St George's Day - 23rd April
By Christopher Tait

The 23 rd April is St George's Day. St George is the patron saint of England . It is not a widely celebrated day unlike St Andrew's Day (Scotland), St David's Day (Wales) or the widely celebrated - even if you are Irish or not - St Patrick's Day (Ireland).

Not a great deal is known about St George and most remember him as a Dragon Slayer. Here we hope to inform you a little about St George in the start to the Community Friend week about all things English.

St George was Turkish born around 275AD into a Christian family. George soon joined the Roman armies who at that time had not converted to Christianity and it was also a time of Christian persecutions. The so called Dragon that he killed was not a real dragon - sorry to upset you but they don't really exist! - but it was more the "dragon" of those that did not believe in Christianity. George worked within the Roman armies trying to convert the Romans to Christianity. Unfortunately it was a time of persecution and as he didn't hide his faith he was executed in 303AD and became a martyr and a eventually a saint.

Originally George was, and still is revered my Islam's, but it was in 1098 during the battle of Antioch appeared to soldiers during the crusades. It wasn't until Richard the Lionheart returned from the crusades (in one of the two visits he actually made to England during his reign as the King of England) that he brought back the red cross and it was then adopted into the Knights battledress. It wasn't until the reign of Edward the III that George was made the patron saint of England at St George's flag was adopted as the English flag.

St George's day seems to be celebrated less now than it was because St George and St George's flag were always associated with battle and war - spanning back to the crusades. We seem to shy away from those times and now St George's Day passes by most of us without us even knowing about it. St George's day should represent what is right about England . That we are a strong country that can pull together under one flag. It is maybe a timely reminder that St George is also well liked in Muslim countries and maybe this tolerance between the faiths should be more widely spread with those that just see the St George's Flag as a cry to war over games of football or rugby.

So pop a St George's Day flag up on the 23 rd of April this year and make it know that you support the history of this country but also tolerance between other countries. You never know people might start taking notice that we want St George's Day to be recognised as a proper holiday again (last recognised in eighteenth century) and maybe we will have an extra day off each year. Now that would be a reason for us ALL to celebrate under St George's Flag.