Thursday 23rd April
Happy St George’s Day! St George’s Day in England remembers St George, England’s patron saint.
A patron saint is someone who has devoted their whole life to something greater than themselves. They are someone who worked hard to make the world a better place. A patron saint is the protecting or guiding saint of a person, a place or an area of life. For example, Saint Christopher is famous for his protection of travelers and Saint Valentine is the patron saint of … you guessed it … love.
England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales each has their own national day named after their patron saint:
Ireland celebrates St Patrick’s Day on the 17th March. Irish people across the world take part in parades, wear green clothes and celebrate their heritage. The shamrock is the symbol of St Patrick’s day because it is said St Patrick used it in his teaching. Do you know if you’ve any Irish blood in you? Ask your home grown-ups, they might help you to draw a family tree.
Wales celebrates St David’s Day on the 1st March. St David is known as Dewi Sant in the Welsh language. People take part in an ‘Eisteddfod’ or a festival of literature, music and performance. It is something that is celebrated in many schools in Wales and I certainly have lots of school memories about the Eisteddfod. As a younger child I would dress in traditional Welsh costume and create a piece of art to enter into a competition. As I got older I would wear a Welsh rugby top and my secondary school would have lots of competitions and the winning house would gain the cup at the end of the day. The traditional national symbols of Wales include a leek and a daffodil. I am a very lucky headteacher, because we have a family at our school who also celebrate St David’s day and they often treat me to a Welsh cake or some daffodils.
Scotland celebrates St Andrew’s Day on the 30th November. People celebrate the day by going to a ceilidh where they do Scottish country dancing.
Back to St George and England. St George’s Day is celebrated on the 23rd April. St George was a famous dragon slayer and people remember him by taking part in medieval dragon-fighting tournaments. The flag of Saint George - a red cross on a white background - is England’s national flag and is incorporated into the Union Flag.
We don’t actually know a lot about St George and many of the stories about him are full of myth and legend (we don’t know if everything that has been said is completely true, but there will be elements of truth within the stories). It is believed he was born in place called Cappadocia, an area which is now in Turkey, and he lived during the 3rd Century (that is a really long, long, long, long, long, long time ago). George became a Roman soldier but protested against how some groups of people were treated and he was put in prison and tortured because of this. Eventually he was executed.
Why the dragon? Legend has it that George came to a city called Silene, in a country called Libya, where there was a dragon. The people of the city were feeding sheep to the dragon every day to stop it from attacking them - but they ran out of sheep! So they had to nominate people from the town to be sacrificed to the animal. Unfortunately for the king, his daughter was selected and he tried to protect her. Understandably, the people of the town felt that if they were expected to sacrifice their loved ones to the dragon, then the king should be as well. George came to the princess waiting to be sacrificed, she told him what was happening and when the dragon turned up George fought with the dragon and captured it, putting a collar around his neck.
Why a patron saint of England? Well, we do know that George was not English - we do not actually know if he ever came to England! The actual reason is linked to a special group of Knights who, in the 14th Century, had St George as their patron. Their badge of honour depicted George slaying the dragon. And that is how Saint George came to be regarded as a special protector of the English.
Children, I have had to do quite a lot of research to complete today’s blog and I have learnt lots of new facts (or myths) about the patron saint of England. You can probably tell that I know more about St David/Dewi Sant than any of the other nation’s saints. Having the ability to learn something new is something I am very grateful for. I hope you are continuing to learn lots of new things whilst you are at home. We learn in many different ways and we are often learning when we don’t even realise it. Every day is a learning day!
Stay safe.