St. George’s Day

[Finnaldo]

1 hour ago, Izzy said:

I think the Elephant in the room is that many people are reluctant to celebrate St Georges day through fear of being called racist/little Englanders etc.

 

Shame really.

I don’t think you’re wrong in that there’s this overhanging idea they’ll be called racist, however I think it’s massively overcooked and 99% of folk would never actually be called racist for putting out St. George bunting, especially to their face. The type of person to kick up a fuss would walk past quietly then tweet frantically about it later. If you ignore these people on places like Twitter you’ll likely never hear a negative word said about St George’s Day. I think the real reason is not far off Webbo’s point: 

 

16 minutes ago, Webbo said:

It's part of our stoic, unimpressed, unshowiness national characteristic. We leave that sort of thing for foreigners. 

 

Whether it’s just apathy or just that we can’t be arsed to celebrate these kind of things, generally it’s a corporate event shoved in our collective faces (Christmas, Easter, Halloween etc.) the English as a collective are generally pretty bad at having to organise or celebrate cultural or heritage events of any type. Bit of a shame really in my opinion because we have plenty to celebrate.

[Dunge]

32 minutes ago, Finnaldo said:

I don’t think you’re wrong in that there’s this overhanging idea they’ll be called racist, however I think it’s massively overcooked and 99% of folk would never actually be called racist for putting out St. George bunting, especially to their face. The type of person to kick up a fuss would walk past quietly then tweet frantically about it later. If you ignore these people on places like Twitter you’ll likely never hear a negative word said about St George’s Day. I think the real reason is not far off Webbo’s point: 

 

 

Whether it’s just apathy or just that we can’t be arsed to celebrate these kind of things, generally it’s a corporate event shoved in our collective faces (Christmas, Easter, Halloween etc.) the English as a collective are generally pretty bad at having to organise or celebrate cultural or heritage events of any type. Bit of a shame really in my opinion because we have plenty to celebrate.

I quite like that about us though. Being stoical is undervalued IMO.

[winteriscoming]

Should be a national holiday. 

[LiberalFox]

meh

[Finnaldo]

12 minutes ago, Dunge said:

I quite like that about us though. Being stoical is undervalued IMO.

Don’t get me wrong, I get your’s and Webbo’s point. It’s certainly a good value to have for a country when it’s required (as an example, I think the general public has behaved pretty well during lockdowns for the large part, given how fatiguing they are mentally) but there’s a line where stoicism becomes apathy in my eyes, and I feel the English suffer from that at a regional and national level. 
 

Im not suggesting parades or to ‘4th of July’-it, but St. George’s Day is probably a good place to start rebuilding some what of a civic national pride across all peoples of England. I honestly think it’s an erosion of English culture from corporatisation and Americanisation that’s led to English (and as such the larger British) society so divided. I think the lack of national pride is what’s driven so much of the political upheaval of the last decade, amongst other factors.

 

 

[bovril]

Brits being stoical is a bigger myth than dragon slaying 

Edited 23 April 2021 by bovril

[Spudulike]

2 hours ago, Line-X said:

Well frankly, it is a bit embarrassing given that he wasn't even English and the only reason for the association is a quirk of royalty and the preoccupation/appropriation of symbolism on behalf of several monarchs with his life. He was born in what is now Turkey and served as an officer in the Roman army. He was martyred following execution because as a Christian he refused to defer to pagan worship 

 

Actually, St.George has international appeal. We share him as a patron Saint with Venice, Genoa, Portugal, Catalonia and even Ethiopia from memory.

 

He wasn't actually knight either and for some reason, I strongly suspect that the bit about slaying the dragon is also bullshit. 

 

St. Patrick wasn't Irish but that doesn't matter either. In fact he was British. 

[Webbo]

52 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

St. Patrick wasn't Irish but that doesn't matter either. In fact he was British. 

He didn't really chase all the snakes out of Ireland either. 

[Free Falling Foxes]

2 hours ago, Webbo said:

It's part of our stoic, unimpressed, unshowiness national characteristic. We leave that sort of thing for foreigners. 

Indeed. Historically we don't bang on about being English or British for that matter. Nor do we wave our flag everywhere - except last night at the proms and when the world cup is on.

However we have defended it with passion when called upon.

 

Unfortunately, much of this is being changed. 

 

A new estate was built opposite my dad's and several eastern Europe and African Caribbean families moved in, a significant number of which put their national flags on display in their windows. So, some of the indigenous responded with St Georges flag and Union Jacks. This, plus the fact we have the foreign nationals identity and cultures rammed down our throats, can mean our previously understated national pride and persona is changing.

[Voll Blau]

3 minutes ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

Indeed. Historically we don't bang on about being English or British for that matter. Nor do we wave our flag everywhere - except last night at the proms and when the world cup is on.

However we have defended it with passion when called upon.

 

Unfortunately, much of this is being changed. 

 

A new estate was built opposite my dad's and several eastern Europe and African Caribbean families moved in, a significant number of which put their national flags on display in their windows. So, some of the indigenous responded with St Georges flag and Union Jacks. This, plus the fact we have the foreign nationals identity and cultures rammed down our throats, can mean our previously understated national pride and persona is changing.

