Should it be a Public Holiday?

[enaid]

[Amethyst]

Re: Should it be a Public Holiday?

Think we have enough don't we?

There are currently 8 permanent bank and public holidays in England, Wales and Scotland

Ireland and NI have St Patricks Day as bank holiday and Scotland have just got themselves St Andrews day formally since last year, and Cornwall have an unoffical one of their own St Pirans Day. Wales don;'t have St Davids day yet but apparently the Welsh governent have agreed it.

Theres a wee campaign petition Petition to: Make St Georges Day a national bank holiday for all of England if not the UK. | Number10.gov.uk

So who is St George then and why should we celebrate him ? but then why should non religious peeps celebrate good friday etc.

[enaid]

Re: Should it be a Public Holiday?

So who is St George then and why should we celebrate him ?

Facts about St George's Day - England's National Day

[Exclusive]

Re: Should it be a Public Holiday?

Saint George of Lydda (ca. 275/281 – April 23, 303) was according to tradition,[2] a Roman soldier in the Guard of Emperor Diocletian, venerated as a Christianmartyr.

In Christian hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic Church, Anglican Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Eastern Catholic Churches.

He is immortalised in the tale of George and the Dragon and is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

His memorial is celebrated on 23 April. He is regarded as one of the most prominent military saints.

St. George is the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, and Russia, as well as the cities of Amersfoort, Beirut, Bteghrine, Cáceres, Ferrara, Freiburg, Genoa, Ljubljana, Gozo, Pomorie, Qormi, Lod and Moscow,

Scouting, as well as a wide range of professions, organizations and disease sufferers.

[WendyB]

Re: Should it be a Public Holiday?

Think we have enough don't we?

There are currently 8 permanent bank and public holidays in England, Wales and Scotland

Ireland and NI have St Patricks Day as bank holiday and Scotland have just got themselves St Andrews day formally since last year, and Cornwall have an unoffical one of their own St Pirans Day. Wales don;'t have St Davids day yet but apparently the Welsh governent have agreed it.

Theres a wee campaign petition Petition to: Make St Georges Day a national bank holiday for all of England if not the UK. | Number10.gov.uk

So who is St George then and why should we celebrate him ? but then why should non religious peeps celebrate good friday etc.

Non-religious peeps probably don't celebrate Good Friday, they are probably just grateful for a day off work lol.

I think we should celebrate St George's day, other nations celebrate their patron saint, their cultures and Scottishness, Irishness etc, so why should English peeps not celebrate our Englishness? One of the biggest St George's day celebrations takes place just up the road from my house, unfortunately it was nearly cancelled this year as the council refused to fund it due to BNP trying to get in on the act last year. It actually took place last Sunday and from all accounts everyone had a brilliant time.

[Mochamoo]

Re: Should it be a Public Holiday?

Dont think it should be a holiday, mind I dont think christmas should be a holiday either.

[Sapphire]

Re: Should it be a Public Holiday?

I agree with Wendy and believe that we should have a day to celebrate St George, either that or if we don't then no-one should be able to celebrate their patron saint, so I say either all or nothing, because to allow say Scotland, Ireland, Wales and anyone else and not others would then smack of discriminiation and we don't want to get started on that subject do we

[Glenn UK]

Re: Should it be a Public Holiday?

Out of curiosity can anyone of you define what makes us english?

[Sapphire]

Re: Should it be a Public Holiday?

Out of curiosity can anyone of you define what makes us english?

Errrrrrr would it be when someone is born in England ?

Actually as an aside to this, there's a story in our local paper that a guy has been 'fined' for putting English on his Electoral Roll form rather than British - disgusting.

[Sapphire]

Re: Should it be a Public Holiday?

Actually its in the letters page, I've typed it out.

FINED £500 FOR BEING ENGLISH

No doubt a few people will be fooled by Labour's call to everyone to celebrate St George's Day, but having been fined £500 just for wanting to put on my electoral form that, having been born in England, I am English, I find this rotten Government the height of hypocrisy.

T A Davies
Leigh on Sea

[Glenn UK]

Re: Should it be a Public Holiday?

Errrrrrr would it be when someone is born in England ?

No it wouldn't actually, the essence of being British might be defined in any number of ways, being borne in the UK wouldn't make you English necessarily. you might be an American if that happened to be the passport held by your parents.

I am not trying to be facetious, only curious as i had a debate with an equal ops 'Nazi' when i worked for a local authority fire service.

This issue came up when i challenged something about culture (she challenged me to define that i meant by english culture, somehting she denied existed in the cotaxt of what might be accepted as a cultrual difference for say an indian hindu or muslim).

I was curious if others had any ideas as to what differentiates English culture from other cultures.

Being english born and bread would certainly be a factor imho, but it would not in itself make one culturally english imho.

Glenn

[Sapphire]

Re: Should it be a Public Holiday?

Just a point, surely if you are born in a country then you hold that country's passport ie in our case our passports are British or European can't remember without looking tbh.
Therefore I would argue only those who are actually born in England can claim to be English.

[Happyolddog]

Re: Should it be a Public Holiday?

Dragon-Slaying Patron Saint of England
One of the best-known stories about Saint George is his fight with a dragon. But it is highly unlikely that he ever fought a dragon, and even more unlikely that he ever actually visited England. Despite this, St George is known throughout the world as the dragon-slaying patron saint of England and many other countries and causes. really we need an English person of NOTE who we can celebrate. I can think of a few such as Churchill, Dickens, Shakespear, Newton or Brunel and not forgetting Darwin. My choice would be to celebrate all of them in place of St george.

Lets call it Great Englanders day and can it be on June 8th to coincide with my birthday, which would be fitting as I thought of it.

[Glenn UK]

Sapphire

I guess we could argue about whether someone coming here and being naturalised (is that the right term?) would be considered English, but that was not my point at least. I am not saying that being borne here is not a requirement to be ienglish, only that being born here is not the whole story.

I think of being English about perhaps being reserved and stiff upper lipish, eating roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, seasides, ice cream and kiss me quick hats, warm beer, English roses, village fêtes, etc, etc

I am not sure if this is what is 'Englishness' is made up of, but it is a difficult one to answer, for me at least. i was interested if anyone else could define what they mean by being English and as much as i accept being borne here is part of it, it is not in itself sufficient to define English culture IMHO.

[Sapphire]

Re: Should it be a Public Holiday?

Glen

I understand fully what you are getting at hun, funnily enough when I think of 'typical English' for want of a better expression. I think of the characters in the old programmes/films such as, Upstairs Downstairs, Miss Marple, House of Elliott and so on.

Oh how I love those programmes.