IT was St George's Day yesterday, but as is often the case with celebrations that fall during the week, it will be enjoyed more fully this weekend.

In Salisbury there will be a Punch and Judy show, cream teas and assorted workshops at the Guildhall.

It's a nice way to encourage pride in our heritage, and continue much-loved traditions, but as a nation I’m still not sure we’ve nailed the concept of being proud to be English, or even how we differentiate between feeling English and feeling British.

We could easily reel off things we associate with ‘Englishness’ – strawberries and cream at Wimbledon, maypole dancing, complaining about the price of the strawberries and cream at Wimbledon but still paying, but how we feel is a trickier concept to grasp.

I opened up the discussion on Facebook, asking my English, Welsh and Scottish friends what made them feel British, and what made them feel English/Welsh/Scottish.

A Scottish friend struck upon something, saying: “My experience is that English people feel British, and Scots and Welsh feel Scottish and Welsh.”

English friends backed up her point, with one stating: “I don’t consider myself English as this seems too separatist to Wales and Scotland.”

Another English friend said: “The thing that makes me feel the most English is my total lack of any sort of patriotism (I quite like our cheese though).”

Maybe the antipathy we often feel is because we don’t really know what we’re meant to be celebrating. The national day of many countries around the world celebrates freedom – whether in the USA, France, India or Brazil – while St Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday.

Until I did some research I had no idea that St George was a Turkish soldier who fought against the Romans in the Crusades and was adopted by the English (as well as the Czech Republic, Spain, Iraq, and more) as patron saint, which doesn’t really have much bearing on our modern lives.

Even after much thought and discussion, I’m still not sure how I define feeling English – which it seems is a very English trait.