What parts of our traditions and culture makes you feel like you belong in Britain

[Lionsandtigersandbears7]

Inspired by another thread ,it got me thinking I don't really have a strong sense of my identity being British..
I'm born in UK ,but moved around a lot ,so don't have an area I feel is home either ,or a strong sense of being British.
There's Christian festivals.christmas and Easter ..is that classed as our culture ?or is that religion?..I suppose there were mods and rockers and teddy boys ,that would of given people a sense of identity..then skinheads and skar ..moving in to music , different types like rock and indie gives people an identity...I missed all that though..
On postcards you get beaches and the seaside towns .. Blackpool was part of my childhood holidays,does that make up part of my identity then ?..
What makes me British other than just being born here ..I feel like culture and identity has passed me by .
I get what it would mean to be Scottish or Irish..I can see an identity with that ..but all I can think of for British is morris dancing.

There is so much for me. I always feel inherently English no matter where I go. And I love our culture and country. In particular:

• Our dry, sarcastic, witty, and often peculiar sense of humour.
• Our innate awkwardness - apologising to inanimate objects when you bump into them, thanking the lift when you get out, saying "thank you, you too" when someone wishes you a happy birthday, pretending not to see the biscuits being offered around and then feigning surprise when you're offered one.
• How you can be in a big city, quaint village, seaside, or countryside in an hour.
• Our music, television programmes, and films. If you want examples of English films; I can suggest: The Full Monty, The Life of Brian, A Clockwork Orange, Shaun of the Dead, Threads, Love Actually...
• Pub culture. I love going to the pub with my family and getting a warm welcome from the staff and other regulars. Especially with the local beers, ciders, and wine.
• I love learning about our local history, folklore, and legends. Especially the spooky bits.
• The architecture can be stunning.
• Fish and chips at the seaside. Even when it's cold.
• Taking my kids to the places I used to go as a child, which were the places my parents and grandparents took me to when they were children.
• Summer fayres
• BBQs as soon as the sun warms up slightly
• We have a lot of hops/apple (beer/cider) related festivals here. I especially love wassailing. Also other local celebrations like the Dickens festival.
• The multiculturalism
• Fry ups and roast dinners of a Sunday.

And I think the Christmas tree tradition is also a German import by Albert (Queen Vic's husband)

@InveterateWineDrinker Yes re exceptionalism. Actually I find that exceptionalism to be present across the entire British Isles. In Scotland you've got British exceptionalism battling with Scottish exceptionalism and the 'take no lessons' vibe is strong. Scottish exceptionalism has so many detrimental effects as it leads to this culture of just trying to be marginally 'better' than the rest of the UK.

Edit: in fact in Scotland people often use the phrase 'wha's like us' in all seriousness 😬

There was a thread recently about people's favourite and least favourite cuisines. Predictably, British (and I do mean British - across the archipelago) food was almost univerally rubbished.

I think this is the result of ignorance and also the trend for generally doing-down British culture. I couldn't be bothered to type out lists of all the great dishes from across the British Isles which are worthy of respect - where ignorance is bliss, etc.

And I suppose traditional British food is unlikely to be served in restaurants, except expensive ones like Simpsons in Piccadilly or Rules in Covent Garden (or some exclusive, old-fashioned clubs). So many younger people will not have had the experience of them done well...possibly they're traumatised by school dinner versions!!

One of the reasons British cuisine has been disparaged since the war is that we had rationing until the mid-1950s and there was a wartime culture of horrible substitutions for meat and fish and very dull meat and veg dishes. The tedium of post-war food in this country partially explains the horrendous, over-the-top, messed-about stuff that Fanny Craddock used to do on telly in the 70s and 80s. It was a reaction to the dreariness of the 40s and 50s.

Traditional cooking in all its glory was only really re-discovered in the late 20th century.

Simpsons in The Strand! I was salivating and thinking of Fortnums....mmmmm.

@InveterateWineDrinker , I don't think anyone has said - or even implied - anything about the British being innately superior.

We are not Americans, after all.

It notable to mention that my dh who is 62.5% English, 25% French and 12.5% Welsh thinks of himself as English. All his grandparents were born in the UK.

I am 50% Jewish, father was born in Germany and his father was of Russian/Polish descent, his mother Spanish/Portugese, (12.5% Russian/Polish/Spanish/Portugese) 25% Russian with my maternal grandfather born in Russia, 12.5% English, 12.5% Irish (grandma and her parents born in England). I regard myself as British/European. I ofyen think of myself as a 'mongrel of Europe'.

In my heart I don't feel I belong anywhere but I have so many English/British cultural markers, nobody would ever guess.

Tbh, I think that sounds like your family's culture rather than British. My OH would definitely have the same attitude to food as your Ukrainian guests.

When films and programmes that were originally British/English are remade in the US it's quite jarring how they reinterpret the characters and plots but I think a good indication of the differences in our cultures. Particularly thinking of Ghosts & The Office.

Bans on using the word Christmas in schools.

When I lived in Copenhagen there were the odd things I missed- proper pubs ( not that I’m in them that much ) marks and Spencer’s and as we live in Bath ( and did before we moved to Copenhagen) a nice bit of Georgian architecture, coming across bizzare things on Radio 4 too . . I think Britainnranks highly on culture , music, art, literary - and the ability for people to take the piss out of things and each other .

