SAINT GEORGE'S DAY: 23rd April

St. George is the patron saint of England. 

Our aim in this post is not to talk about who St. George was or what he did but we will talk about symbols and emblems. Today, April 23rd, St. George gives us the excuse to talk about them!!

THE ANTHEM: God save the Queen is the British Anthem and it represents the whole of the UK but many times it is used as the English Anthem. Wales and Scotland have their songs which they sing, especially when playing against England in sport matches. Land of may Fathers is sung by Welsh people and Scottish people sing Flower of Scotland and Scotland the Brave. 

THE COURT OF ARMS: On the left, the shield is supported by the English lion. On the right, it is supported by the Unicorn of Scotland. The unicorn is chained because in medieval times a free unicorn was considered a very dangerous beast.

The Court of Arms is used by the Queen.

THE SHIELD: The shield contains the Three Lion's Crest to represent England. It is ususally used as a badge.

THE ROSE: The rose is the floral emblem of England. The fower was adopted since the time of the Wars of Roses (civil wars between the house of Lancaster whose emblem was the red rose and the house of York whose emblem was the white rose).

ENGLISH FLAG: St. George's cross is usually used as the flag of England and of the flags that are contained in the British flag. (The Union Jack)

English flag

British flag

THE MOTTO OF ENGLAND: 'Dieu et mon Droit', (God and my right) was first used by King Richard I and adopted as the royal motto of England in the time of Henry VI.

Eventually, let's go back to our first character in this post, St. George.

There are many legends used to talk about this figure. Let us mention  one of them, the most romantic one which is summarize in this sentence: St. George fought against a dragon (Devil) to rescue a princess in danger. 

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Maybe you have met your St. George. Some have already met him!!!