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Flag Of Wales - Welsh
Wales - Welsh National Flag The Red Dragon
| ST DAVID |
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Saint David's Day
Saint David is the patron
saint of Wales, and unlike many
national patron saints, was actually born in that country.
Most Welshmen are fervently
patriotic on their national day -
March 1st - and none so much as the ex-patriate Welshman!
THE ORIGINS OF THE FESTIVAL:
David,
also known in Wales as Dewi Sant, was born some time
in the middle of the 6th century, about 542 AD, in Pembrokeshire,
south
Wales, and is thus the only one of the British Saints
to be Patron of his home country. His mother, Non, was later
canonised
in her own right, and his father was Sant, son of
Ceredig Prince of Cardigan, which makes David, according to
legend,
the uncle of King Arthur. Despite his noble birth he
soon took to the monastic life and was noted for his austerity :
he
drank only water, not the beer and wine that was usual at
the time, and worked long hours and studied hard. He was a
colleague
of Saint Columba and Saint Finnegan and rose rapidly
within the clergy and became famous in his own lifetime.
David
founded a monastery in the town of Menevia
(later renamed in his honour) and even went on a pilgrimage
to Jerusalem,
a long and hazardous journey in those days.
He was known as a powerful orator and many legends grew up
about miraculous
events around him. The most famous is one
which tells how the people at the back of the crowd were
unable to hear
him preach so he spread a handkerchief on the
ground and stood on it. The ground under his feet swelled
up and everyone
could hear and see him; local legend points
to the isolated hills just outside the town of St. Davids,
at Llandewi
Brefi (Llandewi means "David's church") as being
the hills created on that occasion.
David died on March 1st in 589
AD and he was canonised in
1120; his feast has been celebrated on the anniversary of
his death ever since.
The heraldic emblem of Wales
is Y Ddraig Goch, the Red Dragon.
The Red Dragon was originally a griffin on the standard of a
Roman legion headquartered
in North Wales, but was soon
associated with the fighting dragons imprisoned by Lludd
and Llefelys. The significance
of these dragons was pointed
out by Myrddin, the Merlin of Arthurian legend, in the time
of the British king Vortigern.
The two dragons, one white,
one red, had fought for many years. At first it seemed likely
that the white dragon would
win, but in the end the red dragon
overcame the white. Myrddin explained that the Welsh would
ultimately, after a
long period of oppression, overcome the
foreign invaders and maintain their language, lands and freedom.
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MY ST DAVID'S DAY POEM
He is the patron
saint of Wales in the UK
On this feast day is
celebrated each year in Wales with fun laughter and cheer for everyone who visits Wales on this day.
Oh how happy this day
is for you filled with children singing and playing, street parties galore bringing beautiful memories for you to cherish Oh
me Oh my what sheer delight that you will want to remember and cherish for the rest of your life :-)
The heraldic emblem of Wales
is Y Ddraig Goch, the Red Dragon.
The Red Dragon was originally a griffin on the standard of a
Roman legion headquartered
in North Wales, but was soon
associated with the fighting dragons imprisoned by Lludd
and Llefelys. The significance
of these dragons was pointed
out by Myrddin, the Merlin of Arthurian legend, in the time
of the British king Vortigern.
The two dragons, one white,
one red, had fought for many years. At first it seemed likely
that the white dragon would
win, but in the end the red dragon
overcame the white. Myrddin explained that the Welsh would
ultimately, after a
long period of oppression, overcome the
foreign invaders and maintain their language, lands and freedom.
The emblem of Wales is the leek,
arising from an occasion when
a troop of Welsh were unable to distinguish each other from
a troop of the English enemy
dressed in similar fashion. They
pulled up handfuls of coarse grass, with its white roots and
green leaves, and stuffed
them in their caps
(in much the same way as the Plantagenets adopted the broom -
plante a genet - as their badge and
emblem.) The grass became
stylised into a leek - the same shape and colour but bigger -
and adopted as the badge of
the Welsh.
An alternative emblem developed in recent years is the
daffodil, which looks similar to a leek until it
flowers,
and was preferred by the English government as it did not have
the same military and nationalistic associations
as the leek.
