The culture of the United Kingdom refers to the patterns of human activity and symbolism associated with the

British people and the United Kingdom. It is informed by the UK's history as a developed island country, monarchy, imperial power and, particularly, as consisting of four countriesEngland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Waleswhich each have their own preserved and distinctive customs and symbolism. Popular culture of the United Kingdom has impacted upon the world in the form of the British invasion, Britpop and British television broadcasting. British literature and British poetry, particularly that of William Shakespeare, is revered across the world.

Culture of United Kingdom

1. National Costume and Dress

There is no national costume of the United Kingdom. Scotland has the kilt and Tam o'shanter. In England certain military uniforms such as the Beefeater or the Queen's Guard are considered national symbols. British fashions defined acceptable dress for men of business. Key figures such as Beau Brummell, the future Edward VII and Edward VIII created the modern suit and cemented its dominance.

2. Languages in the United Kingdom

No official language. English is the main language and the de facto official language, spoken monolingually by an estimated 95% of the UK population. However, individual countries within the UK have frameworks for the promotion of their indigenous languages. In Wales, English and Welsh are both widely used by officialdom, and Irish and Ulster Scots enjoy limited use alongside English in Northern Ireland, mainly in publicly commissioned translations. Additionally, the Western Isles council area of Scotland has a policy to promote Scottish Gaelic.

 3.1 Literature

3. The Arts

The earliest existing native literature of the territory of the modern United Kingdom was written in the Celtic languages of the isles. Anglo-Saxon literature includes Beowulf, a national epic, but literature in Latin predominated among educated elites. After the Norman Conquest Anglo-Norman literature brought continental influences to the isles. English literature emerged as a recognisable entity in the late 14th century, with the rise and spread of the London dialect of Middle English. Geoffrey Chaucer is the first great identifiable individual in English literature: his Canterbury Tales remains a popular 14th-century work which readers still enjoy today. From Elizabethan period, poet and playwright William Shakespeare stands out as arguably the most famous writer in the world.

 The English novel became a popular form in the 18th century, with Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719), Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740) and Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1745). After a period of decline, the poetry of Robert Burns revived interest in vernacular literature, the rhyming weavers of Ulster being influenced by literature from Scotland. In the early 19th century, the Romantic period showed a flowering of poetry comparable with the Renaissance two hundred years earlier, with such poets as William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Lord Byron. The Victorian period was the golden age of the realistic English novel, represented by Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne), Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, George Eliot, Lord Alfred Tennyson and Thomas Hardy. The most widely popular writer of the early years of the 20th century was arguably Rudyard Kipling. To date the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Kipling's novels include The Jungle Book, The Man Who Would Be King and Kim, while his inspirational poem If is a national favourite. Like William Ernest Henley's poem Invictus,it is a memorable evocation of Victorian stoicism, a traditional British virtue.

 World War I gave rise to British war poets and writers such as Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and Rupert Brooke who wrote (often paradoxically), of their expectations of war, and/or their experiences in the trench. The Scottish Renaissance of the early 20th century brought modernism to Scottish literature as well as an interest in new forms in the literatures of Scottish Gaelic and Scots. The English novel developed in the 20th century into much greater variety and was greatly enriched by immigrant writers. It remains today the dominant English literary form. Other well-known novelists include Arthur Conan Doyle, D. H. Lawrence, George Orwell, Salman Rushdie, Mary Shelley, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Virginia Woolf, Ian Fleming and J. K. Rowling. Important poets include Elizabeth Barrett Browning, T. S. Eliot, Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, John Milton, Alfred Tennyson, Rudyard Kipling, Alexander Pope, and Dylan Thomas.

4. Theatre
The United Kingdom has a vibrant tradition of theatre. The reign of Elizabeth I in the late 16th and early 17th century saw a flowering of the drama and all the arts. Perhaps the most famous playwright in the world, William Shakespeare, wrote around 40 plays that are still performed in theatres across the world to this day. Today the West End of London has a large number of theatres, particularly centred around Shaftesbury Avenue. The Royal Shakespeare Company operates out of Shakespeare's birthplace Stratford-upon-Avon in England, producing mainly but not exclusively Shakespeare's plays. Important modern playwrights include Alan Ayckbourn, John Osborne, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, and Arnold Wesker.

 Composers William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, John Blow, Henry Purcell, Edward Elgar, Arthur Sullivan, William Walton, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett have made major contributions to British music, and are known internationally. The United Kingdom also supports a number of major orchestras. London is one of the world's major centres for classical music. The UK was one of the two main countries in the development of rock music, and has provided bands. It has pioneered various forms of electronic dance music.

