An Eccentric British Tradition For Each Month Of The Year

STRANGE_BRITISH TRADITIONS JAN STRAW BEAR FESTIVAL Celebrated in mid-January, one of the townsfolk of Whittlesea is dressed in straw and paraded through the streets along with a parade of musicians and entertainers FEB ROYAL SHROVETIDE FOOTBALL Shrovetide Football which sees hundreds of people play an eight-hour 'mob' match through town with goals three miles apart and virtually no rules Celebrated on Shrove Tuesday in Ashbourne, Derbyshire MAR WIFE CARRYING RACE Men carry their wives along a 380-metre course with obstades in the annual Wife Carrying Race in Dorking, Surrey during mid-March APR COAL CARRYING CHAMPIONSHTP The Coal Carrying Championships on Easter Monday see men and women carry huge sacks of coal over a one-kilometre course in the town of Gawthorpe MAY CHEESE ROLLING FESTIVAL On the last Monday bank holiday in May, hundreds throw themselves down the steep Cooper's Hill to catch a wheel of cheese JUN WORLD NETTLE EATING CHAMPIONSHIP The Bottle Inn pub in Marshwood, Dorset plays host to the Nettle Eating Contest in which competitors gorge on nettle leaves for an hour, on the Saturday preceding the Summer Solstice JUL WORLD TOE WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP Invented by four drinkers in the early 70s in an effort to find produce a British sporting champion, the Toe Wrestling contest take place at the Ye Olde Royal Oak Inn in Wetton, Staffordshire in July AUG WORLD BOG SNORKELLING CHAMPIONSHIP Competitors must swim up and down a 50-metre trench of peat bog without using conventional swimming strokes. Takes place on the last Monday in August near Llanwrtyd Wells in mid Wales SEP THE WORLD GURNING CHAMPIONSHIP The Egremont Crab Fair, Cumbria during mid-September sees men and women attempting to create a distorted facial expression by bring their lower lip as high as possible. Those with no teeth usually have the greatest gurn capability ОСТ PEARLY KING & QUEENS Celebrated on the first Sunday in October the Pearly King & Queens is a traditional cockney festival in which men and women dress in costumes covered in pearly buttons NOV FLAMING TAR BARRELS Each year on the 5th November brave men, women and children carry burning tar barrels on their backs and through thrones of crowds in Ottery St. Mary, Devon DEC CHRISTMAS DAY SWIM Celebrated in various parts of the country, fearless adults and children dress up and take a refreshing dip in to the cold oceans or lakes YETTIO 00 Www.YETTI0. cOm