Some anthropological thoughts on St George's Day

Above:  Today is St George's Day.  This is the George & Dragon pub - St George's Day is increasingly a drinking festival on the scale of St Patrick's Day.  Notice that this pub has equipped itself with a flagpole, and although I took this photo some weeks back I have no doubt that if I went there now I would see the flag of St George flying.

Above:  earlier today there were Anglican services to mark the Feast of St George (the Roman Catholics do not recognise the saint, which must cause them problems in trying to overcome the idea that they are, in England, an alien religion). 

Above:  in churches dedicated to St George the 23rd April celebrations take on the added significance of a patronal festival.  Here you can see the flag has been placed on the altar with a display of red and white flowers.  I took this photograph last year (or the year before possibly) as you can tell from the green altar frontal (as well as being St George's Day today is also Easter Eve and so in Anglican churches there will be no altar frontals on show until tomorrow).

Above:  Scouts on parade outside their corrugated iron Scout Hut, St George's Day 1914.  Three months later the First World War will break out.  I found this photograph in a display of local history (the Scout Hut has been replaced with a more modern building).

Above:  martial images of St George, especially in war memorials, are so ubiquitous that people hardly notice their iconic significance.  This First World War memorial caught my notice however because of its contradictions.  It shows a captain in the Highland Light Infantry, a Scottish regiment, and yet he is shown as St George, the English patron saint.  Did his ethnic loyalty over-ride his regimental loyalty and presumably his loyalty to the fallen men of his company?  Click twice on the image and look at the head - this is obviously a real portrait with the appearance of a sepia photograph.  The eyes unmistakeably look upwards, towards the cross of St George.

Above:  St George vanquishes the dastardly Black Knight, watched admiringly by his young squire and a serving wench.  We are conditioned in our society to think that good will always triumph over evil.  This has been a recurring motivating theme of history (not least in 1940) - but does the fact of good always triumphing create the conditioning, or is it the other way round?

Above:  this fascinating image forms part of the reredos of a side altar in a village church.  You might want to click on the picture to see it more clearly.  It shows Jesus with a group of children in Enid Blyton-style clothes, including at least one boy scout and girl guide.  Notice the date of 1960, which is quite late for iconography of this kind (and it is still in place today and hasn't been removed by some trendy vicar!).  The two central children catch the eye - a fair-haired boy in golden armour and a dark haired (but with flecks of gold) girl in what is obviously meant to be white samite.  The two children are clearly destined for sainthood - a martial saint in the tradition of St George and a virginal saint in the tradition of the Virgin Mary.  Presumably the side aisle was used by the church youth groups, so I wonder what went through the minds of the young people gazing at this image while the priest droned on?  This was not a picture on the wall, this was (is) on the altar itself.

Above:  this April issue of the New Statesman (with a cover pic of David Cameron as a Muslim) is a special issue on the topic of English identity.  Professionally I interview dozens, if not hundreds, of people a year on issues of identity (who they are, what they buy, why they make certain decisions) and I have yet to meet anyone from an ethnic English background who is "confused" about their identity.  So where does this idea that the English are somehow confused and in crisis come from? 

Anyway, some anthropological thoughts on St George's Day.