Tags: Garden, Society
Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus
March 1st, 2006, by Rich.
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Happy St. David’s Day! Whilst the rest of the country seems to be covered in snow flurries, Portsmouth is intermittently bright and sunny and the daff’s in our front garden have opened just in time.
St. David’s Day, which is sometimes known as International Talk Like a Boyo Day is an annual event, though you might be forgiven for missing it if you don’t happen to (a) live in Wales or (b) live with or near an expatriate Welsh boyo or (c) be and expatriate boyo.
Traditional Welsh Costume
On Dydd Dewi Sant, traditional Welsh attire is worn by all schoolchildren in Wales.
There is a traditional Welsh costume for boys, but I never saw any male under the age of 15 wearing it because of the poor cost-to-usage ratio: i.e. outfits that can be worn once, that are outgrown before the next St. Davids Day, are not particularly popular among Welsh mums, go figure. In my junior school this meant that all the mums pinned a small leek or a daffodil to their boy’s school uniform (which we only wore on special occasions).
Girls however, especially schoolgirls, ladies who work in tourist centres, and local television presenters, always seem to turn up in the full outfit of red skirt, cardigan, shawl, and, most importantly: an upended vase for headgear. It’s true.
Daffodils
Our daffs, incidentally, are looking marvellous and they’ve given the garden it’s first wash of colour for the year. They brighten up the street too.
I’ve taken a photo of them, not to show how lovely they are, but more as a kind of record that they really do/did exist. The local shops are beginning their merciless wind-up to Mothers Day, so (based on previous form) the local bookies are giving pretty poor odds on any of our daffs completing the month in the garden. The smart money, in fact, is going on the side bet of wether or not we’ll catch the little misappropriating rascals on webcam.
Fingers crossed, eh?
March 1st, 2006 at 4:36 pm
Bore da !
Glad you remembered St David’s Day now that you live up England way
In Swansea it has been so cold that we have had to buy daffodils for today as ours in the garden are still hiding. In fact they are under a few inches of snow
The school opposite our house thankfully opened today and all the little kids looked beautiful going in in their welsh costumes (These days the boys all wear welsh rugby shirts on March 1st)
When I was in school, I seem to remember we had a half day so thet everyone could go to town with their Mums to show off ! There are moves now to instigate a Bank Holiday for Dydd Dewi Sant
BTW In Cardiff today, The Queen et al came for a day in the sticks to declare open the enormously expensive new Senedd where the Welsh Assembly hangs out. Lovely building, but it could perhaps have cured an awful lot of cancer patients who couldn’t get Herceptin treatment in Wales…. or funded a few NHS dentists, of which there is a massive shortage….
So I’ll gat off my soap-box and go & build a snowman
Iechyd da
February 28th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
March 1st, 2007 at 10:04 am
lol
February 29th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus Iawn !