St. George's Day

I knew something was odd when I noticed a lot of really big ENGLAND flags hanging out of windows on my walk to work this morning. I also saw a lot more people out and about at pubs throughout the day. It only dawned on me towards the latter half of the afternoon that it was St George's Day, and England's National Day. The best way to think about it is that St George's Day is like St Patrick's Day for Ireland, and 4th of July for the US (since we are not religious and don't have a patron saint).

St George's Day is not a holiday here, and the only way I really saw it being celebrated was at the pub (figures). Apparently there is uproar in certain parts about no one really celebrating the holiday and a few MPs are trying to make St George's Day a public holiday. This all is very amusing to me because St George was not English, did not ever make it to England, and did not slay his dragon in England.

Thus St George's Day is yet another example - if not the best example - of England appropriating things that they did not invent and claiming them as their own. Lovely!