Every one of us, upon hearing the words ‘Great Britain’, all sorts of associations come to mind. For it is true that this country is renowned for its achievements in many areas of life, as well as for its long-standing traditions. It is easy to see that the British attach great importance to upholding them, from their history, to the monarchy, to seemingly trivial everyday matters such as tea or iconic television programmes.
Some habits of the British are clearly conspicuous. For example, they overly talk about the weather. on 25 December at 3 p.m., the Queen makes a speech and everyone listens to it on TV or radio. The British also have their famous dishes: eggs and bacon are usually eaten for breakfast; another popular meal is fish and chips.
By far the most famous tradition originating in the UK is the so-called ‘five o’clock tea’, which literally, translated from English into Polish means ‘tea at five o’clock’, but is really just a ritual of drinking afternoon tea. It is also common there to drink tea with milk, which to many people seems unreal, but I personally find this combination quite tasty.
It’s hard to say how many customs there are in the UK, but the cultivation of traditions in the UK has become so widespread and has been going on for so long that it has become a tradition in itself, and therein lies the uniqueness of this nation.
