Happy Saint George's Day

Not that you're likely to see it celebrated in many places but today is Saint George's Day.

Every nation has its own ‘Patron Saint’ who in times of great peril is called upon to help save the country. Wales has St David's Day, the Irish have St Patrick's Day and the Scots celebrate St Andrew's Day. The majority of English people, on the other hand, barely acknowledge St George's Day - in fact you're more likely to find an Englishman (or woman) celebrating one of the other British saints than their own.

St George's Day is celebrated by several countries and cities around the world. In additional to England, the old kingdoms and counties of the Crown of Aragon in Spain - Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia; Portugal, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, and the cities of Moscow in Russia, Genova in Italy, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Beirut in Lebanon, all celebrate on 23 April.

There is almost nothing known of the early years of St George's life. He was born sometime in the year 263AD, in the city of Lydia near Jerusalem. His parents were from Cappadonia, a city in present day Turkey.

At the age of seventeen George enlisted as a calvary soldier in the army of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. He became a high ranking officer, rising through the ranks because he was a proficient soldier, an able horseman and had a commanding and cheerful attitude.

When the Emperor Diocletian began his campaign of persecuting Christians, George, who was a devout Christian, requested an audience with the Emperor and was granted one. George at this conference pleaded with the Emperor to refrain from this distasteful practice.

Diocletian was so annoyed and incensed, that he commanded George to recant his religion. When he refused, George was arrested, tortured, and finally put to death on April 23, 303AD. This day is now known as Saint George's Day.

There are moves afoot to have an annual public holiday to celebrate St George and I'd very much welcome this (aside from anything else we have far fewer public holidays than our European cousins).

St George's Day has alway been important to me. As a child I would wear my cub-scout uniform to school - St George being the patron saint of scouting. However, as a nation it seems that whilst we are happy to fly the Cross of St George to mark the major sporting events we're not particularly keen to remember the saint behind the cross.