 

I'd be interested to see some examples of that. Not something I've experienced personally...

[urban.spaceman]

And did those feeeeeeeet.... In ancient tiiiiiiimes....

[Countryfox]

4 hours ago, bovril said:

I celebrate it a) because I'm a patriotic Englishman but mostly b) so some pseudo-intellectual twat on social media tells me that ackcuyally he's Turkish which allows me to display my own superior knowledge of 4th century Anatolia.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Line-X said:

 

Well frankly, it is a bit embarrassing given that he wasn't even English and the only reason for the association is a quirk of royalty and the preoccupation/appropriation of symbolism on behalf of several monarchs with his life. He was born in what is now Turkey  ...

 

 

[Leicesterpool]

Bank holiday I think. If we can silly ones for royal weddings. Happy st George's day 

[Dunge]

7 minutes ago, Leicesterpool said:

Bank holiday I think. If we can silly ones for royal weddings. Happy st George's day 

I’d be up for this more if we moved it to June 21st and had the bank holiday then.

 

I don’t feel any connection to April 23rd.

[Guest Kopfkino]

Given most people’s concept of St Patrick’s day is getting pissed on Guinness, I don’t think there’s any harm in shunning St George’s Day, a piss up on John Smith’s surrounded by the St George’s cross, no ta.

[Guest Kopfkino]

3 minutes ago, Dunge said:

I’d be up for this more if we moved it to June 21st and had the bank holiday then.

 

I don’t feel any connection to April 23rd.

Someone suggested having all 4 UK patron saints days as bank holidays, maybe Labour under Corbyn? I always thought it was a terrible idea, we need more public holidays in the summer, not one on the 1st March, one on 17th March, one on 23rd April (late April is fine but with Easter and the other we’d end up having so many this time of year and a glut the rest of the time) and 30th November. Eww

[Leicesterpool]

3 minutes ago, Kopfkino said:

Given most people’s concept of St Patrick’s day is getting pissed on Guinness, I don’t think there’s any harm in shunning St George’s Day, a piss up on John Smith’s surrounded by the St George’s cross, no ta.

Bombardier still being served?

[Stadt]

St Edmund loyal ☝️  🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Edited 23 April 2021 by Stadt

[Free Falling Foxes]

1 hour ago, Voll Blau said:

 

I'd be interested to see some examples of that. Not something I've experienced personally...

Cultural reasons for not having Covid vaccines

Other cultures festivals.

Don't you dare draw an image of one particular deity.

Dedicated shops selling national foods/items.

I work for the local authority and we need to employ very expensive interpretors even for folk who have lived here for many years.

Special, and again expensive provision/support, for foreign nationals children.

There's more...

 

All have which we respect and yes, tolerate.

If I had to choose one particular one that irratates me, it would be provision in schools. I know a newly qualified primary teacher who's class is made up of a third of eastern european children with varying degrees of English skills. It is just him and one classroom assistance. He works hard to try and not neglect the English speaking children because of extra effort needed to include those of foreign nationals.

 

 

 

[bovril]

40 minutes ago, Stadt said:

St Edmund loyal ☝️  🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Yeah I'd prefer St Edmund. Poor guy died for nothing 

[LiberalFox]

My primary classes were made up of kids with varying degrees of English skills too, also varying degrees of Maths skills. 

[SpacedX]

2 hours ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

 Historically we don't bang on about being English or British for that matter. Nor do we wave our flag everywhere

Historically you'll find that the post-colonial world begs to differ. 

Edited 23 April 2021 by Line-X

[Danizen]

I think our national pride peaked somewhere between the 2002 World Cup and the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Every other house and car had a flag.

 

After that, Islamaphobia gave rise to the EDL who kind hijacked the St. George's Cross to the point where a lot of people felt uneasy flying the flag and being associated with a group like that. The EDL misconstrued or misrepresented this reluctance as not wanting to offend Muslims who, to a man, couldn't care less and played up to that.

 

I think times are changing and I've definitely noticed more flags in recent years. It still amazes me how widespread the misconception that our national flag offended even the most radicalised Muslim was from about 2005-2012.

 

Edited 23 April 2021 by Danizen

[Parafox]

7 hours ago, Izzy said:

We do St George’s day really poorly imo (compared to St Patrick’s day for example)

 

Almost like we’re embarrassed to celebrate it

Well all he did was slaughter fire breathing dragons and as a result, they're now extinct.

I've also watched the Monty Python documentary about the crusades.

What's to celebrate?

Edited 23 April 2021 by Parafox

[FoxesDeb]

Just now, Parafox said:

Well all he did was slaughter dragons and as a result, they're now extinct. What's to celebrate?

The fact that we don't need to negotiate dragons every time we leave the house? Can you imagine what a pain in the arse that would be? You leave your car in Sainsburys while you do the weekly shop and come back to find a smouldering mess where your once beloved Ford stood. Absolute nightmare, especially if you left your phone in the car so can't even get an Uber home. I'm so thankful for St George