England and St George

A lot of Brits get miffed from time to time that, unlike other parts of Britain, there is no national holiday for the nation's patron saint. Part of that could be that St George was actually Greek, and never set foot in England as far as we know, but never ones to let the truth get in the way of a good story, the English honour old George nonetheless.

(You should hear them howl when they realise that the Aussies get a long weekend for the Queen's birthday - and they don't! It's worse than our days off for 'dead soldiers' and 'a horse race', in their eyes.)

But I digress. To the folky community, St George's day is a fine one for singing proper patriotic songs about unions and soldiers and the common man. Yes, the old chestnuts get trotted out too - Jerusalem, and 'Swing low', rousing rounds of Rule Britannia from the novices in the peanut gallery. It was a thursday this year, so fairly sedate. But a good night's nattering, all the same.

If it did ever make bank holiday status, there'd be some proper sore heads next day...