St. George's Day

Cross of St George - the flag of England.

     Today is St. George's Day, and it is the feast day for Saint George, who is the patron saint of England – one of the four patron saints of the British (or Anglo-Celtic) Isles, with the other ones being St. David for Wales, St. Patrick for Ireland, and St. Andrew for Scotand.

     He was born in the late 3rd Century to a noble family in Lydda, Syria Palestina in the Roman Empire (which is now Lod, Israel). His father Gerontios was an officer in the Roman Army and also came from noble stock, as well as did his mother Polychronia. Both were also Christians and so brought up the young man in the Christian faith while naming him “Georgios”, which is a Greek man meaning “earth worker” or “farmer”.

     During his teenage years, George lost his parents and subsequently went to Nicomedia to appear before the Roman Emperor Diocletian so that he could apply for a career as a soldier like his father. The emperor had remembered his father as one of his finest soldiers and welcomed the young George with arms. By his late 20’s, George had risen to become an imperial guard of the emperor at Nicomedia with the rank of Tribunus, and seemed to have a promising and long career ahead of him.

     This changed on February 24, 303 when Diocletian, who had been tolerant of Roman Christians for the first half of his reign, was persuaded by Co-Emperor Galerius to issue an edict which began the last and most repressive persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. It mandated the arrest of every Christian soldier and required everyone else to convert to traditional Roman religious practices and offer a sacrifice to Roman gods. George objected and stood before Diocletian to profess and defend his Christian faith, but Diocletian did not wish to lose one of his valued tribunes and son of his finest officer, so he offered George gifts of land, money, and slaves in exchange for his conversion. Already a wealthy man from an aristocratic background, George could not be swayed by mammon and refused to convert.

Stained-Glass image of St. George at The Church of St Mary the Virgin, South Darley, Derbyshire. Image Credit: St George via Wikimedia Commons cc

     For his actions, George was condemned and Diocletian ordered his execution. The young man gave up his wealth to the poor before being ruthlessly tortured, beheaded before Nicomedia’s city wall on April 23, 303, and buried in his ancestral home of Lydda.

     In later years, the story would be told about George and the dragon. This emerged from the 11th Century iconography of the Eastern Orthodox Church and developed in Western Christianity into a narrative in which a dragon takes up residence at the spring which provided water to a city in the Holy Land and the citizens must offer the dragon either sheep or a maiden for it to move when they the people needed water. When a princess is selected and offered for the sacrifice one day, George appears while on his travels and proceeds to slay the dragon and rescues the princess, which causes the people to renounce their paganism and convert to George’s Christian faith.

     This is of course legend, but the historical George did become a martyr for standing up for his faith. Emperor Constantine I consecrated George to a “man of the highest distinction” and he was canonized as a saint by Pope Gelasius I, who – probably in acknowledgement of the blurry lines between the myth and reality of George’s life – remarked that he was among those saints “whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose actions are known only to God.” In time, he would become revered, if not venerated by other faiths, including Islam and Judaism, and in Beit Jala, the Chapel of St. George is a shrine dedicated to him where people of all three faiths pray and look for a cure for insanity.

     But it was George’s martyrdom for the Christian cause that him legendary and he became venerated as a warrior saint among the Crusaders. The red cross against a white field associated with one of the Christian military orders, the Knights Templar’s, also became associated with St. George, and this was further cemented when Genoa made George its patron saint and eventually adopted the flag in his name as their own. His martyrdom for the Christian cause in the 4th became legendary, and tale of Saint George was brought home to crusading countries like England by their kings who became devoted to the cult that surrounded the saint.

     Richard I (the Lionheart) personally adopted the saint and his cross during the Crusades. But it was not until the reign of Edward I that the red cross of St. George became the standard issue for the clothing of English soldiers. In particular, accounts in 1277 show a purchase of cloth for the purpose of manufacturing pieces of uniform in the shape of St. George’s cross, making it a national symbol of England. Later, Edward III would establish the Order of the Garter in 1348 and make St. George its patron saint. The Garter was the highest order of English chivalry and by making Saint George the patron saint of the order, he also became firmly established as the patron saint of England. He was said to have been invoked by English armies during the Hundred Years’ War with France, and perhaps most famous telling of this was via Shakespeare’s play Henry V with the battle cry of “God for Harry, England, and Saint George!”

     As such, St. George’s Cross was also firmly established as England’s national flag, which in turn became part of the Union Flag of the United Kingdom.

     St. George’s Day was celebrated on a scale like that of Christmas as a national holiday and was the day on which Charles II was crowned as King in 1661 following the Restoration. However, its popularity waned following the union of England and Scotland into Great Britain, but in recent years there has been an effort to revive the feast day and make it a popular holiday on par with the patron saint days of the other parts of the United Kingdom, as well as to make it an official bank holiday.

