Exploring England's Unique Culture, Values, Traditions & History - Essay Sample

Introduction

Separating the culture of England from that of the United Kingdom has often proved difficult. With the history of England getting traced from a tiny island in the Northern part of the Atlantic, it is noted as one of the nations that have influenced the cultures of nearly all the countries across the globe. England is highly revered for its distinctive and unique culture, values, and traditions, habits, coupled with a rich history. The country's monuments, buildings, myths, and legends equally hold an intriguing value amongst many people. Most of the legends of history are historical figures of modern western and philosophical thought and have their roots traced from it. They were either born in England or in one way or the other associated with it. Some of the people associated with England include Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, and Ernest Rutherford. On the part of the philosophers, the great men of history include John Locke and David Ricardo to mention but a few. The paper, therefore, seeks to expound on the culture of England.

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Historically, England has been regarded as one of the homogeneous nations based on its coherent traditions, particularly with the view of the British Empire, which expanded tremendously and absorbed people from diverse backgrounds. Most of the English culture has been credited to the diverse developments and contributions from the Muslims, the Asians, the Afro-Caribbean, and other immigrant groups (Freedman, 2016). The same diversification has also been noted in other parts of the United Kingdom, thereby, making England not distinguishable from Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

The English command in terms of cultural influence can also be noted on how it commands large audience in the music and film industry. For example, the English film and music command large audiences across the globe. The discussion of culture also extends to the mentioning of religion. Even though the development of English culture can be traced to other religions like Islam, it is predominantly Christian going by the current faith. Some of the common churches include the Roman Catholic Church, the Methodist Church, and the Church of England. It also has a minority group that can be categorised under Islam, Jewish and the Hindu domination (Fortier, 2016). Because it shares in the American dream, England is equally opined as a land where one can go to and have his dreams come true. Therefore, it is diversified. The diversification, therefore, ushers an additional group under the atheists and the agnostics' believers.

The discussion extends to the social conventions among the English. For example, they subscribe to to the monarchy, which is the unifying factor, although the monarchy is currently limited within the political spectra (Muldrew, 2016). The people who come from the royal family are described as the subjects of the unceasing fascination, with every move that they make getting followed with the press both abroad and the United Kingdom to be specific. They also revere the social courtesies, for example, handshaking for introductions, not eating noisily or making noise with the cutleries, and also waiting to be served when a person is a guest.

Other common courtesies that bring out the uniqueness of the culture of England is based on their level of discipline. For example, they are always time observant. They equally observe the one arm length with the people they are speaking with, to them, closeness is an aspect of aggressiveness and may make another person uncomfortable. They equally respect the rights of older adults and the disabled (Nevitt, 2017). For example, it is unpopular to find a young native English sit on a bus while an older adult is standing. They also avoid eye contact as a way of maintaining composure. They find the culture intimidating.

The issue of culture also extends to clothing conventions. For example, what the English wear. It is common to find most English putting on casual clothes, an issue which has been adopted by other people across the globe. They are strict in the observance of occasions and weather. Therefore, they put on as per the weather, occasion, place, and activity. English is the dominant language (Mackintosh, Darko, Rutherford, & Wilkins, 2015). How English is spoken is influenced by class, the town, and the accent of the country. In some cities, for example, London, English is not spoken as the first language. The English occupant in the area speak patois.

Many holidays in England are equally celebrated globally. For example, Christmas is celebrated throughout the world. The English literature is equally studied worldwide with Africa and Asia not left on the map. England, as a nation, extends its charity programs to other third world nations, particularly to the African and the Middle East states. The country also offers military training to different nations owing to their strong military force (Muldrew, 2016).

The last cultural issue is on sports. Some of the common sports include hockey, football, cricket, and rugby. The country also has other major individual sports, for example, tennis, athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, horseracing, and golf to mention but a few. The English football club equally does well in the international competitions with the latest performance getting noted on the recently concluded Word-Cup (Mackintosh et al., 2015).

Conclusion

In summary, the discussion about the culture of England is one which is detailed and covers a wide range of English life. It looks at the beliefs, language, and social conventions. Religion is equally not left out with Christianity taking a leading function. England as a nation remains the pillar of reference for many states globally; its culture is widely accepted and replicated, thereby, setting the pace for the world.

References

Fortier, M. (2016). The culture of equity in early modern England. Routledge.

Freedman, P. (2016). 16.10. 08, Woolgar. The Culture of Food in England, 1200-1500. The Medieval Review. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/22713

Mackintosh, C., Darko, N., Rutherford, Z., & Wilkins, H. M. (2015). A qualitative study of the impact of the London 2012 Olympics on families in the East Midlands of England: lessons for sports development policy and practice. Sport, education and society, 20(8), 1065-1087. Retrieved from http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/1792/1/SES%20final%20resubmission%20CSES-2013-0133%20R2.pdf

Muldrew, C. (2016). The economy of obligation: the culture of credit and social relations in early modern England. Springer.

Nevitt, M. (2017). Women and the Pamphlet Culture of Revolutionary England, 1640-1660. Routledge. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/46409361/j.1468-229x.2007.410_43.x20160611-12330-c4gmp4.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DWomen_and_the_Pamphlet_Culture_of_Revolu.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20190911%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20190911T072338Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=e0324237bfa8036772a7c7abe0e61efb66a89acfb27106e1862b1b52f628f5d3