5. Music

The UK has been at the forefront of developments in film, radio, and television. Broadcasting in the UK has historically been dominated by the BBC, although independent radio and television (ITV, Channel 4, Five) and satellite broadcasters (especially BSkyB) have become more important in recent years. BBC television, and the other three main television channels are public service broadcasters who, as part of their license allowing them to operate, broadcast a variety of minority interest programming. The United Kingdom has a large number of national and local radio stations .

6. Broadcasting

7. Visual art
The oldest art in the United Kingdom can be dated to the Neolithic period, and is found in a funerary context. In the Iron Age, the Celtic culture spread in the British isles, and with them a new art style. The Romans brought with them the Classical style and glass work and mosaics. The Celtic fringe gained back some of the power lost in the Roman period, and the Celtic style again became a factor influencing art all over the UK. In the UK the different style to some extent fused into a British CelticScandinavian hybrid. Notable visual artists from the United Kingdom include John Constable, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, William Blake and J.M.W. Turner. Notable illustrators include Aubrey Beardsley, Roger Hargreaves, and Beatrix Potter. Notable arts institutions include the Allied Artists' Association, Royal College of Art, Artists' Rifles, Royal Society of Arts, New English Art Club, Slade School of Art, Royal Academy, and the Tate Gallery.

8. Architecture
The architecture of the United Kingdom has a long and diverse history from beyond Stonehenge to the designs of Norman Foster and the present day. The earliest remnants of architecture are mainly neolithic monuments. Over the two centuries following the Norman conquest of 1066, and the building of the Tower of London, many great castles such as Caernarfon Castle in Wales and Carrickfergus Castle in Ireland were built to suppress the natives. In the early 18th century baroque architecture was introduced, and Blenheim Palace was built in this era. However, baroque was quickly replaced by a return of the Palladian form. The Georgian architecture of the 18th century was an evolved form of Palladianism. In the early 19th century the romantic medieval gothic style appeared as a backlash to the symmetry of Palladianism. At the beginning of the 20th century, arts and crafts in architecture is symbolized by an informal, non symmetrical form, often with mullioned or lattice windows, multiple gables and tall chimneys. This style continued to evolve until World War II. Following the Second World War reconstruction was heavily influenced by Modernism, especially from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Modernism remains a significant force in UK architecture, although its influence is felt predominantly in commercial buildings. The two most prominent proponents are Lord Rogers of Riverside and Lord Foster of Thames Bank.

9. Science and Technology

From the time of the Scientific Revolution, England and Scotland, and thereafter the United Kingdom, have been prominent in world scientific and technological development. Possibly the most famous of all English scientists, Isaac Newton, is considered by historians of science to have crowned and ended the scientific revolution with the 1687 publication of his Principia Mathematica. Technologically, the UK is also amongst the world's leaders. Historically, it was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution, with innovations especially in textiles, the steam engine, railroads and civil engineering. The UK remains one of the leading providers of technological innovations today.

10. Religion
The United Kingdom was created as a Protestant Christian country and Protestant churches remain the largest faith group in each country of the UK. * The Anglican Church of England, is the Established Church in England. The Queen is Supreme Governor of the Church of England. * The Presbyterian Church of Scotland is regarded as the national church in Scotland. * The Anglican Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920. * The Anglican Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1871. Other religions followed in the UK include Roman Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, and Buddhism.

11. Cuisine
British cuisine is the specific set of cooking traditions and practices associated with the United Kingdom. Historically, British cuisine means "unfussy dishes made with quality local ingredients, matched with simple sauces to accentuate flavour, rather than disguise it." However, British cuisine has absorbed the cultural influence of those that settled in Britain, producing hybrid dishes, such as the Anglo-Indian Chicken tikka masala, hailed as "Britain's true national dish". British dishes include fish and chips, the Sunday roast, and bangers and mash. British cuisine has several national and regional varieties, including English, Scottish and Welsh cuisine, which each have developed their own regional or local dishes, many of which are geographically indicated foods such as Cheshire cheese, the Yorkshire pudding, Arbroath Smokie and Welsh rarebit.

11.1 Tea Customs

Afternoon Tea: Served at 4 in the afternoon Tea, coffee, freshly baked scones, tea sandwiches, and assorted pastries This became popular about one hundred and fifty years ago when rich ladies invited their friends to their houses for an afternoon cup of tea High Tea: Served at 6 in the evening Scones, cakes, buns or tea breads, cheese on toast, toasted crumpets, cold meats and pickles or poached eggs on toast British working population did not have afternoon tea, only a midday meal and a meal after work a.k.a dinner or supper

12. Education
Each country of the United Kingdom has a separate education system, with power over education matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland being devolved. Education matters for England are dealt with by the UK government since there is no devolved administration for England.

