St David’s Day: traditions including flag, daffodil and leek, food, how is it celebrated, is it a bank holiday

Today (1 March) marks St. David’s day, a celebration of the patron saint of Wales which takes place yearly on the date of St. David’s passing in 598 AD. According to legend, St. David established the Celtic monastic community on the Pembrokeshire headland where St. David’s Cathedral now stands.

St. David founded 12 monasteries over the course of his life, including Glyn Rhosyn, which quickly rose to prominence as one of Wales’ most important places and a significant Christian shrine. After St. David’s passing, his influence grew across the country, resulting in his canonization and earning him the title of patron saint of Wales.

How is St. David’s Day celebrated?

On St. David’s Day, St. David is honoured in parades across Wales. Although this happens nationally, the largest occurs in Cardiff, and is a non-military celebration of Welsh heritage and culture. Concerts are also held in pubs, clubs and other venues.

Sometimes, traditional Welsh dress is worn to school by pupils, and many people wear daffodils - the national flower of Wales - or leeks, the latter being St. David’s personal emblem. The association between Wales and leeks is said to have arisen from an incident in which a Welsh troop distinguished itself from an English enemy troop - dressed in similar fashion - by wearing leeks.

In addition, popular traditional Welsh foods like cawl (a type of soup), bara brith tea loaves, Welsh cakes, Welsh lamb, and Welsh rarebit are consumed. The flag of Saint David is also traditionally flown throughout the nation. But St. David’s Day isn’t just celebrated in Wales, but all around the world. DIsneyland Paris has for example hosted multiple Welsh-themed St David’s Day weeks in over the years, with fireworks, parades and Disney characters decked out in traditional Welsh garb.

Is St David’s Day a bank holiday?

Unlike St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, St. David’s Day is not a public holiday, though there is increasing support for it to one day become a Welsh bank holiday.

According to polls, the proposal by some Welsh politicians has the support of the majority of Wales’s population, as well as all the political parties of the Senedd - the Welsh government. However, the UK government ultimately retains the authority on whether or not to declare bank holidays, a power which is power not devolved in Wales.

Proposals to declare the day a holiday have been rejected by the UK government, which has said such a move would be impractical because of the numerous commuters who cross the border between England and Wales.

Earlier this year, Minister for Small Business Paul Scully said: "While we appreciate that the people of Wales want to celebrate their patron saint, more people work across the English/Welsh border than across the English/Scottish border... caus[ing] greater business disruption... if we had separate bank holidays".

The possibility of designating bank holidays, including a St. David’s Day bank holiday, has previously been put forward as one of the arguments in favour of Welsh independence.

How to say Happy St David’s Day in Welsh

In Welsh, Happy St David’s Day is pronounced as “Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus”. According to Wales online, it is pronounced as “Deethe goo-eel Dew-ww happ-iss” with the ‘the’ in dydd pronounced like “the”.