SE23.com - The Official Forum for Forest Hill & Honor Oak, London SE23
Online since 2002   11,000+ members   72,000+ posts

Home | SE23 Topics | Businesses & Services | Wider Topics | Offered/Wanted/Lost/Found | About SE23.com | Advertising | Contact | |
 Armstrong & Co Solicitors



Post Reply  Post Topic 
St. George's Day
Author Message
david.lathwell


Posts: 13
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #1
23-04-2008 09:36 AM

Hi all, this is my first post. Happy St. George's Day! I just wondered if anyone knew of any activites planned today locally for St. George's day?

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
brian


Posts: 2,002
Joined: Apr 2005
Post: #2
23-04-2008 09:46 AM

Are you serious.
Our london Mayor only allows non British celebrations.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Baboonery


Posts: 581
Joined: Sep 2007
Post: #3
23-04-2008 09:53 AM

Brian,
Your cheap shot is idiotic and wrong.
http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/culture/stgeorge.jsp

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
borderpaul


Posts: 95
Joined: Oct 2007
Post: #4
23-04-2008 10:08 AM

Yes Brian
You are five years too late with your remark.

"For the 5th year running London celebrates St George?s Day with a series of free events"

London has been slow in getting round to celebrate the day since George has been patron saint of England since the 14th Century.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
david.lathwell


Posts: 13
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #5
23-04-2008 10:09 AM

It's a shame that the local pubs aren't doing anything at least

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
BarCar


Posts: 294
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #6
23-04-2008 10:46 AM

I'd imagine the parish of St George's, Perry Hill will be marking the day in one way or another.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Baboonery


Posts: 581
Joined: Sep 2007
Post: #7
23-04-2008 01:25 PM

In any case, I think the English indifference towards St George's Day is 100% correct, and is nothing to do with POLITICALCORRECTNESSGONEMAD!!!.

This is a figure who almost certainly did not exist, popularised via a religious tradition primarily based on a deity who almost certainly does not exist, whose greatest achievement in legend was to kill a creature that didn't exist, who is never claimed to have even set his non-existent foot in what is now England.

What other course of action, then, than to pretend it doesn't exist?

Give us a proper national day, and we'll celebrate it. Perhaps. As it is, I see no reason to get all dewy-eyed and 'proud' that I was born to someone who happened to live here rather than happening to live somewhere else.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
michael


Posts: 3,255
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #8
23-04-2008 01:53 PM

I don't think you should take the fictional nature of the saint and his enemy too seriously. I find myself in the middle of a celebration of a possible slave rebellion against the Egyptian pharoh over 2 centuries ago, so I am not going to criticise other religious beliefs in dragons and Georges.

But every good myth and celebration should have an underlying message or lesson. In the case of Passover it is the importance of freedom - a message that is necessary to remember throughout history.

I am interested to know what George has to teach us or whether the message has been completely lost. I know we all have our own dragons to slay, but that is a bit of a wide interpretation. Perhaps we should revert to our previous patron saint, Edward the Confessor, and make it National Confession Day - a good chance for politicians to come clean about a few things.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Baboonery


Posts: 581
Joined: Sep 2007
Post: #9
23-04-2008 01:59 PM

While still yoking us with the religious aspect, this would be a much better idea. Not least because I'd get a day off near my birthday.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Johnc


Posts: 138
Joined: Jan 2007
Post: #10
23-04-2008 02:35 PM

Our office (just south of Blackfriars) has lots of flags and t-shirts in eveidence and the local pub (The Prince Albert) has bunting and slogans up and is selling Bombadier bitter at ?2 a pint to celebrate the occasion

That we don't celebrate St George's day is a myth

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
BarCar


Posts: 294
Joined: Nov 2007
Post: #11
23-04-2008 02:37 PM

david.lathwell wrote:
It's a shame that the local pubs aren't doing anything at least


The Chandos near HOP seems to be doing a St George's branded drink promotion.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
michael


Posts: 3,255
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #12
23-04-2008 03:19 PM

Drinking cheap lager seems about as related to St George as Christmas sales are to Jesus. How about remembering it as Shakespeare Day and having street theatre in every town in the country - with plenty of mead of course.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Baboonery


Posts: 581
Joined: Sep 2007
Post: #13
23-04-2008 05:03 PM

Shakespeare, indeed! Hark at you with your hoity-toity London chatterati ways! Elitist, Michael, not in touch with the ordinary English man and woman. Who, it hardly needs to be said, empathise massively with fictional Turks slaying fictional creatures, and, er, whatever else he did (n't do).

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Cellar Door


Posts: 356
Joined: Oct 2007
Post: #14
23-04-2008 05:34 PM

david.lathwell wrote:
It's a shame that the local pubs aren't doing anything at least


david.lathwell, Forest Hill's The Hob has also come to your rescue.

I walked past earlier today and they have a poster for a big St George's Day event in the window. This evening The Hob is tempting us with real ales, a band called The Nites (the band start at 9pm) and some other festive delights.

Just to get my facts right I tried to find a website for The Hob but the best I could do was to discover that Harry Hill is there for three nights next week! (See EDcomedy listings. EDComedy run the comedy upstairs at The Hob.) That's another big name for our local venue. Bill Bailey and Omid Djalili have kept the locals laughing in the past I understand.

But for tonight, david.lathwell, I hope that you will be able to enjoy all the St George's Day delights in London's Glittering Forest Hill.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
baggydave


Posts: 390
Joined: May 2004
Post: #15
16-05-2008 06:40 PM

Can anyone explain what Billy Bragg is on about?

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
doc


Posts: 16
Joined: Feb 2005
Post: #16
16-05-2008 06:50 PM

Can anyone explain what Baggy Dave is on about?

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
ontheedge


Posts: 31
Joined: Dec 2007
Post: #17
17-05-2008 11:33 AM

He's just looking for another girl.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply

Friends of Blythe Hill Fields