Main article: Saint George's Day

New Year's Day is observed on 1 January. The festivities begin a day before on 31 December when parties are held to bring in the new year. Public events are also organised where firework displays are arranged.
According to Whistler (2015), during the 18th century, first footing was not known in the South of England. Instead, "glasses were raised at quarter to twelve to "the Old Friend-Farewell!Farewell!Farewell!" and then at midnight to "the New Infant" with three ' Hip, hip horrahs!'". Other customs included dancing in the New Year. In the North of England, first footing has been traditionally observed involving opening the door to a stranger at midnight.[1] The guest is seen as a bringer of good fortune for the coming year.[2][3]
In Allendale, the town's New Year celebrations involve lighted tar barrels that are carried on the heads of revellers called guisers. This tradition dates back to 1858. It appears to have originated from the lighting of a silver band that were carolling at New Year. They were unable to use candles to light their music due to the strong winds, so someone suggested a tar barrel be used. Having to move from place to place, it would have been easier to carry the barrels upon the guisers' heads, rather than rolling them. There have been claims that it is a pagan festival, however, these claims are unfounded.[
Guisers carry lighted tar barrels during the New Year fire festival, a tradition dating back to 1858.
Main article: Saint George's Day
Saint George's Day, also known as the Feast of Saint George, is the feast day of Saint George as celebrated on 23 April, the traditionally accepted date of the saint's death in the Diocletianic Persecution of AD 303.
St George's Day was a major feast and national holiday in England on a par with Christmas from the early 15th century.[30] The tradition of celebration St George's day had waned by the end of the 18th century after the union of England and Scotland.[31] Nevertheless, the link with St. George continues today, for example Salisbury holds an annual St. George's Day pageant, the origins of which are believed to go back to the 13th century.[32] In recent years the popularity of St. George's Day appears to be increasing gradually. BBC Radio 3 had a full programme of St. George's Day events in 2006, and Andrew Rosindell, Conservative MP for Romford, has been putting the argument forward in the House of Commons to make St. George's Day a public holiday. In early 2009, Mayor of London Boris Johnson spearheaded a campaign to encourage the celebration of St. George's Day. Today, St. George's day may be celebrated with anything English including morris dancing and Punch and Judy shows.[33]
A traditional custom on St George's day is to fly or adorn the St George's Cross flag in some way: pubs, in particular, can be seen on 23 April festooned with garlands of St George's crosses. It is customary for the hymn "Jerusalem" to be sung in cathedrals, churches and chapels on St George's Day, or on the Sunday closest to it. Traditional English food and drink may be consumed.
St George's Day in Gravesend, Kent
Jack in the Green, also known as Jack o' the Green, is an English folk custom associated with the celebration of May Day. It involves a pyramidal or conical wicker or wooden framework that is decorated with foliage being worn by a person as part of a procession, often accompanied by musicians. Jack in the Green emerged within the context of English May Day processions, with the folklorist Roy Judge noting that these celebrations were not "a set, immutable pattern, but rather a fluid, moving process, which combined different elements at various times".[42] Judge thought it unlikely that the Jack in the Green itself existed much before 1770, due to an absence of either the name or the structure itself in any of the written accounts of visual depictions of English May Day processions from before that year.[43]
The Jack in the Green developed out of a tradition that was first recorded in the seventeenth century, which involved milkmaids decorating themselves for May Day.[44] In his diary, Samuel Pepys recorded observing a London May Day parade in 1667 in which milk-maids had "garlands upon their pails" and were dancing behind a fiddler.[44] A 1698 account described milk-maids carrying not a decorated milk-pail, but a silver plate on which they had formed a pyramid-shape of objects, decorated with ribbons and flowers, and carried atop their head. The milk-maids were accompanied by musicians playing either fiddle or bag-pipe, and went door to door, dancing for the residents, who gave them payment of some form.[45] In 1719, an account in The Tatler described a milk-maid "dancing before my door with the plate of half her customers on her head", while a 1712 account in The Spectator referred to "the ruddy Milk-Maid exerting herself in a most sprightly style under a Pyramid of Silver Tankards".[46] These and other sources indicate that this tradition was well-established by the eighteenth century.[47]