This morning I was listening to the radio (the BBC's local radio station, known as Solent) when I heard that the firing of some muskets in a village called Wimborne as part of a practice known as scouring (which is intended to frighten off any spirits in the Christmas Tree as the town decoration lights are turned on) has been banned because 'it might scare the children'. A caller to the station compared scouring to bear bating as a tradition that should be lost as there is little need for such things.
Clearly this is a ridiculous standpoint as almost everything that makes Great Britain great is based in its traditions (however silly they might sound, I mean why would a spirit be hiding in the Tree to begin with?).
Christmas is not a tradition as such (no more so than my birthday or yours), but it has been joined to some, and had others joined to it, such as the tree - which, if I remember correctly, was brought over from Germany by Prince Albert when he married Queen Victoria.
So if we're to get rid of traditions such as the muskets then how many are we going get rid of and what would we actually have left? All because some pansy got scared by some noise?
