But we’re British. We like to applaud the underdog, just for having a go!
That was you? 
Does this happen to anyone else? You come across a foreign expression you’ve never heard before, and for some reason–maybe its incompleteness, or its non-sequitorishness, or simply its ludicrousness–it stikes you as inordinately funny? Hilarious, even?
Well, this did it to me:
Good for several minutes, all alone in my room, laughing like a fucking loon.
::: wipes eyes :::
Thanks, Szlater.
Is there a UK national holiday? The CIA World Factbook indicates not, and given the relative ambivalence towards royalty I don’t think the monarch’s birthday fits the bill. Everyone knows 1066 is the year but the date is not celebrated; Guy Fawkes is your version of our Halloween; 1215 seems to be reviled rather than revered (no King John since); and you always (but once) lose the World Cup.
I suppose Proms is it, eh?
Problem is that the “UK” isn’t really one nation. Each of the “nations” which make up the “country” take their patron saint’s day as their “national day”. The Welsh celebrate St David’s (1st March); the English St. George’s day (23rd April); the Scots* St. Andrew’s (30th November). These however are not “bank/public holidays” - the only part of the UK which has a day off to celebrate their saint is Northern Ireland.
Over the last twenty or so years there has been a growing movement to “legitimise” the celebration of St George’s day, reclaim the St. George’s Cross from the National front types, and “allow” the English to have as much nationalistic pride as the Celtic nations.
You could argue that there is a need for some sort of “British” day which wouldn’t “exclude” those who arrived after 1066 !
*“Burns’ Night” (usually 25th January) comes a close second.
All I know about July 4th is that it celebrates US Independence (though I don’t know exactly what happened that day) and that you chaps across the pond eat turkey and cranberry sauce.
[bertie wooster accent ON]
I say! Sorry we don’t know more, but we Brits did conquer and run large chunks of the globe, don’tcha know?
It’s such a bore having to remember everything from when Julius C. popped over hereabout 2000 years ago and brought us proper plumbing.
Toot toot!
[bertie wooster accent OFF]
Am I being whooshed?
President Brown wants us to have a “Britain Day”, or so he’s considering. Apparently we can have the day off work but we’re supposed to do voluntary work instead to promote citizenship and a sense of community. Stuff that, I’ll be spending it in the pub with my friends supping a good English pint of Bombardier!
Not the first part of my post - as an elderly educated UK Doper, the extent of my knowledge about July 4th is it’s called ‘Independence Day’ + you guys eat turkey. (Plus there was a film called Independence Day, which didn’t add anything to my knowledge about any ceremonies.)
DId you expect us Brits to know more?
Turkey is eaten at Thanksgiving, not July 4th.
It is the date (in 1776) on which the Second Continental Congress passed the Declaration of Independence.
Not really. We’ve been paying a slight amount of attention to Halloween for a long time. It’s only recently that it’s turned into this big begging-fest when kids come round in costumes expecting sweets, but nearly forty years ago our Scout troop (and Cub pack) didn’t think it odd to hire the village hall for an evening of Halloween-themed games and so on.
July 4th, 1776, was when the colonists rather cordially and elegantly told King George to take a long walk off a short pier.
Thanksgiving dates back to the Mayflower landing. Supposedly the new settlers were starving, and kindly Indians came and brought them food so they would survive the winter. Since then, it’s been an excuse for family get-togethers to eat as much as is humanely possible and watch football games.
Also, Guy Fawkes (which I think is more commonly called Bonfire Night in the UK) celebrates an attempt to blow up parliament, whereas Halloween is about… actually, I’m not sure. It’s a derivation from a pagan festival, to appease the restless spirits of the dead? Something to do with the dead, right?
In Scotland there was a tradition called guising, which involved going round the doors dressed in a costume and performing a song or telling a joke in return for sweets and the ubiquitous monkey-nuts. Nowadays it is more akin to trick-or-treat, though.
Yes, and I fear the children even call it “trick or treat” now. Grrrrrrrrr. 
Aha!
I’ve got the two days confused. :eek:
No offence intended, but I genuinely didn’t know much about either.
We learn about Boadicae v Romans, Arthur v cakes, Harold v Vikings, then Normans, Elizabeth v the Armada, Nelson + Wellington v Napolean and so on…
And Bonfire Night (Guy Fawkes) is not Halloween (Dark Spirits abroad).
No offense…July 4th is more of an outdoorsy holiday, with barbecues and fireworks and visits to the beach. No one wants to be stuck inside all day roasting a turkey.
You know, I think you might mean Alfred and the cakes. Arthur was the chappie with the round table and the sword and so on.
Alfred and the cakes? I think I missed that lesson.