The special festivals in Britain

The special festivals in the Britain

There are many festivals in the Britain, in this paper, we just introduce you several special and interesting ones. They are as followed:

●Edinburgh International Festival (爱丁堡国际艺术节)

The post-war years have been a great growth in the number of arts festivals in Britain and other European countries. Among them the Edinburgh International Festival has foremost events of its kind in the world. This is not surprising because everything in the arts, if it is first-class, is potentially an Edinburgh Festival attraction. On most evenings during the festival there are as many as six events to choose from on the official program: symphony concerts（交响音乐会）, ballets, plays, recitals（独唱）—all given by the finest artistes in the world. The festival was inaugurated in 1947. Glyndebourne Opera（格林德本歌剧团）, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra（维也纳爱乐乐团）, the Old Vic Theatre （老维多利亚剧院）and Sadler’s Wells Ballet （塞德勒的威尔斯芭蕾舞团）were only a few of the participants of this first venture. The festival was a success, and has been held annually ever since.

The festival is quit international in its character giving as a rule a varied representation of artistic production from a number of countries, and over the past few years it has a definite theme, that is the work of one or two composers studied in depth.

For instance:

In 1961, it gave a comprehensive view of Arnold Schoenberg.

In 1962, a similar treatment was given to the music of the famous former Soviet composer Dmitri.

In 1969, the theme of the festival was a country—Italy.

The festival has done a great deal in the development of arts in Scotland. In addition to establishing the Scottish Festival Chorus, it helped to develop the Scottish opera and the Scottish National Orchestra which started by giving only occasional light concerts in the festival with Mahler’s massive Eighth Symphony.

One of the reasons for the festival’s success in that it is easy for the visitors to make their arrangements, since Festival programs are published as early as March, and the booking opens soon afterwards, at the beginning of April. The festival Society which takes care of all these matters not only arranges for the visitor’s tickets but also reserves accommodation.

●The Maypole（五月花柱）

The Maypole is an ancient fertility emblem belonging to the beginning of summer, and it also represents a tree; indeed, at one time it was a tree, brought in from the woods with ceremony, and set up on the

village green. In the darkness of the early morning, the young people went out on May Day and cut down a tall, young tree, lopped off most of its branches, leaving only a few at the top, and so brought it home, to be adorned with flowers and garlands, and to serve as a center for their dances.

Sometimes the parish possessed a standing Maypole, a permanent shaft which remained in adorned when May Day came round. A few still stand, or rather, their descendants do on the not much more than fifteen years. After that, it begins to rot at the foot and has to be renewed. These permanent poles are usually very tall. That at Welford-on-Avon(艾玛河畔威尔福特) with its bright red, circular that at Barwick-in-Elmet（埃尔迈巴威克）, near Leeds（利兹）, is even taller, down the Maypole is re-painted, and ever so often, when it becomes necessary, replaced, and its four garlands renewed.

There are still a good many Maypoles today. Most schools have them, on May Day, or on some convenient day during month, and some villages maintain the old tradition, especially in places where there are standing Maypoles.

●Student Rags

Student Rags is a well established practice associated particularly with older Universities of students mounting some sort of pageant and

collecting money for charity. They think up themes and decorate a float (a truck with a flat loading area) to represent their concept – perhaps a pirate ship, and operating theatre, a coalmine or something topical and humorous. Then the group of students associated with that float dresses up to sustain the impression.

The Rag Day is often held in February when it s still decidedly cold, but this does not seem to deter the girls from dressing in the flimsiest of garments as mermaids(美人鱼) or grass-skirted Nawacan maiden s（纳瓦肯少女）, or the lads from turning out as cave men and the like. There is usually a magazine for the occasion，its contents being mainly humorous and vulgar, for students feel that they are given license for some mild misbehavior. In this connection they indulge in certain stunts, for example the kidnapping of local who rather like the publicity anyway, or climbing public buildings，for example to put a chamber pot on top of a steeple. The authorities can be vexed with the more outrageous of the capers, for example painting statues, for it is expensive to clean off the paint, but lesser liberties such as throwing bags of flour at policemen are tolerated.

So, students let off steam and the public is entertained and contributes by buying magazines or putting money in collecting boxes. And eventually the cash collected finds its way into local charitable organizations.

The students usually have a Grand Ball, which is often fancy dress too, and this finishes off strenuous day which itself had marked the culmination of sometimes weeks of preparation.

●St. Valentine’s Day

I’ll be your sweetheart, if you will be mine,

All of my life I’ll be your Valentine

The first Valentine of all was a bishop, a Christian martyr, who before he was put to death by Romans sent a note of friendship to his jailer’s blind daughter.

The Christmas Church took this day February 14 as an old pagan festival when young Roman maidens threw decorated love missives into an urn to be drawn out by their boy friends.

In the last century, sweethearts of both sexes would spend hours fashioning a homemade card or present. The results of some of those painstaking efforts are still preserved in museums. Lace, ribbon, wild flowers, colored paper, feathers and shells, all were brought into use.

If the aspiring (or perspiring) lover had difficulty in thinking up a message or rhyme there was help at hand. He could dip into The Quiver of Love or St. Valentine’s Sentimental Writer, these books

giving varied selections to suit everyone’s choice. Sam Weller, of Pickwick Paper fame, took an hour and a half to write his ―Valentine‖, with much blotting and crossing out and warnings from his father not to descend to poetry.

