• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Let me be the first here……..

Malc2098

Malc2098

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Malcolm
…….. to wish English members a Happy St Georges Day.

I seem to recall in the 50s and 60s we wore our youth organisation uniforms to school on St Georges day; me Life Boys.

St George is an interesting figure and not only just the patron saint of England. The following words are not mine but I agree with them.

When we celebrate St George's day, we are celebrating a man of faith, who did not back down and renounce what he believed in, and paid the ultimate price. It is his values, not his nationality, our country has chosen to honour.
 
Of course, our REAL patron saint is St Edmund......You know, before a Turkish chap who never even heard of the existence of England took his place. And Edmund was martyred for exactly the same reason as George (Georgi).

But thanks, Malcolm. The village had a lunch in the cricket pavilion to celebrate.
 
I really do not understand this Patron Saint thing at all. I don't just mean St George. {Though it makes me laugh that the Cross of Saint George, as an emblem of English Nationalism, is used by racists (as well as others, of course) who would gladly ban every Turk and other foreigners from the land). All of them.

Here in France there are lots of Jours Fériés, Bank Holidays, any excuse for a day off work. This Saint's Day, That Saint's Day. It wouldn't surprise me if they have a Patron Saint of Patron Saints Day.

I just don't get it.
S
 
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Not to mention the flag is taken from the flag of Genoa from back in the 13thC when England adopted it because the Genoese protected our sea traders from Mediterranean pirates...

The whole national pride thing, as it's understood right now, is utter nonsense. I wish 'some' people in England (and other countries of course, but England is where I'm from so all I'm commenting on) truly understood the political and religious nuances that led to both the selection of St George and the adoption of the flag, they would realise that almost every one contradicts racist and Xenophobic ideals that some of these people hold. They basically come from a desire or need to ally with others, and promote peaceful coexistence, for means of self preservation.

Then again, a lot of these people use these things as an excuse for legitimising their own bigotry rather than a solid factual basis, so they're too stupid or pig headed to understand anyway.
 
I'm with you on this Steve, too often flags are hijacked by the right. The wonderful irony of this is often that said individuals don't even understand the English/UK differentiation. National pride? too many un-justified "excursions" for me.
 
Jours fériés though do not always mean a day off work here Steve. The days are celebrated on the exact date not the following Monday. So if 25th December, for example, falls on Saturday, tough, normal days work on the 24th and back to work on the 26th. In May when May 1st, May 8th and May 14th could all fall at the weekend there could be no days off either.

As for celebrating “names days” or saints days that is just another excuse for another birthday type celebration especially as the names days in this family are more evenly spread throughout the year, whereas we have 4 birthdays in 10 days each spring with 3 of those in 4 days.

As for the England/UK/Great Britain differentiation. To really understand that you have to try and explain it to a foreigner.
 
Trim's comments resonate strongly with me, coming from "Norn Iron" as I do. Amongst other absolute paradoxes, a certain sash-wearing Order, loyal to The Crown, is adamantly opposed to the trappings and practices of one (opposing??) religion....yet....the Dutch(!) King they venerate, and whose colours they drape around their necks....was in fact a worshipper of that religion and was attempting to unseat the then British king on the throne!
Like I said, paradoxes. 12 for a quid in Smithfield Market.
P.S. Both my grandparents wore sashes on 12th July 😐.
 
I seem to have opened a little can of worms here, quite unintentionally of course.

I am and always have been proud of being English, just as many people I know are proud of being Scottish or Welsh or Northern Irish, and quite a few people I know who are proud of being French, too. I am proud of growing up, being educated in and starting work in Middlesex, even though it's no longer recognised as an administration area. I've only ever known one English flag and one Middlesex flag. I can't support those that use my country's flag to their own ends.

I think I have witnessed successive governments removing identity and therefore local pride with their relocating of geographic boundaries for administration purposes, which seems to be for the politicians own ends.

Those boundary changes really mess up sporting competition. I used to run 220yds in Middlesex County Sports and missed going to the Mexico Olympics by 0.1 second. I don't think there are county athletic games anymore. We still have cricket clubs known by County names. But I suppose it no longer has nothing to do with where you were born, live or work anymore.

I think I'd better stop now before I fall ofd my high horse.

BTW, do you know your county's flag? :)
 
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