School celebrating multicultural day, on St. George's day.

[ClaryFray]

Hi all,

Just got a Facebook post from DS school saying that on 23rd April they will be celebrating multicultural day the children can wear colors of there flags and share facts with other children. No problems. Had a quick google as I'm a teaching assistant and my work hadn't done anything, normally we run lesson plans around three days if not actual dress up days. And I found the official date was October 15th I think. Thought it was weird, but thought no more of it.

Read out post to DP who says he won't support it until October when the day actually is because they should learn about St. George's day on that day.

A few of the comments I the schools Facebook page are the same nature ignoring a day to try not to offend. But I think DS will enjoy the dress up, I think maybe it's bad timing by the school but can see why. DP says no, DS will be going in uniform or staying off.

Who is BU?

Send him in an England flag. It doesn’t sound like the school had banned that has it? In my experience minorities aren’t at all offended by the England flag despite what some papers would have you think. It’s only when it’s waved in faces and comments made to exclude people that people get upset for good reason.

At the end of the day St George was a Turk who never set foot in England and was the saint of several countries. It’s probably that fact which propelled the school to make it multicultural day in the first place.

Sounds like the Head has their own agenda.

Inclusivity?

Teaching children about what really makes our country great?

My English (non religious) schools never celebrated St George’s day. None of my English friends post photos on fb of their kids celebrating it in their school now. I live in Wales now and all the primary schools celebrate St David’s day, every year all my welsh friends post photos on fb of their kids dressed up to celebrate at school.

If your husband usually goes all out for St. George’s day then he might have a leg to stand on. If, like the majority of English people, he never normally acknowledges it then HIBU.

frankly if my children were at a school where everyone was going to waving the flag of St George, like a football crowd, I would keep them off for the day. You know why.
I daresay the head has this in mind.

My English junior school in the 1970s celebrated St George's Day. We could dress up as St George (as he looked on a huge mural that was wheeled out of the stage area every April) or most of us wore our Brownie/Guide/Cub/Scout Uniforms.

We had a special assembly where every class were involved in a section usually involving stuff we had made in the run up to St Georges day.
It was also seen as the run up to May Day and the start of practicing our May Day Dancing and being chosen for the village May Pole Dance on May Day.

I've spent 12 years of my adult life living in Scotland and 9 living in Wales. England these days does seem to be the less patriotic of the 3 I have lived in. I loved St David's Day in Wales. Kids going to school in traditional Welsh dress, Welsh national anthem, lots of Welsh songs, leeks, daffodils and lots of traditional Welsh baking.
I'm all for inclusion but with 365 days a year I do think the school could find another day to celebrate all cultures, leaving those few strong English patriots to enjoy their day. I just think choosing to do it on an actual date of St George's was always at risk of offending someone. (Im sure it would in Wales Scotland and Ireland too, if it was set to be on their Saint days too. I also think that as St George's Day is as low key as many say it is these days (not lived in England for over 23 years now) then the school don't need to stress about having 2 major days and would get away with fairly low key St George's celebrations leaving another day to have something more celebratory/bigger event celebrating all cultures perhaps.

This all sounds a bit 'Wot is r cuntry cummin 2?'

Send him in in a John Bull costume, or England football shirt, or wrapped in the English flag. That's perfectly fine on a multicultural day. Nobody is saying the kids need to pretend they're not English, or that they prefer another culture.

I have to say though that I've never known St George's Day celebrations, and I have lived in England for most of my life. Not at school, or in my kids' schools, or for sociable reasons. It has never happened. I think this multicultural day sounds like a good way to bring St George's Day to the children, without being all English pride about it.

I think it's a great day to choose to celebrate England in all its multicultural diversity.

Of course, St. Patrick was actually English ....

Actually it's unknown where he was from, most common theory is that he was Welsh, maybe Scottish or Roman, I've never heard that he was English before though

Just regarding the St Patricks day celebrations though, all the Parades here in Ireland always have lots of different nationalities etc celebrated in them also, adds to the colour and enjoyment imo

I celebrate St George's Day by wearing a red rose. You can bet the same thing wouldn't be suggested to those celebrating St David's, Patrick's or Andrew's Day. It's only the English who are supposed to subsume any feelings of pride in their country which is bullshit.

I would say there are very few things less multicultural than your average Eisteddfod, however you try to spin it. Just saying

and yet ours was...just saying.

A diverse school with certain kids (ones with Dads similar to the OP's husband) celebrating St George's day with flags and facts would potentially be provocative.
That is not the only other option, though, is it? Why not just leave it as usual and do nothing that day, or have people started actually celebrating it since I left?

they should learn about St. George's day on that day

Learn what about St George's day, specifically? St George has no connection to England and there isn't really very much to learn about him, other than a general study of Christian martyrs. As he was a Roman citizen of Greek/Palestinian ancestry, though, perhaps he would make a useful study in multiculturalism.

23rd April is (probably) William Shakespeare's birthday. Perhaps the school could have a combined multi-cultural/Shakespearean day, although it does seem a bit strange to celebrate multicultural unity in the community in April when the official day is in October.

I celebrate St George's Day by wearing a red rose. You can bet the same thing wouldn't be suggested to those celebrating St David's, Patrick's or Andrew's Day. It's only the English who are supposed to subsume any feelings of pride in their country which is bullshit.

Who tells you you can't celebrate it? I've only ever heard English people say you're not allowed celebrate it but never who tells you that you can't

" and yet ours was."
gosh, FOUR languages? amazing! English Welsh, Breton and Cornish?