Nowadays, the Valentine is for the boys and girls, sweethearts and lovers, husbands and wives, friends and neighbors, and even the office staff to exchange greetings of affection, undying love or satirical comment. And the quick, slick, modern way to do it is with a Valentine card.

There are all kinds, to suit all tastes, the lush satin cushions, boxed and be-ribboned, the entwined hearts, gold arrows, roses, cupids, doggerel rhymes, and sick sentiment -it’s all there. The publishers made sure it was there three weeks in advance.

In his magazine, Punch, as long ago as 1880 he pointed out that no sooner was the avalanche of Christmas cards swept away than the publishers began to fill the shops with their novel valentines, full of ―hearts and Darts, Loves and Doves and Floating Fays and Flowers.‖So in the 20th century, when there are no longer any bars to communication between the sexes, the love missives of an older, slower time, edged carefully over the counters by the publishers and shopkeepers, still surge through the letter boxes.

●The Shrove Tuesday

One of the main events of Shrove Tuesday at Olney in Bucking-hamshire is the pancake race. This race is said to have been first run there in 1445, and to have continued intermittently ever since, with occasional lapses and revivals. One such lapse occurred, for obvious reason, during the Second World War, but in 1948 the custom was restarted and has not since suffered interruption.

The competitors are housewives who must be inhabitants of Olney, or the nearby Warrington. The rules also require them to wear aprons and to cover their head with a hat or scarf. The course to be run is from the village to the parish church, about four hundred and fifteen yards. A bell rings twice before the race, once to warn the women assemble in the square，each one carrying a frying pan；the other is rung to start the running.

The pancakes have to be tossed three times during the race, and some, inevitably land in the road, but this doesn’t disqualify the runner, who is allowed to pick it up and toss it again.

At the church door, the Vicar waits to greet the breathless women, and to award the winner and the runner-up with prayer books. The leading vicar has the right to kiss the winner and get her pancake. The pans are laid round the font in the church, and a short service of blessing is held.

●Fires

Fairs can still be found all over England, although many have been disappeared even during the last thirty years.

The Trinity fair, at Southwold, Suffork, from being an occasion of buying and selling in the High Street is now an extensive pleasure and amusement fir held on the Sough Green, and some of the more demure of inhabitants have several times unsuccessfully endeavored to get it abolished. On one occasion the municipal authorities and police were drawn up across the street to bar ingress to the fair people, but latter were equal to the occasion, and their huge steam road engine bore slowly down upon the line of officials, who thought it better clear out of the way.

Sherborne in Dorset holds a pack Monday Fair. This fair was first held in 1490, and is now the sole survivor of the three great fairs that were once held in Sherbone. There is a curious custom in connection with this fair. At Midnight on evening beforehand bands of boys and girls with linked arms rush through the streets blowing horns, whistling, ratting tin kettles and tooting to make a terrific bray of discordant sound, and thus usher in the fair.

Teddy Rowe’s band is the name of a lively and noisy parade, which until 1964, regularly ushered in Pack Monday Fair. This Fair is held on the Monday following Old Michaelmas Day (October 10th); it is really St. Michael’s Fair, but it is far better known by its secondary

name of Pack Monday Fair. In the very early hours of the morning, soon after midnight, young people of both sexes marched through the sleeping town, blowing horns, bugles and whistles, hanging upon tin trays and frying-pans, and generally making as much discordant noise as possible. This was Teddy Rowe’s Band, which is locally believed to have heralded the Fair thus for nearly five centuries.

Tradition says that the custom began in 1490 when, after the completion of the great fan vault in the nave of the Abbey Church, Abbot Peter Ramsam gave his masons a well-earned holiday, telling them to pack their tools and then go out and enjoy themselves. This they did with enthusiasm. They marched in triumph through the streets, blowing horns, and giving vent to their high spirits by shouting and marking cheerful noises of all kinds. In the years that followed, the town’s people are said to have repeated the lively Monday Fair. The Fair itself is supposed to have gained this name from the packing of the mason’s subsequent departure from the town.

Whether this is the true explanation of the custom or not, it seems clear that Teddy Rowe’s Band existed for several centuries, and survived more than one attempt to suppress it. Now, however, its future is extremely uncertain. The parade was held as usual in 1963, but because of hooliganism and malicious damage on that occasion, it was banned by the police in1964, and this ban has since been annually

repeated. Only time will show whether, as now seems very likely, Sherborne has seen the last of Teddy Rowe and his customs elsewhere, this one will reappear in due course perhaps in a modified form.

Until the middle of the last century London had its great Charter Fair at Smithfield, but that has now vanished, as have also the famous Gingerbread Fairs in Birmingham. If we bear in mind that the original purpose of these was the sale famous, then we can understand the origin of these names and others, such as Chertsey’s Onion Fair, which is fast vanishing but which was once one of the greatest markets near London. Perhaps an enlightened Urban Council will one day revive this Surrey festival. There is also the famous Nottingham Goose Fair.

These are some of the interesting festivals which are part of English culture of the Britain. Many other festivals which make the English life more colorful exit in the Britain. These festivals can reflect part of the characteristic of the British, helping us to understand the British better.