Some deeply buried trivia quiz impulse in my brain somehow reminded me (belatedly) that today was St George's Day. I don't suppose I was the only person who forgot (until it was nearly over). I have always been deeply sceptical of nationalism and patriotism ("the last refuge of the scoundrel" and all that). One of the few things I really like about the country into which I was accidentally born is that it doesn't really have a 'national day'. Maybe it's because England is too old to have a 'creation myth'. Or maybe it's because we, as a people, are too self-confident (arrogant?) to feel the need of a communal orgy of self-definition. I love the fireworks and the jollity and the drinking that attend festivals like the 4th July in America and the 14th July in France, but I do always feel a bit uncomfortable and embarrassed about the "What a great nation we are!" braggardliness of it.
England just doesn't have such a holiday. St George's Day? Preposterous! It has no link to our real history, nor to anything relevant to our modern culture. Only a handful of right-wing loons give much of a damn about it.
No fireworks or parades for us Angles today - and I'm very glad of that.
2 comments:
I'll adopt you as a Scot (McFroog)and you can celebrate St Andrew's Day and Rabbie Burns night with a spot of animal offal in a sheep's stomach bag (haggis), washed down with a wee dram (or several) of a fine single malt.
Then, once under the influence, I can watch you make an a*se of yourself (along with everyone else)as you burl around the dancefloor as you 'do' the 'Gay Gordons'. As Noel Edmonds now says, "Deal or No Deal?"
Is there any great tradition attaching to St Andrew's Day? I never heard of it.
I love Burns' Night, though. Fantastic to have a national celebration which is almost devoid of nationalism and focuses instead on the important things in life: literature, food, boozing, and the lassies. If we had a Shakespeare Day or a Dickens Day, I'd be all for it.
The Choirboy is threatening to organise a 'Bloomsday' piss-up for us here in the Jing in a couple of months.
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