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CRY GOD FOR HARRY, ENGLAND and ST GEORGE
23 April. St George's Day. the day of England's patron saint. The feast day that nobody in England seems to bother celebrating. Shakespeare's birthday. The day on which he died. So why is it that the English don't have a national day, a Bank holiday like le quatorze juillet or the fourth of July. For that matter, why didn't we run the flag up the flagpole on the top of St Paul's tower? Answer: because we have a pole but no lanyard. So on Friday 23 April we celebrated with the flag at ground level. As evidenced by these photographs. Incidentally, the folks shown proudly holding or wearing the flag are from Ireland, South Africa, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Armenia as well as from (there'll always be an) England.
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St George's Day was a major feast and national holiday in England on a par with Christmas from the early 15th century. [2] However, this tradition had waned by the end of the 18th century after the union of England and Scotland. [3] In recent years the popularity of St George's Day appears to be increasing gradually. A traditional custom was to wear a red rose in one's lapel. Another custom 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. However, the modern association of the St George's Cross with sports such as football, cricket and rugby, along with far-right political parties such as the BNP means that this tradition is rare outside this context. 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.
There is a growing reaction to the recent indifference to St George's Day. Organizations such as English Heritage, and the Royal Society of Saint George (a non-political English national society founded in 1894) have been encouraging celebrations. Other organisations like the St George Unofficial Bank Holiday are encouraging people to be more proactive by taking the day off work (an unofficial bank holiday). They seem to be having some effect. On the other hand, there have also been calls to replace St George as patron saint of England, on the grounds that he was an obscure figure who had no direct connection with the country. [4] However there is no obvious consensus as to whom to replace him with, though names suggested include Edmund the Martyr, [5] Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, or Saint Alban, with the latter having topped a BBC Radio 4 poll on the subject. [6]
In early 2009 Mayor of London Boris Johnson spearheaded a campaign to encourage the celebration of St George's Day. |
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John Quysner, 23/04/2010 |
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