(left to right) Glen Wright, Jeff Edwards and Ray Horn enjoy a pint during St George's Day celebrations in Leadenhall Market, in the City financial district of London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 23, 2013. Photo credit should read: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire
(Picture: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)

Happy St George’s Day! Did it creep up on you? It’s more than likely, since almost two-thirds of Britons have no idea that our saint’s day falls on 23 April each year.

So now that we’ve reminded you, why not kick off your day of celebration with everything you need to know about George the dragon-slayer…

Who was St George? St George is the patron saint of England. The story goes that he slayed a man-eating dragon and saved a princess at the same time.

Yep, sounds like something out of Game of Thrones, but the myth of George and the dragon has been kicking around for at least a thousand years, and probably a lot longer.

So did he really exist? Yes – but in reality, St George is believed to have been a third-century Roman soldier who was imprisoned, tortured and executed for protesting against Emperor Diocletian’s torture of Christians.

Naturally there are a few myths surrounding the real St George, too: he was supposed to have survived being boiled alive in molten lead, forced to swallow poison and crushed between two spiked wheels, before finally being beheaded.

Dave Hambrook drinks beer outside the Princess of Wales pub while dressed as St George, the patron saint of England, during St George's day in London April 23, 2011.    REUTERS/Kevin Coombs (BRITAIN  - Tags: RELIGION SOCIETY) - RTR2LJAU
Probably not the real St George. (Picture: REUTERS/Kevin Coombs)

But he wasn’t English? So why is he our patron saint? It’s believed that the myth of St George is similar to an another Anglo-Saxon myth, and it represents the traditional English ideals of honour, bravery and gallantry. The story of St George represents good driving away evil – in medieval mythology, the devil was depicted as a dragon.

Until the middle ages, our patron saint was Edmund the Martyr, who was king of East Anglia in about 855 AD.

What other things is St George patron saint of? Quite a few countries: Aragon, Catalonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Germany and Greece to name a few.

Among his other patronages are soldiers, archers, cavalry and chivalry, farmers and field workers, riders and saddlers, and the Scouts. He is patron saint against herpes, leprosy, plague and syphilis.

How can I celebrate St George’s Day? Unlike the Scots with St Andrew’s Day and the Irish with St Patrick, we don’t mark England’s saint’s day with a national holiday. We used to, but the practice was killed off in the 18th century. Likewise, we don’t actually have that many traditions associated with St George’s Day.

But there are a few ways you can mark the day – the most traditional one is to wear a red rose (England’s national flower) in your buttonhole.

It’s William Shakespeare’s birthday too – he was born and died on 23 April – so you could brush up on your Henry V (in which St George is mentioned) or Romeo and Juliet.

Or, you could just pop to the pub for a nice big plate of fish and chips, or a good old English pint. Just remember, it is a Wednesday…