St. Davids Day
I find it hard to believe that this is the second St. David's Day we've celebrated in Australia. The last year has gone so fast.
Most people outside of the UK would say "St. Who?".
Unfortunately, it's much less well known worldwide than the more celebrated St. Patrick's Day.
But nevermind....I've found from experience that the further away from home you are the more you want to reach out for some connection. For example, our children have Welsh and Irish names, and I suppose the reason for that is that they were born outside of our home nations. We try to regularly remind them of their Welsh and Irish heritage:
- we have the Welsh anthem framed on the wall in the hallway
- we have an Irish bodhran (drum) hanging in the living room
- we have an old Irish plaque with inscriptions hanging over the fire place
- and of course there's the Welsh dragon tattooed on my backside that makes the kids laugh
Needless to say, I find it very important to celebrate the patron saint of my home nation. Gina is aware that it's not very well known in this part of the world and makes a tremendous effort to make this house a small part of Wales for the day. Even though daffodils are out of season, she magically managed to "make" some from false yellow roses and some twine. She even made a huge felt leek for me. There was also a large flag draped across the bedroom, and also outside in the garden just to confuse the natives.
I was presented with leeks, daffodils, hand made cards and, best of all a huge, chocolate dragon egg! The kids all wore small Welsh flags to school, Gareth also wore a Welsh t-shirt. The kids were great, Sian even made a speech in school in front of her class about why the leek is a national symbol of Wales:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/world/wales/saint_david.htm
We blasted Tom Jones, Catatonia and Welsh hymns all day and Rhiannon wanted to learn more about the national anthem and its strange spelling...
The best part of the day was a new tradition that was started a couple of years ago.
Dragon Pie!
Gina and her sister Carrie did a quite magnificent job of somehow stencilling a perfect replica of a Welsh dragon on top a beef pie. Can you spot the difference in the cooked pie below from the pre-cooked one from yesterday's post?
As for the difference in the pie top from yesterday? Today's dragon was holding an Irish shamrock in its hand....cheeky !
Thanks to everyone who made this a special day for me.
Diolch. Cymru am byth.