I celebrate St George's Day by wearing a red rose. You can bet the same thing wouldn't be suggested to those celebrating St David's, Patrick's or Andrew's Day. It's only the English who are supposed to subsume any feelings of pride in their country which is bullshit

So who has told you you can’t celebrate?

Yeah, nobody but it’s fun to fan faux outrage isn’t it?

Surely this is just the school's way of celebrating St George's day but invite g children who aren't English, or who have mixed ctural backgrounds, to celebrate and share about their own nationality at the same time. I expect most of the English children will do England. Makes total sense in a diverse school. I think it's a nice idea.

I'm not sure about st George's day being something that isn't normally celebrated though. I remember going to the st George's day parade with my dad each year. In the 90s and early 00s, not the dark ages. Normal town in north west England. Though he went as a scout leader so don't know if it was a scouting or church thing rather than a town thing.

It's sad that the St George cross flag has been adopted by a lot of racists,

Well, it's been allowed to happen, hasn't it, by everyone else who ignores the English flag and St George's day. If everyone made as big a thing of St George's day and the national flag as everyone else does of their saints and their flags, it would no longer be solely associated with a single group.

children who aren't English, or who have mixed ctural backgrounds,
Why can't they also celebrate the national day of the country they are living in? Would be great if the teacher made a point of showing them that they too are part of England, instead of giving the impression that only "proper" English people would normally celebrate that day.

A lot of the claptrap on this thread only highlights the profound ignorance about St George - and I mean that in the literal sense of him, and the celebration of England, having been ignored for so long.

He, like many of our patron saints, was not a native of the country he is patron saint of. So fucking what! He was adopted in the 9th century, and there are many old traditional ways of celebrating the day dating from the Middle Ages. It’s no wonder the St George’s flag has such negative connotations, linked with football thugs and bitchy tweets from Emily Thornberry about white van man. No one ever makes the effort to think of ways to celebrate him in more positive ways, yet children will happily make lanterns for Diwali, draw daffodils for St David’s day, they even learn about St Piran down here in Cornwall.

I am baffled that children in English schools cannot spend a happy morning looking at old English customs. Many of them involve silly games which can be played outside, they are funny and fun to join in. We teach them about the traditions and customs of every damned country in the world, except the one they live in! Why?

They could learn about the story of St George (its got a fucking dragon in it ffs, what’s not to like?). They could learn a bit about the history of the patch they live in, and look at how it has changed over the years. If the school grounds have space they could plant a traditional English variety of apple tree, to help prevent the old types dying out.

I agree with OP’s DH. Have a multicultural day by all means, but picking on 23 April to have it is wrong, and I would be bloody pissed off about it too.

Given the EDL's attempts to hijack St George's Day for their hate-filled racist marches, I think it sounds like a great idea.

Is St George's Day something you usually celebrate as a family? Is he planning something for the evening?

I would assume his thinking is along the lines of "we're not even allowed to celebrate our own saint's day". But if he never celebrates it, or reads the stories of St George every year to your children his argument doesn't hold - is it important to him or not? And in any case, presumably your children would be going to school dressed in the English flag and celebrating their own heritage on that day?

Maybe he could buy your children a book or story to take to school to share about St George if he feels that passionately that his story should be told on the 23rd. I'm sure the teachers would be happy to share it.

Making your children go to school in their uniform isn't fair, and suggests he's angry that other cultures are being celebrated as well. That's his problem, not your children's. What do they think about it all? I bet they won't want to boycott the day just because of their father's views.

I would personally find his attitude unpleasant and not something I could support in any way.

It just stirs up the EDL, though - "yet another example" of how people are "not allowed" to celebrate being English. How about claiming the day back from them?

Yy to those who say that the bigger St Patrick's Day parades in Ireland have become wildly multicultural, and a major improvement on the kind I remember from the 1970s, which consisted of an aul fella in a cardboard mitre on a back of a lorry, ten Irish dancers going blue with the cold, and the local under twelves hurling team marching along in the drizzle.

The last Galway parade I went to admittedly a few years ago now was about one third Nigerian, and all the better for it.

I think part of the issue with celebrating St George's Day is that it has generally not been celebrated, in large part because England has never had to assert a minority national identity against a colonising/dominating neighbouring force so there are no specific rituals or traditions. It's only become a thing fairly recently, and in public discourse at least, it's been very much in the context of 'asserting Englishness in the face of multiculturalism'. Which is a real shame, and it's grim that it's been hijacked by jingoists, racists and Little Englanders, but unfortunately I think it will need some serious rebranding and a general sense of whether and what a majority of English people including, obviously, those of BAME backgrounds -- want to do to mark the day, before that will change.

This kind of reminds me of when one the women at work was pissed off because of the fuss made for St. David’s day and a Hindu festival. Basically a Welsh woman requested and was given permission to put up decorations and raise money for charity and on another occasion an Asian woman requested and was granted permission to put up decorations and send out emails explaining her festival and trying to include everyone.

The English woman complained to me that she was upset that nobody at work gave a shit about St. George’s day and thus she wasn’t going to participate in anyone else’s days. I nodded quietly but wondered who she expected to organise it all? If she wanted decorations or some type of event why didn’t she organise it like the other people? They’d got off their arses and did something.

I genuinely think some people have no intention of doing anything for St. George’s day and just like to jealously complain if someone else gets up off their arses to do something.

They can if they want to raven . The OP says the school is asking them to choose a nationality (presumably one they identify with or know something about). That may or not be England.