     Traditional customs on St George’s Day include the wearing of a red rose on one’s lapel and the use of St. George’s Cross in some fashion – flying it from homes, businesses, cars, government buildings, pubs, and churches, as well as festooning it in the form of bunting and garlands. In churches, cathedrals, chapels, and other places, it may be customary to sing Jerusalem, the song preferred by many to be England’s national anthem (alongside the one it shares as part of the United Kingdom, God Save the Queen). There may also be the consumption of traditional English food and drink.

2014 St. George's Day Parade on Westminster Road, Stone Cross in West Bromwich. Image Credit: Æthelred via Wikimedia Commons cc

     In addition, observances also include parades, dancing, and other activities. Crowds with gather in a red and white Trafalgar Square in London for a William Shakespeare-themed St. George’s Day festival, which is appropriate not only because he is the national poet, but because he passed away on this day 400 years ago. There will be parades in several towns and cities, including West Bromwich – home of the biggest unofficial St. George’s Day party – and activities include Morris dancing, mummers plays, Punch and Judy shows, brass bands, pig roasts, falconry displays, and medieval jousting up and down the country. With today being a Saturday and coming off of the Queen’s 90th birthday, hopefully it will turn out to be a great, fun, and exciting experience to celebrate "this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England."

     Happy St. George’s Day!

Two Flags, One Special Christmas Ornament

     As Christmas approached last year, I searched the web to find a suitable ornament featuring the Union Flag and Stars and Stripes (or some kind of US-UK symbol) for our Christmas tree, and though there were some good selections from which to choose, they were either too expensive or not what I was really look for…or both.

     While at my job (and with time running short till Christmas), I began thinking about making my own ornament and took some time thinking about its size, materials, and feasibility as something that I could do on my own.

     From an arts and crafts store, I purchased a set of thin balsa wood slabs, glossy model paint for three colors (red, white, and blue), paint brushes, and enamel thinner/brush cleaner. Also purchased was a tool kit with a wood cutter and a small hand drill bit for drilling a hole for the ornament hook.

     Even then, and later when I got home, I had no real plan for making the ornament. There was only the most general of ideas of how to do it, and I more-or-less figured things out as I went along.

     First, I researched to find the correct dimensions of the Union Flag, including the measurements for each of the three crosses contained within the flag for St. Andrew, St. George, and St. Patrick – the patron saints of Scotland, England, and Ireland respectively. These were scaled down proportionally to the size of the balsa wood slabs, with their short side used a reference point. The long side being too long for the project, it was cut to size on one of the slabs.

     With the dimensions accounted for and the slab properly sized, I drew the outlines for the respective colors of the flag so that the painting could be done properly and an as cleanly as possible. For extra security, it was decided to use painter’s tape – a form of masking tape – to cover over the areas not being painted at a particular time and thereby ensure a smoother and less messy job.

     The project got properly underway with the painting of St. George’s Cross using glossy red model paint.

     After I had allowed this to dry for a few minutes, it was followed by the painting of the blue field derived from Scotland’s flag. This was done in stages in accordance to the placement of the painter’s tape, and to speed up the progress, I painted in two areas at once – usually in the opposite quadrant from each other after the paint had dried in the other quadrants.

     The final bit of progress made on that first day of the project was the painting of the white border (or fimbriation) around St. George’s Cross, which is derived from the English flag and divides it from the blue field. For this, several pieces of tape were used to prevent the white paint from bleeding over into the other colors, and with white being a light color, these areas required several coats of it to fully cover the vanilla of the balsa wood. After completion, this was left overnight to dry.

     On the next day, I further touched up on the white paint from the previous night, and after I was satisfied, I removed the tape to reveal the Union Flag taking shape quite nicely on the balsa wood.

     Now it was time to work on the diagonal crosses – or saltire’s – of St. Andrew and St. Patrick, which are “counterchanged” so that the position given to the white St. Andrew’s Saltire in one quadrant is the same as that given to the red St. Patrick’s Saltire in the diagonally opposite quadrant. This counterchanging, or pinwheeling effect means that the UK flag is not symmetrical, and is therefore the reason why the flag cannot be flown or drawn in just any way which does not respect the correct positioning of the two crosses.

