Had my first “Christmas” email from a retailer in the UK. Today, 1st October.
Even La Rentrée promotions in France are only about 2 or 3 weeks.
No messing around there - skip Halloween and Bonfire Night (who needs orange and black plastic tat? And burning effigies of Catholics is so passé) let’s go straight to the big earner!
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You’re missing out All Saints / All Souls. Round here, that’s a huge earner. Racks upon racks of plastic flowers, pots of chrysanthemums - people walking out with trolley loads for all their dearly departed. Graves cleaned / cemeteries swept / new commemorative plaques purchased - much more important than Christmas.
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We do havethe autumnal Hallowe’en… kids love dressing-up and the whole commune gets involved.
But Bonfire Night… ??? 
nope…
In full summertime… 14th July, hurrah, hurrah… is when we have bonfires and fireworks…
Toussaint
It’s a lovely time of year… families coming together to help clean the family plot/grave/whatever and, if families are now tooo far flung or elderly, there’s always someone who will step in to help…
Provided the weather isn’t atrocious, groups will work and natter together, exchanging latest news etc etc… I almost expect them to bring out the picnic baskets and rugs…
It’s the time when one can see that a caring society does still exist. 
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Sorry but I need bonfire night this year, because boy do I have a bonfire 
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“Les morts” again not really religious, but deffo a moment to go and see them, do a bit of cleaning and primping.
To be fair had the gunpowder plot succeeded we might well commemorate it…
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Seem to remember All Souls being a Holy Day of Obligation in England - the deal was, you went to mass then got a day off school…
I’m sure it is religious in the UK, recusants tended to be devout and observant after all - but here although it’s originally a religious holiday, that aspect of it is pretty secondary. All that sort of thing was helped on its way out with the revolution.
My allusion was to England over sixty years ago - no idea how things are now, and what’s more, don’t care!
Actually you shouldn’t lump the UK together in terms of religiosity -there’s quite a spectrum - from Wee Frees and their ilk to hard-core Catholics. And then of course there’s NI!
There’s no separation of church and state though, I’m not talking about personal fervour as much as recognising that you don’t even need to be religious to do church related stuff in the UK, after all as well as the established church of which the monarch is the head, there are various recognised denominations (eg the Church of Scotland, one of my great grandfathers did his stint as Moderator, and many more). Ah the great spectrum from bells and smells to plainness.
There’s no separation of one church and state.
Also I’d argue that that British repression of Catholicism endured for far longer than French repression of Protestantism*. GB had a Jewish PM a century and a half ago - there still hasn’t been a Catholic one. The enduring British suppression of Catholicism is something one seldom encounters in public discourse.
I don’t care an iota about these issues, except for what they reveal about the English Establishment.
Tony Blair’s a good case in point!
Have a very broad one as the established one for the majority, (goodness knows it’s wide enough), and the rest, unless really too weird, are going to be considered mainstream. I don’t know if there’s even an anti-sect watchdog in the UK as there is here.
Of course. I teach about it every year here, but I find they are fairly squeamish about it in the UK, less so in Scotland where my mother was asked if she was popish and naturally had no idea a) what they were on about and ) why it was remotely relevant, my mother being a good French person obv.
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You’re forgetting Johnson???
https://catholicleader.com.au/features/what-is-boris-johnsons-legacy-a-catholic-view/
You think Blair held no Catholic views nor worship (in private) whilst PM and then magically converted “a reasonable period” after leaving office?
If so, I have a bridge I’d like to see to you.
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in fact, any faith which holds “traditional” views - on gender, sexuality, abortion, for example - meets with a great deal of opposition from those who, at the same time, think of themselves as tolerant and inclusive.
It’s not just a British thing.
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Mark, they stopped that many years ago in schools due to the little darlings might hurt themselves. HSE and all that. I bought one of the Myfords from my old comprehensive school.
No.
Surely, the salient point is Blair’s pragmatic reluctance to convert either before or during his premiershio?
Would that I could!
I also remember reading that he was confirmed in the Anglican Church while at Eton
Belt and braces?
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