St Andrew's Day Celebrations backed by Churches

A member of the Scottish Parliament is bidding to make St Andrew's Day a national holiday. Dennis Canavan, an Independent politician has proposed a backbench Bill in the Scottish Parliament to make November 30 a day of great celebration across the whole of the nation.

St Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland, and is celebrated each year on 30th November on St Andrew's Day in Scotland. However, the nation does not call the day a national holiday, and so celebrations are often mild.

Mr Canavan said that he already has cross-party support for the proposed idea of making the day a national holiday of more than 50 Members of the Scottish Parliament.

Included in the campaign is Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who is the Head of the Catholic Church in Scotland who has stated his view that the country's patron saint has been "taken for granted".

Information on the life of St Andrew is in fact relatively sparse. He is recorded as being a fisherman in Galilee, and was one of the first disciples to be called by Jesus, and brought his elder brother Peter Simon to Christ also.

Stories of St Andrew's life record him as being responsible for spreading the foundations of the Gospel throughout Asia Minor and Greece, and traditional beliefs are that he was crucified by the Romans in Patras, Southern Greece for proclaiming the Gospel.

The Scottish flag symbolises the death and cross of St Andrew in the diagonal shape in the national flag.

Canavan is requesting that a public holiday be given to celebrate "Scotland's multi-cultural and multi-ethnic traditions". He commented, "St Andrew is our patron saint and also an international figure, a unifying figure and therefore I think the celebration of St Andrew's Day could be a national celebration of Scotland’s identity."