St George's Day greetings one and all.

Subject: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: jacqui.c
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 10:16 AM

St Georges Day greetings from an English ex-pat. I'm just about to ask Kendall to put out the flag of St George.

What songs are you singing to note the day?

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: The Sandman
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 10:21 AM

the soldiers song,the internationale,and the seeds of love,
I have already sung,Banks OfClaudy.

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Folkiedave
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 10:24 AM

We have managed to get Sheffield City Council to recognise this with Grenoside Sword performing alongside the Sheffield Giants and representatives of Sheffield City Morris and Handsworth Sword. Tea and buns afterwards with the Lord Mayor.

Well done City of Sheffield.

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 10:25 AM

Sweet England and A Place Called England at Wimborne this evening.

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Chris Green
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 10:27 AM

I won't be singing any songs as I'm doing a St George's Day murder mystery evening in Leicestershire!

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 10:36 AM

Thank you for bringing the day to me attention. I'll give some thought to songs as I broil the traditional dragon steaks for dinner.

Today I will be mailing my brother a copy of the beautiful 'Rosbif Waltz.' That's relevant, surely.

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Nicholas Waller
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 10:53 AM

We should remember St George is not specifically (and not originally) English: "St. George is the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, and Russia, as well as the cities of Amersfoort, Beirut, Bteghrine, Cáceres, Ferrara, Freiburg, Genoa, Ljubljana, Gozo, Pomorie, Qormi, Lod and Moscow" says Wikipedia on the matter.

I was born in Beirut, where there's a St George's Bay; it is overlooked by the Hotel St-Georges, where Kim Philby hung out sometimes before finally defecting to Moscow (another St George groupie city); a corner of a foreign bar that is forever the stool of an English traitor, so to speak.

I am now playing Hamaltu Beirut by the legendary Fairuz on my iPod. I know that's not quite the done thing, but there you are.

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: SteveMansfield
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 11:09 AM

Not sure how much singing there'll be, but a whole lot of dancing: The Powderkegs Border Morris are at The Poachers Inn, Bollington, Cheshire, from 7pm till dark this evening.

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Emma B
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 11:12 AM

in comes st George....... look out Bold Slasher!

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 11:33 AM

Hissyfit will be at the triton Brantingham singing stuff with Green Ginger Garland doing the dancing

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Sailor Ron
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 11:34 AM

The Agincourt song [As our king lay musing all on his bed] & poss. some Kipling. If I could remember all the words of "St. George he is for England, St Denis is for France" I'd do that as well, but I can't so I won't!

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Rifleman (inactive)
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 12:07 PM

What songs are you singing to note the day?

none.

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 01:14 PM

I liked the 'Google' logo for today, combining St George & Shakespeare!
Balcony scene

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 01:15 PM

APRIL 23rd

Birth of Shakespeare
Death of Shakespeare (1616)
Death of Cervantes (1616) ... but not on the same day!

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Victor in Mapperton
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 01:20 PM

And have a great day from Mapperton in Dorset.

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Surreysinger
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 02:31 PM

Not singing anything - suffering from a cold :-(
Happy St George's day though!

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 03:24 PM

Try honey and lemon in hot water, very soothing for the throat. It seems to last about a week - at least mine did, but my nose is still complaining about all the blowing!

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Little Robyn
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 03:46 PM

The Heart of the Sun Morris side danced at the Rose and Shamrock.
We did Glorishears, Knuckles - to the tune of English Country Garden, Gisburn and a garland dance and it went down well.
The band for the rest of the evening played all the old chestnuts because the ex-pats who live on this side of the world just enjoy anything familiar. So there was a range of wartime pub songs, Dirty Old Town, Flow Sweet River Flow, Leaving of Liverpool, Ilkley Moor, You'll never walk alone, Swing Low Sweet Chariot (with actions)and even Danny Boy!
The band is a reformed grouping of the 1970s band Hogsnort Rupert, which had 2 hits here in NZ:Pretty Girl and Aunty Alice. Both songs were played on radio and telly back then and they're still remembered by anyone over 45.
A great night was had by all.
Now it's tomorrow and I've gotta go to work shortly.
Robyn

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Jane of 'ull
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 04:22 PM

St Georges Day celebrations in Hull, Princes Quay this coming Saturday. I'm looking forward to it, about time we celebrated this day after all we've been doing St Patricks day here for long enough, but not our own!

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Will Fly
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 05:29 PM

I shall be holding forth on guitar at the Henfield (West Sussex) Village Club St. George's Day barbeque - outside the club in the open air - on this coming Saturday from noon to 2pm.

This will be "live" - I always endeavour to be alive when I play - and, though an "acoustic" guitar will be played, I shall plug it into an amp or PA. Thus making it "electric" and "plugged in". St. George would have wanted no less... bless him.

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 06:05 PM

Bishop Gundulf's stand at the Kings Arms in Upper Upnor was disappointing.

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: vectis
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 07:48 PM

It would be Richard, they wuz supposed to be dancing not standing.


