Festivals and Holidays

The four weeks before Christmas in the Christian calendar, marked in Britain chiefly through advent calendars, carol services and candles.

Britain's public holidays: eight days a year in England and Wales when banks, offices and most schools close, traditionally falling on a…

The night of 5 November, when Britain lights bonfires and sets off fireworks to mark the failure of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot…

The 26th of December: a public holiday for eating leftovers, watching sport, going to the sales and recovering from Christmas.

Cardboard tubes pulled apart at the Christmas table with a bang, containing a paper crown, a small toy and a joke of…

The British Christmas: turkey and crackers on the 25th, a public holiday on the 26th, and a set of rituals — the…

The Christian festival of the Resurrection, marked in Britain with a four-day weekend, chocolate eggs, hot cross buns and roast lamb.

The British name for the figure who brings presents on Christmas Eve — originally a personification of festive cheer, now largely merged…

The 31st of October: an old Celtic festival of the dead, largely forgotten in England, then reimported from America and now firmly…

The autumn church service and school assembly giving thanks for the harvest, at which tinned goods are donated and "We Plough the…

The Scottish New Year: a celebration historically far bigger than Christmas, with first-footing, Auld Lang Syne and two public holidays.

The forty days of fasting and self-denial before Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday, and still widely observed in Britain as a secular…

The first of May and its bank holiday Monday: an ancient celebration of the start of summer, with maypoles, morris dancing and…

The 24th of June, and the solstice a few days before it — marked in Britain with bonfires, dawn gatherings at Stonehenge…

The British Mother's Day: the fourth Sunday of Lent, older than the American holiday and on an entirely different date.

Shrove Tuesday: the day before Lent, when Britain eats thin pancakes with lemon and sugar, and some towns race down the street…

The 11th of November, when Britain observes two minutes' silence for its war dead and wears a red poppy in the weeks…

Scotland's national day, 30 November — a bank holiday in Scotland, marked with ceilidhs, food and the Saltire.

Wales's national day, 1 March — marked in every Welsh school with daffodils, leeks, traditional dress and an eisteddfod.

England's national day, 23 April — marked far less than the other three nations mark theirs, and complicated by a flag that…

The 17th of March: a public holiday in Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the most widely celebrated national day in the world.

Cornwall's national day, 5 March — marked with parades, the black-and-white Cornish flag, and a growing assertion of Cornish identity.

The 14th of February: cards, flowers and dinner out, and a British tradition of sending them anonymously that predates the commercial version.

The Christian feast of Pentecost and the week around it — once one of Britain's biggest holidays, with walks, processions and fairs,…