From FB:
“April 23rd is dedicated in England to the country’s patron saint, St. George, and is a remnant of an ancient festival of fertility, as well as a traditional day of parades of dragons and hobbyhorses. St. George is a version of the Greek chimera-slayer, Bellerophon, and the northern European hero, Sigurd the Dragonslayer – the Siegfried of Wagner’s opera.
Few facts are known about the actual St. George, other than he died a martyr’s death around 303 CE. He is thought to have been a soldier and visions of him during the First Crusade were reported as omens of victory, leading to his adoption as the patron saint of arms and chivalry.
The legend of St. George and the Dragon, in which the hero fights and kills a dragon to save the life of a princess (and to secure the conversion to Christianity of her father’s subjects) dates from the 12th century. Like other dragon legends before and since, it is an allegory of the triumph of good over evil, of light over darkness, or, in a pagan interpretation, of Spring over Winter.
In Bermuda, April 23 is Peppercorn Day on which the Masonic Lodge that occupies the Old State House on St. George Island must pay its annual rent of one peppercorn to the Governor. The ‘rent’ is collected with much pomp and circumstance in a traditional civic and military ceremony dating from 1816.”
Song Of Ajax 