Happy St George's Day - April 23

Today is St George's Day, the patron saint of England.

Let's take the St George's Day quiz! See how many you get right.

True or false:
1) St George was an English knight from the 3rd Century AD.
2) St George is famous because he slew (slew???) a dragon.
3) St George's flag is the English flag.

Answers:
1) False
2) False
3) True



Interestingly, he neither fought a dragon (that was an easy one for you) nor was he English. He actually was Turkish. Not only that, he likely never even came to England.

St George (actually he was just George back then) lived in the 3rd century AD. He was born in Turkey and joined the Roman Legion. Back then a favorite activity of the Roman soldiers was torturing us Christians. George didn't like it because his parents were Christians and he said so. Rather than having an extended discourse on the subject, they whacked off his head. He was true to the faith till the end.

He symbolizes honor and bravery. He also is the patron saint of Scouting.

It used to be the most important holiday in the UK, second only to Christmas. Gordon Brown (British PM) is trying to get it to a similar status again, but there really was little to do about it.

EXCEPT - at the restaurant we went to for lunch, the waitresses were all wearing hats celebrating the day. I said, "The hats are great. Where can I get one?" They gave me the one in the picture. The hat is shaped like a dragon and in St George's colors.

The logo on the front (that you can't read) says 'Wells Bombardier Premium Bitter." Evidently St George's favorite beer.