St George's Day - And Shakespeare's Birthday

St George's Cake, in Barcelona, Spain. St George is celebrated in many countries. In Spain with bread, and the four red strips of the Catalan flag. This recipe is a recent invention by a prominent baker who shared his recipe with all the other bakers and the public.

 The red is from cured meat, pork, or halal beef in Moslem Algeria, and paprika. The spice and salt and pepper on the end of the sausage protected it from insects.

In the UK with cake!

Parade in Manchester, in the north of England.

Memorial to Shakespeare. England

The globe theatre, London, England, on the river Thames.

Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford upon Avon, England.

Yesterday was St George's Day. It came and went so fast that I blinked and missed it. Until I saw people on Facebook asking why we should celebrate somebody who had no connection with the England or anywhere in the UK and fought a mythical beast which never existed in England.

I agree that St George has no connection with England and nor do dragons. But I like the red England flag. Simple, and easily recognizable. 

And I approve of celebrating the English language on April 23 which is more or less Shakespeare's birthday.

You could argue that Shakespeare's exact birthday date is uncertain, and even that a person of that name never existed. You could say the same about Jesus and Dec 25th. Especially as the Eastern Orthodox church celebrates on January 6th .

Shakespeare statue, Chicago, USA

But both men left us great stories, traditional stories, and words and phrases which are now translated into modern English.And everybody likes a celebration, parades, banners, and fun food.

What's more, I am heavily into language learning.

 I completed the April challenge on Duolingo they say. I can't remember what this was. It must have been German. Then I felt tired. Korean was too challenging. I went back to the simplest language. Esperanto. A language without a country. Unless you count Zoom as a worldwide country and copy Gandhi in calling yourself a citizen of the world. At least the English speaking world.

But, English is the most widely spoken language in the world if you count those who speak it as a second language.

You cannot forget Shakespeare. You use his phrases every day.

Shakespeare's sayings

1 Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

2 Methinks she doth protest too much. (about Lady Macbeth.)

3 Out damned spot. (Lady Macbeth.)

4 Once more into the breach, dear friends.

5 Now is the winter of our discontent. (King Henry.)

6 A woe is me for I am undone.

7 When shall we three meet again ..? (Macbeth, the three witches.)

8 Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? (Romeo and Juliet.)

9 Neither a borrower nor a lender be. (Hamlet.)

10 The world's a stage ... they have their entrances and exits

11 Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears (Julius Caesar)

Those are just the says which immediately spring to mind.

St George's cake, Barcelona, Spain. Wikipedia. (Diada de Sant Jordi.)

I was wondering what one could or should eat to celebrate. 

A St George's Day Battenberg cake is a two colour cake with a marzipan covering. The latest version I have seen from Borough market has vanilla, and the red velvet part is chocolate flavour with red colouring. I pefer red colouring to mean red flavour, so I would add raspberry juice. For St George's Day it is suitable to have it red and white rather than chocolate brown and vanilla.

Battenberg cake.

Battenberg cake.

Photos from Wikipedia.

In London I could buy a Batternberg cake from Tesco Express.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

//boroughmarket.org.uk/recipes/st-georges-day-battenberg-cake/

Tesco Batterberg

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/300454999

Please share links to your favourite posts which are on my blog.