LORD MAYOR SET TO LAUNCH ST GEORGE'S DAY PARADE

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Lord Mayor set to launch St George's Day parade

Little knights and princesses can take part in a parade to celebrate England's patron saint.

The St George's Festival takes place on Saturday in and around the Cultural Quarter in Orton Square, Leicester.

Lord mayor Abdul Osman will launch the event at midday, with the Leicester Morris Men performing the first of the day's dances.

This year's theme is knights and princesses, with prizes on offer for the best children's costume.

Youngsters who arrive in fancy dress will be invited to take part in the festival's parade at 2pm, with prizes for the best costumes.

Visitors will be able to take part in Maypole dancing sessions, craft activities, circus skills and a St George's Festival dragon hunt.

There will also be live music and dance performances in Orton Square, and at The Ale Wagon and The Exchange pubs, in Rutland Street. Visitors can also take part in street art workshops in the Ramada Encore hotel.

The celebrations continue on Sunday with three traditional medieval St George's Day plays at Jewry Wall Museum, from 11.30am until 3pm.

The Scouts' annual St George's parade will begin at Market Place at 1pm.

To find out more information, visit: www.visitleicester.info

ST GEORGE PUTS DRAGON TO THE SWORD IN CITY CELEBRATIONS

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

St George puts dragon to the sword in city celebrations

St George, England's patron saint, slew the evil dragon as shoppers cheered in Leicester market place.

The scene was re-enacted by city group Crusade, which has links with the University of Leicester, as part of the city's St George's Day celebrations.

Apart from the re-enactment of the St George legend, there were displays of medieval crafts and weaponry.

Tony Linthwaite, of Crusade, said: "We re-enact various scenes and battles from the 12th century onwards.

"We were delighted to be invited to stage the story of St George rescuing the damsel in distress from the dragon."

The four hours of re-enactments and displays in the market brought to a close a weekend of events which included parades and music.

St George, a Roman soldier executed in the fourth century for refusing to give up his Christian faith, is also the patron saint of Russia, Portugal, Georgia and Ethiopia and the cities of Barcelona and Moscow.

CROWDS ENJOY PATRIOT GAMES AT ST GEORGE'S DAY CELEBRATIONS

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Crowds enjoy patriot games at St George's Day celebrations

Knights, princesses and a court jester kept the crowds entertained as the county celebrated St George's Day.

Hundreds of families headed to Orton Square, Leicester, to join in crafts activities, take maypole dancing lessons, and see a kings and queens-themed fancy dress parade.

For three-year-old Olivia Miller, of Rothley, it was all about the morris dancers.

"I liked it when they danced with the bells, and I thought they were really funny," she said. "The man's hat fell off and it made me laugh, and I like the sticks they carry."

Mum Ruth Ingram, 45, said: "I think this is brilliant. Things like this are a great opportunity for Olivia to get out and see different things.

"We should really celebrate getting out and enjoying the streets of Leicester."

Drawings of dragons were hidden around the cultural quarter. Oumnia Abounovar, seven, was determined to find them all and mark them on her map. "I've come here to find the dragons," she said.

Mum Rachel, 46, from the city centre, added: "We came to support a friend who is playing in the band, but with the weather being dry for the moment it's a good opportunity to get out and make use of this lovely space here."

Curve theatre hosted Makers Mart, a craft and design fair, while Phoenix Square ran arts and crafts workshops, followed by a screening of the film How to Train Your Dragon.

In Loughborough, all-girl morris dancing group Bare Bones painted their faces before entertaining the crowds.

Councillor Paul Harley, cabinet member for leisure and culture, said: "I think St George's Day is a thoroughly under-celebrated event.

"St Patrick's Day, Burn's Night and St David's Day are always popular so it's great to mark St George's Day, too."

Street theatre performances featuring St George and his dragon, a Punch and Judy show and a zumba session kept Hinckley town centre busy on Saturday.

In Coalville, St George, his dragon and a damsel in distress visited Belvoir shopping centre, while Leicestershire Co-op Brass Band played traditional tunes.

The rain poured down on hundreds of Beavers, Cubs and Scouts, during their annual St George's Day parade on Sunday.

Youngsters braved the weather, many carrying flags and banners representing their groups, as brass bands and drummers set the pace.

The groups split as they left the market, one heading for Leicester Cathedral and the other for Bishop Street church.