And I totally agree that one of England's greatest strengths is has been its ability to (it's hard to describe) stick its head above the parapet culturally - to push the boundaries in every way, to not be held back by its past. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the British Empire, the Industrial Revolution, London as a global powerhouse, punk and fashion - just reinventing and creating new all the time. I'm a late convert to London - I first visited when I was 50 yrs old - and it's breathtaking in terms of its history, culture, energy. The things - the ideas and stories - that have emerged from those few square miles of land? Incredible. The sense of energy and drive and 'anything goes'. The Beatles would never have emerged from Paris, the French are so conservative and have such as strong adherence to the past.

Definitely!

And, thinking of the Industrial Revolution (which happened in Britain first) and the Empire, leaving aside the moral aspects - my God, the energy, dyamism, inventiveness, skill and courage of those people is mind-boggling. The engineers, the surveyors, inventors, navigators etc etc shouldn't be rubbished just becuase Britain had reached a stage of economic development and capitalism which meant going out and colonising.

Niall Ferguson (who talks a lot of sense and has been unfarily demonised by the left) has pointed out what a huge contribution the Scots in particular made to the huge technological leap forward needed for Empire-building. Before anyone starts....I'm NOT an apologist for Empire - but it's a historical reality, a stage which advancing cultures go through (look at China at the moment...). But the achievements of people in that period were immense and I hate to see them disparaged.

Well are you English OP? Are your parents / grandparents / ancestors English?

What makes you part of a people isn't performative rituals or the TV you watch or the food you eat. It's your ancestry and downstream of that comes your instinctive way of being. As others have said, you will know who you are the moment you travel abroad. It's quite easy to think you're not part of a people until you go to France or Italy or further afield. And then you know instantly that you are different - you are very much English - in a multitude of ways.

Have you not travelled very much?

I'm from London so I strongly identify as a Londoner.

It was one of the founding principles of the whole Brexit project, and look how that turned out for us.

For me an important part of British culture is the "stiff upper lip" and just getting on with things (without whinging) because they have to be done. An important attribute of my generation (older) was being modest about ones achievements and not seeking to dominate. At the same time you stood up for your beliefs and also the right of other people to have opposing beilefs. All of this has now gone out of the windowin favour of everyone for themselves.

So, to answer the original question:

Pubs, and pub culture- especially the decor, delicious local beers and pub quizzes.
Public footpaths.
Ordnance survey maps.
The Shipping Forecast.
Music festivals (why the country with the worst weather is one of the keenest to camp outside for days in primitive conditions I do not know, but it is so).
Shared catchphrases- "can't park there mate", "nothing beats a Jet 2 holiday".
Folk music.
Our plethora of megalithic monuments.
Doing pagan shit in the woods at Samhain in the middle of a storm.
All the weird, wild and wonderful local festivals- the Tar Barrels, cheese rolling, and down our end Montol, Flora Day, Trevithick Day.
Cornish language, tradition and culture- my adopted home, I'm actually English by descent, but it's fascinating. (Also explains why the Cornish don't think of themselves as English either- I've just been reading up about King Aethelstan and his ethnic cleansing, and the Prayerbook Rebellion- 10% of the entire Cornish population slaughtered 😬)

I only have a sense of noticing I'm English/British (varies which one as can also feel Northern etc) when compared to others who aren't. So the hand wave/nod thing when letting cars pass - you notice this doesn't happen (as much) when driving abroad.

I was a guest at a multi national hen night - only me and one other English person. We were all asked to stand up and declare how amazing etc the hen was. Utterly excruciating and could only through it by trying to be funny.

We massively punch above our weight population wise in the arts. Was reading this as heard it brings in about £1.6 billion. And that arts funding and modern language funding is being slashed shows how we take these things for granted.

Radio 4. Every day I am astonished that I get to listen to such a wide range of topics from brilliant journalists and scientists and presenters. I learn so much from it.

No idea if our sense of humour is better than other countries if I don't speak their languages fluently.

As child raised a Catholic (recovering now) I've never felt any connection to the Church of England. That feels foreign to me. Similarly, only in my lifetime has the Royal Family changed the rules about marrying Catholics and lines of succession so they have always felt a little "other" to me.

It's all in this poem:

s

I think the fact that you misread the OP as "English", and the fact that to you Englishness is defined as something genetic neatly illustrates the difference between Britishness and Englishness, and the reason that so many people find the concept of Englishness problematic.

I mostly feel the same ie if I was given a ticket to move to any other country I’d most likely move (unless it was a war zone or Iceland)

Having said that when I’m abroad I DO miss a full English breakfast, and roast dinners. I don’t think there’s anything better than a goose-fat roast potato.

oh and quaint British pubs - nothing better than going for a PIMMs on a summers

cream tea, cream on the bottom of course
fish and chips
punch and judy
mr whippy ice cream with a flake to make it a 99
royal family parafanalia - changing the guards etc

red post box
M&S
walkers crisps, especially cheese and onion

love this list

also summer fetes from another list

Christmas fairs

Woman's institute

Shared catchphrases- "can't park there mate", "nothing beats a Jet 2 holiday".

when I was younger it was

watch out there's a Humphrey about
don't tell sid
nice legs shame about the face