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They play football in a river,
snorkel through peat bogs and play hearty games of shin-kicking. There's no
doubt that to the rest of the world, the British seem to have eccentricity
flowing through their veins.
Yet to the British themselves, apparently bizarre behaviour like racing giant
cheeses down a hill, hurling a haggis (a Scottish dish made from sheep heart,
lungs and liver) as far as possible and wrestling each other's toes, are not
only great fun… but help preserve important local traditions.
The rest of the world thinks the British are a restrained stiff-upper-lipped lot
- but give them a chance and they can let themselves go - often in the strangest
ways.
One day in August each year, for example, you'll find enthusiastic villagers
playing six-a-side soccer right in the Windrush River in the centre of Bourton-on-the-Water
in Gloucestershire. The pretty Cotswold village has hosted the strange watery
match for 70 years, with goals placed under two stone bridges. Hundreds line the
banks to cheer and the village green is busy with stalls and a carnival
atmosphere. In 2005 it will be held on August 29th, a public holiday.
But that strange event seems almost normal in comparison to another also held on
August 29th, the World Bog Snorkelling Championships. Since 1986 this has been
held on the outskirts of the smallest town in Britain - Llanwrtyd Wells in
Powys, Mid Wales. Competitors pull on a mask, snorkel and flippers, then leap
into a 60 metre 'race track' through a murky peat bog. All proceeds from this
bizarre sporting event are donated to charities.
Sounds unbelievable? Not as unbelievable as the tall-tales told at the World's
Biggest Liar Competition (November 17) in Wasdale in the English Lake District
in Cumbria. Wasdale Valley boasts England's deepest lake (Wastwater), highest
mountain (Scafell Pike), smallest church (Wasdale Head Church), and this
extremely quirky contest held at the Bridge Inn at Santon Bridge.
Contestants travel great distances to tell lies in front of judges and an
enthralled audience. The event commemorates a Victorian publican who amused his
customers with made-up stories. Previous winners' straight-faced lies have
include a geological account of the formation of the Lake District through the
action of giant moles and one winner who apparently went on an action-packed
holiday with the Pope.
Many other British outburst of eccentricity have their roots even further back
in history. Cheese rolling (May 30) at Coopers Hill, at Brockworth, in
Gloucestershire has been happening since medieval times. Daredevils hurl
themselves down steep grassy slopes in pursuit of a giant Double Gloucester
cheese while thousands cheer their efforts.
And Haggis Hurling is said to date back to Scottish clan gatherings, where women
would toss a haggis across a stream to their husbands. Watch this arcane
activity at Bearsden and Milngavie Highland Games at Milngavie (June 11). Or how
about catching the serious sport of pea shooting, where contestants blow a pea
through a tube towards a target? Enjoy the World Pea Shooting Championships
(July 9) on the Village Green, at Witcham, Cambridgeshire.
Other unlikely but colourful championships happening in Britain this year
include the World Snail Racing Championships (July 16) at Congham, King’s Lynn,
Norfolk where more than 300 snails will battle for a silver tankard stuffed with
lettuce and the World Toe Wrestling Championships (July 23) at Fenny Bentley,
Derbyshire, where contestants sit opposite each other, lock big toes and try to
push their opponent’s foot to the side. Where else in the world could you
stumble upon the 'World Coal Carrying Championships'? On March 28 you'll find
competitors carrying 50 kilos of coal for almost a mile from one pub to another
in Gawthorpe, West Yorkshire. And Chester's World Town Crier Championship (June
12-17) is a unique chance for those with a penchant for unassisted vocal
broadcasting.
The year of eccentricity starts in January, in the Shetland Isles you'll
discover Lerwick Up Helly Aa (January 25) - Britain's most magnificent fire
festival, incorporating the burning of a Viking galley and a torch-lit parade of
nearly 1,000 people, dressed either as Vikings or in all manner of crazy
fancy-dress. And the assorted conker championships, gooseberry weigh-ins, shin-kickings
and snail races continue across the land through the year. You'll see The Great
Christmas Pudding Race (December 3) in Covent Garden, London. Around 150
contestants race around a city centre course balancing a Christmas pudding on a
flimsy paper plate while trying to avoid balloons filled with flour and jets of
foam. To complicate things even further, they do it all in fancy dress. Even as
the year ends the British are up to some very odd things.
At Allendale in Northumberland New Year's Eve is celebrated by villagers
carrying barrels of blazing tar on their heads. At Stonehaven on Scotland’s East
Coast, New Year revelers whirl baskets of fire around them as they march through
the High Street.
There are strange traditions, festivals and contests across the UK but it's
these big public holidays that appear to bring out the strangest activities. On
May Day (May 1), for example, you'll find thousands gathering at dawn to hear a
choir sing a medieval hymn from an ancient tower in Oxford and Morris dancers
performing on an ancient 180-foot-tall picture of a man on a Dorset hillside,
cut in wide trenches of chalk above the village of Cerne Abbas. And in Minehead
in Somerset and Padstow in Cornwall the street dancing of a man dressed as the
'hobby horse' reflects an ancient pagan fertility rite.
And don't even try to understand what comes over the British on November 5th.
The Guy Fawkes festivities date back to the capture of a Roman Catholic
extremist who almost succeeded in blowing up both the King and Parliament 400
years ago. Today it's an excuse for fireworks, bonfires and parties. Effigies of
poor Guy Fawkes are still burned. In Ottery St Mary in Devon men carry yet more
burning barrels of tar through the narrow streets, while in Lewes in Sussex
local people parade through the steep, cobbled streets in colourful costumes,
carrying flaming torches to the River Ouse, where they are thrown in.
The Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival in this Somerset town (November 4) has
evolved over the centuries into probably the largest illuminated street carnival
in the world. The procession takes place after dark when more than 120
brilliantly-lit decorated lorries, some containing as many as 30,000 light
bulbs, drive round the normally quiet town as huge crowds watch. Who said the
British were unassuming, quiet and restrained?
For further ideas about places to visit and things to see in Britain – plus a
searchable events database -- see VisitBritain’s website -
www.visitbritain.com/tour.
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