CELEBRATORY CUPPA: Actresses posing with a cup of tea during a festival of English food in Trafalgar Square on Wednesday. -- PHOTO: AP

Little wonder many English people feel an identity crisis.

Wednesday, April 23, was St George's Day, England's national day. But it is not a public holiday, and for decades it passed largely unnoticed by most of the population - a far cry from its rowdy, world-famous Irish counterpart, St Patrick's Day.

'We tend to be a bit more reserved. It's an English trait,' said Ms Janis Whincup, 54, who attended the celebrations with a red-and-white St George's flag draped over her shoulders.

Now, however, that may be changing. St George's Day is experiencing a revival, as is the idea of Englishness itself.

Outside the realm of sport, English patriotism and the St George flag were long shunned by liberal-minded Britons, regarded as the preserve of right-wing 'Little Englanders' steeped in nostalgia and a mistrust of foreigners.

Politicians promoted the notion of Britishness - an amalgamated identity open to native and foreign-born citizens, and to English, Welsh and Scottish alike.

But with devolution of significant political power from London to Scotland and Wales - both of which have gained legislatures and a new assertiveness over the last decade - that British identity has begun to fray.

English people make up 50 million of Britain's 60 million inhabitants, and many feel it's time they celebrated their own distinct heritage - if only they can agree on what it is.

Politicians have begun, cautiously, to embrace Englishness. For the first time on the saint's day, the St George's Cross flag flew on Wednesday above 10 Downing Street, the residence of Prime Minister Gordon Brown - a Scot.

'The Prime Minister's view is that of course we should celebrate our Britishness,' said Mr Brown's spokesman, Mr Michael Ellam. 'But celebrating our Britishness does not mean we cannot also celebrate our Englishness, Scottishness, Welshness or Northern Irishness.'

There are signs of an unofficial revival, too. Pubs across the country planned celebratory roast beef dinners on Wednesday.

When England's rugby team won the World Cup in 2003, and when its multiracial cricket squad beat Australia in 2005, jubilant fans waved the flag of St George.

But it remains, especially for immigrants and ethnic minority Britons, a touchy symbol. There were few flags on display at the officially sanctioned Trafalgar Square celebration, which focused on one aspect of England unlikely to offend anything but the palate: food.

The preservation group, English Heritage, which has launched a campaign encouraging people to celebrate St George's Day, published a 'how to' guide including traditionally English recipes - from cheese scones to chicken tikka masala, an Anglo-Indian hybrid that rivals fish and chips as the country's most popular dish.

Beyond that, debate rages about what it means to be English. Are the English an Anglo-Saxon race, or a polyglot nation built on successive waves of immigration, from Vikings and Normans to Indians, Pakistanis, Jamaicans, Poles and Lithuanians?

A new breed of 'civic nationalists', including the singer Billy Bragg and the writer Paul Kingsnorth, argue for a sense of patriotism that embraces multiculturalism and membership in Europe.

In a recent article for the New Statesman magazine, Mr Kingsnorth called it patriotism 'attached to place not race, geography not biology'.

Mr Peter Tatchell, a civil liberties campaigner, argued that St George should be adopted as a symbol of 'freedom, dissent and multiculturalism'.

As for St George, he is thought to have been a soldier of the Roman Empire from Cappadocia, in present-day Turkey. The story of him slaying a dragon that was terrorising a village has been circulating since the Middle Ages. He is also the patron saint of Germany, Portugal and Georgia and the city of Beirut.

'St George's parentage embodies multiculturalism and his life expresses the values of English liberalism and dissent,' said Mr Tatchell.

ASSOCIATED PRESS