What is English culture?

[Winker]

The reason the English don't celebrate St George's day is because he isn't our true patron saint. That accolade goes to St Edmund - a 9th century king of East Anglia who was slaughtered by the Vikings.

St George was a semi-mythical figure introduced by the Normans during the crusades. This is why the English have no ancient traditions we can call our own, they were wiped out by William the Bastard; and we have been screwed up ever since.

 

[Lord Bamber]

The reason the English don't celebrate St George's day is because he isn't our true patron saint. That accolade goes to St Edmund - a 9th century king of East Anglia who was slaughtered by the Vikings.

St George was a semi-mythical figure introduced by the Normans during the crusades. This is why the English have no ancient traditions we can call our own, they were wiped out by William the Bastard; and we have been screwed up ever since.

When is St Edmund's day?

 

[Winker]

November 20th

 

[Lord Bamber]

When is St Edmund's day?

November 20th

In the diary then for a full on English Patron Saints Day piss-up

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The reason the English don't celebrate St George's day is because he isn't our true patron saint. That accolade goes to St Edmund - a 9th century king of East Anglia ...

... which is, of course, a foreign country to anyone who has any allegiance to the Kingdom of the South Saxons.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Oh ... another very English characteristic ...


... pedantry.

 

[simonsimon]

St GEORGE is also the patron saint of SYPHILIS.

To think that all those car flags during the World Cup, were advertising their owners sexual problems?

 

[Gully]

St GEORGE is also the patron saint of SYPHILIS.

To think that all those car flags during the World Cup, were advertising their owners sexual problems?

How poxy is that?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

How poxy is that?

Give that reply the clap it so richly deserves.

 

[Gully]

Give that reply the clap it so richly deserves.

Just a std response Lord B!

 

[Screaming J]

... which is, of course, a foreign country to anyone who has any allegiance to the Kingdom of the South Saxons.

Any Saints specifically linked with Sussex we should adopt instead? St Dunstan; St Wilfred (who allegedly brought Christianity to Sussex; the last pagan county in England, cheers, cheers), St Cuthman, St Leonard, St Richard of Chichester

 

[Shizuoka Dolphin]

Cockneys.

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

Much as I love fish and chips I would like to nominate Roast Beef and Yorkshire pud as our national dish. British beef of course.

This thread made me wonder how 'English' culture will be represented to the world at the opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics.....
I hope that Team GB will win bucketloads of medals but of course this will be under the Union flag and to 'God save the Queen' etc.

There are obvious icons of Scottish, Welsh and Irish identities, but what are the English icons? For example what is our English national dress - Chavvy shell suit and Burberry baseball hat? Pearly Kings & Queens? Pinstrip suit and bowler hat? Grungy dreadlocks and dog on a string? Baggy shorts, string vest and knotted hankie? Morris Men? Spice Girls? Who are our 'English' sporting icons - Wayne Rooney? Kevin Pietersen?

Do we still have a defined national identity - or are we just a mongrel society? It seems to me that English is often the minority language being spoken in many public places these days.

I am very proud to be British and also proud that we aspire to a compassionate, inclusive and multicultural society although sometimes wonder if we have the balance right. Against this backdrop I find myself identifying more and more with being 'English', the flag of St George and having 'Jerusalem' as an anthem for our sporting teams. That does not make me racist, just more aware of my own nationality, which cannot be a bad thing.

Before someone mentions it yes I know the Queen is descended from German ancestors. But then most 'English' probably have Anglo Saxon, Scandinavian, Norman or other ancestors, so the cultural mix has been going on for thousands of years. When did we become 'English'?

 

[alan partridge]

It seems to me that English is often the minority language being spoken in many public places these days.

what? In Norfolk??

 

[Mellotron]

It seems to me that English is often the minority language being spoken in many public places these days.

I am very proud to be British and also proud that we aspire to a compassionate, inclusive and multicultural society although sometimes wonder if we have the balance right.

