St Andrew's Day: Edinburgh Castle lights up blue to celebrate Scotland's Patron Saint

The Capital’s skyline is looking particularly spectacular this evening as the Castle lights up blue.

The Castle is lit up blue this evening to celebrate St Andrew's Day. Picture credit: Allan Crow.

November 30 marks St Andrew’s Day, the Patron Saint of Scotland and Edinburgh Castle has lit up blue to mark the moment.

Despite coronavirus halting many of the normal celebrations, many will be tucking to a haggis dinner and a dram in the comfort of their homes.

St Andrew was not actually himself, Scottish, despite lending his name to our country’s flag and our oldest university.

He was from Galilee and was one of one of Jesus’ twelve apostles.

Relics of St Andrew were said to have been brought to Scotland by Saint Regulus, a Patras monk, and are now resting in the town of his name in Fife.

St Andrew is also patron saint of Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Greece.

November 30 was made an official bank holiday in Scotland in 2006 by the Scottish Parliament.

A message from the Editor:Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.