Uniquely British things

[ChristmasA123]

I went for a walk earlier and saw one of my favourite things.. a random glove stuck on a railing. Obviously someone had dropped it and a kind stranger has put it somewhere easy to spot. I often see dropped items popped on fences/gateposts like this and it got me wondering.. I wonder if they do that in other countries? I've also noticed how polite drivers are here.. mainly! With that little wave or thumbs up when someone lets you through. I've never seen that driving in the US or Europe. Oh and I love the BBC Christmas ident. It's always so cosy. Are there any other cute/ wholesome things that only generally happen in the UK?

Hahaha @Youwillyouwill . Knew you'd be back

Did I mention Guy Fawkes? Sorry you misunderstood, maybe it's a uniquely British thing 😂

Exactly, so that means nobody but the British celebrate Bonfire Night. A night where we celebrate the foiling of the gunpowder plot.

Our Bonfire night celebrates the summer solstice, you may call Guy Fawkes Bonfire night but bonfires are not uniquely British as you stated

Show me where I said bonfires are uniquely British?
Bonfire Night that celebrates the foiling of Guy Fawkes is uniquely British.

Googled uniquely British things and got alongside fish and chips etc. Separate hot and cold water taps. I know plenty of people in UK will now have mixer taps now, but is this, was this a thing. Can't say I have noticed on my travels.

Dh jokes i need to renounce my British citizenship (and will never be true Yorkshire) as I have an intolerance to tea. (Developed over last few years, it makes me sick!)

Someone up thread mentioned bonfires were uniquely British? And you asked me if I celebrated Guy Fawkes as I'm Irish? Therefore assuming no other country in the world could celebrate Bonfire night 🤦‍♀️

Exactly, so that means nobody but the British celebrate Bonfire Night. A night where we celebrate the foiling of the gunpowder plot.

Nope - you are wrong. We "celebrate" it here too.

What, in Ireland? Why would a predominantly Catholic country celebrate the failed attempt by a Catholic to blow up the houses of Parliament and kill the English Protestant King and his supporters?

God lord the ridiculousness of some petty posters

I’ve travelled a lot and lived in a few other countries some the the quirks mentioned the British are known for

all cultures have quirks British culture has been (not always for the better) very influential compared to many other countries (that doesn’t meant better) and now because of language through film, TV and music some of the quirks are known for being British (which no one really takes particularly seriously)

You should have said unique to the British Isles OP - that would include Ireland.

What, in Ireland? Why would a predominantly Catholic country celebrate the failed attempt by a Catholic to blow up the houses of Parliament and kill the English Protestant King and his supporters?

@LordPeregrineIII I'm struggling to find where in my post I said I was in Ireland??????

Apparently there was a full scale international experiment to find out whether British people apologise when bumped into. It basically involved deliberately walking into people in various countries. And indeed the British are uniquely prone to apologising. The only exception was Japan where, it turned out, it was very hard to carry out the experiment because the Japanese are experts at avoiding being bumped into even when you try really hard.

British people don't really notice the difference/care that much but I have had several people independently bring up how weird they found it when they visited the UK. So it is a thing.

Oh blimey....the burning of bonfires in autumn is a pagan tradition - in fact some form of this festival is found pretty much everywhere in Indo-Europe. It was called Samhain in Celtic times.

The Guy Fawkes thing is just an excuse to carry this on in what was an era of Christian extremism.

It really baffles me that some British people have no idea about their original culture.

In WWI it was made illegal not to Queue for the bus.

Making or at least offering to make hot drinks for people working in your house.

Also the ability to eat (almost) anything with a knife and fork.

A few posts on this thread have reminded me of this excellent quotation from George Orwell's essay, England Your England:

"England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals

are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always

felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman

and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse

racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably

true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of

standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a

poor box."

(Cue the same people coming to tell poor George that actually the intellectuals of lots of countries are ashamed of their own nationality, and it isn't an English thing at all 😂.)

@MissWired you could say the same about Christmas to be fair. A pagan ritual pinched by the Christians. It doesn't mean we don't celebrate on Christmas Day does it? I think we can say Guy Fawkes day occurs on 5th November in the UK regardless of the background can't we?