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| Who is this Stan Drew anyway? |
I am a proud Scot. I know my country's history, I embrace it's culture, and I campaign for Scottish independence. I also say a firm NO to making St Andrew's Day a public holiday. Many may wonder why this should be.
30 November, St Andrew's Day, is the feast day of Scotland's Patron Saint. In 2017 that is an anachronism, particularly in a Scotland which at the least pays small regard to religion, and at the most may be overwhelmingly atheist. A Survation Poll carried out by the Humanist Society Scotland in September 2017 produced some staggering results, which surprised even this hardened old atheist.
In the study of 1,016 Scots adults, a whacking 72.4% - almost three quarters - said they were not religious, and 58% said they did not belong to a religion. These figures were up quite considerably from the previous one in 2011, when 58% said they were not religious.
Scotland, unlike England, is not even an officially Christian country. England has the Church of England as the state religion, with the monarch as it's head. It has been this way ever since King Henry VIII of England established the Church of England in 1534, with himself as the head of it. The Church of Scotland, disestablished in 1929, has always been fiercely Presbyterian and recognises no intercessor between mankind and God. Even Queen Elizabeth II, although Queen of Scots in her own right, when attending church in Scotland enjoys no special privilege or position within Kirk hierarchy, but does so purely as any other parishioner.
And just as Scotland is not officially a Christian country, neither can it be said to be so culturally any more. Not only due to the overwhelming number of those who count themselves as not religious, but by the dint of now being a multicultural country, which means we are also a multi-faith country.
The Scotland 2011 Census showed that after Christianity, the next largest named religion is Islam, with 77,000 followers (1.4% of the population), then Hindu with 16,000 (0.3%), Buddhist (not a religion but a belief system with no creator gods) at 13,000 (0.2%), Sikh at 9,000 (0.2%), and Jewish with 6,000 (0.1%). Apart from those named religions, 15,000 stated they were of "Another Religion" (0.3%).
Yet despite this, on St Andrew's Day 2017, the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, gave her St Andrew's Day message, speaking of the charity of Saint Andrew, and using that message to announce plans to eradicate homelessness in Scotland.
Whilst I wish the First Minister the best of luck, and support her wholeheartedly in that endeavour, it would appear that in Scotland the Christian tail is wagging the atheist / multi-faith dog. Having St Andrew's Day as a national holiday could only ever exacerbate that.
If there is one thing I think every Scot - Nat, Unionist, or indifferent - can be very proud of, it is just how very welcoming we are. How we are a multicultural society who takes the world in and makes them our own. If we were to have a national holiday based on a Christian saint's day, how can we ever claim to be multicultural or accepting? The simple answer is we cannot.
What would people do on St Andrew's Day anyway? I am writing this on 30 November 2017, and I had to take a day off work because of workmen coming. What have I done? Well, it is bloody freezing outside, so apart from running along the shops for some provisions, and darting back to the house damned quick, I spent most of it on social media, and doing some online Christmas shopping.
Trust me, that's what Scotland would do with a national holiday at the end of November; Christmas shopping.
There should be a national holiday to celebrate Scotland, but St Andrew's Day is not it. I for one propose 6 April.
6 April was the day in 1320 upon which the lords of Scotland signed the Declaration of Arbroath; a letter to Pope John XXII, asserting Scotland's right as a free nation, and asking him to recognise that, and Robert the Bruce as King of Scots. The declaration contains the well-known paragraph Sir Bernard de Linton penned, which stirs the heart of every Scot worthy of calling themselves such;
"For so long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never shall we, upon any condition, be subject to the dominion of the English. It is in truth, not for money, nor honour, nor gold we are fighting, but for liberty alone, that which no good man lays down, but with his life itself."
In 1999, New York City celebrated 6 April as "Tartan Day". Since then, Tartan Day events have spread across the USA, celebrating Scots culture; yet Scotland has nothing similar.
I say that Scotland adopts this date for a national holiday, perhaps calling it "Declaration Day" Being at the start of April, it is at the beginning of Spring, which may afford us better weather for a national holiday. People will certainly be in better spirits as the days are getting longer, and it would resurrect the spirit of the Spring Galas of the past. It would be a day that everyone, regardless of faith or lack thereof, culture, background, could get involved in, if they count themselves to be a Scot; born here of long lineage, born of immigrant stock, or who has come here and counts themselves as an "adoptive Scot" (we certainly adopt any and all of you).
And no, before anyone says it, it would not be "anti-English". The Wars of Independence were of Scots fighting for freedom against tyranny, not against the English through any imagined hatred. Strange as it may seem, you can celebrate your country's history without hating countries we once fought.
So, let us have our Declaration Day, 6 April, as a national holiday, and keep St Andrew's Day for it's dwindling number of believers, and for Christmas shopping.
