A tradition is a belief or behavior folk custom passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. Traditions can persist and evolve for thousands of years—the word tradition itself derives from the Latin tradere literally meaning to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping. While it is commonly assumed that traditions have an ancient history, many traditions have been invented on purpose, whether that be political or cultural, over short periods of time. Various academic disciplines also use the word in a variety of ways. The phrase "according to tradition", or "by tradition", usually means that whatever information follows is known only by oral tradition, but is not supported and perhaps may be refuted by physical documentation, by a physical artifact, or other quality evidence. Tradition is used to indicate the quality of a piece of information being discussed.

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British traditions and UK culture | British Council
With dictionary look up - Double click on any word for its definition. This section is in advanced English and is only intended to be a guide, not to be taken too seriously! Basically, there are two systems: one covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland and one covering Scotland. The two education systems have different emphases. Traditionally the English, Welsh and Northern Irish system has emphasised depth of education whereas the Scottish system has emphasised breadth. Thus English, Welsh and Northern Irish students tend to sit a small number of more advanced examinations and Scottish students tend to sit a larger number of less advanced examinations. It should be noted that local English practice can vary from this general picture although Scottish practice is well nigh universal.


funeral practices: British customs
Since its origins, Easter has been a time of celebration and feasting and many traditional Easter games and customs developed, such as egg rolling , egg tapping , pace egging , cascarones or confetti eggs , and egg decorating. Today Easter is commercially important, seeing wide sales of greeting cards and confectionery such as chocolate Easter eggs as well as other Easter foods. Even many non-Christians celebrate these features of the holiday while ignoring the religious aspects.



Christmas crackers are a traditional Christmas favorite in the UK. They were first made in about by a London sweet maker called Tom Smith. He had seen the French 'bon bon' sweets almonds wrapped in pretty paper on a visit to Paris in He came back to London and tried selling sweets like that in England and also included a small motto or riddle in with the sweet. But they didn't sell very well.