"God for Harry! England and St. George!" Ah, not this time, mate. March 1 was St. David's Day - in honor of the patron saint of Wales - and a day when Captain Llewellyn, the Welshman of Shakespeare's "Henry V," recommended that every Welshman wear a leek in his cap.
Although the lowly leek is an ancient vegeta-ble and greatly prized in soup and other culinary delights, it hardly compares with the shamrock. So, while thousands of Seattleites of Irish origin (and thousands more would-be Irish) celebrate the shamrock and St. Patrick on March 17, the Welsh celebration of St. David's on March 1 went largely overlooked.
So, what about St. David?
Unlike England's St. George, Wales' patron saint was born, bred and educated in the country where he is honored. He was the son of Sant, Prince of Ceredigan (Cardigan), and presumably he was born in Dyfed (now Pembrokeshire) in the sixth century.
The Peace King Arthur, achieved at the great Battle of Badon in 518 A.D., held the Saxon advance in check for fully 50 years and gave Wales a period of tranquility. From this sprang a Christian culture of monks who traveled freely through Wales, Corn-wall and Brittany.
The conversion won by St. David was of a people who were the first early Britons, the owners of the whole country before the Romans arrived.
Are you still with me? Don't worry, there won't be a test at the end!
The early Welsh were a race of Celtic warriors, equally versed in bardic poetry and song.
When the Normans appeared in the 11th century, they subdued the polyglot of Saxons, Jutes and Angles who had pushed the early Britons westward into Wales. However, they met stiff resistance from the Welsh for the best part of two centuries. Then, in 1282, in a boggy green field near what is now Builth Wells, Llewellyn ap Gruffudd, the last of the native Welsh princes, was slain, ending an era.
This brings us to the Welsh connection between the British and the first Prince of Wales.
As a child, I remember a picture in an old history book on the fifth shelf of my grand-father's library, showing a tall man in full armor, holding a baby on his shield. I later learned this was King Edward I (of England), who spent a year following the death of Llewel-lyn organizing the countryside into counties in the English manner. The King had an inspiration when his wife, Eleanor, gave birth to a son in the castle at Caernarvon. In a gesture of peace, Edward presented the infant to the Welsh people, saying, "He who has been born among you will be your prince. He hath no English on his lips nor deception in his heart."
From that day forward, the eldest son of the English monarch has always been designated Prince of Wales.
In 1969, Caernarvon achieved international fame as the place for Investiture, by Queen Elizabeth II, of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales. Charles is the 21st Prince of Wales, a royal line stemming all the way back to 1301, creating Wales a principality. The heir apparent to the British throne traditionally receives the title of Prince of Wales, and the Welsh send members to represent them in the British Parliament with seats in the House of Commons and their peers sit in the House of the Lords.
Part of Britain though it may be, Wales is still Wales and the Welsh are still Welsh - a Celtic race of handsome men and graceful women. The Welsh cling to their own ancient language, their own lilting speech and their own outlook and spirit. Welsh, a language older than English, is still taught in many Welsh schools.
Descendants of Welsh immigrants constitute one of Seattle's least conspicuous minorities. Since they are few in number compared to those of English, Irish and Scandinavian background, they have to work harder to keep their wonderful culture alive. Originating from many Welsh mining families, they came to the Northwest to work in the mines at Black Diamond in the 1880s and 1890s. Once the mines shut down, many of them went to work in the shipyards. There used to be an old Welsh Presbyterian church in Seattle that had been in operation from the 1890s, keeping the traditions alive until the 1930s.
After that time, Welsh traditions seemed to dwindle, although the ladies of the Welsh Women's Club still met, wearing their traditional costumes of long black-and-white-checked skirts, white blouses, black capes and interesting black tall hats with the white frill around the face - reminiscent of the Pilgrims but deriving, I am told, from the Basque style in Spain.
When my husband and I first arrived in Seattle in 1963, the Northwest Welsh Association was flourishing. We worked closely with them to present wonderfully tuneful St. David's Day radio programs on "The British Hour." We interviewed a budding young harpist named Bronn Journey, whose family lived in Magnolia, and who would be the star of many St. David's Day programs over the years. Lots of red Welsh dragons were evident on the hills of both Queen Anne and Magnolia. Bronn has continued his musical career and, after all these years, was once again the star of this year's St. David's Day program presented on March 6.
If you are of Welsh origin, with a name like Jenkins, Williams, Davis, Morgan or Jones, you can keep up with the Joneses by wearing a leek in your hat on St. David's Day, and if you don't fancy a leek, daffodils are perfectly in order. You will be carrying on a very proud tradition.
If you would like more information about the Welsh Women's Club or the Northwest Welsh Association or the Welsh Choir, give me a call, 282-8161, or call Gerri Parry at 524-0854.
TTFN, or should I say Norstar (I hope I got it right!).
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