St. Andrew's Day

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Saint Andrew's Day

St Andrew
Observed by	Scotland
Type	Bank holiday in Scotland.
Date	30 November
Celebrations	Bank holiday.

St. Andrew's Day is the feast of Saint Andrew, celebrated on 30 November each year. Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland and St. Andrew's Day is Scotland's official national day, although Burns' Night is more widely observed. In 2006, the Scottish Parliament designated the Day as an official bank holiday.

In Germany it is celebrated as Andreasnacht (German: St Andrew's Night), and in Austria with the custom of Andreasgebet (St Andrew's Prayer)

1 Scotland
2 Germany and Austria
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Scotland

[edit] Celebrations

Until recently, there has not been much celebration of St Andrew's Day in Scotland or around the world. However, the First Minister of Scotland, Jack McConnell has pledged to raise awareness of and encourage involvement in the celebration of St Andrew's Day on November 30.

For 2006, the Scottish Executive sponsored the following events:

Edinburgh- One Scotland Ceilidh and city centre party supported by music artists.
Glasgow- Ceilidh on Ice at George Square with traditional live musicians.
Stirling- Live music and dancing in Port Street featuring Stirling Highland Dancers.
Inverness- Filming in Falcon Square of local communities flying the flag for Scotland and celebrating the cultural diversity of the region with live music from local band Schiehallion.^[1]

In addition, Embassies of the United Kingdom around the world now promote St Andrew's Day with a series of Scottish themed events.

[edit] Bank Holiday

In 2006, the Scottish Parliament passed the St. Andrew's Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Act 2007, which designated the Day as an official bank holiday. If November 30 falls on a weekend, the next Monday is a bank holiday instead.

The notion that the Day should be an official bank holiday was first proposed by Dennis Canavan, Independent Member of the Scottish Parliament for Falkirk West in 2003.^[2]. However, the Bill he introduced to the Parliament was initially rejected as the Executive did not support it. A compromise deal was reached whereby the holiday would not be an additional entitlement. The First Minister stated that he believed that employers and employees should mark the day with a holiday, but that this should be as a substitute for an existing local holiday, rather than an additional one.^[3].

Although it is a bank holiday, banks are not required to close and employers are not required to give their employees the Day as a holiday.

[edit] Flag Day

St Andrew's Day is an official flag day in Scotland. The Scottish Executive's flag flying regulations state that the Flag of Scotland (The Saltire) shall fly on all its buildings with a flagpole.^[4] The Union Flag is also flown if the building has more than one flagpole. The arrangements for the United Kingdom Government in Scotland are the opposite. They fly the Union Flag, and will only fly the Saltire if there is more than one flagpole^[5]

The flying of the Saltire on St Andrew's Day is a recent development. Prior to 2002, the Scottish Executive followed the UK Government's flag days and would only fly the Union Flag on St Andrew's Day. This led to Members of the Scottish Parliament complaing that Scotland was the only country in the world that could not fly its national flag on its national day. The regulations were updated to state that the Saltire would not be removed and replaced by the Union Flag on buildings with only one flagpole.^[6]

The flying of the Union Flag from Edinburgh Castle on all days, including St Andrew's Day causes anger among some Scottish National Party politicians, who have argued that the Saltire should fly on November 30 instead.^[7] However, the Union Flag is flown by the British Army at the Castle as it still an official garrison, and all Army installations fly the Union Flag at ratio 3:5.