St David's Day

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This is the day when staunch Welshmen wear leeks in their caps. According to the old rhyme: "Eat leeks in March and garlic in May, All the year after the doctors may play" - sound advice, as these are now recognised as health-promoting foods. St David is said to have lived for 147 years, so perhaps he followed this prescription.

St David’s Day takes place on 1st March each year. It is the feast of St David, the Patron Saint of Wales and the Welsh people. It commemorates the anniversary of his death in 589 and was declared the Welsh National Day in the 18th century.

St David’s Day is not a national holiday (neither are the patron saints' days of England or Scotland), although many Welsh employers close either for the whole day or the afternoon. However, according to a poll conducted in 2006 for the BBC, some 87% of the Welsh want the day to be declared a Bank Holiday, with 65% being prepared to lose another holiday day to ensure this. The practice of giving children half-day holidays from school is still not official policy, but generally tolerated.

To celebrate their National Day, many Welsh people, especially children take part in eisteddfods of singing, dancing and recitals.

Two National Emblems – the Daffodil and the Leek (St David’s personal symbol) - may be worn on St David's day. Some women and girls also dress up in traditional Welsh costume: a long woollen skirt, white blouse, woollen shawl and a distinctive Welsh hat. The Flag of Saint David is flown from most public buildings as well as from many private premises.

Outside Wales the day is celebrated by Welsh people around the world, and in places where a lot of Welsh people live there is often a Society of St David which holds special celebrations on 1st March, as well as meeting regularly through the year.

As saints days are not observed on Ash Wednesday, in 2006 St David’s Day was officially moved to 28th February by the Roman Catholic Church, and 2nd March by the Anglican Church in Wales.

Saint David

St David (known in Welsh as Dewi Sant) was born around about 500 AD. He is said to have died on 1st March, probably in the year 589, in St David’s, Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Unlike many saints from this period (especially St George, the patron saint of England), quite a lot is known about St David and his life. He was the son of a member of the Royal Family of Wales, probably a King of Ceredigion, possibly Sandde. He was educated at Whitland in Caermarthenshire under Saint Paulinus of Wales.

He became a renowned teacher and preacher, rising to the position of Bishop and founding monastic settlements and churches in Brittany, Cornwall and his native Wales at a time when many areas of the British Isles were still mostly pagan. He also went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Rome.

St David led an austere life and expected his monks to do the same. They were allowed no personal possessions. Living on a diet of bread with salt and herbs, washed down with water, they worked hard on the land, not using draft animals but pulling the plough themselves. When not working, they devoted their time to prayer, meditation, reading and writing.

He performed several miracles. The most well known took place when those at the back of a crowd to which he was preaching complained they could not see or hear him, when the ground beneath his feet rose to lift him and a white dove appeared on David’s shoulder, a sign of God’s grace and blessing. This is said to have occurred at the Synod of Llanddewi Brefi, where a village of the same name now stands.

It is said that David lived to be over 100 years old. His death was on 1st March 589, and he was buried at St David’s Cathedral which stands on the site of a monastery he founded in the valley of Glyn Rhosyn, Pembrokeshire. His shrine became a popular pilgrimage destination in the Middle Ages.