Monday, April 23, 2007

St.Georges Day


Today, April 23 is a celebration of St.Georges Day. St. George has been the patron Saint of England since the 14th century. The flag of England, the red cross on a white background is the emblem of St George and is also embeded in the Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom. Today is the day when many Britoners will be wearing a red rose, the National flower of England, in their buttonhole. Though it is a day of National celebrating, it is not a statuatory holiday. There is a movement to have it made a day off as a matter of national pride, just as the Americans have july 4th and Canada July 1st.
For scouts, St George's Day marks the first day of camping. The Sunday closest to St.Georges day, scouts, girl Guides, Brownies parade through the streets waving their red and white flags.

Also on this day we recognize that William Shakespeare was born on 23 April 1564 and died on the same date, 23 April 1616. I hadn't realized he had died so young.

3 comments:

Dick said...

That was interesting. I didn't know that about England, even though most of us have some roots there if you go back far enough. We have friends in Germany and it seems to me that they have an incredible number of holidays when they are off work. But, time off work is always nice for the worker.

Unknown said...

Very interesting and I wanted to know more about the Union Jack and learned that the original Union Jack was a compilation of the flags of England and Scotland (That was in 1606)

in 1801 The Irish flag was added and makes the Union Jack what it is today. I am still learning :-)

Australia has the Union Jack in the blue background and the Southern Cross. Don't know what the big star is.

New Zealand almost the same but 2 stars less (sorry for my poor English).

Canada....?

Anonymous said...

Hi Susan, I made some graphics for Kayla's supporters last year, and have just got around to making a little button, which is on my blog if you want it. I'm now blogging anonymously, hence the change of name.