Dan Harrison, seven, of the 53rd Leicester Birstall Beavers, said: "We've come to do a walk around the city and that. It is because of a dragon and St George."

Beaver Joseph Hallet, eight, said: "I like Beavers because we get to do lots of different things, like this walk, but also loads of games and activities."

The celebrations were due to continue today at Leicester Market, from 11am, where there was to be a knight tournament, medieval craft demonstrations and games to play.

There was also to be a re-enactment of St George rescuing a damsel in distress from the clutches of a dragon at 12.15pm and 2pm.

BY GEORGE! WE KNOW HOW TO CELEBRATE PATRON SAINT

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

By George! We know how to celebrate patron saint

A bumper weekend of events to celebrate England's patron saint is to take Leicestershire by storm – whatever the weather.

St George's Day will be marked on Saturday with an afternoon of music and activities in and around Leicester's Cultural Quarter.

This year's theme, Kings and Queens of England, is to herald the forthcoming celebrations for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Youngsters dressed as knights and princesses, craft events, maypole dancing and circus skills sessions will feature as part of the festivities which centre on Orton Square, outside Curve.

Assistant city mayor Councillor Piara Singh Clair said: "This will be a wonderful celebration in the city and I'm sure lots of people will enjoy the attractions on offer."

The celebrations will be launched at noon by Leicester's Lord Mayor, Coun Rob Wann and a performance from the Leicester Morris Men.

Walkabout characters, street arts and performers, a ceilidh hosted by Leicester's Red Fox Band and dancers will also be in the Cultural Quarter.

Musicians of all ages can bring instruments to join in a session at the LCB Depot, in Rutland Street.

A prize dragon hunt will take visitors to all the venues, key sites and main events in the area.

In the county, Hinckley will host a children's craft workshop, street theatre featuring St George and the dragon, morris dancing and a town centre Find the Flag hunt.

Coalville's celebrations include St George, his dragon and damsel in distress in the Belvoir shopping centre from 10.30am to 2.30pm, tunes from Leicestershire Co-op Brass Band and a dragon mask-making workshop.

In Loughborough, all-girl morris dancing group Bare Bones Morris will perform at the market.

On Sunday, two Scout groups will parade in Leicester to renew their promise, in honour of their founder and to show respect to the Queen.

Celebrations continue on Monday at Leicester Market from 11am, with displays, a knight tournament, medieval craft demonstrations, authentic medieval games and a re-enactment of St George rescuing a maiden from the dragon at 12.15pm and again at 2pm.

Andrew Cardwell, 37, of Thurmaston, said: "It's good to see so many things organised for St George's Day. Compared with St Patrick's Day, there is usually nothing at all."

David Garnett, 60, of Oadby, said: "I'll probably wear a red rose and go down to the pub and celebrate."

ST GEORGE'S DAY CAN HELP BIND OUR COMMUNITIES

This press release has been issued today by the Federation of Muslim Organisations.

  

St George’s Day can help bind our communities

The Federation of Muslim Organisations (FMO) has repeated its calls to make St George’s Day, an annual public holiday for England.

Suleman Nagdi, spokesperson for the FMO said, “The legend of the patron saint, St George, is celebrated throughout the world including in India, Lebanon, Palestine, Russia and many other areas of the world. The legend of St George can be a way in which we can all demonstrate our commitment to each other. I support calls for a public holiday so that space is created to have celebrations and events throughout the country including the communal sharing of food, sports such as Football and Cricket which are English inventions and other entertainment”.

Mr. Nagdi added, “It is sad that some groups have attempted to hijack St George’s Day for their own narrow, prejudiced purposes. I firmly believe in the good character of English people reside in their values of justice and fair play. The Muslim community would be supportive of any celebrations and participate in the discussions around how we can all properly mark St George’s Day each year. In this Olympic year with our Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, I would go a step further and encourage national government and their partners to look into creating a United Kingdom Day of celebration which unites England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales”.

I've written before on this blog about the good job Leicester City Council has done the past few years, in appropriating the weekend of St George's Day, filling it with multicultural, family-friendly activities and leaving no room for extremist groups to muscle in. I've commended them on that on different occasions, especially in the context of repeated visits to Leicester by the English Defence League. I'm glad to see that theyr'e following the same course this year as we can see in the posters all round the city.

