I suppose I could look this up, but it's more interesting to ask here.

I though St George's day used to be a holiday? I remember (in Yorkshire) St George's Day fetes and maypole dancing when I was very young.

Also, interestingly, there was always a local holiday declared here at harvest time. This was a fishing village, so presumably they all went off for a couple of day's casual pay. They declared the holiday because everyone would have gone anyway and it saved the administrative hassle of people being absent from work snd school.