     Since Scotland – along with England (and Wales) – became part of the Union at its inception on May 1, 1707 and Ireland did not join until nearly a century later, St. Andrew’s Saltire is placed uppermost in the northwest quadrant near the flagstaff, which is also known as the hoist end of the flag and considered the most honorable position in heraldry. St. Patrick’s Saltire received the second most honorable position – being uppermost in the northeast quadrant, the fly end of the flag. St. Andrew's Saltire leads this pinwheeling in the clockwise direction

     For this project, six spaces were created between the lines in each diagonal of the flag in accordance to the actual dimensions of a standard flag. In each diagonal, four of the spaces are painted white and two are painted red, with the result that the two crosses sit side-by-side along the center lines of the diagonals and a fimbriation is formed to prevent St. Patrick’s Saltire from touching the blue field.

     So first, I painted the three white spaces which form St. Andrew’s Saltire in each quadrant, and after several coats, it was left to dry for much of the day until I returned to remove the tape.

     Then I proceeded to paint the fourth white space, and following several applications of the color, it too was left to dry for several hours.

     Upon the removal of the painter’s tape from here, St. Andrew’s Saltire and the fimbriations around it were complete.

     Now came the time to paint St. Patrick’s Saltire of Northern Ireland into the remaining space within the diagonals. This was left overnight to dry.

     Upon the beginning of day three, a final coat of red was applied to St. Patrick’s Saltire and the tape was peeled away to reveal a finished Union Flag!

     With this half of the project completed, I moved on to the Stars and Stripes.

     As with the Union Jack, I started work on my country’s flag by researching to find the correct dimensions – including the measurements for the thirteen stripes, the blue canton in the upper left corner, and the fifty stars within the canton. With the measurements being accounted for, they were scaled down proportionally to fit the size of the balsa wood slab, and with this completed, the real work could begin.

     First came the drawing of the stripes, followed by the upper left canton.

     Paintwork was then commenced on the stripes representing the thirteen British colonies which became the first states in the Union in 1776. The red stripes were painted first – with the first, third, fifth, and seventh stripes being painted before the second, fourth, and sixth due to the constraints via the painter’s tape. Upon completion and drying out, the tape was removed to reveal seven near-perfect red stripes.

     Now it was time for painting the white stripes, which were done a bit more quickly because I had found a way to sufficiently cover the whole of all of the red stripes as I painted the white ones between them. After several coats, this was left overnight to dry.

     On the next morning, day 4 began with the unpeeling of the painter’s tape to show the completed thirteen stripes. Following this was probably the hardest part of the whole project: the fifty stars representing the fifty states of the Union today against the upper left blue canton.

     The stars themselves would be quite tiny and required precise locations in order to make the overall flag look right. To this end, I drew lines down and across the canton in reflection of the measurements on an actual flag, and once this was right, I drew in dots at the relevant intersections as placeholders for the stars. As one can see, there was a significant amount of erasing going on as I worked to get the placement as accurate as possible.

     Next, I proceeded to paint the fifty white stars. With no realistic way of trying to paint through a cut-out of the stars or anything of that sort, I resorted to painting them one by one with varying degrees of success to say the least.

     Following this was painting the blue canton around those stars. This proved quite tricky since I was trying to negotiate around the stars that were already painted, and as it was, I did mess up on some of the stars, but pressed on with the painting.

     After allowing this to dry overnight, day 5 opened with the retouching of the stars that had been damaged by the blue paint. What ended up happening was a back and forth battle between getting white stars and the blue field as accurate as possible. This alone took a whole day to do because in some cases, I had to allow one paint to dry before using the other paint, lest the colors mixed and created a bigger mess!

     Finally on the sixth day, the project was complete. The hand drill bit was used to drill a hole at the top in order to place an ornament hook through it, and a spot on our family Christmas tree was found for the newest addition among its decorations!

     One year later, and I must say that I am still very much proud of producing this special ornament which celebrates the Special Relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. It beautifully graces our tree in a position where both sides are prominently featured and can be appreciated for being a work of art and craftsmanship. Indeed, it shows what can be done when a person puts their mind (and patience) to it.

     During the Christmas season, I hope that all of us will certainly have a mind for being with our families, giving to others, and counting our blessings. It’s unique time for joy and celebration under any flag, and we’ll do well to remember the importance of striving towards “peace on earth and goodwill toward men.”

     Merry Christmas!

A Word (Perhaps More) on the Union Flag

The Union Jack of the United Kingdom at the Six Pence Pub in my hometown of Savannah, GA, with the Home Nation flags of England, Scotland, and Wales and the flag of the United States. Image Credit: Wesley Hutchins

     Flags – they can mean many things to many people. They can represent pride and instill patriotism in some, while also causing an affront to others – and these emotions can be felt by people living within the same country.

