England should make an effort to celebrate St George's day

Selected Version - Version 2 (Current Version) : 06 Apr 2011 | 16:18 | mdellora

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On the point: St George represents renewal and there is no better time than now to celebrate that.

Politicians buried the three ancient nations of this island with the Act of Union in 1707 and substituted the dry, mercantile, imperial, land-grabbing thing we can Britain. However in 1998, with devolution, like a ghost from a tomb, England, Scotland and Wales re-emerged, three distinct national identities as once they were for over a thousand years and are now again. A new and different England, embracing people from all over the world just like St George was from abroad, endeavouring to make of them one harmonious nation. He is a worthy patron saint. He embodies England's past, he embraces England vibrant present and future. His flag is the symbol of resurrection. England is being reborn, it is re-discovering its identity, it welcomes with warmth everyone for whom England is their home and their future. His feast day is slap-bang in the middle of Spring, the season of rebirth and renewal, It is Shakespeare's Day, the greatest dreamer of dreams the world has ever known. St George's Day is a day we must celebrate with total abandon.

The only renewal that St. George represents is the renewal of his own myth, dressed up in whatever nation takes a fancy to him. As the patron saint of not just England, but Portugal and Greece, there is nothing intrinsically English about the Saint or the day itself$1  
If England is going to celebrate all that it is good for, one needs to find a figure that both represents that and that only.

Yes, because... St George represents renewal and there is no better time than now to celebrate that.

 

No, because...

Politicians buried the three ancient nations of this island with the Act of Union in 1707 and substituted the dry, mercantile, imperial, land-grabbing thing we can Britain. However in 1998, with devolution, like a ghost from a tomb, England, Scotland and Wales re-emerged, three distinct national identities as once they were for over a thousand years and are now again. A new and different England, embracing people from all over the world just like St George was from abroad, endeavouring to make of them one harmonious nation. He is a worthy patron saint. He embodies England's past, he embraces England vibrant present and future. His flag is the symbol of resurrection. England is being reborn, it is re-discovering its identity, it welcomes with warmth everyone for whom England is their home and their future. His feast day is slap-bang in the middle of Spring, the season of rebirth and renewal, It is Shakespeare's Day, the greatest dreamer of dreams the world has ever known. St George's Day is a day we must celebrate with total abandon.

 

The only renewal that St. George represents is the renewal of his own myth, dressed up in whatever nation takes a fancy to him. As the patron saint of not just England, but Portugal and Greece, there is nothing intrinsically English about the Saint or the day itself.

If England is going to celebrate all that it is good for, one needs to find a figure that both represents that and that only.

 
22 February 2011