St George's Day
At Vandu we write about many cultures and countries around the world, but St George’s Day seems like a good time to celebrate the culture of the country where our business is based, in (currently) sunny East Sussex. Born in Greece from Christian parents, St. George would eventually become one of the most celebrated Saints in Christianity. St. George is famous in other areas too, such as Serbia, Russia, Bulgaria, Greece and Catalonia, in most of these places the 23rd of April is the day marked as the feast of St George.
According to the legends, St George was raised in Lydda, Palestine and born into Greek nobility. His father was from Greece and was an official in the Roman Army, and his mother was from the Syria/Palestine area. They both died when St George was in his teens, and shortly afterwards he joined the Roman Army and quickly rose through the ranks until he reached the rank of legatus, similar to a modern day general. Around this time the reigning Emperor Diolectian issued an edict persecuting those of the Christian faith; upon hearing about the edict St. George gave his money to the poor, freed his slaves and made himself known to the Emperor. Diolectian tried to tempt St George into renouncing his faith, offering him land, wealth and more slaves and when St. George refused, sent him to prison. The Emperor tried one more time to tempt St. George, sending a beautiful woman down to his cell, but St George ended up converting her to Christianity while she was there. St George was then executed by decapitation and amazingly, the Empress Alexandra of Rome witnessed his suffering and became a Christian, and so joined St George in his martyrdom.
So, how do we celebrate England’s patron saint? There are re-enactments of his mythical dragon-slaying story, the famous red cross-on-white flag is flown around the country, and in the more rural areas of the country you can enjoy morris-dancing and Punch and Judy shows. There has been some debate about St George in recent years – talk of replacements as the Saint actually has very little to do with Britain (only one story has him visit the country), there has also been a general decline in the celebrations around the country. St George replaced another martyr around 400 years ago (St Edmund), perhaps it’s time for a new one? Or maybe we’ll see something of a renaissance in the coming years!