     Recently, there was a controversy over the British flag – aka, the Union Flag (or Jack) – not being present on the vests that are to be worn by British athletes during the World Athletics Championships in Beijing. The redesigned vest features the national colors – red, white, and blue – as well as “GREAT BRITAIN” spelled out across it in red letters, but not the flag itself, which had been prominently displayed on the uniform used for the last world championships in 2013 in Moscow.

     Not since 1997 has a British athletics competition vest failed to include the flag. For Olympic long jumper Greg Rutherford, it was “wrong and ridiculous” to have the flag omitted, and he took his complaint to Twitter, where he tweeted a photo of the new athletics kit.

Well this isn't right... Where's the Union Jack!?!? @BritAthletics (this is the kit for worlds) pic.twitter.com/RAVoi6yRex

— Greg Rutherford (@GregJRutherford) August 13, 2015

     Rutherford, known to be popular and forthright amongst members of the athletics squad, further stated that he was “proud to be British”, and lambasted the new kit – calling it “terrible” and no longer British. He also claimed that there was not one athlete he had spoken to who had wanted the change, and that everyone wanted the Union Flag on the vest. Among his Twitter followers who agreed with this was British steeplechaser Eilish McColgan, who remarked that the vest looked “really odd” without the flag and – as with Rutherford – accused UK Athletics of representing itself, rather than Britain.

     UK Athletics is the governing body of the sport of athletics in the United Kingdom, and its CEO Nick de Vos stated that the objective of the new kit was not to eradicate the Union Flag (which is still displayed on the shorts and socks) but to promote the brand of Team GB and British Athletics leading up to the World Championships being hosted by London in 2017, and that by having “Great Britain” spelled out across the vest, they were actually taking a cue from the success of Team GB at the 2012 London Olympics. In this sense, it was more about the team than the flag.

     This view taken by the governing body is not entirely off the mark. While having the flag on uniforms is preferable in athletic competitions, it is not necessary – especially if the name of the country and its colors are present as part of the scheme. For my part as an American, I do not look for Old Glory on the uniform of athletes, and with regard to the last summer Olympics, I paid much more attention to the performance of the squads representing Team USA, whose uniforms typically displayed small US flags (probably not much larger than 2" x 3"). The substantial prominence of the flag came from the USA fans and its appearance during victory laps and medal ceremonies.

     So flags can become overrated in the overall scheme of certain things and in certain contexts, and if the statement by UK Athletics had been the last word of the controversy, this post would have stopped here.

     But Jonathan Jones decided to take it to another level when he wrote in The Guardian that he had “sympathy” for the kit designers, who he claimed had created an “elegant” vest with the national colors, while dispensing with “that jagged, explosive, aggressive flag.”

     Jones, an art columnist for the newspaper, insisted that his criticism was not about “imperial arrogance” or a “coercive union that keeps Scotland in its place”, but instead had to do with how the flag looked, and he opined that the flag was “cluttered” with sharp-angled lines which implied fragmentation as opposed to unity, as well as being “heavy and overbearing, forceful and strident.”

     Furthermore, Jones asserted that while the flag had meaning when Britannia ruled the waves – and in particular, when fighting in battles such as Waterloo and Trafalgar – it was “crap” today, and that its “sheer pompous ugliness unconsciously damages the image of the union” in a way that gives a “psychological boost” to the separatists who wish to break up Britain.

     For this reason, he suggested that a new flag should be designed to save the United Kingdom and make the British people proud to be British and love their country again.

     However, I find that the commentary by Jones – while a bit refreshing for coming from an artistic point of view – was off the mark and at odds with the Union Flag which I and millions of people around the world have come to know.

     The Union Flag is – quite simply – one of the most beautiful flags in the world, and that beauty is in part derived from the fact that it is, as Jones writes, “a compromise, a merging of different national symbols.” It brings together a vibrant blue field and a white diagonal cross – the Saltire of St. Andrew representing Scotland, with the red Saltire of St. Patrick for Northern Ireland, and the red Cross of St. George representing England, to forge one flag for one country – the United Kingdom.

     It is therefore a flag of unity, and James VI of Scotland knew exactly what he was doing in the early 1600’s when he moved to have the flags of Scotland and England merged when he ascended to the English throne as James I, and therefore became the first man to rule all Britain. The royal union eventually led to the political, economic, and cultural union which has thus far endured for over 300 years, and the flag has become a symbol of the nations of Britain joining together as a single country.

     This is in similar fashion to the United States, where the stripes represent the original thirteen British colonies which became independent states and came together as one, while the fifty stars represent the fifty states of our current Union – all in the spirit of E Pluribus Unum.

