To think most of what people call “British” is actually borrowed from other cultures?

[BlendedByEmpire]

From food to fashion to language, it seems like a lot of what’s considered traditionally British has roots elsewhere. Yet people still cling to the idea of a “pure” British culture. AIBU to think the whole concept is more mixed than most are willing to admit?

Seems it's due to the sheep's lung ingredient.

4 out of 7 in this list are regular occurrences in our town. So not just 'old things' as another poster said. They are alive and kicking.

I'll add
Bonfire Night
Harvest Festival
Castles
Pubs
All hallows Eve
and all the Celtic festivals.
edited to add:
football and cricket - two sports that are now played and enjoyed in almost every country in the WORLD!

In my opinion we (the brits) have been so busy enjoying and discovering and singing the praises of international cultures, that perhaps we haven't sung about ours quite so loud.
Maybe we should.
People are so keen to say we have no culture when we clearly have fuck tonnes.

Who's up for wassailing this winter?

I think British culture is something we should be proud of and I don't think we are at the moment. But British culture is the story of all of us that live in this nation and of those nations we've impacted on and forced / asked to be part of the story.

I fundamentally disagree with the Unite the Flag things that are happening at the moment. But it is important to consider how that is allowed to take hold. And to ensure that we develop a society which is proud of our identity and recognises and reaches out to the disaffected. We do need to consider why they are feeling that there is something they need to reclaim, even if we disagree with them.

For example, I don't like being told that I need to feel guilty about things that our country did in the past. At the time my family would have probably been peasant farmers or servants and our lives would have also been very difficult. We as a country didn't impose ourselves on others, a very small percentage of wealthy people did. The rest of us weren't enjoying ourselves at all.

I remember a lecture at university once which has always stayed with me, and the professors end point was about whether you see a country as a melting pot, where everything blends into one and stews together, or as a salad bowl where each part retains its identity but benefits the whole. At its best the salad bowl is what I see British culture as - we should be able to celebrate our different stories, life experiences, positive impacts on one another and move forward together.

Cheddar!

To me, British culture is British literature. Of course, it’s hard to disentangle English, Scottish and Welsh literature from British literature (is Shakespeare, for example, an English or a British writer? Personally I’d say he’s both). But a nation/culture is shaped and defined by its writers. If I had to define my own cultural identity, it would be through the connection I feel to the literature of this island. I also like the way our literature is woven into our history. To me, WW1, for example, is bound up with the poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. But our literature is also woven into the landscape itself. So the Yorkshire moors mean the Brontes and Ted Hughes, the Lake District means Wordsworth, Bath means Jane Austen, London means Dickens, etc. Even the seasons are bound up with our literature. The spring always makes me think of Chaucer, and everyone associates a snowy Christmas with Dickens.

Most people would begin with Chaucer. You then have an unbroken timeline of writers who all thought of themselves as English-British and were all influenced by the British writers who preceded them. Chaucer influenced Shakespeare, Shakespeare influenced Milton, Milton influenced Blake and Wordsworth, and so on right up to Philip Larkin.

You can keep Morris dancing and the Royal family. I take more pride in P. G. Wodehouse than I do in the royals.

Yes, you're right, they were originally but were a staple of generations of British childhoods.

Yes 👍 and:
Fish n chips.
Afternoon tea.
Toasted teacakes.
Cream tea
Sausage n mash
Corned beef hash
Rhubarb crumble and custard
Apple pie and cream

Yum... hungry now

Not true, the origins of haggis are in Lancashire.

Agreed but sad

Britain is an island and we have been invaded many times. Vikings, Romans, French, etc.

With the exception of one great grandparent, I am European.

Not mine, I had to google what a rissole was.

You were lucky!

Not the way my Mum made them, they’re not!

Pancake day

And????

All cultures have influences from other cultures, and that includes British cultures (the plural is deliberate).

Whilst we have a lot of influence from elsewhere, huge parts of our culture are distinctly British (and/or Scottish, Welsh, English, Northern Irish etc, not to mention regional identities within all of those countries). I think sometimes if you live in a culture, you are so used to the cultural mores that they become invisible to you, and I wonder if that's what's happened with you, OP.

Kissing under the mistletoe

So if most of British culture, food etc is imported what did people eat/do for entertainment before we got ideas from abroad?

First footing

I'm a leftie who has always liked that we're a melting pot, but i think it's pointless to use the fact that Britishness has been influenced by other cultures as some kind of "gotcha" because 1. Because almost all Brits know and accept this, and lecturing people about it makes it seem like you think most Brits are ignorant, which won't help whatever your cause is, and 2. Because Britain is not unique in this regard; in fact almost all cultures have been influenced by others, to varying extents.

Multi cultural from year dot. We should be celebrating that, not pretending it’s not true

Town Criers

About as subtle as a bill in a china shop.

Oh hang on, that's a British saying, isn't it?

Well, I'm sure OP will let us know if we've stolen it from elsewhere...

As a Londoner & a 2nd gen immigrant I always thought one of the best things about our culture is how diverse it is & how it is a big melting pot.

Old English wedding traditions: white dress, some old/something new, the tiered wedding cake . . .