Wednesday 23 April 2008

St George's Day

Today is St George's Day in England. I'd like to say its the day we celebrate being English, like the Irish celebrate being Irish on St Patrick's Day, but it doesn't happen! There is a small campaign to get 23rd April as a national holiday, but that isn't going to happen either!

Here are some St George's Day facts -

1. St George wasn't English, he came from Turkey.
2. St George was adopted as England's patron saint at the end of the 14th century.
3. St George is most famous for slaying dragons, though this is just a myth.
4. The red cross on a white background became England's flag in the late 1200's.
5. St George is the patron saint of many countries including Turkey, Portugal & Lithuania.
6. Shakespeare was born on, and died on, St George's Day.

Amaze your friends and family with these facts! See if you can persuade your boss into giving you the day off to celebrate St George's Day! If your English, its your duty. Slay that dragon!

9 comments:

brian stout said...

this is the first i've heard of this st george's day (aside from your previous mention). and i think a day off in observance of it is a great idea!

Happy Earth Day!

Ken said...

Interesting facts. I may try to use St. George day to tomorrow off work:)

slim said...

Oh Marley, I'm already off, what bad timing. I didn't know many of those facts so thanks for sharing.

magiceye said...

interesting to note that st.george had come from turkey!

Chuck Pefley said...

Interesting fact about Shakespeare coming and going on the same day. I suppose the odds are only 1 in 365, but still seems pretty uncommon for this to happen. Then again, my wife was born on her older brother's birthday exactly 365 days later.

Lori said...

That's a very interesting post! I didn't know about St. George before. You teach us a lot through your blog. Enjoy St. George's day!

Keropokman said...

how interesting.

i only heard of St George Bank in Australia. Now I know why it has a dragon as its logo. Thanks to your explanation :-)

Fénix - Bostonscapes said...

Well, thanks a lot Marley for this post. I knew nothing about St George so I looked it up and learned a bunch of very interesting things about him and why he became a national saint. :)

Anonymous said...

It's a shame that we don't celebrate St Georges day like the Irish celebrate St Patricks day. We should be more proud of our history!!

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