St David’s Day 2022: Five things you need to know about Wales’s national celebration

Every year on 1 March, the people of Wales celebrate their heritage, St David and the coming of spring.

But who was the patron saint, why is the country associated with the red dragon and what on earth is a lovespoon?

Here are five things you may not know about the national day.

1. St David was a sixth century missionary and ascetic who once raised a hill from the ground

Born in Caerfai, Pembrokshire, in 500 AD to Prince Ceredig ap Cunedda and Nom, daughter of a Celtic chieftain, St David was an early Christian missionary and archbishop who travelled to France, Ireland and the Holy Land and founded 12 monasteries.

Much of David’s life is shrouded in mystery but he was once believed to be a nephew of King Arthur on his mother’s side and stands today as a symbol of Welsh resistance against the Norman Conquest. He is also recognised as the patron saint of doves.

Miracles associated with David include the Synod of LLanddewi Brefi – where he raised a hill up from the ground so that his followers could better hear a sermon – restoring sight to the blind St Paulinus and bringing a dead boy back to life with his tears.

David also survived a poisoning at the hands of his own monks, who had fed him tainted bread after growing tired of the hard labour and deprivation they had suffered as a result of his extreme brand of asceticism.

He died on 1 March in 589 AD and his remains have been interred at St David’s Cathedral in Pembrokeshire since he was canonised by Pope Callixtus in 1120 (or they were, until King Edward I made off with his skull and arm as holy relics in 1284).

David’s burial site has been a popular place of pilgrimage for centuries since and his aphorism “Gwnewch y pethau bychain” (or “do the little things”) remains a national motto to this day.

2. The Welsh dragon originates in Britain’s oldest myths

Aside from Dylan Thomas, the Stereophonics, Charlotte Church, Huw Edwards and Tom Jones, Wales’s most instantly recognisable symbol is the snarling red dragon emblazoned on its national flag.

This icon can be traced back to Arthurian legend and a dream experienced by the young Merlin, later to be Camelot’s court wizard and chief adviser to the king, who foresaw a battle between a red and white dragon and understood it to represent the coming of Arthur to see off the Saxon hordes.

The myth is recorded in some of Britain’s oldest prose literature, including the Mabinogion and Historia Brittonium but became crystalised in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain in 1136.

3. It’s Tony Blair’s fault that St David’s Day is not a public holiday

While St Andrew’s Day in Scotland and St Patrick’s Day in Ireland are national holidays, the same is not true for their Welsh and English equivalents.

This is because former UK prime minister Tony Blair vetoed calls for a change to the law in March 2007, despite a near-unanimous 87 per cent of the Welsh population stating their preference for making St David’s Day a bank holiday.

Some Welsh schools defy the status quo by giving their students a half-day, a move no doubt popular with the pupils.

4. Soldiers mark the day by eating raw leeks

The people of Wales traditionally celebrated St David’s Day by sporting daffodils about their person and taking part in festivities across the country, with large parades staged in Cardiff, Aberystwyth, Wrexham and Llandudno every year.

Children are often dressed in folk attire dating from the 18th and 19th centuries and the national hymn, “Land of our Fathers”, rings out across the hillsides.

Signature Welsh dishes are also served, notably roast lamb or rarebit, with perhaps the least appetising being raw leeks, customarily presented to Welsh regiments of the British Army to devour whole in a nod to their distinctive heritage.

Leeks were said to have been worn by Welsh soldiers in battle tied to their helmets – as Fluellen does in Shakespeare’s Henry V – to distinguish themselves from Saxon invaders, although the precise origins of Wales’s association with the root vegetable remain obscure.

5. Lovespoons are given as traditional gifts weighted with symbolism

A custom dating from the 17th century, a Welsh lovespoon is given by talented carvers to the objects of their affection to demonstrate prowess in carpentry and imply an ability to provide.

Lovespoons are commonly decorated with hearts, anchors, horseshoes, knots and locks, with many conveying hidden emotional meaning.

A spoon with an entwined stem, for instance, indicates togetherness, while a decorative Welsh dragon at the tip of the handle is said to carry a protective charm.