Letter from Europe

[canuck]

Went to a chocolate festival at the weekend in a little town called Ramsbottom. This is a typical northern ex-mill town and like a lot of typical northern ex-mill towns its harbours some strange customs. Stuffing yourself with chocolate for 2 days is a comparatively new one. But an old 'Rammy' custom is black pudding throwing. This involves throwing black puddings [[blood sausages) as far and as high as you can and is one of many really weird British customs. We also have gravy wrestling, where people fight each other in a vat of stuff you normally put on your roast beef, cheese rolling, where people run down a steep hill after a cheese and often break their bones and of course dancing around maypoles wearing lots of bells. Most of these things happen in the spring and are rooted in ancient rites to banish evil spirits. Weird in this most secular of countries, but we enjoy this stuff. But then we are the people who, until the 19th century, used to put stakes through the dead bodies of murderers so that they couldn't rise again. Happy Easter!

Love your description of these customs.

One british custom I particularly enjoy is the naming of towns like Ramsbottom. There is a bit of pithy Python wordplay in that one...

[Barbara Nadel]

Love your description of these customs.

One british custom I particularly enjoy is the naming of towns like Ramsbottom. There is a bit of pithy Python wordplay in that one...

Yes, the names can be amazing. Just in a ten mile radius we have towns and villages called Slack, Slack Bottom, Venomous Clough, Mankinholes and Lumbutts, oh and a local teacher called Mrs Shufflebottom.