england’s weirdest customs

8/10/2019 Englands Weirdest Customs

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Apparently we are a nation of weirdos. To anyone who

grew up in England - particularly in a small village inEngland - there is nothing at all strange about dressing upin ribbons and bells and hitting sticks together in public,or chasing a large cheese down a steep hill, or setting fire

to things and running around with them, trying not to getburned.

To outsiders, this is weird. This is wacky. These quirky

customs and pastimes, with their roots in customs datingback to the middle ages, are the last bastions of Englisheccentricity - and are often just a little bit dangerous, too.Third-degree burns, dropping your wife on her head, or

knocked out with a wellington boot is all part of the fun.Warning: may contain morris dancing.


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1. MAYPOLE DANCING


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Maypole dancing is a serious business. It may look to the

untrained eye like a bunch of confused schoolchildren

skipping around in a random fashion, but it does in factinvolve careful choreography to create complex patterns of

woven, multicoloured ribbons around the pole.

Maypole dancing is a form of folk dance from westernEurope, especially England, Sweden, Galicia, Portugal and

Germany, with two distinctive traditions. In the most

widespread, dancers perform circle dances around a tall

pole which is decorated with garlands, painted stripes,flowers, flags and other emblems.

In the second most common form, dancers dance in a circle

each holding a colored ribbon attached to a much smaller


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2. JACK IN THE GREEN

An excellent chance to follow what looks

like a moving hedge through town on the May

Bank Holiday. Known as the Jack, he's attended

by green-faced 'Bogies' and a Morris group, andlater gets 'slain' amid the cliff-top castle ruins. It

all began as a form of legalised begging for

chimney sweeps out of work during the summer

months - the Jack began as a garland but grewand grew until he covered the person beneath.


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4. Bog Snorkeling

If any of you ever doubted that us Brits are mad, this should

make up your minds for you. Basically participants dive into a

bog, wearing goggles, a pair of flippers and a snorkel, they

then proceed to race each other along a 120ft trench filled with

mud. Held every year the participants come from all over theworld and raise lots of money for charity.

england’s weirdest customs

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