Today on the radio I heard about the Lovely Cup, which is something they are doing in Sheffield to celebrate St. George's Day. St. George's Day is a bit like St. Patrick's Day, but without the beer. One would think with a dragon as the symbol, they would be able to do something much cooler than the Irish, with a little green man as a symbol. Instead, St. George's Day has somehow gotten associated with racism (England for just white people rather than immigrants). The result is that a lot of people have mixed feeling about the English flag and St. George's Day.

To try to encourage unity and a pride in Sheffield and England, the City Council has introduced the Lovely Cup tradition. Apparently one of the kings a long time ago had his drink poisoned by someone else at the court. After that happened, they came up with the idea for the cup. The cup is so large you have to use two hands to hold it (so you can't stab anyone while holding it). It was also passed around the room so that everyone had to drink from it, making poisoning it effectively suicide.

On the radio they said bringing back this cup for St. George's Day was a neat way of building trust and friendship in the community. I'm all for having ceremonies like this, but surely the history of the cup is more about mistrust than trust.