meeting once a week, are very popular, and not only those which prepare people for examinations leading to professional qualifications. Many people attend classes connected with their hobbies, such as photography, painting, folk dancing, dog training, cake decoration, archaeology, local history, car maintenance and other subjects. In these classes people find an agreeable social life as well as the means of persuing their hobbies.

Despite the increase in TV watching, reading is still an important leisure activity in Britain and there is a very large number of magazines and books published on a wide variety of subjects. The biggest-selling magazines in Britain (after the TV guides which sell over 3 million copies a week) are women's and pop-music publications. The best-selling books are not great works of literature but stories of mystery and romance which sell in huge quantities (Agatha Christie's novels, for example, have sold more than 300 million copies). It has been estimated that only about 3 per cent of the population read "classics" such as Charles Dickens or Jane Austen, whereas the figures for popular books sales can be enormous, particularly if the books are connected with TV shows or dramatisations.

SPORTThe British are great lovers of competitive sports; and when they are neither playing nor watching games they like to talk about them, or when they cannot do that, to think about them.

The game particularly associated with England iscricket. Many other games which are English in origin have been adopted with enthusiasm all over the world, but cricket has been seriously adopted only in the former British empire, particularly in Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and South Africa.

Cricket is played by men and boys, women and girls. There are two teams of eleven each. One team must bat, and the other team must field. When the first team finishes batting, the second team must begin. The batsman must all the time guard his "wicket", three pieces of wood which are pushed into the ground. The game is very slow.

Organised amateur cricket is played between club teams, mainly on Saturday afternoons from May to the end of September. Nearly every village except in the far North, has its cricket club. A first-class match between English counties lasts for up to three days, with six hours' play on each day. When England plays with one of the cricketing countries such as Australia or New Zealand it is called a test match and it lasts for five days.

For the great mass of the British public the eight months of the football season are more important than the four months of cricket. There are plenty of amateurassociation football (orsoccer) clubs, and professional football is big business. The annual Cup Final match at Wembley, between the two teams which have defeated their opponents in each round of a knock-out contest, remains an event of national importance.

A team is composed of a goalkeeper, two backs, three half-backs and five forwards. A game usually lasts for one and a half hours. At half-time, the teams change ends. The referee controls the game. The aim of each team is obviously to score as many goals as possible. If both teams score the same number of goals, or if neither team scores any goals, the result is a draw.

Rugby football (orrugger) is played with an egg-shaped ball, which may be carried and thrown (but not forward). If a player is carrying the ball he may be "tackled" and made to fall down. Each team has fifteen players, who spend a lot of time lying in the mud or on top of each other and become very ditry. There is some professional Rugby League in the North, but elsewhere rugby football is played by amateurs and favoured by the middle-class. It is also the game played at most "public schools", including Rugby itself, where it was invented.

Most secondary schools have playing fields, and boys normally play rugger or soccer in winter and cricket in summer; girls play tennis and rounders (similar to baseball) in summer and netball and hockey in winter. Hockey is also becoming more and more popular at boys' schools, and there are many men's amateur hockey clubs. Men's basketball is played by a tiny minority.

Golf courses are popular meeting places of the business community; it is, for example, very desirable for bank managers to play golf. There are plenty oftennisclubs, but most towns provide tennis courts in public parks, and anyone can play tennis cheaply on a municipal court. There are cheap municipal golf courses in Scotland but few in England. The ancient game ofbowls is played mainly by mid- dle-aged people.

The biggest new development in sport has been withlong-distance running. "Jogging", for healthy outdoor exercise, needing no skill or equipment, became popular in the 1970s, and soon more and more people took it seriously. Now the annual London Marathon is like a carnival, with a million people watching as the world's star runners are followed by 25,000 ordinary people trying to complete the course. Many thousands of people take part in local marathons all over Britain.

The first fully organised Olympic Games of the modern era were held in London in 1908, and every Olympic sport has its practitioners in Britain.

Rowing is one Olympic sport which has a great history in Britian, beginning in some schools and universities. Some regattas on the Thames have been spectacular social events for well over a hundred years, and today's best rowers have had international successes.

Cycling is a fairly popular pastime, but few people take it up as a serious sport, and it is not a very popular spectator sport.Sailing andhorseriding are popular among those who can afford them.

Horse racing is big business. Every day of the year, except Sundays, there is a race meeting at least one of Britain's several dozen racecourses.

Greyhound racing has had a remarkable revival in the 1980s. Its staduims are near town centres, small enough to be floodlit in the evenings. Until recently the spectators were mostly male and poor, the surroundings shabby. The 1980s have changed all this, with the growth of commercial sponsorship for advertising. The elite of Britain’s dogs, and their trainers, mostly come from Ireland.

The most popular of all outdoor sports isfishing, from the banks of lakes or rivers or in the sea, from jetties, rocks or beaches. Some British lakes and rivers are famous for their trout or salmon, and attract enthusiasts from all over the world. Gambling. Britain has nothing quite like the national lotteries of some other European countries. However, gambling is a popular activity with horse racing being one of the biggest attractions, particularly for famous races such as The Grand National and the Derby. Betting shops ("bookmakers") can be found in most high streets. Other forms of gambling include amusement arcades and pub games, casinos, bingo, and the weekly football pools where very large prizes of a million pounds or more can be won. It has been estimated that over 90% of adults gamble at some time or other with about 40%t gambling regularly.

Sport at School, Sport has for a long time been a very important part of a child's education in Britain, not just to develop physical abilities, but also to provide a certain kind of moral education! Team games in particular encourage such social qualities as enthusiasm, cooperation, loyalty, unselfishness. Above all, absolute fairness (no cheating!) and being able to lose without anger (being a "good looser") are considered important.

