St George’s Day & the Invention of Tradition
As Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger’s book pointed out all traditions are at some point invented.
St George’s Day is no exception. The figure of St George fitted the profile constructed by some Medieval Guilds. By 1530 St George’s Day was celebrated in some areas of the country, although not London. Henry V111 was not keen (to put it mildly) on Saints and St George’s Day was stripped of religious connotations, which came and went depending on what stance the sitting monarch took on religion.
All Saints days were banned during the Parliamentary period (1645-1660 in effect) but St George returned after 1660 when the dragon also seems to have been popular. It then went into decline again only to revive in the late nineteenth century. By the 1930s the flying of the St George’s flag and association also with Shakespeare birthday appeared and these continue.
In 2025 media reports that the Church of England has determined that because no Saints Days can fall between Palm Sunday and the second Sunday of Easter, St George’s Day should be on 28th April and St Mark’s on 29th April. However the rules that state this date only from 1969 although presumably based on an earlier version
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