#14.
Custom: The Boar’s Head Ceremony
About: One of London’s oldest traditions – it’s been traced back to 1343. Like several of these city traditions, it has its roots in land rental. A group of butchers in London got into trouble washing meat and disposing of entrails near a local monastery. To settle the issue, the Lord Mayor of London gave them some land to use, in exchange for a boars head every November. The boar’s head was paraded from Butchers Company hall down to Mansion House, but they now use a model (with the real boar’s head in place, ready for carving, at Mansion House.)