St David's Day

Next: Monday 1 March 2027

1 March, the national day of Wales.

The year ahead

Monday 1 March

Mon 1 Mar from 12:00
Custom

St David’s Day Parade, Cardiff

Cardiff City Hall, Cardiff, Cardiff
- Procession
- St David's Day

Folklore from the old calendars

Hanging Taffy No longer kept LondonOn St David's Day the English used to mock the Welsh by making a stuffed figure of a Welshman, with hay-filled breeches and coat, a hat, shoes and a wooden sword, and hanging it from a public tree.
Oats and barley in the clay Lore and belief EnglandRay's collection of English proverbs gives a farming rule for St David's Day: it was the time to put oats and barley into the ground.
St Chad’s bough on the clog No longer kept EnglandThe old clog almanac was a square stick of box or other hard wood, notched along its edges for every day of the year and hung up in the parlour or carried as a walking cane.
Swig Day at Jesus College No longer kept OxfordshireOn St David's Day Jesus College, Oxford, the college of the Welsh, filled a great silver-gilt bowl holding ten gallons with swig and passed it round the guests at its table.
The Ancient Britons’ procession No longer kept LondonSt David's Day in London was the anniversary of the Honourable and Loyal Society of Ancient Britons, founded in 1714, which kept it in aid of the Welsh charity school in Gray's Inn Road.
The crows begin to search Lore and belief Northern EnglandAmong the proverbial sayings for St David's Day that Ellis found still current in the north of England was a short rhyme about the crows.
The serjeant-porter’s leek No longer kept LondonThe Flying Post of 1699 reported that on St David's Day the king, according to custom, wore a leek in honour of the ancient Britons.
Wearing the leek Still kept WalesOn St David's Day the Welsh wear a leek, and Chambers collected several reasons given for it.

Monday 1 March

St David’s Day Parade, Cardiff

Folklore from the old calendars

Image credits