BLINK and you missed it. St George’s Day, I mean. It was yesterday.
Everybody knows when St Patrick’s Day is and the occasion is celebrated by parades and celebrations.
But St George’s Day slips by in the main unnoticed. Perhaps George needs a better public relations officer.
Mind you there was never anything English about him. He was a Roman soldier who was born in Turkey and died a martyr for his Christian beliefs in 303. He never fought a dragon.
He was adopted by the crusaders of Richard the Lionheart in the 12th century and became England’s patron saint in the 14th.
He is also patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal and Russia, as well as a dozen cities from Beirut to Moscow and patron saint of scouts, soldiers, archers, cavalry and chivalry, farmers and field workers, riders and saddlers – and helps those suffering from leprosy, plague and syphilis.
All in all, he is a busy chap, even for a saint, so why is his day less celebrated than that of St Patrick?
One reason is that St Patrick came to symbolise Irish aspirations and patriotism at a time in the 18th century when the wearing of the green was seen as subversive by their English overlords.
The first parade was actually by Irish soldiers through New York and it became a potent display of national identity.
It subsequently became inextricably linked with the drinking of the black stuff and any parade that combines celebration and Guinness has to be a winner.
Poor old St George, meanwhile, had his heyday during the Crusades – not a good thing to celebrate these days – and has no beer intrinsically linked with his name.
