They claim the desire to celebrate being English has seen the number of people who mark the nation's patron saint's day on 23 April grow significantly in the past few years.

Here in South Shields the local Boy Scouts will be parading before a service in the Parish Church of St. Hilda in the Market Place tomorrow morning, yet even this small celebration of our national day has been clouded in controversy with South Shields police being unwilling to provide manpower to marshall the event, in the same manner as the Good Friday Parades. The Boy Scouts Association have been asked to make changes to their route, in the interests of safety, yet again local groups are being forced to march in back streets, out of view, at the insists of penny pinching pen pushers in the police force. It makes it so easy to allege that they do not wish the public's attention to be drawn to such events!

Elsewhere I have seen very little interest in promoting our national saint's day in South Shields, no big promotions in the supermarkets, no big effort to promote and sell English produce in our shopping centres, no flags flying, and no big promotions in many of the pubs and eateries. (In fairness, the pub I was in last night had beer mats with St. George's Flag printed on the reverse.) Isn't it about time that our local Chamber of Trade and Chamber of Commerce got their heads together and realised the unique business opportunities presented on April 23rd?

Yet , when it comes to St. Patricks Day......................well, it's just about forced upon us.

Surely this town is not ashamed to show it's Englishness, surely we are not afraid of celebrating St. George's Day, of course not. We are just apathetic, and those in a position to give a lead have chosen not to do so - only last week we had a continental market in town, yet we cannot give a lead to promoting English goods and produce around the time of St. George's Day.

Who was Saint George?

George, according to most experts, was born in what is now Turkey in about 280 AD, he joined the Roman Army and rose to the rank of Tribunus Militum (what we might call a Colonel) in charge of a regiment of about 1000 men. He became converted to Christianity and during the reign of Emporor Diocletian acted to sageguard Christians during one of Rome's worst periods of persecution against followers of the Christian faith. George was expecting to be arrested and therefore gave all of his posessions away to the poor and needy, eventually apprehended he was brought before Diocletian , where he denounced the Emporor's cruelty in an eloquent defence of himself. However, he was sentenced to imprisonment with instructions that he be continually tortured until he denounced his faith. St. George steadfastly refused to be broken, and was beheaded in Nicodemia (Palestine) on April 23rd. 303 AD.

Following his beatification by the Roman Catholic Church, St. George's qualities of chivalry, braveness, and good virtue were adopted by the Crusaders and England's King Richard lll, it was in this period that white pennants with the red cross became well known on the battlefields as a rallying point. In 1348 King Edward lll established the Order of the Knights of the Garter, Europe's oldest order of chivalry and it's regalia, the Star, the Garter, the Sash, and the Investment badge contain representations of St. George.

In 1415 St. George became the patron saint of England after our soldiers were victorious in the battle of Agincourt.

In 1497 in the reign of Henry VIII, the pennant of the Cross of St. George was flown by John Cabot when he sailed to Newfoundland and it was also flown by Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1620 it was the flag that was flown by the Mayflower when the Pilgrim Fathers arrived in Plymouth Massachusetts. It is also the flag of the Church of England and as such is known throughout Christendom.

During World War ll, King George created the George Cross to honour outstanding acts of civilian valour.

What's on locally?

In Newcastle, Trades Unions have organised a march to commemorate St. George's Day, and in Prudhoe Castle there will be medieval archery from noon Sunday.

"Upon this charge, cry God, for Harry, England, and St. George!"

Links

BBC News

The Royal Society of St. George

The value of St. George

# posted by Curly : 5:17 pm