Tales of bravery

23 April is St George’s Day.

St George is the patron Saint of England, who legend tells us slayed a dragon in ancient times, and lots of people choose to celebrate it with parades, dancing and other activities.

St George was also chosen as the patron saint of Scouts, as it was felt the qualities of the legendary Roman soldier were the same qualities that reflect a good Scout.

Therefore, traditionally, St George’s Day has become a very special day for Scouts when everyone can come together, make or renew their Promise and celebrate.

Find out more about the Scouts Promise and getting ready for St George’s Day.

Back in the 14th Century, King Edward III was so inspired by tales of King Arthur and his knights that he founded something called the Order of the Garter. It was created in around 1348 and still exists today.

The Order of the Garter was a special group of knights and King Edward III made St George the patron of this Order.

The Order of the Garter’s badge depicts George slaying the dragon, so St George remains an important symbol of knighthood in this country.

To this day St George’s cross still appears on the Garter badge and his image is the pendant of the Garter chain. 

St George's Chapel was built at Windsor Castle by Edward IV and Henry VII, It was made the official chapel for the Order of the Garter. English soldiers also used to wear the cross of St George on their fronts and backs. 

From the 14th Century, Saint George came to be regarded as a special protector of the English and therefore our Patron Saint.  

In 1940, King George VI created a new award for acts of the greatest heroism or courage in circumstance of extreme danger. The George Cross, named after the king, bears the image of St George vanquishing the dragon.

The image of St George also adorns many of the memorials built to honour those killed during World War One. 

George came to a city called Silene, in a country called Libya, where there was a dragon.  

The people in the city were feeding sheep to the dragon every day to stop it from attacking them. However, they ran out of sheep!  

They then had to nominate people from the town to be sacrificed to the animal. When the king's daughter was selected, he tried to protect her - but the people of the town refused. They argued that if they were expected to sacrifice their loved ones to the dragon, why shouldn't he? 

George came across the princess waiting to be sacrificed to the dragon, and she told him what was happening in the town. The dragon turned up and George is said to have fought with the dragon and captured it, putting a collar round its neck. The princess led the defeated dragon into the city, and people were terrified when they saw it! George told them not to worry and put their faith in God. The town converted to Christianity and eventually the dragon was killed. 

1. Statement: He lived during the 3rd Century. 
   • Answer: True. 
2. Statement: St George is just the patron saint of England
   • Answer: False. He also is the patron Saint for Aragon, Catalonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Germany, Greece, Moscow, Istanbul and Genoa.   
3. Statement: The flag of Saint George is England's national flag, which is a red cross on a white background.
   • Answer: True. It’s incorporated into the Union Flag (the UK's flag), too.
4. Statement: George believed he was born in a place called Cappadocia, which is now known as Turkey.
   • Answer: True. His parents were Christians and, after his father died, his mother took George to live in the Middle East, where she was originally from. 
5. Statement: St George visited England twice.
   • Answer: False. One thing that we do know about St George is that he may never have stepped foot in the country. Although St George never visited England, his reputation for virtue and holiness spread across Europe and his feast day, the 23 April, was celebrated in England from the 9th century onwards. The 23 April is now known as St George’s Day.
6. Statement: Tell everyone that George became a Roman soldier, but protested about how Rome treated Christian people badly.
   • Answer: True. He was put in prison and tortured because of this, but he refused to turn away from his religious beliefs. He was eventually executed. It’s said that the Roman Emperor's wife was so impressed by how George did not give up his faith that she became a Christian too. It’s believed that she was executed in the same way George had been.  

There was a brave knight called St George, who had lots of adventures, travelling around the world on his horse. On his travels, he found a village which was being terrorised by a cruel dragon, who lived in a nearby lake. The villagers gave things to the dragon to try and appease him, and feed his hunger, to stop the dragon from eating them.   

When St George learnt that the King’s daughter, the princess, was going to be eaten by the dragon, he bravely set off to save her. When the dragon heard St George coming, he roared with a sound louder than thunder. St George fought the dragon. The dragon was huge and had scales so hard that they broke George’s spear into pieces. But St George didn’t give up. He kept trying and finally killed the dragon with his sword. The village was free. The villagers were so grateful, they put on a big feast in St George’s honour. 

