{"id":297,"date":"2009-04-23T13:13:50","date_gmt":"2009-04-23T12:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/?p=297"},"modified":"2009-10-19T12:21:57","modified_gmt":"2009-10-19T11:21:57","slug":"st-georges-day-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/?p=297","title":{"rendered":"2009-04-26 – St Georges Day Parade"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Georges Day Parade.\"st_george_flag1\"<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

On the Sunday nearest to 23 April, Scouts throughout England parade through high streets and attend a special St George’s Day service.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

5th<\/sup> Dartford Scouts were\u00a0no different and this year\u2019s parade took place on Sunday 26th<\/sup> April, meeting at 10:45 in Central Park, in Full Uniform.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The 5th\u00a0<\/sup><\/span><\/span>were judged “Smartest on Parade,” which gives us the honour of parading the District Standard at all of this years events.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The service\u00a0commenced at 11am and marched\u00a0off at @ 11.40.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The March left the park through library gates. Turned left into Market street, followed on to Lowfield Street, at the junction, turned right into Instone Rd, at the junction turned right into Highfield Road, at the traffic lights turned right into Spital Street, at the junction went straight into High Street, followed to the end, turned right back to Market Street, and then back into the park by the Library entrance.\u00a0 <\/span>The salute was taken on the Library steps.<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Who Was St George?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

St. George is the patron saint of not only England,\u00a0but also of Aragon, Catalonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Palestine and Portugal amongst others, although he is celebrated on different days. He is also patron saint of scouts, soldiers, archers, cavalry and chivalry, farmers and field workers, riders and saddlers. His emblem, a red cross on a white background, is the flag of England, and part of the British flag. St George’s emblem was adopted by Richard The Lion Heart and brought to England in the 12th century. The king’s soldiers wore it on their tunics to avoid confusion in battle.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

St. George is popularly identified with England and English ideals of honour, bravery and gallantry, but actually he wasn\u2019t English at all. Very little is known about the man who became St George, but he <\/span>is believed to have been born in Cappadocia<\/span><\/strong> <\/strong>(now Eastern Turkey) in the year A.D. 270<\/span><\/strong>. He was a Christian. At the age of seventeen he joined the Roman army<\/span><\/strong> and soon became renowned for his bravery. He served under a pagan Emperor but never forgot his Christian faith.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When the pagan Emperor Diocletian started persecuting Christians, St. George pleaded with the Emperor to spare their lives. However, St. George’s pleas fell on deaf ears and it is thought that the Emperor Diocletian tried to make St. George deny his faith in Christ, by torturing him. St George showed incredible courage and faith and was finally beheaded near Lydda in Palestine on 23 April, 303.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What’s the Legend?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>\"stgeorge1\"<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>The most famous legend of Saint George is of him slaying a dragon. In the Middle Ages the dragon was commonly used to represent the Devil. The slaying of the dragon by St George was first credited to him in the twelfth century, long after his death. It is therefore likely that the many stories connected with St George’s name are fictitious.\u00a0 However of the many versions of the story, most agree that a town was terrorised by a dragon and\u00a0a<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> young princess was offered in sacrifice. <\/span><\/span>When George heard about this he rode into the village,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>slayed the dragon and rescued the princess.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Legend of St. George and the Dragon<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

St. George travelled for many months by land and sea until he came to Libya. Here he met a poor hermit who told him that everyone in that land was in great distress, for a dragon had long ravaged the country.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

‘Every day<\/span>,’ said the old man, ‘he demands the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden and now all the young girls have been killed. The king’s daughter alone remains, and unless we can find a knight who can slay the dragon she will be sacrificed tomorrow. The king of Egypt will give his daughter in marriage to the champion who overcomes this terrible monster.<\/span>‘<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When St. George heard this story, he was determined to try and save the princess, so he rested that night in the hermit’s hut, and at daybreak set out to the valley where the dragon lived. When he drew near he saw a little procession of women, headed by a beautiful girl dressed in pure Arabian silk. The princess Sabra was being led by her attendants to the place of death. The knight spurred his horse and overtook the ladies. He comforted them with brave words and persuaded the princess to return to the palace. Then he entered the valley.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As soon as the dragon saw him it rushed from its cave, roaring with a sound louder than thunder. Its head was immense and its tail fifty feet long. But St. George was not afraid. He struck the monster with his spear, hoping he would wound it. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The dragon’s scales were so hard that the spear broke into a thousand pieces. and St. George fell from his horse. Fortunately he rolled under an enchanted orange tree against which poison could not prevail, so that the venomous dragon was unable to hurt him. Within a few minutes he had recovered his strength and was able to fight again.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He smote the beast with his sword but the dragon poured poison on him and his armour split in two. Once more he refreshed himself from the orange tree and then, with his sword in his hand, he rushed at the dragon and pierced it under the wing where there were no scales, so that it fell dead at his feet.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St Georges Day Parade. On the Sunday nearest to 23 April, Scouts throughout England parade through high streets and attend a special St George’s Day service.\u00a0 5th Dartford Scouts were\u00a0no different and this year\u2019s parade took place on Sunday 26th … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cub-blog","category-scoutnews","category-scout-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301,"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions\/301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.5thdartfordscouts.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}