Saint George's Day

 

Petie Barre

Saint George's Day

From Wikipedia

Art by Anne Farmer

Feast of Saint George

Saint George's Day, also called the Feast of Saint George, is the feast day of Saint George as celebrated by various Christian Churches and by the several nations, old kingdoms, regions, states, countries and cities of which Saint George is the patron saint - including Bulgaria, England, Georgia, Portugal, Romania as well as the Spanish communities of Cáceres, Alcoy, Aragon and Catalonia. The saint also has his state holiday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Saint George's Day is normally celebrated on 23 April. However, Church of England rules denote that no saints' day should be celebrated between Palm Sunday and the Sunday after Easter Day so if 23 April falls in that period the celebrations are transferred to after it. 23 April is the traditionally accepted date of the saint's death in the Diocletianic Persecution of AD 303.

English Catholic and Anglican tradition.

The earliest documented mention of St. George in England comes from the Catholic monk the venerable Bede (c. 673–735).[9] His feast day is also mentioned in the Durham Collectar, a ninth-century liturgical work. The will of Alfred the Great is said to refer to the saint, in a reference to the church of Fordington, Dorset. At Fordington a stone over the south door records the miraculous appearance of St. George to lead crusaders into battle. Early (c. 10th century) dedications of churches to St. George are noted in England, for example at Fordingham, Dorset, at Thetford, Southwark and Doncaster. In the past, historians mistakenly pointed to the Synod of Oxford in 1222 as elevating the feast to special prominence, but the earliest manuscripts of the synod's declaration do not mention the feast of St. George. The declarations of the Province of Canterbury in 1415 and the Province of York in 1421 elevated the feast to a double major, and as a result, work was prohibited and church attendance was mandatory. Edward III (1327–1377) put his Order of the Garter (founded c. 1348) under the banner of St. George. This order is still the foremost order of knighthood in England and St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle was built by Edward IV and Henry VII in honour of the order. The badge of the Order shows Saint George on horseback slaying the dragon. Froissart observed the English invoking St. George as a battle cry on several occasions during the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453). Certain English soldiers also displayed the pennon of St. George.

St. George's Day was a major feast and national holiday in England on a par with Christmas from the early 15th century. The tradition of celebration St. George's day had waned by the end of the 18th century after the union of England and Scotland. Nevertheless, the link with St. George continues today, for example Salisbury holds an annual St. George's Day pageant, the origins of which are believed to go back to the 13th century. In recent years the popularity of St. George's Day appears to be increasing gradually. BBC Radio 3 had a full programme of St. George's Day events in 2006, and Andrew Rosindell, Conservative MP for Romford, has been putting the argument forward in the House of Commons to make St. George's Day a public holiday. In early 2009, Mayor of London Boris Johnson spearheaded a campaign to encourage the celebration of St. George's Day, and during the 2017 and 2019 General Elections the Labour Party campaigned for it to be a public holiday. Today, St. George's day may be celebrated with anything English including morris dancing and Punch and Judy shows.

A traditional custom on St. George's day is fly or adorn the St. George's Cross flag in some way: pubs in particular can be seen on 23 April festooned with garlands of St. George's crosses.[citation needed] It is customary for the hymn "Jerusalem" to be sung in cathedrals, churches and chapels on St. George's Day, or on the Sunday closest to it. Traditional English food and drink may be consumed.

There is a growing reaction to the recent indifference to St. George's Day. Organisations such as English Heritage and the Royal Society of St. George have been encouraging celebrations. There have also been calls to replace St. George as patron saint of England on the grounds that he was an obscure figure who had no direct connection with the country. However, there is no obvious consensus as to whom to replace him with, though names suggested include Edmund the Martyr, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, or Saint Alban, with the last having topped a BBC Radio 4 poll on the subject. Recently there have been calls to reinstate St. Edmund as the patron Saint of England as he was displaced by George some 400 years ago.

Religious observance of St. George's day changes when it is too close to Easter. According to the Church of England's calendar, when St. George's Day falls between Palm Sunday and the Second Sunday of Easter inclusive, it is moved to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter. In 2011, for example, 23 April was Holy Saturday, so St. George's Day was moved to Monday 2 May. The Catholic Church in England and Wales has a similar practice.

Saint George is the patron saint of The Scout Movement, which has held St. George's Day parades since its first years. St. George is the patron saint of many other organisations. In the United States, the National Catholic Committee on Scouting uses the saint for many of their awards and activities.