Different ways to celebrate St George’s Day

Every year on 23 April – in honour of St George, the patron saint of Scouts – Scouts across the UK hold some form of celebration. Traditionally, St George’s Day celebrations have consisted of parades and faith services and, for some, these types of events remain popular.

However, for many Districts this tradition no longer fully engages or reflects the make-up of their members, and they've hosted their celebrations in a different way.

The guidance that follows incorporates examples from various Districts that might inspire you to try something a little different this year, ensuring your event is engaging for young people and welcoming to all.

Choosing a venue

St George’s Day's a great opportunity to bring people together and to promote Scouts in your community, so it’s important the venue for your celebration isn’t exclusive.

Scout events should be open to all, whatever their faith or beliefs. The use of a non-religious building or an open-air venue is a good starting point to ensuring the event is visible in the community and is welcoming to people of all faiths.

This year, West Wirral District decided to move their St George’s Day event from a church to Wirral Country Park, which is a venue that’s open to the public and not exclusively aimed at one faith.

‘People were walking by and they would stop and talk to us,’ said Phillip Richardson, the District Commissioner, ‘Everyone could see young people outside enjoying themselves. It was also a great opportunity for parents and carers to join in.’

Choosing a venue that was open to all was very positive. A larger number of Groups attended the event than ever before and, according to Phillip, so did the number of visits they received to their West Wirral website.

‘For about two weeks after the celebration, the visits and enquiries to our website were around double what we normally expect to get,’ he told us.

For Cambridge District, the venue they chose for their celebration this year was Abington Woods campsite. According to Chris Ward, the Group Scout Leader, the day was focused on activities and adventure. They found having the celebration in an open venue was ‘more attractive for young people of different age ranges’.

Shaped by young people

Young people should always be able to mould their Scouting experience and St George’s Day is no exception. For the Blacktoft Beacon District, their approach to this event depends entirely on feedback from their young people.

When she became District Commissioner five years ago, Linda knew she wanted to make St George’s Day more of a celebration and she wanted young people to be at the forefront of shaping the event and giving feedback.

For St George’s Day, these activities focus on whether the young people enjoyed the event, which activities they should bring back next year, and what aspects just simply didn’t work.

‘We’re a very big District so during YouShape Month, we aim to engage the whole District to find out what we should do for St George’s Day,’ explained Linda, ‘We send activity ideas and games to volunteers, so they can ask for feedback from their young people.’

This year, Blacktoft Beacon District's event took place at the Beverly Racecourse and the district's 13 groups gathered for a celebration. The day was filled with activities, including archery, a craft activity tent and a climbing wall. But, most importantly, all the activities were ones that young people chose for the event.

Did you know - you can use our YouShape resources to make sure your event’s shaped by young people?

Inclusive to all

Scouts in Peterborough celebrated St George’s Day this year with a multi-faith ceremony at the Ferry Meadows Country Park. They wanted to make sure that their event was welcoming to all members of their District. The decision to hold a multi-faith event came from District Commissioner, Jacquie Smith, who wanted the event to be more representative of the District’s diversity.

‘Peterborough's diverse. Our members reflect a variety of faiths, and we wanted to include and welcome everybody. We decided to do something non-denominational, so everyone could feel represented during the service,' said Adam Pallister, the District Communications Manager.

‘Afterwards, we received some excellent feedback from people saying it was much more representative of what Scouts is and what we do,’ Adam told us.

A time to renew your Scouts Promise

The Promise helps all young people and adults keep the fundamentals of Scouts in mind. To make sure it’s meaningful, it’s important that every member can make the Promise in a way that truly reflects their personal beliefs. 

Always remember that St George’s Day is the time of the year when we get to come together as a community and reflect on the principles that underpin our movement. Making sure that those celebrations are reflective of our diversity and of our values is absolutely vital to the future of Scouts.