Coat in hand and halfway through door

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 09:07 PM

Oh dear, commercialism ( and a bit of chauvisinism) begins to be felt. Georges day has never been a day of the folk, May day and whitsun yes.
No traditions ( please don't mention pace egg and other plays, nothing to do with april 23rd)or songs or anything. Hate that people try to equate it with Paddy's day. That IS the Irish folk day. Scots, who cares about St.Andrews day when they have real traditions on Burn's night and Hogmonnay?

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 09:31 AM

From The Book of Days:

If Gibbon's sketch of St. George's career be correct, that martial hero owes his position in the Christian calendar to no merit of his own. Born in a fuller's shop in Epiphania, Cilicia, he contrived to ingratiate himself with those above him by servilely flattering them, and so gradually rose from his original obscurity. A lucrative contract for supplying the army with bacon, proved, under his unscrupulous management, a mine of wealth; but as soon as he had made his fortune, he was compelled to fly the country, to escape the consequences of the discovery of his dishonest practices. He afterwards became a zealous convert to Arianism, and made himself so conspicuous in his new vocation, that he was sent by Constantius to supersede Athanasius in the archbishopric of Alexandria. To satisfy his avarice, the pagan temples were plundered, and the pagan and Christian inhabitants taxed, till the oppression became unendurable. The people rose and expelled the ex-contractor, but he was quickly reinstated by the army of Constantius. The accession of Julian was the signal for retribution.

George and two of his most obnoxious adherents were dragged to prison by the exultant Alexandrians, where they lay for twenty-four days, when the impatience of the people refused to wait longer for revenge. The prison doors were broken open, the archbishop and his friends murdered, and their bodies, after being carried through the city in triumph, thrown into the sea. This death at the hands of the pagans made the tyrant a martyr in the eyes of the Arians, and canonization followed as a matter of course. When the Arians re-entered the church, they brought back their saint with them; and although he was at first received with distrust, the sixth century saw him firmly established as one of the first order.

Can't we celebrate St Adalbert of Prague instead?

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 09:47 AM

I was pleased to see the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, say that it was time to reclaim our patron saint as an 'all-embracing' symbol of British unity.

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 10:59 AM

I understand that the Archbishop is calling for St George's day to be a national holiday - like we really need another day off in April!

A better idea would be a bank holiday in October or November, such as:

21 October - Battle of Trafalgar
We could sing 'Britannia rule the waves. Britons never, never, never shall be slaves!'
And we could wave flags.

or:

25 October - Agincourt / St Crispin's day
We could have archery displays.
And we could wave two fingers at our enemies.

or:

Early in November we could celebrate the historic thwarting of a terrorist plot - what could be more suitable in the present world? We could call it the 'Autumn Bank Holiday'.
We could have - let's see now - how about fireworks displays?
And we could wave sparklers.

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: goatfell
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 11:52 AM

I'm a scot and a nationalist but I do like England I sometimes sing here's to sweet lovely England

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Rifleman (inactive)
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 12:06 PM

Adalbert is a much more interesting name than George (though that wasn't his real name anyway, being from the Lebanon and all that)

the most appropriate song for St. George's Day you ask?

England, Half English

My mother was half English and I'm half English too
I'm a great big bundle of culture tied up in the red white and blue
I'm a fine example of your Essex man
And I'm well familiar with the Hindustan
Cos my neighbours are half English and I'm half English too

My breakfast was half English and so am I you know
I had a plate of Marmite soldiers washed down with a cappuccino
And I have a veggie curry about once a week
The next day I fry it up as bubble and squeak
Cos my appetites half English and I'm half English too

Dance with me to this very English melody
From morris dancing to Morrissey,
all that stuff came from across the sea

Britannia, she's half English, she speaks Latin at home
St George was born in the Lebanon, how he got here I don't know
And those three lions on your shirt,
They never sprang from England's dirt
Them lions are half English and I'm half English too

Le-li Umma le-li-ya, le-li Umma le-li-ya,
Le-li Umma le-li-ya, bledi g'desh akh! le-li-ya

Oh my country, what a beautiful country you are

WORDS: Billy Bragg (2002) MUSIC: The Blokes (2002)

Subject: RE: St George's Day greetings one and all.
From: Snuffy
Date: 26 Apr 09 - 05:29 AM

Our St George's Supper and Barn Dance last Saturday featured the following:

• Song: Boar's Head Carol (with a boar's head carried in procession to the top table)
  
• Song: Marr-i-ed to a Mermay-ed
  
• Reading: Agincourt speech from Henry V
  
• Song: Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
  
• Tune: Portsmouth
  
• Song: White Cliffs of Dover
  
• Poems: Elegy in a Country Churchyard; The Englishman (both GK Chesterton)
  
• Song: Hearts of Oak
  
• Song: I Vow to Thee, My Country
  
• Song: Hard Cheese of Old England
  
• Mummers: Instant St George & Dragons play
  
• Song: Sons of the Sea (Bobbing up & down like this)
  
• Solo Dance: Lancashire clog dance (Tune - Soldier's Joy)
  
• Song: Mad Dogs and Englishmen
  
• Song: There'll Always Be an England
  
• Song: Land of Hope and Glory
  
• Song: Rule Britannia
  
• Song: Jerusalem
  

On the 23rd itself, after morris and mumming we had a bit of a song and tune session, at which I contributed Marr-i-ed to a Mermay-ed (again), and Ten Thousand Miles Away