Happy St George’s day

As today is the national day of my home country England I would like to wish everyone a happy St George’s day 

 Yes. Here are four of mine … 

Here's some of my collection's St George highlights.

(Not in order) We've got Gibraltar's traditional Pistrucci style £1, and a similar traditional rendering on the £1 note. Then two stylised versions; the 1935 “Rocking horse” & the later colourful £20.

Offa

As today is the national day of my home country England I would like to wish everyone a happy St George’s day 

And a very happy St George's day to you and all like-minded souls.

Are there any special customs or traditions connected to this day in England? In Catalonia, it is customary to give a book to men and flowers to women on St George's day, is there something like that on the British Isles?

Happy St. George's Day to all, be they English or not.

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Deda Lebeda

Are there any special customs or traditions connected to this day in England? 

 None that I know of, sadly. 😔 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George%27s_Day_in_England 

I never even knew that. We have to know so many days and festivals here of other non English or non White groups along with Partisian days - tomorrow is Anzac Day, a day in which 110 years ago in which Australian and NZ troops had a disastorous landing on Turkish soil which saw one of the worst losses of WW1. Its a national religion here. 

I never knew of this day, yet did of St David's day and St Andrew's Day and of course St Patrick's Day.

Are there any festivals like drinking or dancing - saying drinking warm beer while Morris Dancing or putting off dental appointments?

My best St. George Related coin

Some sovereigns the earlier coin has no cape of George's helmet, standard on pre 1887 Jubilee head coins.

Some more crowns, standard UK crown after 1822 and Rocking horse crown design of 1935

Sadly no real celebrations occur on the day but a few die hard anglos observe it every year. 

When I was a kid (only about 20 years ago), we used to do St George's day parades through Scouts on the nearest Sunday.

Normally we cycled through the ~5 local group churches (as each group having an individual service didn't make sense). So we would meet up, have the local band march with us,  flags out etc & do a church service. Sadly a victim of covid, though turnout had been declining for years anyway.

I know some of the smaller villages nearby used to do a combined St George's / May Day fair, unsure if still do. Had the Morris dancers out, bit of folk music, sometimes pipers (Northumberland bagpipes, not the big Scottish bagpipes!). Really, it was May Day events but sometimes with a mini-play / skit.

St George was always a popular choice for the play being a nearby date, though sometimes the dragon would win!

I remember one where the Dragon had an old “stabby style” tin opener, cut open George's armour around the bum & chased him around with “fire”. Then the “beautiful maiden" (a big bearded bloke in drag) threw a bucket of water at the dragon (And us kids in the audience) to defeat the dragon.

Fun times!

Anyway, my point was it hasn't completely died off yet. Like many things, it lingers in the rural.

Offa

Sadly no real celebrations occur on the day but a few die hard anglos observe it every year. 

And we all know why don't we.

Should be celebrated by all English people including mixed ones and anyone living in England - who is proud of their ancestry. We in New Zealand definitely celebrate St. Pats as 150 years ago - the Irish were considered the lowest of the low and now they are not. St David's also gets celebrated for Welsh pride (Welsh also claim some discrimination, especially ones who only spoke Welsh) and St. Andrews is popular due to our large Scottish population.

Yet in NZ at least, English ancestry is the largest group if you include people of mixed English ancestry. Nearly every Maori person has some English blood in them (At least 2 and maybe 3 of my great grandparents were pure  English), and most white NZer's have some English blood (We got all types of British here, but English and Irish predominate except in Dunedin where Scottish does).

And I am sure the people of Australia, USA (Yep your George Washington was pure English descent - from Cumbria), Canada, parts of Africa, Asia and even small groups of South Americans  (no way Jorge Newberry was a native Argentine! ), have the blood of the maritime Anglo Saxon coursing through them. For part of a tiny fog covered island in the North Atlantic - its batted well above its weight in world affairs.

Plus if we look at the contributions of the English people to the world, Westminister democracy, the Beatles (Okay partly Irish, but raised in England), Cups of tea, Fish and chips (Jewish, but English ones who spoke English over Yiddish), Royal Family, Democracy, Fairness, Class, James Bond - who would not be proud of that lot.

Time for a bit of pride methinks.

Just a minor correction, the Washington family estate was in County Durham (at the time, now part of Tyne & Wear), not Cumbria. That was & still is the county next door to the west.

You can go & see their family old hall in Washington (the UK town). There's a few of their heraldic shields in the stonework. Here's their shield. Stars & stripes eh…?

Anyway, that's just for fun. Just happens to be right in my local area.

Otherwise, I do agree with you that we should make more of St George's day. It's a shame the flag has a reputation of being associated with the loud racists. Definitely should be reclaimed for all. 🙂