My hand-made Christmas ornament featuring Old Glory on one side and the Union Jack on the other. Image Credit: Wesley Hutchins

     Indeed, the idea of several diverse areas melding together is especially true of Britain, where various tribes eventually merged into larger and expanding kingdoms, and resulted in the country that we know today. Those three crosses come together as an expression of that unity, as well the possibilities that can arise from that unity of peoples from so many cultures and backgrounds.

     It must be made very clear that the Union Flag is not the flag of any one part of the UK, nor is it the flag of any one ethnic group, nor is it the flag of any one religious group, or of any one racial group, nor is it the flag of any one political party, group, or philosophy. It is most definitely not the flag of “Westminster”, and neither is it a factional or sectarian flag.

     It is the flag of the United Kingdom and thus the flag of all Britons, from Inverness to Southampton, Belfast to Dover, Berwick to Cardiff, Anglesey to Glasgow, Land’s End to Shetland, and everywhere else in between. This includes people who can trace their families to the Normans, Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Romans, and the various Celtic tribes (all of which are quite interrelated, anyway), as well as the people who are Britons of the first generation in our time. As such, it is a flag of “relentless dynamism” – a term used by Jones – as the country has changed time and time again while also preserving elements of continuity.

     It is not “owned” by anybody, just as the Saltire in Scotland is not the flag of the Scottish nationalists, for it is the flag of all of Scotland, including those who believe that Scotland should continue to be part of the United Kingdom, and who look to the Union Flag as the one that they share with the people of the rest of the Britain.

     Some may disagree with me on this point, but quite simply, it is my belief that the Union Flag serves the purpose as the national flag of the United Kingdom, just as the Stars and Stripes does as the national flag of the United States – full stop, and it is doubtful that the nationalists will start looking more favorably at the Union with an entirely redesigned flag.

     The one modification I would perhaps make would be to find a way to include Wales, which had already been annexed into England at the time of the unions with Scotland and Ireland, so that it is effectively represented by St. George's Cross. It is not – at least from what I can see – a terribly important issue, but it would be nice to have St. David’s Cross or the Red Dragon incorporated into the design, so that Wales can be represented as an integral part of the Union, as it always has been. My own personal preference would be to have the Red Dragon in the middle to preserve the overall red, white, and blue color scheme of the flag (since St. David's cross is yellow).

A modified Union Flag with the Welsh Red Dragon included. Image Credit: Yes0song via Wikimedia Commons cc

     After all, the Union Flag has long been established and cemented as an easily and hugely recognized symbol of the United Kingdom across the globe. It is powerfully iconic in its representation of Brand Britain everywhere, whether it is featured on clothes, food packaging, automobiles, ships, airplanes, various forms of media, mobile device cases, pillows and bed sheets, wallpaper, Christmas ornaments, stuffed animals, desktop backgrounds, posters, logos and insignia's for various organizations, and several other things which people use or come into contact with everyday.

     The flag is flown in admiration for Britain and to denote places, people, and things that are British, such as the Scottish pub in my hometown of Savannah which flies it, along with the Saltire and the Red Lion Rampant (the Royal Standard of Scotland) on its premises, as well as another pub which flies the crosses of St. Andrew and St. George, the Red Dragon, the Union Jack, and the Stars and Stripes. When one sees the Union Flag around the world, he or she knows what it is, and no questions need be asked.

Molly MacPherson's Scottish Pub and Grill in Downtown Savannah with the Union Flag, Saltire, and Lion Rampant. Image Credit: Wesley Hutchins

     From this point of view, the true measure of the global influence of a Union Flag is not such much about how many other countries copy its design when in the process of designing their own, but about how many people admire it and choose to use it in admiration of and respect for the United Kingdom.

     When I see the Union Flag, I do see the Saltire of St. Andrew, St. Patrick’s Cross, and St. George’s Cross, and through them, I see the countries of the UK and their contributions to Britain’s history, its achievements, themes, values, issues, tensions, paradoxes, and contradictions, as well as the triumphs and tragedies, good and bad, joys and sorrows, and times of unity and division, as well as its future – all wrapped up into one flag to represent the United Kingdom as a whole in its beautifully complex tapestry.

     Indeed, the Union Flag should not be in competition with the Saltire or the other Home Nation flags and it would be preferable if it could fly alongside them where applicable (i.e., it and the Saltire side-by-side at public buildings in Scotland). Except for Wales, it is composed of flags representing the Home Nations, and as such, it complements them and denotes their rightful place in the overall context of the Union.

     This is why I see unity instead of division in a flag of “relentless dynamism” which befits the robust, outward-looking, and tolerant country that Britain is and should always aspire to be, as well the hope that Britain can sort out its issues – constitutional and otherwise – as one.