Friday, April 23, 2010

 

St George, Jane and our great niece and nephew.

It has been St George's Day.
Now, who on earth was he and why have we English got him as our patron saint.
Knowledge is hazy.
My source (Wikipedia) told me he was born in Palestine in about AD 275.
But the BBC (and who can doubt the BBC?) tells me he was born in what is now Turkey.
I am prepared to believe this is true, but wonder what his mother was doing in Turkey at the time. She came from Lydda in Palestine.
And it was in Lydda that George joined the Roman Army.
And it was in Lydda that he was beheaded for refusing to renounce Christianity.
As far as we know he never set foot on English soil.
I think we can be certain that there never was a dragon!

Obviously George was much admired for his soldiering and his faithfulness to Christianity.
He is the patron saint of many countries and many cities too.
The other countries seem to make a better job of celebrating the day than we do.
Our soldiers who went to the crusades heard the stories and brought them back to England and we adopted him as ours too.

Perhaps it would be better to have an Englishman as a patron saint..... or woman, before I annoy the feminists!
Ashley suggested St Edmund.
I gather a poll was done and St Alban topped the list.

Meanwhile our Patron saint's day is marked with a few flags.
Sadly the flag of St George is used far more for football matches - just wait for the World Cup in a few weeks!
And even worse it is associated with the worst kind of nationalism - not patriotism, which I can understand, but the nasty claims that all foreigners are less than us that the BNP try to push.

Did you hear that the BNP manifesto contains the notion that there should be absolutely no immigration from any Moslem country. OK - some Moslems are involved with terrorism. The BNP seem to suggest that all Moslems must be viewed with extreme suspicion and even more that every person in a Moslem country is a Moslem. Some people in those countries are actually Christians.

Right, having annoyed the feminists I have now antagonised the extreme Right Wing in our politics (good!) and any other person who thinks the only good Moslem is one that isn't in England.

And so - back to the real world .....my world!
St George's Day is also a family birthday. It is Bill's sister, Jane's birthday. Her daughter and her grandchildren travelled down for the weekend.
Bill and I took a card over and I snapped away with the camera.
Bill told me I should have flash on - and he was right.
The pictures tend to be, shall we say soft focus?


Here is our niece, Liz with Henry. Aged 3 and a half.
He's a bright little boy.
I was impressed with his interest in words - mostly rude words just now!
But having been introduced to Uncle Bill, it wasn't long before he put two and two together and started calling him Silly Billy.


Isobel is 15 months.

She fell for Silly Billy!


Have they noticed me climbing on the furniture, he wonders.
Henry does look like a three year old Bill.


More silliness for Bill and Isobel.


Jane - proud grandmother on her birthday.
We'll be up early and down to Ford again.
I have Littlehampton withdrawal symptoms, so I am sure we will go there for breakfast.

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St George, Jane and our great niece and nephew.
posted by Grandma P on Friday, April 23, 2010