ST GEORGE'S DAY IN ST GEORGE'S CULTURAL QUARTER

I take Harry and Grace to the Cultural Quarter today, for an afternoon of family activities to celebrate St George's Day. The full and proper name for this part of town is St George's Cultural Quarter, appropriately enough!

The fun takes place mostly in Orton Square, outside Curve - and it's a lovely sunny day for it. It's odd to think of these celebrations taking place in Orton Square, since Joe Orton (Leicester's most famous modern playwright and a scandalous figure in and beyond his own lifetime) was one of those characters who helped form my own idiosyncratic notion of what the English and Englishness were all about, observed through my personal telescope, growing up north of the border. I saw Orton's What the Butler Saw at the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow in 1976: and what an eye-opener that was at the age of 16. It's a symbol of how times have changed that Joe Orton would have a public spot in his home town named after him. Good for Leicester!

Now, look at these ladies in the photo below. I don't remember there being twin dragons in the story of St George! And doesn't it change the tone a little for the dragon(s) to be female? Didn't St George rescue a damsel in distress from the dragon?

It's a bright and happy occasion today, full of imaginative ways for the kids to find out more about the country's Patron Saint and appreciate the myths, legends, true stories and tall tales that breathe life into what it means to be English - in the past, in the present and in the future. And after all the protests I make for the Scottish side of Marry and Grace's  heritage, they were born here and their mum's English. Oh, hang on - she's half Welsh ... does that mean that they should be shouting for the dragon too? Maybe even just a little bit?

21st CENTURY PATRON SAINT

In the Creative Writing group this afternoon at Network for Change on London Road (photo above), we take as our topic St George's Day and what it means to have - and to be - a patron saint. We talk about St George - who he was or might have been, where we think he came from, what we've heard he did, and what we believe about him. Wt discuss other sorts of positions in our society (e.g. Poet Laureate, Astronomer Royal) that help us see the nature and significance of a patron saint. We make a list of the sort of qualities we think a patron saint should have, then suggest people alive today or recently departed, who might be able to fill the role of a new patron saint for England, if the position suddenly became open. Some of the names are predictable, some surprising: Trevor Bayliss, Joe Bugner, Shami Chakrabati, John Cleese, Princess Diana, Malcolm McLaren, Katie Price (Jordan). We discuss the difference between appointing a patron saint and electing a new Head of State (which seems to be what some of the group members are thinking of). then they get a quarter of an hour to write the sanctifying myth for the new patron saint of their choice. One of the members of the group chooses Jade Goody. I asked their permission to reproduce that piece of writing here. Bear in mind, faithful reader, that this was written in one go, without corrections and that I've made no changes to the original.

In an era where the majority of English people have very little and aspire to find the fast track to having it all, the culture of the celebrity has talent or being able to do something well isn't as important as being able to fight for what you've got and pay for what you've done wrong.

To be famous without deserving fame could be said to be vulgar and negative but the English still struggle with a rigid class structure. Some are born with privilege, some aren't. Those who triumph over this injustice inspire aspirational worship.

As well as the rigid class structure in 21st century England we still have a rigid race problem.

Jade Goody exhibited cliched western racism and ignorance and she paid for it via eastern laws of karma. It all came back on her, she suffered publicly and died a martyr.Also it is still a woman's role to provide for her children. Her sacrificial public death allowed her to make money for her boys made her celebrity status for nothing justifiable. She took it all on the chin and made money from her own death to provide for her boys.

Kind of like the way Thatcher only became powerful and popular through the Falklands War. She was doing what she was doing in defence of "our boys".

Jade Goody was white, matriarchal, heroic in death and strong enough to be wrong in public and pay her karmic debt. Like the best traditions of the British army.

Impressive, I hope you'll agree. I was particularly taken with the clash of east and west in this piece and the role of karma (which, I have to admit, I'd never associated with this story before).

STEPHENSON'S ROCKET

Some iconic English "Georges" (fact or fiction, past or present, living or dead) for St George's Day. Each one represents something quintessentially English.

Pictured above: George Stephenson (1781-1848). Did the English ever give a more significant gift to the rest of the world than the railways?

TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY

Some iconic English "Georges" (fact or fiction, past or present, living or dead) for St George's Day. Each one represents something quintessentially English.

