Unusual customs In the UK

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or other water sources with pictures made of growing things.

Well Dressing

The wells are dressed with large framed panels decorated with elaborate mosaic-like pictures made of flower petals, seeds, grasses, leaves, tree bark, berries and moss.

Wooden trays are covered with clay, mixed with water and salt. A design is drawn and its outline pricked out onto the surface of the clay.

The design is then filled in with natural materials, predominantly flower petals and mosses, but also beans, seeds and small cones.

work to make, and yet they only last for a

few days.

After the well dressing is erected next to the well it is blessed in a short outdoor service.

The well dressing season spans from May through to late September.

Plough MondayAt Whittlesey, on the weekend following Plough Monday the

first Monday after Twelfth Night ) a straw bear is paraded around the town attended by a host of dancers and musician from all over the country. The bear is a man covered from head to foot in a straw costume. During the 19th century Straw Bears - men or boys clothed in a layer of straw - were a familiar Plough Monday .
Takes place Whittlesey, Peterborough

Day, teams of dancers perform intricate patterns whilst circling the

pole. The ribbons interweave as they make their way down the pole with a very decorative result.

Maypole Dancing

A May Day Celebration.
The festival owes its roots to

age old traditions. Sweeping chimneys was a dirty but necessary trade nearly 300 years ago.
Sweeps Festival is said to be the largest gathering of Morris Dancers in the world. Notably, the only true English day where you can join in and listen to the music.

 Sweeps Festival, Rochester, Kent.

of the oldest forms of a ball game and still

takes place at St Ives in Cornwall, England, on the first Monday after February 3rd.
The game is played in the town's streets and on the beach. The game starts at 10.30 am and the person holding the silver ball at noon wins.

service at the church in St Briavels, Gloucestershire, baskets full

of bread and cheese are thrown from a wall near the old castle. Everyone scrambles to grab as many pieces of food as they can.

St Blaise's day
Two candles are tied together, lit, and

touched on to the necks of people suffering from sore throats. St Blaise saved a child from choking to death on a fishbone and so is patron saint of throat sufferers.

Lancashire.The Nutter Dance is a form of Morris dance. One

main difference is they blacken their faces. This probably came about because of the mining connections. They wear hats like turbans decorated with rosette and coloured feathers, black jersey, red and white kilts, white stockings and shining black Lancashire clogs.The dancers dance their way through the streets following a tradition that takes them from boundary to boundary of the Town. They tap out rhythms on wooden discs or 'nuts' fastened to their palms, knees and waist. This is thought to represent the protective cover worn on the hands and knees when crawling along narrow passages in the mines.

of Shebbear in Devon turn over a large stone under

an ancient oak tree. The Stone is a large rock weighing about 1 tonne, and is not made from local stone. No-one is sure how it comes to be there.
The legends include tales that the Stone has been moved away from Shebbear a number of times, but it mysteriously keeps returning. Another legend says that this is because the Devil is under the stone and would escape if the stone is not turned.