Various Christian countries celebrate Saint George's Day in April 23,
including Brazil (a favorite Saint also for syncretic cults, where he
becomes Umbanda's Ogum).
I suddenly connected this festive date with
Nabokov's birthday.*.
Assembling a few links through the internet I got:
1. A Stanford Announcement in 2011: Tomorrow, April
23, is William Shakespeare‘s birthday. It’s also William Wordsworth‘s
birthday, and Vladimir Nabokov‘s birthday, and Alexander Pushkin‘s birthday –
and St. George’s Day, to boot. It’s also the 8th annual “A Company of Authors”
celebration at the Stanford Humanities Center...
2. Article by Yuri Leving: To Slay the Dragon:
St. George Complex in Nabokov’s Story “Spring in Fialta”. Russian Language
Journal. East Lansing, MI (RLJ). 52:171-173, 1998 Winter-Spring-Fall, pp.
159-78.
3. Gerard De Vries,Donald Barton Johnson,Liana
Ashenden "St. George's feast day is April 23, which is Nabokov's
birthday. In many of his books, Nabokov's presence can be noticed in many
different disguises and St. George as his representative is discerned as well as
Pnin and Spring in Fialta...
Vladimir Nabokov and the Art of
Painting, pg.76.
4. John Burt
Foster: "contrast between the grotesquely
sexualized memento of the natural scene and Victor's careful description of
Mount Saint George as he remembers it. ...Hence Victor's lyrical tribute to
Mount Saint George at the beginning of Spring in Fialta can function as
an undisputed given..
Nabokov's Art of Memory and
European Modernism. Ch. Towards France, p.140
5. Julian
Connolly: ".Elsewhere I suggested that Nabokov's mention of Jan Van Eyck's
materpiece intricately alludes to Nabokov's autorial presence in the novel. We
may recall that the painting contains the image of, as Nabokov put it, "a
super,rigged up as St. George" (Pnin,154, ch6), in whose armor a
reflection of the artist can be seen. In this context, van Eyck's self-portrait
as a reflection in the armor of St.George also implies the authorial presence by
way of birthday, since Nabokov celebrated his birthday on St. George's Day
(April 23). In addition, van Eyck's self-representation could also draw
Nabokov's attention as it appears on the side (na boku) of St.George's
armor. Further, by mentioning van Eyck's painging, Nabokov implies his own
authorial presence both chromesthetically and anagrammatically: van Eyck's
vermilion had and hose and a dark blue mantle in the image that is reflected in
St. George's armor, could also attract Nabokov, since "V" and "S," the initials
of his first name, Vladimir, and of his pen-name, Sirin, belong, in the writer's
chromesthetic system, as I have already mentioned above, to the red and blue
groups, while the Russian rendition of the color combination, red-and-blue,
krasna-sinii, anagrammatically suggest Sirin."
Setting his myriad faces
in his text : Complex Encoding p; 29- Nabokov and His Fiction: New
Perspectives, 1999 -
books.google.com.br/books?isbn=0521632838...
...........................................................................................................................................................
*From Wiki: Saint George's Day is the feast
day of Saint George. It is celebrated by various Christian churches and by the
several nations, kingdoms, countries, and cities of which Saint George is the
patron saint. Saint George's Day is celebrated on 23 April, the traditionally
accepted date of Saint George's death in AD 303. For Eastern Orthodox Churches
which use the Julian calendar, 23 April corresponds to 6 May on the Gregorian
calendar. As Easter often falls close to Saint George's Day, the church
celebration of the feast may be moved from 23 April. In England and Catalonia,
where it is observed as a solemn feast, for 2011 and 2014 the Anglican and
Catholic calendars celebrate Saint George's Day on the first Monday after Easter
Week (2 May and 28 April, respectively).[1][2][3] Similarly, the Eastern
Orthodox celebration of the feast moves accordingly to the first Monday after
Easter or, as it is sometimes called, to the Monday of Bright
Week.