St Andrew’s Day falls on 30 November and is Scotland’s national day. Since 2007 it has been a bank holiday in Scotland — though a voluntary one for most employers, which means a good many Scots work through it.
Andrew
One of the twelve apostles, a fisherman from Galilee and the brother of Simon Peter. He was, by tradition, martyred at Patras in Greece, crucified on an X-shaped cross because he considered himself unworthy to die on the same shape as Christ.
That diagonal cross is the saltire, and it is the whole reason Scotland’s flag looks as it does.
Like George, Andrew never came to Scotland. The connection is a relic story: bones said to be his were reputedly brought to Fife by a monk in the eighth century, to the settlement that became St Andrews, which grew into a major pilgrimage site.
The cloud in the sky
The founding legend of the Saltire is dated to 832. King Óengus of the Picts, facing a larger Anglian army near what is now Athelstaneford in East Lothian, prayed for deliverance and saw a white diagonal cross of cloud against the blue sky. He won, and adopted the shape as his standard.
The Saltire is one of the oldest national flags in continuous use anywhere, and Athelstaneford maintains a small flag heritage centre on the strength of it.
What happens on the day
Observance is real but modest, and it is more a civic occasion than a popular one:
- Ceilidhs — traditional dances with a caller, held in village halls, schools and universities.
- Scottish food — haggis, neeps and tatties, cullen skink, cranachan.
- Free entry to many Historic Environment Scotland properties.
- The Saltire flown from public buildings, which has been the Scottish Government’s standing instruction since 2002.
- Torchlight processions and festivals in some towns, marking the start of Scotland’s winter season.
The bigger Scottish occasions
St Andrew’s Day is genuinely not Scotland’s largest celebration, and Scots will tell you so. Two others outrank it:
- Hogmanay — New Year, historically far bigger than Christmas in Scotland, with two public holidays.
- Burns Night on 25 January — the poet’s birthday, marked with a formal supper, the Address to a Haggis, whisky and speeches. Observed enthusiastically at home and by Scots worldwide.
The 30 November holiday was created partly to give Scotland a national day comparable to Ireland’s, and it has grown steadily rather than dramatically.
The other Andrews
He is also patron saint of Greece, Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Barbados, and the saltire appears in the flags of several of them — including, indirectly, in the Union Flag, where the white diagonal on blue is Scotland’s contribution.