St George's Day

St George's Day is celebrated by the several nations, kingdoms, countries, and cities of which Saint George is the patron saint, including England, Germany, India, the old kingdoms and counties of the Crown of Aragon in Spain — Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia; Portugal, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, and the cities of Moscow in Russia, Genova in Italy, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Beirut in Lebanon, Qormi and Victoria in Malta and many others.

St. George's Day is known as the Feast of St. George by Palestinians and is celebrated in the Monastery of St. George in al-Khader, near Bethlehem. It is also known as Georgemas.

For England, St. George's Day also marks its National Day. Most countries which observe St. George's Day celebrate it on April 23, the traditionally accepted date of Saint George's death in 303 A.D. St. George's Day is a provincial government holiday in Newfoundland, Canada.

For those Eastern Orthodox Churches that follow the Julian Calendar (the Old calendarists), the April 23 (Julian Calendar) date of St George's Day falls on May 6 of the Gregorian Calendar in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Besides the April 23 feast, some Orthodox Churches have additional feasts dedicated to St George. The country of Georgia celebrates the feast St George on November 10 (Julian Calendar), which currently falls on November 23 (Gregorian Calendar). The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the dedication of the Church of St George in Kiev by Yaroslav I the Wise in 1051 on November 26 (Julian Calendar), which currently falls on the Gregorian December 9.

The Scout movement has been celebrating St. George's Day on April 23 since its first years, and St. George is the patron saint of many other organizations.

In the General Calendar of the Roman Rite the feast of Saint George is on April 23. In the Tridentine Calendar it was given the rank of "Semidouble." In Pope Pius XII's 1955 calendar this rank is reduced to "Simple." In Pope John XXIII's 1960 calendar the celebration to just a "Commemoration." In Pope Paul VI's 1969 calendar it is raised to the level of an optional "Memorial." In some countries, such as England, the rank is higher.

St George's feast is ranked higher in England and in certain other regions. It is the second most important National Feast in Catalonia, where the day is known in Catalan as La Diada de Sant Jordi and it is traditional to give a rose and a book to a loved one. This tradition inspired UNESCO to declare this the International Day of the Book, since April 23, 1616 was also the date of death of both the English playwright William Shakespeare (according to the Julian calendar) and the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes (according to the Gregorian calendar).

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