April 23rd

 

April 23^rd

Saint George slaying the dragon

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

April 23^rd is St George’s Day, England’s national day, though this Christian Roman soldier never visited England. He lived and died in or near present-day Israel. He was a Greek-speaking officer in the Roman army, and was executed for his beliefs around 303 AD. By the 8^th century AD, he had become known and revered in England for his courage and piety.

During the Crusades (1095-1291) soldiers invoked his name on the battlefield as they fought to defend the Holy Land, or regain it from Muslim rule. He was adopted as a martyr by Edward III, who made him the patron of the Order of the Garter in 1348. The dragon he was alleged to have slain made its appearance in St George’s story several hundred years after his death.

 The dragon represented paganism, evil, and chaos. The beautiful damsel/princess the dragon had captured and who St George saved, was the personification of purity and innocence.

St George is honoured in many other countries, including Ethiopia, Hungary, Greece, and Catalonia.

April 23^rd is also remembered as William Shakespeare’s birth (1564) and death date (1616). The precise date of his birth was not recorded, but he was baptised on 26^th April 1564. 

At that time, babies were typically baptised three days after birth. Infant death was common in the 16^th century, and the prevalent belief was that baptism washed away the original sin in which they were born and granted them salvation.

  

April 23rd – St George’s Day

St George is the patron saint of England. He is also the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal and Russia as well as a host of cities and the island of Gozo and a number of professions, organisations and disease sufferers. Spread a bit thinly, isn't he? He is surrounded by myths and legends but little is known of him for certain.
April 23^rd is also celebrated as William Shakespeare's birthday (Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you . . . ) though there is no exact record of his birth. It is the date of his death, too, though there were some intervening years – 52 to be exact – in which he wrote 10 historical plays, 12 tragedies, 16 comedies, 154 sonnets and 5 poems. The authorship of some of these works has been questioned many times.
Most English-speaking people can probably quote Shakespeare, sometimes without realising they are doing so. When does a quotation become a cliché?
'All the world's a stage.'
'Neither a borrower nor a lender be.'
'Brevity is the soul of wit.'
'Cowards die many times before their death.'
'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.'
These words slip so easily from our lips, so wise, so succinct. Try rephrasing them and realise afresh the gift for language with which William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, was blessed.

April is the cruellest month

April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

Winter kept us warm, covering

Earth in forgetful snow, feeding

A little life with dried tubers.

From 'The Waste Land' 1: The Burial of the Dead T S Eliot (1888 - 1965)

I cannot agree with Eliot's sombre reflection.Certainly April is changeable, perverse and unpredictable in her habits,but when the sun shines and birds sing and buds unfurl into fresh green leaves and scented blossoms and delicate flowers it is a month to be lauded and applauded.

April violets - Viola - in the garden

We have never planted these in our garden but they appear each year and are spreading, to our great delight!

 

Dog violets - Viola riviniana -  in the forest today

(Pity they weren't Viola labradorica!!)

For me April is a soft and gentle month of new life and optimism, of a promise fulfilled and a pledge renewed that more is to come.

April's colours are subtle; there is not the extravagance of the summer flowers that bloom to excess, each brighter and showier than its neighbours to attract the butterflies and bees. Roses are overblown - forget-me-nots never!  

Forget-me-nots - Myosotis - appear every year, mostly blue, occasionally pink or white, they are pretty, unassuming little plants.

The last few days in my corner of the globe have been wonderful - warm, bright, breezy and loud with bird song. Already there are many butterflies and bees busily following their instincts and each day brings new delights as more almost forgotten beauties reveal themselves.

Exochorda - the Pearl Bush

Always at this time of year, almost unbidden, the choral piece 'All in the April evening' comes to my mind. I sang it as a girl at school and have always loved it. In this video it is sung by the  Glasgow Orpheus Choir.

Lily of the Valley - Convallaria majalis - comes twirling its way to the surface.

Honesty - Lunaria rediviva - is a biennial plant. Its flowers are usually purple, sometimes white and attract, bees, butterflies, moths and flies which pollinate them. Some of its popular names are Silver dollar, Penny flower, Moonwort. Flower arrangers like to use its papery silver seed heads in their displays.
April sun gladdens the heart and makes the spirit dance. The sap is rising and, as Alfred Lord Tennyson  (1809 - 1892) so aptly wrote, 'In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.'
More than 200 years earlier William Shakespeare (1564 -1616)  wrote 'verses' that appeared in 'As You Like It'. It has been suggested that the banality of the rhymes and lyrics was a deliberate ploy by the bard to show his playful side. The words have been set to music by a number of different composers. In the following video the work is sung to Thomas Morley's music. He was a contemporary of Shakespeare so perhaps his rendering is the most appropriate!
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