Tendring CAMRA - Cravat Day
Tuesday 18th October 2022
Wear Your Cravat With Pride and Celebrate the Great British Pub
What is Cravat Day?
Cravat Day is held every year on the 18th October - mostly in Croatia where the cravat originated.
What is a Cravat?
Actually the neckband known as the cravat is the origin of all related neck attire - being the forerunner of the necktie and the bow tie. The cravat was first sported by a military unit known as The Croats who were mercenaries recruited to protect King Louis XIII of France and Cardinal Richelieu. The fashion concious Parisians admired the Croatians' colourful knotted scarves and copied them, corrupting Croat into cravat to give us the word and garment we know today.
Cravats in Pubs - What's All That About?
Many people appreciate a relaxing pint in a social environment - aka the Great British Pub - but we feel standards are slipping and people are turning up incorrectly attired. Our forefathers definitely put us to shame in this respect so we are taking up the cause of Cravat Day and asking punters to venture out to their local every 18th October splendidly dressed and topped off with a lovely cravat, necktie or bow tie.
I Don't Have a Cravat
Cravats are rather an endangered species so whilst we campaign to make them popular again you can safely sport a tie of any sort. If you are still perplexed may we suggest a visit to your local charity shop - most charities that have clothes donated will have some splendid vintage ties and you might even find a cravat.
What Happens Next?
We've adopted Cravat Day to highlight the plight of the pub. We're losing them at an alarming rate and we need to recognise that as we lose pubs we lose important public spaces where we can socialise, unwind, do business and generally mix with others in our communities and beyond. Wearing a tie for a few hours is not going to change things directly but we hope to mobilise support and generate publicity for our cause.
The hope is to slowly build Cravat day, since we started in 2017, into a fun event supported by communities and public houses across Tendring and celebrate and help promote our pubs as we do it.
Great Cravat Wearers
- Nicholas Parsons
- Roger Moore
- David Niven
- Cary Grant
- Tony Curtis (especially when impersonating Cary Grant)
- Samuel Pepys
Last Words
Tell me that I misunderstood a joke, but don't tell me that my choice of cravat is wrong.
Miss Jenkyns wore a cravat, and a little bonnet like a jockey-cap, and altogether had the appearance of a strong-minded woman; although she would have despised the modern idea of women being equal to men. Equal, indeed! she knew they were superior.