March 1st - St David's Day

 The flag of Wales has the symbol of the red dragon against green and white.

March 1st is St David's Day. St David is the patron saint of Wales.

Prince William, the Prince of Wales, and his wife Kate, Princess of Wales, visited Wales, held yellow daffodils, the national flower, and spoke in Welsh.

In Wales

A parade of people dressed as dragons or wearing Welsh costume, is held in the capital, Cardiff.

The day is celebrated in Wales by people wearing daffodils, or leeks. Eating Welsh cakes - which are like think small pancakes or thin scones, yummy when served hot with butter melting on top.

What to do in Wales? 

1 Visit castles. Stay in a castle hotel or a hotel with a view of the castle. 

2 Eat Welsh food. Lamb and Welsh cakes. 

3 Visit Museums In Wales.

4 Learn Welsh. Start with words on trains from Paddington, in London, to Cardiff. Notice signs on stations. Learn Welsh on Duolingo.

5 Hear Welsh music. Welsh male voice choirs, singing in Welsh and English. Harpists who also sing. Esteddfod festivals.

Visits

Welsh museums 

My favourites are 

1 The Roman Museum near Caerleon. 

2 The tapestry in the library at Fishguard.

3 The free museum in Cardiff, the capital.

In summer you might visit an open air museum, go down a mine. 

Trails

Dylan Thomas

Fun Photos In Wales

Castles. 

Yourself and a castle. 

Yourself wearing a Welsh hat.

Souvenirs Of Wales To Buy Before Returning Home

You might buy Welsh souvenirs such as 

1 Carved love spoons. 

2 Welsh dragon or flag symbol 

On tee shirts or aprons or tea towels.

3 Welsh Words

I bought a book on Welsh words in a supermarket. 

4 Welsh Cakes

I bought Welsh cakes on the train home to London from Wales, but ate them cold which was not as nice. I should have saved them for later and heated them up.

Welsh Music

Land of my fathers

Men of Harlech 

Calon Lan (sung at Rugby matches)

Welsh Male Voice Choirs.

Solo artists such as Sir Tom Jones - singing Green Green Grass of Home). Dame Shirley Bassey.

Recordings sold in souvenir shops.

Welsh Food and Drink

1 Welsh cakes containing currants or dried fruit

2 Bara brith - speckled bread, a fruit cake

3 Lava bread (seaweed)

4 Lamb Casserole, with vegetables, (called cawl)

5 Leeks

Factory tours and tasting shops

Beer

Honey

Whisky

Wine

Words in Welsh-English

Dewi Sant - saint David (adjective second after the noun, like Spanish and French)

Do the little things in life. (Quote from St David.)

gwnewch y pethau bychain

 Wales: "Penblwydd hapus i chi    Happy birthday to you

Words in English - Welsh

Do the little things in life = gwnewch y pethau bychain

Happy birthday to you -   Wales: "Penblwydd hapus i chi

Welsh Words - English

aber - estuary

allanfa - exit 

bara brith - speckled bread bara-bread brith-speckled

bore - morning

bws - bus

car - car

cath - cat

croeso - welcome

diolch - thanks

eglwys - church

fach - small

felin - mill

fferi - ferry

llan - church

mawr - big (I think of more or magnificent)

o - of

plas - mansion (not just a place, a mansion)

pont - bridge

toiled - toilet

toiledau dynion - men's toilets

toiledau merched - ladies toilets

twr - tower

tywel - towel

y - the

English - Welsh

A- D

big - mawr (I think of more or magnificent)

bridge - pont

bus - bws 

car - car

cat - cath

church - eglwys / Llan

E - K

estuary - aber

exit - allanfa

ferry - fferi

good - da

Good morning.

Bore da. (BOR-eh dah) (The adjective is after the noun, literally morning good.)

Good night.

