Er..well that's the theory anyway. Actually I didn't know it was St George's Day till I saw the news at 6pm. I had gone through the entire day in complete ignorance of the fact..as, I suspect, had most of my neighbours.
Why are the English so low key about our national day, (and I don't thing it's because our Saint is foreign..that applies to loads of other countries too) when the rest of the British Isles is quite fanatical? Well the oft quoted theory, especially by the English, is that we are laid back enough to have total self confidence without needing to flaunt it to the world, unlike the Scots, Irish and Welsh who feel themselves to be oppressed minorities who need to constantly reassert their national pride like some virility symbol. Well there might be some truth in that but I'm not sure.
Others have said its because England, in particular, has become a melting pot of nations and thus a concept of 'Englishness' is now hard to define. Well I certainly don't buy that one. Fifty years ago , when I was a kid, and England was pretty well all white, anglo-saxon and immigrant free, we STILL didn't know when St. George's Day was!
While St Patrick merits world wide parades, StDavid and St Andrew merit national celebrations in their respective nations of the UK, poor old George has a few flags flown in his honour from office blocks and churches and that's his lot!! In truth England's patriotic pride shows through sport. There were a thousand times as many St George flags flying when the English football team was in the World Cup finals than ever was seen on a St. George's Day.
It is a strange phenomenon. We seem to be almost fanatically patriotic through football and yet as a nation celebrating our nationhood as a civic celebration we can take it or leave it. And it doesn't bother us...and never has!
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