Celebrations!!!

Hello everyone! Sorry I've been so quiet lately. Lots to do before the end of the semester! In light of this coming month's festivities, I'd thought I'd share a bit about the holiday-soaked cheer that has started to consume my thoughts and decorate my walk to and from class. Hope you enjoy it!

Unlike America, the British do not have many holidays. While we have the pleasure of getting at least one day of school off for every other dead guy, they only get the big Bank Holidays to celebrate. This includes Christmas, Boxing Day, New Years Day, Good Friday, Easter, and three random Bank Holidays in Early May, Spring, and Summer (just because they figured they had too many cold month holidays and wanted a few warm ones). As you can imagine, this lack of random celebrations makes every month go by a little slower with every passing American holiday bringing a small pang of home-sickness. Even the Brits secretly envy our plenteous holidays (true story), wishing they too had more reasons to do nothing. They've even started adopting some of our less important holidays (on their own time though). However, what the Brits lack in quantity, they make up for in quality.

London Fact # Fourteen: The Brits take their Bank Holidays SERIOULSY!!! They begin preparing for celebrations early and make sure they make the most of their time off. Whereas us Americans have an unspoken rule that Christmas decorations shouldn't be put up till after Thanksgiving, the Brits got theirs out at the start of November.

I'm not just talking about individual families either. Every DISTRICT has their own special flare of décor and holiday cheer. There are several Christmas trees in every town center (pic below- King's Cross's Tree), lights on the majority of buildings, Christmas markets throughout several areas of London, and a whole “National” Park converted and dedicated to Christmas (Winter Wonderland). Gift shops have snowflakes hanging in their windows, cafes make a huge deal of marketing their seasonal drinks, and some of the more famous “malls” (Harrods) create huge, elaborate, showoff-ey Christmas displays. Pubs even add on to their (highly overpriced) menus specialties such as a Hot Toddy (which I think is a hot Pimms drink(?)), alcoholic Hot Chocolates, and Mulled Ciders to name a few. Everything is so full of Christmas that it almost makes up for the fact that I still only need one (fairly heavy) jacket to block out the October-like chill. Apparently it doesn't actually “snow” until January/February, and even then I doubt I'll see a proper snow. (Other pic. friend at a shop display)

The Brits are so into their Winter-time cheer that they even created a holiday dedicated to recovering from Christmas Day festivities and called it Boxing Day. Now, I'm sure there is a real reason this holiday was created and named “Boxing Day,” but no one I've spoken to knows. It has nothing to do with boxing (which shattered my American assumptions), and no one does anything on that day except sleep off any residual hang-overs. Not very glamorous, but hey. Unfortunately I will not be able to speak (first-hand) about Christmas Day, since I'll be away, but from what I've gathered most of the public celebrations happen before then and Christmas day is reserved for family traditions and large turkey/duck dinners. (Poor quality pic Oxford Circus)

As for the other Bank Holidays, I haven't experienced them yet since they are so few and far between! But one of the unofficial holidays I can attest to, following in the over-the-top fashion of Bank Holidays, is Halloween and (closely following that) Guy Fawkes Day. Apparently, Halloween is new thing in Europe, and I was actually surprised that it was celebrated so widely at all. It is also something that has been enthusiastically taken up by the young adult population (and slowly seeping into the children's realm). There is not a lot of American Trick-or-Treating going on here as this is almost exclusively a pub holiday. Some shops put up fun decorations and cafes advertise their Autumn (not Fall- never say Fall) drinks with a Halloween-y flare, but most districts don't get into it. This is probably because the banks don't get into it, since I imagine the literal banks being the centers of town and the dictators of holiday cheer.

However, I do not live in “most districts”. I live in Camden. Famous for the Camden Lock, the all-too-sketchy Camden Market, and the innumerable pubs and clubs (pic on right- kinda). Yes, I live in the party district. This means that Halloween is celebrated HARD here. EVERYONE dresses up the week(end) of Halloween and EVERY pub has some sort of holiday deal or theme. Now, I assume this is similar to the rest of London (as almost every pub I passed during late October had some sort of spooky motif), but since most people from surrounding areas come here to party, I am biased. Still, I've never seen Camden so full of freaky looking people as I did on Halloween (and that's saying something). I am still certain that Halloween was just a socially acceptable excuse for most of them to dress how they would ideally dress, without being judged for a week. Needless to say, it was a unique experience.

As for Guy Fawkes Day, I'm not sure why it isn't a Bank Holiday. It is celebrated throughout Brittan on the 5th of November as the day Guy Fawkes was arrested for trying to blow up Parliament (see V for Vendetta). It is the closest thing to the 4th of July here as fireworks (which are legal here) explode non-stop for a few weeks around the date. Several areas in London host large fourth-of-July-type festivals with attractions, food, and massive bon-fires followed by firework shows. My friends and I, being cheap Uni-kids, didn't go to a festival, but instead went to the MOST beautiful hilltop in all of London, Primrose Hill, to watch all of the fireworks at once. London is an extremely flat city with one very large hill conveniently located near where I live. From there you can see the ENTIRE city! No kidding, the London Eye is clearly visible and lit up at night (Shoddy pic of the top of the hill below). We watched fireworks from all over the city go off all night. It was wonderful! Until you tried to sleep, or talk on skype, or do anything productive for the next week. There were some fireworks going off so close I could have sworn they were trying to reenact the London Blitz and we were under fire. Otherwise, it was a really fun time!

Unfortunately for me, Britain has not picked up on other holidays that I miss in America. Most notably, at the moment, Thanksgiving. I know, crazy they don't celebrate their own people escaping religious persecution. This has left me feeling slightly overworked (under-holidayed) and (for the first time) a little home sick. However, I am planning a dinner with friends that should fill, at least part, of the turkey-shaped hole in my heart. On the whole, though, I miss the American traditions associated with this self-gorging holiday and the family time it brings. However, I am making a point to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, even though I'll be watching it in class part of the time (time zones are bitter-sweet). Nonetheless I'm bringing Turkey Day to England! Who knows, maybe it'll be the next unofficial big thing?

Happy Thanksgiving (and subsequent holidays) Everyone!