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Most nations have a day of celebration dedicated to their existence. The French Bastille Day and the American Independence Day annually witness parties, barbeques, and fireworks. People across those countries come together to celebrate their shared culture and history. St Patrick’s day, celebrating Irish culture, is celebrated by people across the world, not just in the Republic of Ireland.
Every year, a segment of English society questions the fact that St George’s Day, dedicated to England’s patron saint and notionally celebrating English culture and history, is barely celebrated. Today, we discuss whether there is actually a problem about St George’s Day celebrations.
Who is St George, and what’s he got to do with England?
St George was born in modern day Turkey, died in what is now Israel, and was an officer in the Roman army. Though he was almost certainly a real historical person, a man at arms who was martyred and later canonized, stories about him fighting a dragon did not start to circulate until five hundred years after his death.
England did not start to represent itself with the cross of St George until the reign of Henry VIII. However, St George has been associated with the English army since the 12th century and his cross has been used in the badge of the Order of Garter, a British royal order of chivalry, since its foundation in 1348.
Many other countries celebrate St George’s Day. St George is an important mythical figure in Catalonia, Greece, Portugal, Russia, Ethiopia. Celebrations are held on his feast day in each of these countries. Both Georgia, which is named after the saint, and the Italian city of Genoa have the St George cross in their flag.
An Opportunity to Celebrate Working People
The discussion about St George’s Day in the media is completely out of touch with reality. Both left- and right-wing journalism approaches the feast day as a uniquely pernicious problem.
An opinion piece by former Labour Party SPAD Tom Baldwin, written to sell his new book, says that ‘England needs a reset’. He attempts to dispel ideas that present British (yes British, which he conflates with English) history in a positive light. He takes aim at the idea that Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany during the Second World War, saying that the contributions of the Commonwealth and Empire to the war effort are undermined by this narrative.
Other countries celebrate St George’s Day. One of them is Georgia, who also has the cross of St George in their national flag.
While it is absolutely right the contributions of all people living under the British Empire must be acknowledged, this does not mean that the courage of ordinary people living in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and England needs to be forgotten. St George’s day, St Andrew’s Day, St David’s day, and St Patrick’s Day are the designated days when the people of the United Kingdom can celebrate the positive parts of their culture and history.[1] There is plenty of time for criticism the rest of the year. National days of celebration in the UK aren’t and needn’t be celebrations of exceptionalism or imperial nostalgia.
Baldwin cites mundane projects to ‘clean up communities’ and ‘get children to attend school’ as examples of stories that should be celebrated rather than that of St George. While ordinary people across the UK, not just England, clearly need such schemes, mutually exclusive with a mythical or semi-mythical narrative to promote shared values. National days provide an opportunity for the everyday heroism of ordinary people to receive recognition through the ritual and pageantry rather than dull school sports hall awards ceremonies.
Later in the article, Baldwin contrasts Enoch Powell’s racist ideas about immigration with the ‘Punjabi Wolves’ section of the supporter community for football club Wolverhampton Wanderers. Clearly wide participation in cultural institutions like football is something to champion. However, the mention of a racist contrarian who has been dead for more than a quarter of a century and was divisive even in the 1960s does further and unnecessary damage to England’s national image. It conflates racism with Englishness.
It is up to You if You Want to Celebrate
There is plenty of nonsense surrounding St George’s Day and English national pride coming from the other direction. Former UKIP politician Patrick O’Flynn wrote an opinion piece in the Telegraph this week titled ‘It’s virtually illegal to be English and proud’. O’Flynn states that Scottish, Welsh, and Irish people (whether he means to imply Ireland remain part of the United Kingdom or not I don’t know) celebrate their national holidays with ‘gusto’. He says that St Patrick’s day is arguably ‘a bigger event’ in England than St George’s Day.
Although saints’ day celebrations may be bigger affairs in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland than they are in England, they are still muted compared to those of other countries. They hardly reach the level of American 4th July events. It is not a particularly British habit to loudly celebrate our national pride. St Patrick’s Day is a different level of event, clearly holding international significance.
National days provide an opportunity for the everyday heroism of ordinary people to receive recognition through the ritual and pageantry rather than dull school sports hall awards ceremonies.
Though it may have originated in Ireland and still bear many stereotypical features of Irish culture, St Patrick’s day is widely celebrated in Ireland, across the Atlantic in the USA, England, and elsewhere. It is not a problem that English people willingly participate in other holidays, and participation in St George’s Day should only ever by voluntary.
O’Flynn goes on to mention the fact that England is the only Home Nation without its own parliament. Though he calls the idea of regional parliaments in England ‘madness’, he seems to bemoan the lack of an elected legislature representing the whole of England. But England doesn’t need its own parliament. Creating an English parliament or regional assemblies takes responsibility away from central government, meaning it no longer has to care about what happens locally. Central government has all of the money and decides how much to give to devolved regions. This won’t change if other parliaments are created in England. Westminster will always have greater power, retaining the ability to constrain or empower local government as it sees fit.
Uniting Around our Values
The whole United Kingdom, not just England, needs better organisation, more investment in deprived areas, and, above all, a central government that cares. For the central government to care, the people need to make it care. The people will only do so when they care themselves. This is why it is vital that we find the values that we share, so that we can unite around them, using values to push for a better future. Once we have agreed upon our values, and I believe we have largely already done this, celebrating them can be a powerful tool to build a sense of national community. The annual debate between right wingers like O’Flynn and what he calls ‘snide Left-wingers’ does nothing to help.
Every country has a day of national celebration. It is not uniquely evil for England to celebrate its culture and history, if it is done in the right way. National days of celebration do not need to be ultra-nationalistic or deny history. It is perfectly reasonable to say that England doesn’t need more nationalism, the far-right corruption of patriotism. But this is only one way, the worst way, a national day can manifest.
National days elsewhere centre around high ideals that might not always be lived up to but provide the citizens of that nation with an aspiration around which they can unite. Ideals like freedom, in the case of independence days, or democracy, where nations celebrate the overthrow of a tyrant. Finding a way to celebrate ideals to which people across England aspire is an important part of navigating life as a community. What English and British values are is a subject for another day.
Moving Forward
There is no problem with people celebrating St George’s Day if they choose do so. Nationalism and far right extremism have nothing to do with the true meaning of the holiday and are as unacceptable on 23rd April as they are on any other day. That being said, we need to work to ensure that St George’s Day becomes something that means something to all citizens of modern England.
It should celebrate the better parts of English history. This means the scientific discoveries such as those of Isaac Newton and Alan Turing, civil rights victories like the 1688 Bill of Rights and women’s suffrage, and the individual bravery and courage of English people, like Florence Nightingale and Edith Cavell, throughout our nation’s history. Bringing people together by celebrating common values creates unity. This is essential if we are to bring the tens of millions of people who live in this country together for the betterment of all our interests.
It is not a particularly British habit to loudly celebrate our national pride.
It is mildly encouraging that Keir Starmer is supportive of St George’s Day celebrations, though it is unbecoming in English and British politics for the prospective leader of the country to promote national pride too much. His comments don’t provide a substantive answer to the key questions people have about our national day of celebration.
Should St George’s Day be a bank holiday? Yes. I, like the rest of the country, would like an extra day off a year. Should you celebrate St George’s Day? Yes, if you want to. It’s an excuse to go to the pub with your friends, have a barbeque with your family, or do anything else you want. Have fun. If you pay half a mind to freedom, individual bravery, civil rights, and common good of all people whilst you do so, all the better.
[1] St Patrick is patron saint of both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.