St David's Day

Next: Monday 1 March 2027

1 March, the national day of Wales.

By tag

Get customs near you by email

The year from Wednesday 10 March

Nothing listed for this period yet.

Folklore from the old calendars

Gingerbread taffies on a goat No longer kept LondonOn St David's Day the gingerbread bakers and pastry-cooks of London set out taffies, little white figures of a Welshman riding on a goat, stuck on wooden skewers for children to buy.
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.
Round the leek-bed on St David’s Eve Lore and belief WalesA Welsh love charm said that anyone who walked three times round the leek-bed in silence at midnight on St David's Eve would see their future husband or wife.
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 daffodil for St David Lore and belief EnglandThe early daffodil was reckoned the flower of St David's Day, coming into bloom about 1 March and soon filling the fields with its hanging yellow cups.
The leek and the field of Poictiers No longer kept South WalesPeter Roberts believed the leek worn on St David's Day recalled the Welsh archers at Poictiers and Cressy, as Fluellen tells it in Henry V, rather than any Druid rite.
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.

Folklore from the old calendars

Image credits