Pictured above: Sir Alec Guiness (1914-2000) as spymaster George Smiley in BBC TV's 1979 adaptation of John le Carre's novels.

THE SAINT

Some iconic English "Georges" (fact or fiction, past or present, living or dead) for St George's Day. Each one represents something quintessentially English.

Pictured above: George Sanders (1906-72), actor. Sanders was born in St Petersburg, Russia of English parents. While he was a child the family returned to Britain with the advent of the Russian Revolution. His most famous movie role was as Simon Templar - "The Saint". How much more appropriate could we get today? Sanders was honoured with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - for Motion Pictures at 1636 Vine St, and for Television at 7007 Hollywood Blvd. Appropriate, again, since the Leicester Walk of Fame is being dedicated this weekend.

GEORGE & MILDRED

Some iconic English "Georges" (fact or fiction, past or present, living or dead) for St George's Day. Each one represents something quintessentially English.

Pictured above: Brian Murphy (b. 1933) as George and Yootha Joyce (1927-80) as Mildred. George and Mildred was a British sitcom produced by Thames Television that aired from 1976 to 1979. It was a spin-off from Man About the House (1973-76) and starred Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce as an ill-matched married couple, George and Mildred Roper.

PAINT THE WHOLE WORLD WITH A RAINBOW

Some iconic English "Georges" (fact or fiction, past or present, living or dead) for St George's Day. Each one represents something quintessentially English.

Pictured above: George from Rainbow, the children's TV show that ran twice a week at lunchtime for 20 years from 1972-92.

GEORGIE PORGIE, PUDDING & PIE

Some iconic English "Georges" (fact or fiction, past or present, living or dead) for St George's Day. Each one representing something quintessentially English.

Pictured above: Georgie Porgie.

Georgie Porgie pudding and pie,

Kissed the girls and made them cry

When the boys came out to play,

Georgie Porgie ran away.

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU

Some iconic English "Georges" (fact or fiction, past or present, living or dead) for St George's Day. Each one represents something quintessentially English.

Pictured above: George Orwell (1903-50). Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in eastern India, the son of a British colonial civil servant. As a journalist and author, he wrote two of the most famous novels of the 20th century Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

I GOTTA HAVE FAITH

Some iconic English "Georges" (fact or fiction, past or present, living or dead) for St George's Day. Each one represents something quintessentially English.

Pictured above: George Michael (b. Kyriacos Panayiotou - in Greek: Γεώργιος Κυριάκος Παναγιώτου - 1963), two-time Grammy award-winning songwriter and singer.

GEORGE'S MARVELLOUS MEDICINE

Some iconic English "Georges" (fact or fiction, past or present, living or dead) for St George's Day. Each one represents something quintessentially English.

Pictured above: George Kranky from Roald Dahl's George's Marvellous Medicine (shown above as he appears in the classic illustrations by Quentin Blake).

DARE TO BE TRUE

Some iconic English "Georges" (fact or fiction, past or present, living or dead) for St George's Day. Each one represents something quintessentially English.

Pictured above: George Herbert (1593-1633), leading figure of the group that has come to be known to history as the Metaphysical Poets. He was born in Wales, but there wasn't as much of a distinction of those things in those days - and it's his distinctive and enduring contribution to English poetry, in a tradition that was effectively cut short by the titanic political struggles of the mid-seventeenth century and the cultural earthquake attendant on it.

GIVE ME LOVE, GIVE ME LOVE, GIVE ME PEACE ON EARTH

Some iconic English "Georges" (fact or fiction, past or present, living or dead) for St George's Day. Each one represents something quintessentially English.

Pictured above: George Harrison MBE (1943-2001). Some of these Georges need no justification.

HALLELUJAH CHORUS

Some iconic English "Georges" (fact or fiction, past or present, living or dead) for St George's Day. Each one represents something quintessentially English.

Pictured above: George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). Handel was a Baroque composer famous for his operas, oratorios, and concertos. Handel was born in Germany and received critical musical training in Italy before settling in London and becoming a naturalised British subject. His works include Messiah, Water Music, and Music for the Royal Fireworks. He's the only adopted Englishman I'm allowing on this list.

TURNED OUT NICE AGAIN!

Some iconic English "Georges" (fact or fiction, past or present, living or dead) for St George's Day. Each one represents something quintessentially English.

Pictured above: George Formby OBE (1904-61). Need I say more?