Happy St George’s Day!
Posted by admin978 on April 22, 2022 · Leave a Comment
The Editor, Assistant Editor and all involved with H&D wish all Englishmen, not just in England, but in the British Isles and worldwide, a very happy St George’s Day.
How did a man born in Cappadocia in AD 270 become the patron saint of England? For our overseas readers, here are ten facts about Saint George.
St George’s Day takes place on 23 April, which is traditionally accepted as being the date of his death in AD 303.
St George was beheaded for resigning his military post and protesting against his pagan leader, the Emperor Diocletian (245-313 AD), who led Rome’s persecution of Christians.
The Emperor’s wife was so inspired by St George’s bravery and loyalty to his religion, that she too became a Christian and was subsequently executed for her faith.
Before the cult of St George was brought back from the Crusades, the top choice for England’s patron saint was Edmund the Martyr (died 869 AD), King of East Anglia. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Edmund was killed by an invading Viking army. He is also the patron saint of pandemics, torture victims, and wolves.
St George is the Patron Saint of Scouting and on the Sunday nearest to 23 April scouts and guides throughout England used to parade through the streets, until it was seen as “racist”!
His emblem, a red cross on a white background was adopted by Richard the Lionheart and brought to England in the 12th century, when the king’s soldiers would wear it on their tunics to avoid confusion in battle.
Aside from England, other countries that celebrate St George’s Day include Canada, Croatia, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and the Republic of Macedonia.
Though celebrations are somewhat muted in modern PC England (unlike St Patrick’s Day which is highly promoted), some Englishmen – including those at H&D – can still be seen to mark St George’s Day with quintessentially English traditions such as Morris Dancing, eating fish and chips or going to the local pub/club!
The most famous legend of St George is of him slaying a dragon, with the dragon commonly used to represent the Devil in the Middle Ages. The slaying of the dragon by St George was first credited to him in the 12th century, long after his death and it is therefore likely that the many stories connected with St George’s name are fictitious.
The date of 23 April was also the date of the death of the English playwright William Shakespeare. UNESCO marked this historic date by declaring it the International Day of the Book and it is also traditionally when Shakespeare’s birthday is celebrated.
King Henry speaking to English soldiers besieging Harfleur, from Shakespeare’s Henry V:
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest –
That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’
Or from the football terraces – before the Woke FA / PC brigade banned it –
Keep St. George in my heart keep me English,
Keep St. George in my heart I pray,
Keep St. George in my heart keep me English,
Keep me English till my dying day,
No Surrender, No Surrender, No Surrender to the IRA!
End note:
The St George Cross and Three Lions flags, proudly fly from H&D Towers 365 days a year – not just on ST Georges Day!
