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England & St. George - Happy St. George's Day
By Kath April 22 2008
England and St. George - Happy St. George's Day Everyone! The Welsh have St. David's Day, The Scots have St. Andrew's Day and the Irish have good old St. Patrick.    So let us celebrate in true English Style with a little dancing, ale and merriment throughout this green and pleasant land for today is our Patron's Day.   
 

         

 23rd April 2008

Listen up - All of thee gentry and peasants!  -  Today is a very special day to all English folk!     

The Welsh have St. David's Day, The Scots have St. Andrew's Day and the Irish have good old St. Patrick.  

 So let us celebrate in true English Style with a little dancing, ale and merriment throughout this green and pleasant land for today is our Patron's Day.   

All Hail............. St. George Patron Saint of England.

We thought we would re-visit our history of St. George

Happy St. George's Day Everyone

                

Who was Saint George?

The life of Saint George is shrouded in legend, so much so that it is quite difficult to untangle fact from fiction. Much of the problem lies in the Acta Sancti Georgii (Acts of Saint George) written at a very early date and outlawed by Pope Gelasius in AD 496. Meanwhile the Greeks also had a set of Acts which were more accurate and quoted by Saint Andrew of Crete.

The Legends

The legends surrounding Saint George are very varied. One of them concerns the famous dragon, with which he is invariably portrayed. According to legend, a pagan town in Libya was being terrorised by a dragon. The locals kept throwing sheep to it to placate it, and when it still remained unsatisfied, they started sacrificing some of the citizenry. Finally the local princess was to be thrown also to the beast, but Good Saint George came along, slaughtered the dragon and rescued the fair princess. At this the townsfolk converted to Christianity 

The Meaning of the Symbols

The symbols explained are that the Dragon represented Satan and the Princess represented the Christian Church. Saint George rescued the pagans from evil by vanquishing it and saved the Church from being devoured by the insatiable forces of darkness.

Much more information here - Innotts.co.uk.

Special thanks goes to Jeremy Boot of Innotts.co.uk for allowing Unofficial England to use copy and photos from his site

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3 weeks ago Report
DaveAitch (IP Logged)
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Re: England & St. George - Happy St. George's Day
St. George is also big in Belgium. They seem to have picked up on the same legend but make more of it than we do in England.

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whingebasher (IP Logged)
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Re: England & St. George - Happy St. George's Day
Long live saint George!!

...Even if he never did.

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3 weeks ago Report
Slater582 (IP Logged)
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Re: England & St. George - Happy St. George's Day
Happy St. George's Day smiling smiley

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