Happy St Georges Day

mr_goo

I shall celebrate later with an English pint.

tangled_metal

Happy St George's Day to you too. I hope you have a truly good day on our national saint's day.

I will be celebrating it by finishing off the dregs of my last single malt Scots whisky collection. I had saved a few tots in their bottles for someone to try them but after over 3 years waiting for them to show any sign of an interest I am giving up and getting rid. I will then refrain from buying Scotland's finest produce until they are independent or the debate on that is over.

Or perhaps with a glass or two of Port with a nice Stilton. Wasn't part of Portugal English owned once? I seem to remember something about an English link to Port.

Or perhaps a bottle or two of Lancaster Bomber since I lived in Blackburn at one time and now live in Lancaster.

Whatever happens I will celebrate St George's Day only. I have never gone out on St Patrick's day to celebrate. I have never been a plastic Paddy but am English through and through (may contain other nationalities including Welsh, Irish, Swedish, American, Spanish and if you go back enough French. Other nationalities may have crept in without knowledge of them passing down the lineage). I had to get the legalize disclaimer in because there is no such thing as a true Englishman/Scots/Welsh/Irishman only a mongrel breed.

debeli

Many years ago I was on a NATO base full (as is often the case) of GIs of one type or another.

They were a friendly lot and asked what I was doing to celebrate St Patrick's day.

They were shocked when I said I had no idea it was upon us and that I'd never celebrated it.

"Hey, seriously? I thought you Brits went crazy for that guy! I thought he was a Brit! I have British ancestors and we've always partied on St Patrick's".

Oddly, I feel the same way about St George. I'm sure he was lovely, but I don't hold with the slaughter of dragons and my socialist beliefs make it difficult for me to support the willy-nilly rescue of minor royalty from reptilian kidnappers whose motives are yet to be determined.

I quite like that St Tropez, but he (or she?) doesn't seem to have a day. Which is a shame.

Garry H

Debeli wrote:

Many years ago I was on a NATO base full (as is often the case) of GIs of one type or another.

They were a friendly lot and asked what I was doing to celebrate St Patrick's day.

They were shocked when I said I had no idea it was upon us and that I'd never celebrated it.

"Hey, seriously? I thought you Brits went crazy for that guy! I thought he was a Brit! I have British ancestors and we've always partied on St Patrick's".

Oddly, I feel the same way about St George. I'm sure he was lovely, but I don't hold with the slaughter of dragons and my socialist beliefs make it difficult for me to support the willy-nilly rescue of minor royalty from reptilian kidnappers whose motives are yet to be determined.

I quite like that St Tropez, but he (or she?) doesn't seem to have a day. Which is a shame.

Wasn't St. Patrick actually Welsh?

veronese68

I started celebrating last night. This may be connected to the pub down the road having a St Georges day beer festival that started last night. There will be morris dancers this evening so I may celebrate some more and continue over the weekend.

Daz555

Garry H wrote:

Wasn't St. Patrick actually Welsh?

...and St George from Syria/Palestine?

Stevo_666

Mr Goo wrote:

I shall celebrate later with an English pint.

I'm out after work tonight, so +1.

BelgianBeerGeek

If this was a decent country we would all have a day off to celebrate in true English style.
A bit of light Morris dancing, loads of ale and a good punch up after a kebab.

RideOnTime

I'm going for a pint of Tyskie with my mate Nigel.

RideOnTime

Daz555 wrote:

Garry H wrote:

Wasn't St. Patrick actually Welsh?

...and St George from Syria/Palestine?

so this should be flying...

tangled_metal

I think only one national saint is from the country he is patron saint of. The Scottish one IIRC but not sure. I thought the Welsh one was an English slave who was let free by the Welsh or was that the Irish one a welsh slave let free by the Irish??

crispybug2

Just as an aside, St George is also patron saint of Lebanon, Palestine, Portugal, Georgia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Malta, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Serbia and Ethiopia.

Also morris dancing originated in Spain

Happy St George's day!!

graham.

St George kops one in the goolies from the dragon.

veronese68

crispybug2 wrote:

Just as an aside, St George is also patron saint of Lebanon, Palestine, Portugal, Georgia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Malta, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Serbia and Ethiopia.

