St George’s Day should be a national holiday, 70,000 Britons have agreed, with English people feeling they are “missing out” as the occasion is celebrated across the Channel.
While it is associated with England in the UK, St George’s Day – which falls annually on April 23 – is observed across Europe and beyond, as the figure serves as the patron saint of Alcoi and Aragon in Spain, Venice and Genoa in Italy, Bulgaria, Catalonia, Ethiopia, Greece, Georgia, Lebanon, Portugal, Romania, Syria, and Rio de Janeiro.
Each nation has its own celebratory customs, with John Kelly, a 70-year-old Englishman, preferring to spend the day at the pub singing “old wartime songs and old English songs”.
Mr Kelly has celebrated St George’s Day since he was a youngster and wants other people to celebrate the day with similar gusto.
He has set up a petition calling for the day to be recognised as a national holiday.
The petition is fewer than two weeks old but has already received tens of thousands of signatures from people who feel the same way.
St George’s Day is not a bank holiday in the UK, despite being England’s national holiday.
But Mr Kelly, a retired banker, has said it should be a subject of “massive celebration” and given national holiday status.
He told Wales Online that it feels as though England does “nothing” on the day while others in Scotland and Wales pass with appropriate observation.
He said: “I think we have friends from Wales, Scotland and Ireland that have a massive celebration on their day, but it feels as though we do nothing on our one.”
“I want to make a difference. It would be nice to celebrate our country in a way that everyone else does.”
Tens of thousands of others feel the same, with his petition on Change.org having now received 71,473 signatures.
Other signatories have said the day should have been upgraded “years ago” and that England should have a “special day in order to celebrate everything that is good and proper about being English”.
While there is clear support behind upgrading the occasion’s status if it was made a bank holiday, St George’s Day would only be the second of its kind in the UK.
St Andrew’s Day, Scotland’s national holiday, is technically a bank holiday thanks to a vote in the Scottish Parliament in 2007, but banks and employers can decide to stay open if they wish.
St David’s Day is also not a bank holiday, despite a 2006 vote that found 87 percent of Welsh residents would like to award it that status.
