Happy Saint David’s Day!

“Who the heck was Saint David?” you may ask. Well, he’s the patron saint of Wales, and a very fine saint he was, too. He deserves a decent holiday.

Those of us who claim Welsh ancestry, in whole or in part, watch the world painted green to honour St. Patrick (who, by the way, was a Welshman (https://mailchi.mp/ffba84fcef11/resolution-for-1947009?e=[UNIQID]) ), and we patiently listen to whisky-fuelled renditions of “Address to a Haggis”. We mark Oktoberfest, and Italian Fest, St-Jean-Baptiste Day, Diwali, and the Chinese New Year. Not that any Welshman would pass up an opportunity to party, mind you now.

But March 1 comes and goes, marked as World Compliment Day or Plan a Solo Vacation Day (seriously!), but you’re hard-pressed to find St. David’s Day on any calendar. It’s as if Wales and the Welsh didn’t exist. “Welshing on a deal” remains one of the last permissible racial slurs, and few schoolchildren could find Wales on a map, even if told we weren’t talking about large sea creatures.

Yet the Welsh have one of the most ancient cultures and languages in Europe, going back to the Arthurian legends and before. They are, if you like, the aboriginal people of Britain.

Centuries of cultural and linguistic suppression have not extinguished the old language. Nearly a million still speak Welsh fluently, and in Wales, one can easily acquire an entire education in the old tongue, from kindergarten through graduate school. There remains a vibrant culture of music and the arts, and the BBC broadcasts in Welsh. (Check it out, here. (https://www.bbc.com/cymru) ) It’s not as if the Welsh have disappeared, it’s just that they don’t get a big worldwide festival.

The invisibility of the Welsh is so pervasive outside Wales that although millions of us in the New World have Welsh ancestry, in whole or in part, most have no idea. We often tend to think of ourselves as generically “British”. But if in your family tree there are Jones, Williams, Davies, Thomas, Evans, Roberts, Hughes, Lewis, Morgan, Griffiths, Owen, Rees, Rice, Price, Jenkins, Bowen, or Powell, you likely have Welsh ancestors (even if they made their way to the New World via England or Ireland). If you’re curious, check out this list of the fifty most common family names in Wales (https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/fun-stuff/50-most-common-welsh-surnames-17960729) .

And so on this first day of March, for all of us of Welsh descent (in whole or in part) and all of us looking for another holiday to celebrate, let’s raise a virtual glass of Penderyn in honour of St. David, and say in the old tongue: iechyd da! (Yeah-ki da! – Good health!)