Happy St. George's Day everyone on Cyclechat

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Fnaar

Smutmaster General
Location
Thumberland
Whatever or whoever St George was, he is associated with a day when we celebrate this country and what it is all about. Being Brits, this tends to be done in an understated way. Also being Brits, we get miffed if others seem to have it better than us, and we want some of the action (e.g. national days in many other countries). My parents came here as immigrants (only from ireland, but it was a long way away in the 50s). They came to better themselves, having both suffered long-term unemployment, and having few prospects over there. This country welcomed them, gave them employment, and put me through school and uni for nowt. So ra ra ra! thanks England, you're fab! ;)
And happy birthday also to those above...:becool:
 
St. Patrick converted Ireland to Christianity.

St. David lived and died in Wales.

St. George was a Roman Legionary who converted to Christianity and met a martyr's death in the Middle East (the Christian obsession with violent death rearing its ugly head again, but that's another story). He was adopted as England's patron saint for pragmatic reasons of national identity formation.

Not much to identify with, really.

On the other hand though, it's nice to see the George's Cross being reclaimed from the racists.
 

Brock

Senior Member
Location
Kent
Stwutter said:
It's a sad day when someone English (which you presumably are) should feel uncomfortable or 'slightly racist' at a celebration of your nationality.

It's people like you that allow the PC brigade free-reign, which does nothing but divide, not unite.

Altogether now...

"Baa Baa Green Sheep....".

I'm English yes, I have no problem with people celebrating their nationality if that's what they want to do, I'd just like to see it being done in a less chavtastic bigoted tabloidesque and commercial way, if it's worth doing at all. I'm all for any excuse for a beer, but I'm just not quite sure what we're supposed to be raising our glasses to here. It's not tradition to have a knees up on this day is it?
 

Brock

Senior Member
Location
Kent
John the Monkey said:
Any reason that we shouldn't celebrate it? Or that a desire to should stem from vaguely racist nationalism? I won't be getting ratted, or the other things you describe - the nippers will be having a St. George's day lunch at the school though, and I'll be wearing the red & white buff described earlier. I'll probably have a read of England, My England at some point too. Fairly quiet and understated, as such things go, compared with St. Patrick's day, for example, or the celebration of 4th July in the 'states, or Bastille Day in France. And I doubt anyone will feel left out for not celebrating it, or berated for failing to display a flag, or compelled to feel that they should join in if they don't want to.

Where's the harm in that?


There's no harm in that at all, sounds very English and I appreciate your desire to reflect on what our society means to us. Shame the plastic flagged bigotry and football based nationalism that seems to get whipped up at times like this in an attempt to sell beer/silly hats isn't so thoughtful.
 

Stwutter

New Member
Brock said:
I have no problem with people celebrating their nationality if that's what they want to do, I'd just like to see it being done in a less chavtastic bigoted tabloidesque and commercial way, if it's worth doing at all.

If you'd have put that in your original post, you might've got a better reply.

I agree to an extent, but don't tar everyone with the same brush. Having a day where we celebrate being English, however you want to conceive that, is fine. Scrapping it would just cause more of a stink that it would be worth.
 

byegad

Legendary Member
Location
NE England
little miss said:
St George is the patron saint of Portugal, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Macedonia, Catalonia, and Moscow.

He was also Turkish.

Celebrate his day if you wish. I hope you have a jolly good time.

Happy Saint George's day.

And Syphilis and The Boy Scouts, as was!

I'm puzzled by our attitude to this, the other members of the United Kingdom seem happy to proclaim who they are.

I'm proud to be English, and a Yorshireman, and a European. But I'm prouder still to be a (tri)cyclist! Horrah! for us!
 
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