Happy St .George's Day

[Prufrock]

This. I've yet to meet an Irish person who uses Paddy's as anything other than an excuse to get smashed. If people wanna do the same with St.Georges then by all means. Personally I love Guiness so I'm out on Paddy's day, but I don't like real ale so I'm not on Georges. National pride Smational Pride. It's just a tool used by racists, or an occasion where people who ARE proud to be British seem to get offended that not everyone cares. Or alternatively an occasion where people who are proud to be british celebrate how they like and just have a good time. They're my favourite of the three.

I think inadvertently you've just made a great case for why St George's Day needs a higher profile. Too often the English confuse and transpose English for British, and here you are talking about British in relation to St Dodds day. It's an English day, nothing at all to do with Britian.

I was driving past my local yesterday, and the tables in the beer garden had a Union Jack on every table. WTF is that about thought I? And then the penny dropped. You just couldn't make that up.

Meh same difference Obviously I meant English, they become blurred in speech now. Not sure how that's evidence that St. Georges should have a higher profile though. I don't feel any differences towards the rest of Britain or Ireland aside from sporting ones, which I personally think is a good thing.

[FaninOz]

Yes when I remember it unfortunately that's not very often

[Montreal Wanderer]

Ref patron saints; something that's always puzzled me. James, in Spanish, is Jaime, yet Spain's patron Saint, Santiago ( sometimes referred to as Matamoro, and as in Santiago de Compostela) is St James . The Sant bit is saint, leaving Iago. No one has yet been able to explain to me why this is, not even Spaniards I've asked. Monty?

James is a derivative of the Hebrew name Jacob. Jaime is clearly the Spanish for James. Iago is the variant of Jacob in Welsh and Galician. As you know Galicia is located in North-West Spain which, with neighbours Castille etc, became independent of the Moors first. So they used their variant to name things. Galician is/was also spoken in Northern Portugal and some consider Portugese a dialect of Galician. Within Britain there are many variants of the name John for instance, which can appear in place names. It is the same sort of thing with Jaime and Iago. Ironic that Matamoro was a "moor killer" and Iago caused Othello's death.

[boltonboris]

Ref patron saints; something that's always puzzled me. James, in Spanish, is Jaime, yet Spain's patron Saint, Santiago ( sometimes referred to as Matamoro, and as in Santiago de Compostela) is St James . The Sant bit is saint, leaving Iago. No one has yet been able to explain to me why this is, not even Spaniards I've asked. Monty?

James is a derivative of the Hebrew name Jacob. Jaime is clearly the Spanish for James. Iago is the variant of Jacob in Welsh and Galician. As you know Galicia is located in North-West Spain which, with neighbours Castille etc, became independent of the Moors first. So they used their variant to name things. Galician is/was also spoken in Northern Portugal and some consider Portugese a dialect of Galician. Within Britain there are many variants of the name John for instance, which can appear in place names. It is the same sort of thing with Jaime and Iago. Ironic that Matamoro was a "moor killer" and Iago caused Othello's death.

[TANGODANCER]

Ref patron saints; something that's always puzzled me. James, in Spanish, is Jaime, yet Spain's patron Saint, Santiago ( sometimes referred to as Matamoro, and as in Santiago de Compostela) is St James . The Sant bit is saint, leaving Iago. No one has yet been able to explain to me why this is, not even Spaniards I've asked. Monty?

James is a derivative of the Hebrew name Jacob. Jaime is clearly the Spanish for James. Iago is the variant of Jacob in Welsh and Galician. As you know Galicia is located in North-West Spain which, with neighbours Castille etc, became independent of the Moors first. So they used their variant to name things. Galician is/was also spoken in Northern Portugal and some consider Portugese a dialect of Galician. Within Britain there are many variants of the name John for instance, which can appear in place names. It is the same sort of thing with Jaime and Iago. Ironic that Matamoro was a "moor killer" and Iago caused Othello's death.

Cheers Monty. Never did think of Galician but it makes sense as Compostella is also in north western Spain. Santiage el Matamoro does indeed mean the James the Moor killer and the legend has it that St James appeared on a white stallion and led the Spaniards in a great vitory over the Moors. When you consider, various factions of the Moors were in Spain for almost eight hundred continuous years it's little wonder he was dubbed a hero. Spanish history is fascinating and well worthy of study, including the El Cid legend which you may remember I used in my books.

And..as you say, rather ironic ref Othello. Thanks again to the Montreal Sherlock Holmes.

[Montreal Wanderer]

Ref patron saints; something that's always puzzled me. James, in Spanish, is Jaime, yet Spain's patron Saint, Santiago ( sometimes referred to as Matamoro, and as in Santiago de Compostela) is St James . The Sant bit is saint, leaving Iago. No one has yet been able to explain to me why this is, not even Spaniards I've asked. Monty?

James is a derivative of the Hebrew name Jacob. Jaime is clearly the Spanish for James. Iago is the variant of Jacob in Welsh and Galician. As you know Galicia is located in North-West Spain which, with neighbours Castille etc, became independent of the Moors first. So they used their variant to name things. Galician is/was also spoken in Northern Portugal and some consider Portugese a dialect of Galician. Within Britain there are many variants of the name John for instance, which can appear in place names. It is the same sort of thing with Jaime and Iago. Ironic that Matamoro was a "moor killer" and Iago caused Othello's death.

Cheers Monty. Never did think of Galician but it makes sense as Compostella is also in north western Spain. Santiage el Matamoro does indeed mean the James the Moor killer and the legend has it that St James appeared on a white stallion and led the Spaniards in a great vitory over the Moors. When you consider, various factions of the Moors were in Spain for almost eight hundred continuous years it's little wonder he was dubbed a hero. Spanish history is fascinating and well worthy of study, including the El Cid legend which you may remember I used in my books.

And..as you say, rather ironic ref Othello. Thanks again to the Montreal Sherlock Holmes.

No problem - it's my job! I seem to recall that the battle standard of someone in the Moorish wars was the flag of St. James and it was used until quite late (like the Oriflamme of St. Denis in France) but I could have misremembered.

On a further etymological note I read: The name "James" in English comes from Iacobus (Jacob) in Latin, from the Greek Iacovos. For some reason, though the word Jacob is known in English and written often in the Old Testament, in the New Testament the name "James" has been substituted for "Jacob". In France, Jacob is translated "Jacques". In eastern Spain, Jacobus became "Jacome" or "Jaime"; in Catalunya, it became Jaume, in western Iberia it became "Sant'Iago", from Yako of Hebrew Ya'akov/Jacob, which developed into "San Tiago" in Portugal and Galicia. So Iago come from Hebrew and Jaime from Greek. Who knew?