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St George’s Day
The public are welcomed to join the celebration of St George’s
day
and Willenhall Local History Groups 10th Year
The event will be opened by
The Right Worshipful the Lord Mayor of Coventry Councillor Brian
Kelsey
and Lady Mayoress: Mrs. Brenda Kelsey
The WILLENHALL Dragon makes its entrance
So we all know why we are here? Mrs
Joy Stanton
will read
“St
George’s Story”
A hearty community sung chorus of
‘
Land of Hope and Glory’
and
‘God Save the Queen’
FREE
Sausage & mash or Hot Dog
[for those
caught
singing?]
Ernesford School band
& BTEC Music group
Whitley, Ryton on Dunsmore, Brandon, Bretford & Wolston,
History Groups.
The Coventry Society, Whitley Scouts,
Coventry Family and Stretton on Dunsmore, History Societies.
Demonstrations by the Coventry Weavers Society
FREE Face Painters
Mr Crackers, the Children’s entertainer
Traditional English Folk Dancing;
Coventry Morrismen
Doors will close at 3pm
all taking
place at the
Hagard Community Space
and Village Green,
Remembrance Road,
Willenhall,
Coventry
CV3 3DG
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St George is celebrated around the
world,
including: Aragon, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, India, Iraq, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Serbia and Russia,
as well the Maltese island
of Gozo,
and is one of the most
venerated saints in the Catholic, Anglican, Eastern
Orthodox and Oriental
Orthodox churches.
St George is the patron saint of
scouts, soldiers, archers, cavalry and chivalry, farmers, field
workers, riders and saddlers
Coventry’s connection with St
George starts with a 16th century author. Richard Johnson, in
his book ‘Historie of the Seven Champions of Christendom’,
said that St. George was born in Coventry. He was the son of
Lord Albert who lived in a local castle namely Caludon Castle.
He was born with a "blood red cross on his arm and a dragon on
his chest". That is a myth but it shows Coventry's historical
importance as the fourth largest city in England at the time, it
was powerful and important enough to have been selected as the
birthplace of our patron saint. This was linked to Edward III's
decision to change the Patron Saint of England from St Edward to
St George in 1349.
Ernesford Grange Community School’s
very own
Dragon, which was made by the students
AD
302, an edict [law] was passed that every Christian soldier in
the Roman army was arrested and every other soldier offered as
sacrifice to the pagan gods. The Emperor had George beheaded on
April 23, AD 303, for his refusal to change. His body was
returned to Palestine for burial.
George is
also included in early Muslim texts as
a saintly figure. One Muslim legend recounts that George lived
among a group of believers who had been in direct contact with
the last disciples of
Jesus. George
is said to have been a rich merchant who opposed the erection of
a statue of the pagan deity
[God],
Apollo,
by Dadan,
the king of Mosul.
After confronting the king, George was apparently tortured many
times but to no effect and was imprisoned, later being aided by angels. Muslim literature too
depicts George as a martyr.
Tradition says his father was a Roman army official
from Cappadocia and
his mother was from Palestine. They called him Georgius (Latin)
or Geōrgios (Greek), meaning "worker of the land”. He was born
between 275 AD and 285 AD
The story is, a menacing dragon threatened the
city and could be appeased only by gifts of human flesh,
especially that of young maidens. The townspeople drew lots one
by one to choose the victims until one day the lot fell on the
King's daughter, forcing him to sacrifice her to save the
town. St. George learned of the princess' plight and bravely
fought the dragon to save her.
The knights of the crusades wore
the Red cross of St George on their campaigns in the Middle East
In 1222, the Council of Oxford
declared April 23 to be St George’s Day. He replaced St Edmund
the Martyr as England’s patron saint in the 14th century. In
1415, April 23 was made a national feast day. Today we are still
waiting for Parliament to make it a National Bank Holiday
The parallel with the dragon embodies
a suppressed pagan
cult. The story has
roots that predate Christianity, for example Sabazios,
the sky father, who
is depicted riding on horseback and Zeus's
defeat of the Titan in Greek
mythology, as well as examples from Germanic and Vedic
traditions. These have led a number of historians to suggest
that St George is a Christianized version
of older deities in Indo-European
culture.
The slaying of the dragon is a powerful parable on
conquering our inner demons: could it be pride, envy or one of
those other cardinal sins we might have occasional trouble to
recall
An interpretation is not of the killing of a
dragon, but a struggle against ourselves and the evil within us.
The dragon never dies but the saint persists with his horse,
with the will and support of the people
Now look at the making of the DRAGON
or
St Georges Day event pictures
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