David T Breaker is studying Politics, Philosophy & Economics at the University of Essex and blogs at News Junction. After initial scepticism, he concludes here that there are good reasons why the English should celebrate St George's Day today.
Every year it comes and, every year, it passes largely unnoticed. Today, of course, is St George's Day, a day in search of a purpose within a nation in search of a day (bear with me and I'll explain).
To the Irish... St Patrick; to the Americans... 4th July; to the French... Bastille Day; even to largely devoid of history Australia... Australia Day; but to England (and Britain)... errrr...
The United Kingdom, you see, is the only country whose Bank Holidays are arranged on totally made-up dates, the result of one Sir John Lubbock and his desire to watch cricket without throwing a "sickie", so he arranged the dates of holidays around his local cricket calendar (and subsequent equally unimaginative revisions). So we have the last Monday in May, the first Monday in August etc. And of course May Day, introduced in 1978 to placate left-wing cranks.
So we don't have a proper "National Day".
On the one hand, I'm not bothered. All that flag waving, face painting, overly cheerful mass revelling... it's just not us (or am I just boring?). How awful would it be if 23rd April ended up an over-hyped pub crawl like Saint Patrick's Day (but with red instead of green, fewer kids dressed as leprechauns and more Morris dancers). We don't need "a day" and associated actions or activities to remind us who we are; we don't have a national identity crisis. No identity crutch for us please, we're British/English/Scottish/Welsh (delete as appropriate). Even the search for a national motto was won by "No motto for us please, we're British."
But am I wrong?
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