The British people in many years of history have collected festivities and events of all kinds and that not everyone knows about.
They love celebrations and there is a bit of a craze to celebrate just anything.
Some see it as a useless goliardery, but I think it is a way to keep being young at heart and a way to celebrate life itself.
It is very much needed.
Especially now during these hard historical times.
One of the first events I attended this springtime is the traditional Maypole Dance.
It is a form of popular dance which consists of a folk dance in which dancers rock around a pole, representing the Maypole, which is erected as a symbol of prosperity.
Traditionally, women have to dance in one direction and men in the opposite one while crossing over and having ribbons and garlands intertwining all around that pole.
Before the dance is the election of the May Queen: a girl dressed in white who throws flower petals to the crowd and only then the dance begins.
It is said that this dance was created in the old days as an opportunity to forget class differences and have people celebrate all together.
Another ‘English’ way to celebrate is to send each other greeting cards for just about any occasion.
I fancy sending cards and the selection one can find in England is endless.
There are 3D cards, puzzle cards, scratch and sniff ones, customizable ones…just about anything.
Greetings cards are a product after all and, as such, they need marketing to sell.
Marketing and business revolving around festivities is huge now in England and all holidays are now commercial ones.
Shops are constantly adorned for an occasion or another: Easter, Valentine’s Day, Earth Day, Father’s Day…even Secretary Appreciation Day!
And for each festivity there is a card to go with, of course.
Greeting cards for any occasion
It seems that the greetings cards we send today to wish Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday and for several other special occasions are the result of a commission requested by a busy businessman who used to work for the British postal services at the end of the 19th century.
Legend has it he commissioned the creation of about one thousand Christmas cards to send to his friends and so the greetings cards were born.
It seems that the first postcards read the words ‘Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You’.
Very basic indeed.
But, on the other hand, other sources tell us that the first greeting cards were born as a result of a desire of people to celebrate the Advent days leading to Christmas by announcing to family members the plans for the upcoming holiday season with a letter or card.
Christmas is a very heartfelt holiday here in England and greeting cards cannot be missing for this holiday period but, nowadays, you can really buy greeting cards for basically any occasion and taste.
On the one hand, English people are very aware about the environmental issues and they care about not wasting paper – when it comes to printing useless papers for instance – but, greeting cards are something they cannot do without.
Even with the advent of digitalization, English people prefer to send a ‘real’ greeting card to friends and relatives because they find it to be more ‘posh’ as they like to say, more personal and more thoughtful.
I agree and I think it is nice to receive a card when it is heartfelt.
It has somehow a feeling of the old times and it feels traditional and authentic.
