St. David's Day - The National Day of Wales

A day of parades, concerts and eisteddfodau (festivals of music, language and culture)

    Photo by Catrin Ellis on Unsplash

Happy St. David’s Day to everybody in Wales and to all my Welsh fans - there are quite a few! All across Wales today people will be celebrating and wearing a daffodil or leek to mark the occasion and anybody with a Welsh heritage will be bursting with pride.

The 1^st of March is St. David’s Day in Wales - Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant - in Welsh which is pronounced Dee- th -(as in though), Gw-oil, Dough-ee Sant (ant with an ‘s’ before it.) 

The Welsh are very patriotic and take their national day seriously, and are proud of their heritage. School children dress up in traditional Welsh costumes, especially the girls, who wear black bonnets with a white lace frill to match their red dresses with black and white checked aprons, or ‘pinnies’ to coin an old phrase, and red paisley shawls.  There are lots of variations but red, black and white are the main colours.  There is great excitement throughout the Principality as festivals of music, dance and celebration of the Welsh language take place.

Traditional festivities include wearing daffodils and leeks, recognised symbols of Wales and Saint David, eating traditional Welsh food including cawl and bara brith and women wearing traditional Welsh dress. An increasing number of cities and towns across Wales including Cardiff, Swansea and Aberystwyth also put on parades throughout the day - Wikipedia

The Welsh national anthem, which is sung before every major sporting event but particularly at rugby matches, has some beautiful words.  Here is a translation:-