Culture
Sometimes thought by outsiders to be some sort of rural adjunct to London, Sussex has a cultural identity as unique as any other English county. The last Anglo-Saxon kingdom to be Christianised, Sussex has a centuries-old reputation for being separate and culturally distinct from the rest of England. This relative isolation until recent times came through the sea to the south, the forest and sticky clays of the Weald to the north and coastal marshes to the east and west. Sussex escaped the wholesale rearrangements of life and customs which the Norse invasions brought to much of England and the Germanic culture of the South Saxons remained much more intact than that of the rest of England. The people of Sussex have a reputation for independence of thought and have an aversion to being pushed around, as expressed through the Sussex motto, We wunt be druv. Other regional characterisations include the sharp shrewd stubborn Sussex Wealdsman and the more the deferential Sussex Downsman. Sussex is known for its strong tradition of bonfire celebrations and its proud musical heritage.
The county is home to England's largest arts festival, the Brighton Festival. Chichester is home to the Chichester Festival Theatre and Pallant House Gallery.
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Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Like every other good thing in this world, leisure and culture have to be paid for. Fortunately, however, it is not the leisured and the cultured who have to pay.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“Children became an obsessive theme in Victorian culture at the same time that they were being exploited as never before. As the horrors of life multiplied for some children, the image of childhood was increasingly exalted. Children became the last symbols of purity in a world which was seen as increasingly ugly.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)