page_title: Saint George's Day in England
section_title: Contemporary revival
hierarchical_section_title: Saint George's Day in England / Contemporary revival
caption_attribution_description: The crowd seemed to enjoy the St George's Day festival. I'd estimate the crowd at about 2,000, with many coming and going all day.
context_page_description: Saint George is the patron saint of England in a tradition established in the Tudor period, based in the saint's popularity during the times of the Crusades and the Hundred Years' War.
  Veneration of the saint in folk religion declined in the 18th century. Attempts to revive the celebration of Saint George's Day as an expression of English culture and identity date from the foundation Royal Society of St. George in 1894. More recently, since the beginning of the 2010s, such efforts have resulted in St George's Day celebrations with aspects of a national holiday in England.
context_section_description: A certain revival of the position of St George as the patron saint of England has been observed since the mid-1990s. Notably, the Flag of England (the Saint George's Cross), which in the 1980s had mostly been reserved for political English nationalism, began to be displayed by football fans as representing England during the 1996 European Championships that were held in that country. The flag is now regularly used by fans at sporting events, and flown by churches, local authorities and other bodies.
  In parallel, a revival of St George's Day as an English national holiday has been encouraged by
  organisations such as English Heritage and the Royal Society of Saint George, partly in reaction to calls to replace St George as patron saint of England. A 2003 BBC Radio 4 poll on the subject revealed some interest in replacing him.
  On St George's Day 2002, the Campaign for an English Parliament protested at the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone's lack of support for St George's Day, while he announced plans to spend £100,000 to mark St Patrick's Day by dyeing the fountains green in Trafalgar Square. The Campaign arranged to dye the fountains red on St. George's Day. From this effort, supporters privately organised a St George's Feast in London, the first of which was held in Covent Garden on 23 April 2003. The festival grew in size and importance during 2004 to 2008, including performances of traditional Punch and Judy shows, English folk dance Mummers Players, Morris dancers, English folk music, etc. The Royal Society of St George asked to contribute in the 2006 event, which was covered by BBC Radio 3.
  In early 2009, Mayor of London Boris Johnson led a campaign to encourage the public celebration of St George's Day. The event was first officially held in 2010, announced as "the first Pageant of St George in 425 years".
  The event has since developed as a major festival  centred on Trafalgar Square and organised by the Mayor of London.
  In 2011, a campaign to make St. George's Day a public holiday in England began on the UK government's e-petition website.
  It received 4,266 signatures, not achieving the 100,000 signatures required before the deadline in August 2012 to qualify for a debate of the matter in the House of Commons.
  In 2014, Andrew Rosindell, Conservative MP for Romford, argued in favour of giving St George's Day the status of an official public holiday.
  The Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn also promised to make St George's Day one of four new Bank Holidays in his party's 2017 election manifesto.
caption: A crowd celebrates Saint George's Day at an event in Trafalgar Square in 2010
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