ScotsExpat

Which is why no Englishperson celebrates it..............

benzonar

What has St George got to do with being English, he came from what is now Turkey and was born to a Palestinian mother.

I'd rather we had another day where we could celebrate being English, rather than rely on some obscure historical figure that killed a mythical beast.

MissDemeanor

my point exactly.

twinkle-star

is it today??
Must defrost some steak for tea then....make a bit of an effort....
Happy St Georges Day....

twinkle-star

THE STORY OF GEORGE AND THE DRAGON...


There are many versions of story of St George slaying the dragon, but most agree on the following:

A town was terrorised by a dragon A young princess was offered to the dragon and when George heard about this he rode into the village, slayed the dragon and rescued the princess.

The Legend of St. George and the Dragon

St. George travelled for many months by land and sea until he came to Libya. Here he met a poor hermit who told him that everyone in that land was in great distress, for a dragon had long ravaged the country.

'Every day,' said the old man, 'he demands the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden and now all the young girls have been killed. The king's daughter alone remains, and unless we can find a knight who can slay the dragon she will be sacrificed tomorrow. The king of Egypt will give his daughter in marriage to the champion who overcomes this terrible monster.'

When St. George heard this story, he was determined to try and save the princess, so he rested that night in the hermit's hut, and at daybreak set out to the valley where the dragon lived. When he drew near he saw a little procession of women, headed by a beautiful girl dressed in pure Arabian silk. The princess Sabra was being led by her attendants to the place of death. The knight spurred his horse and overtook the ladies. He comforted them with brave words and persuaded the princess to return to the palace. Then he entered the valley.



As soon as the dragon saw him it rushed from its cave, roaring with a sound louder than thunder. Its head was immense and its tail fifty feet long. But St. George was not afraid. He struck the monster with his spear, hoping he would wound it.



The dragon's scales were so hard that the spear broke into a thousand pieces. and St. George fell from his horse. Fortunately he rolled under an enchanted orange tree against which poison could not prevail, so that the venomous dragon was unable to hurt him. Within a few minutes he had recovered his strength and was able to fight again.




He smote the beast with his sword but the dragon poured poison on him and his armour split in two. Once more he refreshed himself from the orange tree and then, with his sword in his hand, he rushed at the dragon and pierced it under the wing where there were no scales, so that it fell dead at his feet.


And the moral of the story is....Don't forget to take your vitamin C it not only wards off colds but dragons as well...

Inselaffen

we could do with him on BE. There are a few old dragons on here who could do with slaying!

twinkle-star

including your avatar issy....

shakh your bootie

Although accepted as a "patriotic" hymn, the meaning of the poem is deeply radical and critical of early C18 British culture...

Blake was a marvelous, mad, mystical subversive:

"Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.
As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys."

But Happy St George's Day - anyone wishing to celebrate might consider the St George's Day Ball at JBH (http://www.dubaistgeorgessociety.com/).

Cry haddock

I do think it is time that we reclaimed the concept of English nationalism from the less savoury element of society. Having lived in Cardiff and Dublin for 3years each, I think that there is a level of respectable nationalism that we should strive for. You will never stop the BNP et al using the St Geroge cross or the Union Flag in a jingoistic (or worse) way so the only way to go about this is for the rational and upstanding amongst us to make our vouice heard and drown out the scum.
Triumph of evil, good men do nothing etc etc

jvr20

that process started c 12 years ago IMHO IIRC. The Britpop years (was it Cocker who played a Union flag guitar?) and Euro 96 helped a lot. You saw Union flags and flags of St George flying everywhere and not only alongside NF graffiti (which where I grew up was de rigeur in the late 80s/early 90s). I never looked around me nervously when I saw flags flying, since then.

shakh your bootie

Yeah, the "Cool Brittania"/New Labour thing worked for a while - the popularity of Paxman's "The English" is also reflective of the navel-gazing that was going on viz a viz national identity....some great quotes:

'The capacity for hypocrisy among these people who have liked to claim that they are straightforward is stunning.'

'The reason the country hadn't been invaded for a millennium was that it simply wasn't worth the trouble.'

I wonder if in some sense the nation is "re-inventing" itself - a similar thing seems to be happening in the US....

MacScot

The PM has ensured that the Cross of St. George will fly proudly over Number 10 alongside the Union flag. It is only the second time the English national flag has been raised above the HQ of the UK Government. The last time was when Tony Blair raised it to try to encourage the England football team in the 2006 World Cup. What's surprising to me is that it took two Scots PMs to achieve this and that previous English PMs have not bothered.

Perhaps, the real obstacle to St George's Day becoming a true day of English national pride is the way in which the flag of St George has been hijacked by right-wing extremists and football hooligans. They drape themselves in the flag and the result is that the English silent majority fear doing so. As a nation, the silent majority need to snatch it back from the loonies and the thugs and reclaim their day of celebration and inspiration.

Photo: St George's Day celebrations in Morley, West Yorkshire - England's most patriotic town.

Inselaffen

I will keep out of this otherwise SYB will just brand me a fascist again!

shakh your bootie

Please don't feel censored by me - it offends my beardie-tree-hugging-liberalism to think that I'm oppressing your right to express an opinion....

twinkle-star

Oh for goodness sake....

Why cant people just celebrate the good things for one day!
Eat drink and be merry and share the good times with family and friends....

Everyone has to dig deeper and get on the high horse....Slay the horse i say!!!