Happy St George's Day!

Happy St George's Day to all our fellow Englishmen and women!
Technically it's tomorrow, so we're a little early, but we wanted to do a post non the less. The whole world seems to go crazy celebrating the likes of St Patrick's day and we feel for some reason even back home us English folk are a little reserved in our celebrations for St George's day. For us though, our hearts have always been excited and proud of St George's Day. We like to throw little parties at home, bake English treats and decorate the house with a banner or two. Our Dad instilled in us that this was an important day and one that deserved to be recognized as much as all the main stream media that other holidays get. In addition to St George being England's patron Saint, it's special to us as George was also the name of our Grandad, our Dad's Dad. Being half Italian we often celebrate Saint's days, for example, St Christopher and St Lucia with them being family names, so we know when we talk about St George's Day or wish our Dad a happy St George's Day, it makes him smile, almost as though we are using that day as another way to celebrate our Grandad George and remember him. With that being said, we feel like we don't know as much as we should about my country's patron Saint, so we thought it would be fun to do a little research and share some history with you.

About St George!
St George is England's patron saint. St George's Day is celebrated on April 23rd which is the anniversary of his death, he was actually executed for being a Christian. St George was a solider in the Roman army and legend has it that he once slayed a dragon to save a princess from being sacrificed.

St George's day used to be a national holiday in England but isn't anymore, which is a shame. Growing up we felt there wasn't as much recognition for this special day, though these days some towns will hold parades or parties and a lot of pubs back home will hang up the St George's cross which is usually found as a flag, white with a red cross. We love seeing this and hope it will continue to grow and be a day that people come together and celebrate once again. It is used as England's national flag and it, combined with the cross of St Andrew (Scotland) and St Patrick (Ireland) make up the British flag. Some people will also put red roses on their lapels in celebration.

Grandad George!
Our Grandad George was awesome and we miss him everyday. He passed away when we were 10 but we still have so many fond memories of the time we spent with him. We won't divulge too many stories here though as we have a special post coming up in a few weeks just for him! :)

Why not make some yummy English treats tomorrow in order to celebrate. Here are two of our favourites. Scrumptious Bakewell Tarts and traditional Jam Tarts.   We made these a few weeks back when we were missing home and oh my goodness...heaven! :)

Cherry Bakewell Tart!

Jam tarts!

So there you go, a little more of an insight into a day that's close to our hearts! Hope everyone back home has a great day tomorrow!

Lucy and Kelly xx

1 comment :

  1. I always celebrate St George's day. It should be a national holiday why would it stop, never knew it used to be. I was annoyed that St Patrick's day was celebrated around the world and St George's day almost people in England don't seem to know or care about it.
    Sorry it's late but Happy St George's day. Hope you had it great.