 Most schools came under state control in the Victorian era, a formal state school system was instituted after the Second World War. Initially schools were separated into infant schools (normally up to age 4 or 5), primary schools and secondary schools (split into more academic grammar schools and more vocational secondary modern schools). England has many prominent private schools, often founded hundreds of years ago, which are known as public schools or independent schools. Eton, Harrow and Rugby are three of the better known.

12.1 England

England's universities
England's universities include the so-called Oxbridge universities of (Oxford University and Cambridge University) which are amongst the world's oldest universities and are generally ranked top of all British universities. Some institutions are world-renowned in specialised and often narrow areas of study, such as Imperial College London (science and engineering) and London School of Economics (economics and social sciences). Academic degrees are usually split into classes: first class (I), upper second class (II:1), lower second class (II:2) and third (III), and unclassified (below third class).

13. Sports
The national sport of the UK is football, having originated in England, and the UK has the oldest football clubs in the world. The first ever international football match was between Scotland and England in 1872. The match ended goalless. Other famous British sporting events include the Wimbledon tennis championships, the Grand National, the London Marathon, the Six Nations rugby championships (of which 4 "home nations" participate), the British Grand Prix, The Open Championship, The Ashes cricket series and The Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge universities. A great number of major sports originated in the United Kingdom, including football, squash, golf, tennis, boxing, rugby (rugby union and rugby league), cricket, field hockey, snooker, billiards, badminton and curling.

14. Etiquette in England

Do: Stand in line Take off your hat when indoors Cover your mouth when yawning or coughing Shake hands Drive on the left side of the road

Donts: Greet people with a kiss unless its family or close friends Talk loudly in public Stare at others Ask personal and intimate questions

Culture of Northern Ireland

1.Food
Northern Ireland's best known chefs include Paul Rankin and Michael Deane. The best known traditional dish in Northern Ireland is the Ulster fry. Two other popular meals are fish and chips or 'Bangers and Mash' (Sausages and Creamed Potatoes)
Since 1998, the Ulster Museum, Armagh Museum, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and the Ulster American Folk Park have been administered by the National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland. The Linen Hall Library, the oldest library in Belfast, has endured many changes of fortune since its foundation in 1788, but has maintained a vision of providing access to literature and local studies to the population at large.

2.Heritage

3.The Arts and Humanities

Support for the Arts. Since the partition of Ireland is artificial, there is no real distinction between the two cultures. Established in 1962, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland is the prime distributor of public support for the arts. Its mission is to develop and improve the knowledge, appreciation, and practice of the arts; to increase public access to and participation in the arts; and to encourage and assist artists. Literature. Most Irish literature has been written by authors in and around Dublin. However, Northern Ireland produced the Nobel Prize-winning poet, Seamus Heaney, who has published many collections of poems. His career parallels the violent political struggles of his homeland, but he is fascinated primarily by the earth and the history embedded there. His verse incorporates Gaelic expressions as he explores the themes of nature, love, and mythology. His poems use images of death and dying, and he has written elegiac poems to friends and family members lost to "the Troubles." Northern Ireland is also the birthplace of C. Day Lewis, who wrote novels and verse and taught and translated classical literature. Lewis was named poet laureate of the United Kingdom in 1970. Graphic Arts. Celtic designs can be seen in artistic and everyday images. The Celtic influence appears in the lettering on shop signs, letterheads, jewelry, and tombstones. Performance Arts. Irish music incorporates fiddles, bagpipes, drums, flutes, and harps. Folk music is performed in pubs and parades. The Ulster National Orchestra in Belfast and the Philharmonic Society are the leading classical musical groups. Traditional Irish music has grown very popular outside the country in the last decade.

4.Festivals
St Patrick's Festival (Dublin)
One of the few celebrations on St Patrick's Day (and the days surrounding March 17th) that reaches the dizzy heights of festivals in the USA - rural parades and festivals tend to be much more parochial and amateurish. If you want slick colorful fun, Dublin is the place to go. Flee the capital if your tastes run to quieter celebrations.

Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann

Ireland's national music festival and a feast for lovers of traditional folk. Held every year in late August at different locations and attracts legions of musicians and other performers.

Dublin Horse Show

Sponsored by Filte Ireland this is the main equestrian event in Ireland. Showjumping, dressage, and the exciting hunt chase are top-notch events every August. Apart from the best riders and horses competing for the Aga Khan Trophy you can see female visitors competing for the "Best Dressed" title on Ladies' Day.

Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival

Every year hundreds of singles and thousands of supporters flood the Clare town of Lisdoonvarna in September - to find the partner for life or to simply have a good time. Matchmakers match prospective partners in a time-honored tradition and everybody is happy. Or not. Some matches are not made in heaven ...