Also morris dancing originated in Spain

Happy St George's day!!

I don't care so long as my local has a beer festival to celebrate.

RideOnTime

Veronese68 wrote:

crispybug2 wrote:

Just as an aside, St George is also patron saint of Lebanon, Palestine, Portugal, Georgia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Malta, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Serbia and Ethiopia.

Also morris dancing originated in Spain

Happy St George's day!!

I don't care so long as my local has a beer festival to celebrate.

Tyskie.

mr_goo

Daz555 wrote:

Garry H wrote:

Wasn't St. Patrick actually Welsh?

...and St George from Syria/Palestine?

Went to a Hustings last night. The Labour candidate was at great pains to point out that St George was Syrian and a saint recognised by other countries.
Came home and had a pint of Sharps Atlantic IPA and watched Inside No9 and Last Leg.

tangled_metal

crispybug2 wrote:

Also morris dancing originated in Spain

Happy St George's day!!

Morris Dancing in the UK has it's roots in Welsh Clog dancing. Of course that does not mean a similar form has not originated in other regions of Europe and indeed the world. Just because there is something similar that was recorded earlier in Spain does not mean Morris Dancing, as is carried out inthe UK and especially in the West country, came from Spain.

I only say this because I used to know people who were heavily into Morris Dancing and traditional music/dance styles. One guy was heavily into the history of it and has published stuff relating to it. That was a few years back now or I would get hold of him to quote sources to back this up.

ben@31

I've just read that Nigel Farage said he'd have allowed Turkish born St George into Britain, under their immigration points system, because of St George's skills as a dragon slayer !!!

Garry H

Tangled Metal wrote:

I think only one national saint is from the country he is patron saint of. The Scottish one IIRC but not sure. I thought the Welsh one was an English slave who was let free by the Welsh or was that the Irish one a welsh slave let free by the Irish??

Nah, I think St David was the only one born in the country in which he is patron of. St. Andrew is also the patron saint of Russia if I recall correctly, definitely not from Scotland. St Patrick was from Wales, but went to Ireland to rid them of snakes, and what a great job he did of it!

ballysmate

Garry H wrote:

Tangled Metal wrote:

I think only one national saint is from the country he is patron saint of. The Scottish one IIRC but not sure. I thought the Welsh one was an English slave who was let free by the Welsh or was that the Irish one a welsh slave let free by the Irish??

Nah, I think St David was the only one born in the country in which he is patron of. St. Andrew is also the patron saint of Russia if I recall correctly, definitely not from Scotland. St Patrick was from Wales, but went to Ireland to rid them of snakes, and what a great job he did of it!

He missed one ot two, including this one.

chris_bass

I grew up in wales and St David's day was celebrated in school, we had an eisteddfodau (a bit of a welsh concert type thing, people dressed up, sang and various other things). I remember liking it mainly because it was basically a day off doing proper school work.

Do English schools do anything for St George's Day?

mr_goo

Chris Bass wrote:

I grew up in wales and St David's day was celebrated in school, we had an eisteddfodau (a bit of a welsh concert type thing, people dressed up, sang and various other things). I remember liking it mainly because it was basically a day off doing proper school work.

Do English schools do anything for St George's Day?

In answering this I could be extremely sarcastic. However when my kids were still at school, I do not remember anything in way of celebrating a Syrian Dragon Slayer.

chris_bass

Mr Goo wrote:

Chris Bass wrote:

I grew up in wales and St David's day was celebrated in school, we had an eisteddfodau (a bit of a welsh concert type thing, people dressed up, sang and various other things). I remember liking it mainly because it was basically a day off doing proper school work.

Do English schools do anything for St George's Day?

In answering this I could be extremely sarcastic. However when my kids were still at school, I do not remember anything in way of celebrating a Syrian Dragon Slayer.

Yet I'd wager they do quite a lot to celebrate a fictional middle eastern gentleman with a penchant for reincarnation at certain points of the year.

My question was more do they do anything to celebrate englishness or even mention it is st George's day at all? Having never been to school in England I wouldn't know, in Wales we did a lot of the Welsh equivalent.