Hi everyone ! 

I hope you're all well since my previous article ! 

Today I will tell you about the social rituals in the UK to do so I will use sometime the Kwintessential website to add some extra information. 

Here is a quick layout of the article: 

1. Customs & Cultural habits
2. Symbols
3. National celebrations
4. Events

Now that you know what I will present you in this article lets kick it off ! 

I. Customs & Cultural habits

As I said previously, I will give you some information from my personal experience and some I found on Kwintessential. I think that a little clip about what defines British people & Britain might please some of you.       If you have ever been to the UK leave a comment  about the video. Enjoy ! 

I hope you enjoyed the video, it is really all about stereotypes and etiquettes however stereotypes aren't always false. 

In England, the breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you have a breakfast in England, in a restaurant, snack or hotel you will normally find the same kind of food. In an English breakfast as it is  called you usually find mushrooms, rumbled eggs, baked beans, muffins, jam, sausages, bacon, tea, coffee, etc ...

Here is a pic to show you that this kind of breakfast is not human ... it's English.

As living in London for the past month, I can tell you that the weather is a true discussion topic, it is almost always raining and the tiniest ray of sunshine is a true gift in your whole week ! (Just kidding but almost true ...)    In my opinion, as a Londoner there are more cabs in London than private cars so I guess it makes the use of cabs a true custom in the UK. We could keep talking about English customs and habits for hours, but as a last "fact" we can say that the red colour is more than dominant in London for example. Red telephone boxes, white and red flag, red buses, baked beans and here again we could go on for hours. Moreover everybody knows that Brits do not tan they turn red. 

Here is a proof ! 

II. Symbols

What are the greatest symbols in the UK ? I won't surprise you if a tell you that in my opinion the Queen Elizabeth II is the greatest symbol in the UK, but not only for Britain but in matter of fact for all the common wealth. Actually just for the record her reign is the longest in History (63 years and not over yet). 

What a lovely monarch !

Then I am actually lucky enough to live in an outstanding location, I get to live right next to Baker street (Sherlock holmes' street). I also passed by the worlds most famous clock, Big Ben. 

 With Sherlock Holmes   Big Ben 

Actually these symbols are only a few of them because while spending some time and walking in the streets of London you see symbols everywhere ! 

III. National celebrations

There isn't any particular "national day" in England. However they do have many national traditions/festivals, for instance : 

St George's day:

On April 23 is celebrated the St George's day. The legend tells us that St George was a Roman soldier that killed a dragon to save a princess. Thus he remains patron of England and St George's day can or may be considered as a major national event. St George is a most important character in the English History, he is represented by the Red cross on the white  background (England's national flag). However most people don't celebrate it. 

The Boxing day: 

I assume everybody knows the boxing day. The boxing day is the day after Christmas (26th of December). The boxing day is a bank day and most people spend the day with their families.

IV. Events

How lucky could we say I am  to be in London during the Six Nations Championship ? I call myself very lucky ! 

The Six nations championship is an annual competition between England, Ireland, Wales, Italy, France and Scotland. It is a major event for these 6 nations but is a particular occasion for the English. Posters everywhere, advertisements in the pubs, certain hotels that offer you to watch the competition in there bar, special menus in restaurants. 

Then there is the Notting Hill Carnival on the 27th & 28th of August. Notting Hill is a lovely place in London, lovely for sure yet quite atypical. Each house has a particular colour which makes this place a unique place in London, even if we can say that in London each neighbourhood is a unique place with it's own identity.

If you think that Notting Hill is already a colourful place then how could we qualify the Notting Hill carnival ? This carnival is the biggest street festival in Europe, around 1 million people make the trip to London so as to see the colourful floats and dancers in costumes, hear the multicultural music , etc. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this article because I truly enjoyed writing it !  

See you in my next article ! 

Bibliography : 

Kwintessential 

British Council