A long time ago, Rama, a great warrior prince, was married to a beautiful princess called Sita. Rama and Sita lived near an evil king, who was called Ravana. He had ten heads and twenty arms. 

Ravana wanted to marry Sita, so he tricked her and kidnapped her, and flew off with her in his chariot. Rama realised that Sita had been kidnapped. He went looking for her, and he met Hanuman, the monkey god, in the forest. 

Hanuman agreed to look for Sita. After a long, long search, he eventually found her on the island of Lanka. She was imprisoned in a beautiful garden. Hanuman gathered his monkey army and they prepared to battle Ravana. 

Rama and Hanuman began to battle Ravana. It was a massive battle and it seemed like Ravana would win. However, Rama produced a magical golden arrow and fired it at Ravana. It hit him in the chest. With Ravana defeated, Rama and Sita were reunited. Rama and Sita returned home. They found that everyone had lit lamps to guide them home, which is why people now light lamps on Diwali. 

Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights, and it celebrates a miracle that happened in Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago.  

Around 2,200 years ago, there was a Greek king was called Antiochus. His army marched into the Jewish people’s promised land, where Jewish people lived, to take over the land and its people. One of. Antiochus decided that all Jewish people should worship Greek gods. Jewish worship and reading the Jewish holy book, The Torah, was banned.  

After invading, Antiochus and his army attacked the temple in Jerusalem, which was a very important place for Jewish people. They killed lots of people and stole many holy objects, including the holy lamp, which had burned brightly every day and every night. Antiochus’ army threw out all the special oil that was used to keep the lamp burning, too. The Jewish people were really upset and angry about this but didn’t know what to do. 

A small, brave family of Jews called the Maccabees fought back against the king’s army. They wanted freedom to worship how they always had done. However, Antiochus and his army had more soldiers and even rode on elephants, but this didn’t stop the Maccabees. Amazingly, they beat Antiochus and his army and marched back into Jerusalem.  

When the Jews went back to their temple, they saw that it had nearly been destroyed. They cleaned and repaired the temple. When they were finished, they rededicated it to God. They did this by lighting a new sacred lamp on the altar. However, they found they only had one small jar of oil, which was only enough for one day. Miraculously, the lamp stayed alight for eight days!  

Every year since then, Jewish people have celebrated their festival of lights – Hanukkah. 

Long ago, Buddha was born as a tiny parrot, living happily in the forest. One day, lightning struck a tree, setting the forest on fire.  

The parrot cried out, telling everyone to escape. But, as she was leaving herself, she saw animals trapped, surrounded by the fire.  

Then, she had an idea of how to save them. She flew to the river and soaked her feathers in the water. Then she flew back over the fire, shaking the water off her wings to try to put out the fire.  

Some of the gods were floating overhead in their cloud palaces of ivory and gold. They happened to look down and see the little parrot flying among the flames. Some of the gods laughed and thought the parrot was foolish.  

But one of those gods, was impressed, and changed into a golden eagle and flew down towards the little parrot's fiery path. The god told her the parrot was hopeless, and she should save herself, but the parrot didn’t listen.   

The parrot flew bravely on through the smoke, going back and forth from the river. Her feathers became damaged, and her eyes sore and red.   

The god looked up and saw the other gods laughing and talking, while many animals cried out in pain and fear from the fire below. He became ashamed. Now, he just wanted to be like that brave little parrot and help.

So inspired by the parrot’s bravery and selflessness, the god began to cry. Streams of sparkling tears poured from his eyes and they washed down like rain. 

The eagle's tears put out the fire in the forest, on the animals and on the parrot. New trees began to grow—fresh shoots, stems, and leaves. Green grass grew on the burned ground. 

Where the teardrops sparkled on the parrot's wings, new feathers now grew, too. Red feathers, green feathers, yellow feathers, so many bright colours!  

All the animals looked at one another in amazement. They were safe and well. Not one had been harmed. Up above in the clear blue sky they could see their brave friend, the little parrot, looping and soaring in delight. When all hope was gone, somehow, he had saved them.  

‘Hurray!’ they cried, ‘Hurray for the brave little parrot and for the miraculous rain!’