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MY THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING
WEBSITE ABOVE FOR THE INFORMATION
I HAVE USED FOR MY PAGE
John Ball, as the photographer.
~SigCity~
WELSH RECIPE
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Bara Brith
1 tsp sugar
quarter
pint (150 ml) lukewarm milk
1 tbsp dried yeast
14 oz (400g) strong plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice
3
oz (75 g) Demerara sugar
3 oz (75 g) butter
1 lb (450 g) mixed dried fruit
1 beaten egg
clear honey to glaze
Method:
Dissolve the sugar in the milk, sprinkle
the yeast on and leave
for 10 minutes in a warm place or until frothy.
Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl, rub in
the butter,
stir in the sugar and dried fruit. Pour the yeast mixture and
egg in and mix until the dough leaves the
sides of the bowl clean.
Knead on a floured surface for about ten minutes until smooth
and elastic; put back in the
bowl, cover with a damp teacloth
and leave until it has doubled in size.
Knead for another 2 minutes then shape to
fit a greased 2lb(900g)
loaf tin. Cover again and leave to rise until it is above the
top of the tin. Bake in a pre-heated
oven at 350*F (180*C)
Gas Mark 4 for an hour and a quarter. Turn onto a wire cooling
rack and glaze with honey whilst
still warm; when cooled, slice
and serve buttered.
| Daffodil The flower of Wales |
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Location of Wales on a British
Isles Map
Wales, England, Scotland
and Northern Ireland (Ulster), make up
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Great Britain, together with
the Republic of Ireland (Eire),
form the geographical grouping known as the British Isles.
The map (right) shows where Wales
is located in the British Isles.
Notice that Wales is not part of England!
Towns and Cities in Wales
Wales has only three major cities: Cardiff (the capital of Wales),
Swansea,
and Newport. All three are situated in the more densely
populated South Wales.
National Emblems
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The Red Dragon
The Red Dragon
is the heraldic symbol of Wales,
and is incorporated into the
Welsh national flag.
According to tradition, the red
dragon appeared on
a crest borne by Arthur, whose
father Uthr Bendragon,
had seen a dragon in the sky
predicting that he would
be king.
The dragon as a symbol was probably
introduced
into Britain by the Roman legions.
Medieval Welsh
poets often
compared their leaders to dragons in
poems praising
their bravery, for example,
Gruffydd ab yr Ynad Coch said
of
Llewelyn ap Gruffudd
Pen dragon, pen draig oedd arnaw
('A dragon's head he had').
Between 1485 and 1603, the dragon
formed part
of the arms of the Tudor dynasty,
but it was replaced
on the royal coat of arms with
a unicorn by order
of James I.
The red dragon reappeared as
the royal badge for
Wales in 1807, and from then
on it was often seen
in the regalia of Welsh patriotic
societies. At the
suggestion of the Gorsedd of
the Bards, it was
officially recognised by the
Queen in 1959, and
is now widely used as the national
flag.
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The Leek and the Daffodil
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Both
the sixth-century poet Taliesin and the
thirteenth-century Red Book of
Hergest extol
the virtues of the leek, which,
if eaten,
encouraged good health and happiness.
Small wonder, therefore, that
a national
respect grew around this plant,
which was worn
by the Welsh in the Battle of
Crecy, and by 1536,
when Henry VIII gave a leek to
his daughter on
1 March, was already associated
with St David's
Day. It is possible that the
green and white family
colours adopted by the Tudors
were taken from
their liking for the leek.
In comparison with the ancient
Welsh associations
of the leek, the daffodil has
only recently assumed
a position of national importance.
An increasingly
popular flower during the
19th century, especially
among women, its status was elevated
by the
Welsh-born prime minister David
Lloyd George,
who wore it on St David's Day
and used it in
ceremonies in 1911 to mark the
investiture of the
Prince of Wales at Caernarfon.
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MY THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING WEBSITE
FOR THE INFORMATION I HAVE USED ABOVE FOR MY PAGE
  
~SigCity~
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