St George's Day

America has Independence Day; France has Bastille Day. What does England have? St George's Day!

Yes, folks, today is St George’s Day, also known as National Day, here in England. And yet, if you were to ask most people on the street, they wouldn't have a clue what it is. Maybe because it isn't officially recognized as a national holiday, as you'd expect a National Day to be. Everyone still has to go to work, so no one notices.

For starters, few even know who St George was. He was actually a Roman solider who protested against the Romans' torture of Christians and died for his beliefs. His emblem was the red cross on a white background, which was adopted by Richard The Lion Heart and brought to England in the 12th century. This is now the flag of England.

Many countries the world over celebrate their patron saint, someone who is called upon in times of great trouble to help save the country from its enemies. The Irish have St Patrick's Day, even though it's also celebrated here in England and in America too. The English decided in the 14th century to name St George as their patron saint and declared April 23rd as St George's Day. Several countries celebrate St George's Day on April 23rd, the day St George died in 303 A.D. St George is also known as the dragon-slaying patron of saint of England, even though it’s highly unlikely he ever fought a dragon or even visited England for that matter.

The traditional custom for celebrating St George’s Day is to wear a red rose (the national flower) on your lapel. But I've never seen that in all the time I've been here. More common is to just fly the St George’s flag. Of course most pubs celebrate St George's Day, but I think pubs celebrate most everything.

I’m still not sure why this also became known as National Day, since national days tend to mark a country’s nationhood and patriotism. The English don’t have a special day for that, so they use St George's Day as their National Day. Go figure. Maybe they should just scrap the whole thing and change it to Shakespeare's Day - since William Shakespeare, that much-loved and world-known English icon, was born on this day (April 23, 1564) and died on this day in 1616. Hmmm….a brilliant idea, if I say so myself!