Celebrating Englishness for St George's Day

At last we are beginning to see a resurgence of English national pride to match that of the fabulous Irish celebrations surrounding St Patrick's Day.

My weekend had a suitably patriotic flavour. First of all on Saturday I attended my local High Street's St George's Day parade - organised by the local business group but supported by all manner of local schools, charities, youth groups, community groups and bands - of the brass, marching, jazz and steel variety. The local police did a sterling job of managing the diverted traffic and buses so that the High Street was a temporary pedestrian area supporting the encouragingly large crowds and the amazing assortment of stalls offering everything from charity tombolas to chocolate crepes.

Sunday morning was the annual St George's Day service at our local church where all the local cubs, scouts, rainbows, brownies and beavers and other youth groups wore their uniforms with pride and carried flags into church.

In the afternoon, I had a lovely walk by the river at Kingston - enjoying the first of the watery Spring sunshine and - to my delight - watching some Morris Dancers outside one of the many riverside pubs there. You can't get more English than Morris dancers - cheerful leg bells, red and green ribbons, pipe and drum music and grown men laughing as they cavort about waving sticks or white hankies. They even had a comical hobby horse (we thought it was a pecky bird) who did emu-like tricks with members of the crowd. Apparently, the word "Morris" originates from "Moorish" which just goes to show that this most English of customs owes much to North African dance - see how long this country has been multi-cultural!

But Kingston has an impressive permanent memorial to St George. In the town square there is a Borders book store. And there is a 300 year old staircase in that store that is beautifully carved and has a fabulous dragon and a St George figure. And you hardly notice it as you go up the stairs to the Starbucks which is on the first floor.

If you want to see The Greensleeves Morris Men then their programme can be seen on their web site at www.greensleevesmorris.org.uk. And they are actively recruiting new members who are happy to rehearse each week in Wimbledon!

Now I need to know where I can see some real Maypole dancing for the May bank holiday weekend - any ideas anyone???

:)