Until It Sticks Open the app ›Culture, Sport & Traditions
Religious calendar
- Christmas Day, 25 Dec — birth of Jesus; Boxing Day = 26 Dec
- Easter (in March or April): Good Friday = Jesus’s death, Easter Sunday = rising
- The 40 days before Easter: Lent
- Diwali — celebrated by Hindus and Sikhs; called the Festival of Lights
- Eid al-Fitr — end of Ramadan, after a month of fasting
- Head of the Church of England: the monarch; Church of Scotland is Presbyterian; Wales & NI have no established church
Secular days
- Halloween: 31 October · April Fool’s: 1 April, jokes until midday
- Scottish New Year’s Eve (31 Dec): Hogmanay; New Year song = Auld Lang Syne
- Public holidays are called bank holidays — banks and businesses close
- Remembrance Day service is held at the Cenotaph
Sport
- Golf — 15th-century Scotland · tennis — Wimbledon
- Cricket vs Australia: the Ashes · rugby: Six Nations
- Horse racing: Grand National (Aintree), Royal Ascot (Berkshire, 5 days, royals attend), Scottish Grand National (Ayr); museum at Newmarket, Suffolk
- Thames rowing race: Oxford vs Cambridge
- UK hosted the Olympics 3 times: 1908, 1948, 2012
Sporting heroes
- 1966 World Cup-winning captain: Bobby Moore
- First 4-minute mile (1954): Roger Bannister
- 1972 Olympic pentathlon gold: Mary Peters
- Famous Paralympians: Tanni Grey-Thompson & Ellie Simmonds (Simmonds: swimming golds 2008, 2012, 2016)
Writers & artists
- Shakespeare — born in Stratford-upon-Avon; wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth
- ‘The Daffodils’, inspired by nature: William Wordsworth
- Sherlock Holmes: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Best-loved novel 2003: The Lord of the Rings — JRR Tolkien
- Pop art (1960s): David Hockney · Art Deco ceramics: Clarice Cliff
- ‘Pomp and Circumstance’: Sir Edward Elgar (a musician)
Stage, screen & prizes
- Silent-film tramp: Charlie Chaplin
- Wallace & Gromit’s creator (4 Oscars, animation): Nick Park
- Highest-grossing UK film franchises: Harry Potter & James Bond
- Actress who has NOT won an Oscar: Emily Watson
- Man Booker Prize: fiction/literature · Turner Prize: contemporary art
- The Proms: 8-week summer classical music season (Royal Albert Hall)
- “The Fringe” festival: Edinburgh
Prize pairing: Booker = books; Turner = (modern) art — think Turner the painter.
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