St George's Day.

[blood_winged]

To begin with, Happy St George's Day everyone~

I'm going to go off into a small rant here, and feel free to ignore, but it annoys me to no end that people assume that the national holiday of the patron saint of England would be England's birthday. As an English person I don't understand it in the least, for several reasons, which I will now go over.

Saint George was a Roman soldier, later venerated as Christian martyr. He lived around 300AD, long before England became a country (927AD).

It was only declared a feast day in 1222AD, and while it was a holiday on par with Christmas in the 15th century, this had begun to wane by the 18th century, and in modern times you'd really be lucky to find someone who could tell you the date off the top of their head.

Saint George is also the patron saint of agricultural workers; Amersfoort, Netherlands; Aragon; archers; armourers; Bavaria, Germany; Beirut, Lebanon; Bulgaria; butchers; Cappadocia; Catalonia; cavalry; chivalry; Constantinople; Corinthians (Brazilian football team); Crusaders; equestrians; Ethiopia; farmers; Ferrara; field workers; Genoa; Georgia; Gozo; Greece; Haldern, Germany; Heide; herpes; horsemen; horses; husbandmen; knights; lepers and leprosy; Lod; Malta; Modica, Sicily; Moscow; Order of the Garter; Palestine; Palestinian Christians; Piran; plague; Portugal; Portuguese Army; Portuguese Navy; Ptuj; Slovenia; Reggio Calabria; riders; Romani people; saddle makers; Scouts; sheep; shepherds; skin diseases; soldiers; syphilis; and the Teutonic Knights.

I'm not trying to beat on anyone, and if you believe St George's Day to be England's birthday then that's fine by me and you can go on thinking it, but I felt the need to get all that off my chest. After research it would seem to me that the most logical day for his birthday would in fact be July 12th, which is the date when, in 927AD, England became a united kingdom.

But, you know, that's just me. Hope y'all have a good day. (:

Comments

[blood-winged.livejournal.com]

That's half my problem with it, though. Can you really call it a 'national day' when it pretty much goes by with barely anyone paying attention to it?

[lemiru.livejournal.com]

Well, seeing that I believe that the country reflects its citizens vews on that, as well, I'd say that Arthur himself doesn't really care, either? How I see it, it's just a date they can name if they need it. (because if you get right down to it, the 14 Juillet wouldn't be France's 'birthday' either, as he was around before that, as well?) I dunno, I... don't tend to take these things all too seriously, I guess 8D But it's still cool to learn about these things like in this post.

[blood-winged.livejournal.com]

^^ *snug*