Nos da. (NOHS dah)

L - R

mill - felin

 morning - bore

mansion - plas  (not just a place, a mansion of - o

S - Z

small - fach the - y

toiledau dynion - men's toilets

toiledau merched - ladies toilets

tower - twr 

towel - tywel 

toilet - toiled

welcome - croeso 

Useful Websites On Welsh Souvenirs and Subjects

Languages

duolingo.com

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Welsh_phrasebook

translate google

Saint David - Dewi Sant

Dylan Thomas

Useful Websites About Wales and St David's Day

Report of the royal visit on Sunday March 1st 2026

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70n99e396jo

Music

https://tirglas.co.uk/pages/portal-famous-welsh-songs-and-anthems

Calon Lan hymn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calon_L%C3%A2n

We Are Still Here recording in Welsh, solo with chorus

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0179/9045/files/21_-_Yma_O_Hyd.mp3?v=1654767520

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St David's Day, March 1st 2019: Welsh Foods To Buy or Bake and Welsh Music

St David's Day is March 1st, a Friday in 2019. An opportunity for a family gathering or club meeting on a Welsh theme. Here are some foods to try or buy.

Welsh Cakes
Welsh cakes are small thick pancakes. I first tried them at Fishguard in Wales at the Fishguard Bay Hotel. Lovely served hot with melting butter.

Tea time at Fishguard Bay Hotel, Wales.

We were served them at tea time in summer. You might find them on the a la carte menu in the restaurant or bar. If you are organising a conference, or a wedding, or staying for several days, you might ask the chef to make some for you and your group.

I think one of the station cafes had them and served them hot, maybe on request. However, I was too scared of missing my train to risk buying anything requiring heating.

I tried Welsh cakes again on a train back from Fishguard to London, from the trolley. They seemed dry and cold and nothing special. I think the same applies to scones. And pancakes.
(More pictures and text later.)

Lava Bread
Made from edible seaweed. To the Japanese it makes perfect sense. To a Londoner like me, it is totally offbeat. But that is part of the attraction, to try something you have never had before.

Photo from Wikipedia.

Welsh Rarebit
For breakfast or tea. Not a rabbit but a rarebit.

Welsh is a lovely sing-song language. You might want to play plaintive Welsh harp music, or the robust sound of a male voice choir. this is the country renowned for the Eistedfodd, a music contest and celebration.

Welsh Songs
Suitable and enjoyable songs would include the Welsh national anthem, and Men of Harlech.
All through the night is a public domain song with a Welsh language version.

Welsh Poetry and Quotations
Perhaps a reading of a quotation from Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood.

To practise Welsh words, listen to Richard Burton in the film version. Or use the free Welsh language learning system Duolingo.

Useful Websites
To visit Wales
www.visitwales.com
To learn Welsh
duolingo.com
To cook Welsh cakes
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5569/welsh-cakes
For public domain songs: eg All through the night
https://www.pdinfo.com/pd-song-list/pd-song-list-best-a.php
to hear the Welsh National Anthem on YouTube with male voice choir
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtCOprRDUm8
With a band and subtitles in English and Welsh

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

St David's Day, March 1st and Welsh Rarebit

Tea-time at Fishguard Bay Hotel in Wales.

St David's Day, March 1st, is the culmination of weeks of promoting Welsh foods. What are Welsh foods and drink?

Welsh Cakes
Welsh cakes look like tiny high pancakes. They look like pancakes, the size of one third of a scone sliced horizontally.

I loved them when they were served hot at Fishguard Bay Hotel for tea one year, in the summer of 2018 with butter, delicious.

WELSH CAKES
Welsh cakes served cold in a packet bought from the trolley on a GWR train from Wales back towards Paddington were not so good, and rather pricey. I think you will also find them in a Tesco supermarket in Fishguard in Wales.

WELSH RAREBIT
Welsh rarebit is not a rabbit but a rarebit.

LAVA BREAD
Lava bread

You might want to hold a Welsh night or Welsh theme meeting for a family gathering or club meeting. A group of ten, twenty or thirty people might have a member who has a Welsh ancestor, married to or works with somebody from Wales, or plans a holiday in Wales.

You can learn Welsh online for free through Duolingo.

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

Angela Lansbury, travel write and photographer, researcher, author, speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.