St George's Day

No, I've not become a member of the BNP. Far from it. The BNP wouldn't want me. I don't qualify on the grounds of race. Perhaps that's too sweeping a statement as it presupposes that assumes that the BNP is a party of white nationalists.

St George's Day means different things to different people. For many Christians, Roman Catholics and Muslims, it's a day to commemorate the life of a saint. I didn't know that St George was "venerated" by Muslims until I read the Wikipedia entry.

To celebrate, I wore a white shirt with a red time and St George's Cross cufflinks to work today. No one noticed. Some of my colleagues wear St George's Cross cufflinks regularly but for them, I suppose it's merely an English symbol and for them the reason they wear it (my guess) is no different from why many American politicians were a lapel pin of a made to resemble a minaturised American flag - national pride, sense of identity, that sort of thing.

Why did I decide to commemorate St George's Day this year? I suppose it was a novelty. I'd thought about for a few years but never got round to it because it was either on a weekend, a holiday or on a day I didn't need to wear a tie to work.

To be honest, I think it's more than a novelty. A large part of my life is still in England, both past and present and will continue to be, for the foreseeable future. I've lived in various parts of world throughout my life. Home is wherever I happened to be living at any point in time but nowhere really felt like home, in the sense of what is referred to as "going home". Most places, it felt like simple "going back to where I'm living now" rather than "going home". It's nothing to do with family connections. I've got relatives who living in England but we don't keep in contact.

Will I commemorate St George's Day next year? I've not decided. I've got it marked as an anniversary in my electronice calendar. Perhaps I'll decide when it's closer to 23rd April next year.

I'm quite aware that St George's Day isn't uniquely English. I was in Mykonos last summer and the picture below is a snap I took of something (does it qualify as an icon?) which could generally be called an architectural feature above the doorway of a house in one of the winding streets of the island. I don't recall exactly where now but it was quite near the Nautica or Gant shop.