This thread won't end well.

 

[daveinprague]

CZ is the fourth (NL, BE, DE, CZ) mainland European country ive lived in, and to be honest, its hard to notice (apart from language) much difference in day to day life. Globalisation has turned most of Europe (Incl England) into the same place, with the same American fast food restaurants, pizzas etc. People go to work, people like to go out to the pictures, parks, countryside, restaurants, clubs and bars. The older I get, the dafter nationalism seems to me.

 

[HovaGirl]

Inventing sports and then being shit at them.

I laughed out loud at this, looked at the poster's identity, and realised it was my witty son!

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

WE are English culture. It's as simple as that(at least to me). Everyone of us that has shared time and oxygen in our little patch of the world is a part of English culture. To me it's a living, breathing, evolving thing. There's no need to keep looking back and fixing on a random point in the past and saying 'THIS is England and English culture'. That's too insular and introspective a viewpoint . If you fixate only on the past then you're talking about a culture that is dead.

Culture, like everything else, evolves. Evolution is life.

 

[FREDBINNEY]

what? In Norfolk??

yes, in norfolk.


Norfolk's migrant workers still on rise - News - Eastern Daily Press

 

[HovaGirl]

As others have said, this nation can laugh at itself, like no other. If there is a problem, laugh your way through it until the problem is over. It reduces stress, and, as a nation, the English don't get stressed, particularly if there is a nice cup of tea to hand. Some refer to this as the Blitz Spirit, where the English come together and put up with any adversity. It all boils down to tea and laughter.

We like orderly queues and look with distaste on anyone who has 11 items in their basket in the 10-items-or-less queue. We abhor middle-lane hoggers. The English like the rule of law, because we know it makes for easier living. We know that disobeying a rule or a law makes life difficult for someone and we don't want that someone to be ourselves. So we just hope that others will act in the same way we do. If there's a problem, we can always have a nice cup of tea.

England has been a melting-pot of cultures for more than 2,000 years. Some of the best of those cultures have been smoothly integrated into our society so that we think they are English. Our brilliant language, for one. Our nice cups of tea, for another. Our Roman Villas, Saxon and Norman Churches, our Jewish-founded banks and Marks and Spencer and even our Indian and Chinese take-aways. We adopted what we liked from other cultures which came to live here and dismissed what we didn't like. We never took to the Fascism which overtook Italy and Germany in the 1930s. It didn't appeal to our sense of fair play, and still doesn't.

People came here and stayed because they liked living with these tolerant island people. Our unified English boundaries can never change because of the mountains to the west, Hadrian's Wall to the north and the seas which surround us. This gives us a form of security in always being English, no matter that our ancestors were Irish, Polish, German, Italian, Asian or African. We will never be French one decade and German the next. The land we live on will always be English.

To fly over England is to love the green fields below us. It is a refreshing sight after the Spanish and Greek deserts and, rarely, makes us thankful for the rain which makes it all so green. Among the reticent English of the stiff-upper-lip, our weather always provides a topic of conversation if there is nothing else we feel confident of discussing with strangers. The rain, snow, wind and short winter days makes us a cold people and this affects our food. We need stodge to keep us warm in the winter: soups; pies; stews; puddings and the Sunday Roast. We can walk it all off by going to the pub to discuss the weather while having a beer, a remnant of the days when water was too contaminated to drink and was best boiled up to make ale.

The English are unique. Our borders ensured we were always at a distance from mainland Europe and could develop in our own way. Our laws were developed before and by Alfred the Great and built on by the Norman invadors and subsequent governments into the laws of today and provide our unwritten Constitution. We are one country in a tiny island whose language is used the world over, whose aptitude for business fed the industrial revolutions around the world, whose democratic style of Government has been taken up by most other major developed countries and yet, whose people are so self-effacing, that they only remember what they and their ancestors have done with a sense of guilt.

Right, I think I'll have a nice cup of tea now.