Title: Re: St. Dafydd's Day
Categories: British Info Holiday
Yield: 1 Servings

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In this month's "Saveur" magazine (March 1997, pages 17-18) they have a little blurb on this Welsh holiday.

St. David, Dewi Sant as he is called in the Welsh language, "has a reputation for being able to give sight to the blind, raise the dead, and turn water into wine, among other miraculous tricks. Dewi Sant, in fact, is the country's patron saint, and all over the world, the Welsh celebrate March 1, the day of his death (in A.D. 589) with religious ceremonies, concerts, and the display and consumption of a vegetable that come to symbolize Wales itself--the leek.

A relative of the onion, the leek (Allium ampeloprasum porrum) was first planted in Britain by the Romans. Though it originally comes from the warm Middle East, it thrived in the harsh Welsh winters, and came to be associated with good fortune. Folklore has it that when the British faced off against the Saxons on a muddy riverbank near a field of leeks, Saint David himself instructed his side (the Brits) to stick leeks in their caps to distinguish themselves from the enemy in the heat of battle. The British carried the day, and te leek's reputation became legendary. There was once even a custom of rubbing leeks on one's body in the belief that it would promote immortality and Welsh have proudly tied leeks (if not the real thing, some sort of leek replica) to their lapels for centuries. Shakespeare's henry V donned the vegetable "for a memorable honour, for I am Welsh., you know." Perhaps because its colors, green and white, are also the royal colors of Wales, the leek was designated a national patriotic symbol (along with the daffodil).

Army recruits in Wales still celebrate Saint David's Day by eating leeks raw, but most Welsh perfer them simmered: Dinner on March 1 usually features cawl, a hearty Welsh dinner stew of potatoes, turnips, parsnips, carrots, beef or lamb, and, of course, the country's favorite vegetable. Better in the pot than on the body.

Claudia M. Caruana Saveur

From: bourget@netcom.com (Anne Bourget)

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