Happy St George's Day! A five-day feast of patriotic passion and affectionate tribute concludes today in England, with the celebration of our patron saint happily coinciding with the eightieth birthday weekend of probably the world's most recognised living woman, Queen Elizabeth II.
As "Defender of the Faith" and titular head of the Church of England, appropriately Her Majesty was honoured with a family thanksgiving service earlier today in her own "house [of Windsor] church", the Chapel of St George within the grounds of Windsor Castle. It is also the chapel to the oldest British Order of Chivalry, the Most Noble Order of the Garter, the motto of which is 'Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense'- meaning 'Evil be to him who thinks it'.
It was an appropriately spiritual hour to give thanks to her maker and ours for the enduring life and service of a woman who, though not 'born to be queen' has carried out her duties tirelessly through a long reign matched only so far in female monarchdom by her great-great grandmother Victoria. Just as in Queen Victoria's day, Elizabeth's has seen many startling changes, both for good and bad.
Meanwhile, co-incidentally, on the streets of the nation's capital, thirty-three thousand hardy souls fought the annual battle against the dragon of "the wall" for the sake of sport, achievement and noble aims. At Windsor, the penetrating lens of the TV camera revealed that the queen does, actually, carry cash, as she placed her offering in the collection plate for the benefit of local hospices. In London at the same time, many from all over Britain and indeed throughout the world were nobly running for the benefit of charities big and small, or in remembrance of personal loss.
These were the valiant foot soldiers who were striving to complete a twenty-six-and-a-bit mile course to trudge wearily to the finish line of the 2006 Flora London Marathon, past a sea of union flags- our national emblem itself being 400 years old this year - in the shadow of the Victoria memorial close by the monarch's London front door at Buckingham Palace. The extra "bit" tagged onto the marathon is no mere metric mistake, but the legacy of an earlier British king for whom the race was specially extended so that it could finish in front of the royal box at the London stadium in the 1908 Olympic Games. The distance has stuck ever since, but the "people's marathon" with runners dressed in costumes weird and wonderful as well as more conventional running attire, has been catching the public imagination ever since the strains of Ron Goodwin's "The Trap" first accompanied the TV pictures of this remarkable event 25 years ago.
These are just some of those many quaint facts about our national life and ways which make me love being an Englishman, eccentricities and all. Sporting occasions aside, we're not really great ones for flag-waving in this corner of Britain, unlike the other nations making up the UK. It's rather a shame, really, so I'm happy to fly the flag of St George on this web page today-even if the feet of the middle-eastern soldier whose patronage we share with several other lands never touched these shores. So much of the folklore surrounding him and his saving of a maiden from an evil beast is, sadly, just myth.
Maybe however the ringing of bells throughout England would be a more appropriate celebration this Sunday- they certainly rang out at Windsor after this morning's service, which can be heard until 29th April by following the link above. The BBC almost grudgingly maybe chose today to give the last airing to the "Radio 4 UK Theme", but it was the bells of another St George's church - Benenden in Kent- which on the same radio station heralded the Second Sunday of Easter today , known quaintly in former times as Quasimodo Sunday. Victor Hugo's hunch-backed bellringer failed to save his love from a tragic end, but the victory of the resurrection is salvation, a happy and glorious end indeed, for even the vilest offender who truly believes, as eventually did "doubting" Thomas, remembered on this day in the church's post-Easter calendar.
Christians believe that the dragon, or rather the serpent, of sin -man's evil nature- has been slain with the red blood of Christ on the cross and his triumph over death that first Easter is surely worth celebrating every day- with bells and smells if that's your preference, but surely with a thankful heart.
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