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AND CELEBRATIONS There are eight public holidays a year in Great Britain, that is days on which people need not go to work. They are: Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring Bank Holiday and Late Summer Bank Holiday. In Scotland, as opposed to England and Wales, January 2nd is also a public holiday. Most of these holidays are of religious origin, though it would be true to say that for the greater part of the population they have long lost their religious significance and are simply days on which people relax, eat, drink and make merry. All the public holidays, except Christmas Day and Boxing Day observed on December 25th and 26th respectively, and New Year's Day, are movable, that is they do not fall on the same date each year. Good Friday and

Easter Monday depend on Easter Sunday which falls on the first Sunday after a full moon on or after March 21st. May Day (in Scotland called Spring Holiday) falls on the first Monday in May. The Spring Bank Holiday (May Day in Scotland) falls on the last Monday of May, while the Late Summer Bank Holiday comes on the last Monday in August.

Besides public holidays, there are other festivals, anniversaries and simply days, for example Pancake Day and Bonfire Night, on which certain traditions are observed, but unless they fall on a Sunday, they are ordinary working days.

The term bank holiday applies also to Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Easter Monday, New Year's Day and May Day and dates back to the 19th century when by the Bank Holiday Act of 1871 and a supplementary act of 1875 these days as well as the Monday in Whitweek and the first Monday in August, August Bank Holiday, were constituted bank holidays, i.e. days on which banks were to be closed. Bank holidays are not statutory public holidays, but their observance is no longer limited to banks. Since 1965 Whit Monday is no longer a bank holiday, its place was taken by Spring Bank Holiday, whereas the bank holiday formerly observed on the first Monday in August is now observed at the end of August and is called Late Summer Bank Holiday, or, as formerly, August Bank Holiday.

NEW YEAR IN ENGLAND In England the New Year is not as widely or as enthusiastically observed as Christmas. Some people ignore it completely and go to bed at the same time as usual on New Year's Eve. Many others, however, do celebrate it in one way or another, the type of celebration varying very much according to the local custom, family tradition and personal taste.

The most common type of celebration is a New Year party, either a family party or one arranged by a group of young people. This usually begins at about eight o'clock and goes on until the early hours of the morning. There is a lot of drinking, mainly beer, wine, gin and whisky; sometimes the hosts make a big bowl of punch which consists of wine, spirits, fruit juice and water in varying proportions. There is usually a buffet supper of cold meat, pies, sandwiches, savouries, cakes and biscuits. At midnight the radio is turned on, so that everyone can hear the chimes of Big Ben, and on the hour a toast is drunk to the New Year, and Auld Lang Syne is sung. Then the party goes on.

Another popular way of celebrating the New Year is to go to a New Year's dance. Most hotels and dance halls hold a special dance on New Year's Eve. The hall is decorated, there are several different bands and the atmosphere is very gay. The most famous celebration is in London round the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus where crowds gather and sing and welcome the New Year. In Trafalgar Square there is also a big crowd and someone usually falls into the fountain.

Those who have no desire or no opportunity to celebrate the New Year themselves can sit and watch other people celebrating on television. It is an indication of the relative unimportance of the New Year in England that the television producers seem unable to find any traditional English festivities for their programmes and usually show Scottish ones.

January 1st, New Year's Day, is now a public holiday, fortunately for those who like to celebrate most of the night. Some people send New Year cards and give presents but this is not a widespread custom. This is the traditional time for making "New Year resolutions", for example, to give up smoking, or to get up earlier. However, these are generally more talked about than put into practice.

Also on New Year's Day the "New Year Honours List" is published in the newspapers, i.e. a list of those who are to be given honours of various types - knighthoods, etc.

THE NIGHT OF HOGMANAYNowhere else in Britain is the arrival of the New Year celebrated so wholeheartedly as in Scotland.

Throughout Scotland, the preparations for greeting the New Year start with a minor "spring-cleaning". Brass and silver must be glittering and fresh linen must

be put on the beds. No routine work may be left unfinished; stockings must be darned, tears mended, clocks wound up, musical instruments tuned, and pictures hung straight. In addition, all outstanding bills are paid, overdue letters written and borrowed books returned. At least, that is the idea!

Most important of all, there must be plenty of good things to eat. Innumerable homes "reek of a celestial grocery" - plum puddings and currant buns, spices and cordials, apples and lemons, tangerines and toffee. In mansion and farmhouse, in suburban villa and city tenement, the table is spread with festive fare. Essential to Hogmanay are "cakes and kebbuck (oatcakes and cheese), shortbread, and either black bun or currant loaf. These are flanked with bottles of wine and the "mountain dew" that is the poetic name for whisky.

Many families prefer to bring in the New Year at home, with music or dancing, cards or talk. As the evening advances, the fire is piled high - for the brighter the fire, the better the luck. The members of the household seat themselves round the hearth, and when the hands of the clock approach the hour, the head of the house rises, goes to the front door, opens it wide, and holds it thus until the last stroke of midnight has died away. Then he shuts it quietly and returns to the family circle. He has let the Old Year out and the New Year in. Now greetings and small gifts are exchanged, glasses are filled- and already the First-Footers are at the door. The First-Footer, on crossing the threshold, greets the family with "A Happy New Year!" and pours out a glass from the flask he carries. This must be drunk to the dregs by the head of the house, who, in turn, pours out a glass for each of his visitors. The glass handed to the First-Footer himself must also be drunk to the dregs. A popular toast is:

"Your good health!"

The First-Footers must take something to eat as well as to drink, and after an exchange of greetings they go off again on their rounds.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1280