St David's Day and Whuppity Scoorie

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus! 

Happy St David's day to all my Welsh chums and to the wider Welsh diaspora! 

St David is, of course, the Patron Saint of Wales and his feast day is celebrated all over the country. In Cardiff they hold a big parade to celebrate - it's a relatively new festival dating back to 2004 but the traditions and sentiments are of long standing and the event acts as a focus for National pride. 

As well as the big parade, you can expect to see all of he elements that make it impossible to mistake it for a ceremony anywhere else - dragons, women in stovepipe hats, leeks, daffodils and traditional male voice choirs. 

Incidentally, I've always found it odd that the heraldic beasts that represent the various component parts of the UK seem horribly mismatched to their countries. England has a lion despite the fact that you'll only find them in zoos, and Scotland and Wales have creatures that never existed - namely, a unicorn and a dragon. At least the emblem of my native Cornwall actually lives in Cornwall - the Chough. That said, it did have to be re-introduced as it had been become extinct there. 

St David himself is unique among British patron saints in that he actually came from the country he represents. It is believed that he was born at Henfynyw in Ceredigion some time around 500CE and died around 589CE. He became renowned as a teacher and preacher, founding monastic settlements and churches in Wales, Dumnonia, and Brittany. 

St David's Cathedral stands on the site of the monastery he founded in the Glyn Rhosyn valley of Pembrokeshire. Around 550, he attended the Synod of Brefi where he was elected primate of the region. As such he presided over the synod of Caerleon and became a bishop. 

Several miracles are ascribed to him. The most famous happened while he was preaching in the middle of a large crowd in the village of Llanddewi Brefi (if the name of that village sounds fmailiar, it's where Dafyd 'the only gay in the village' lived in the TV series Little Britain). As he spoke, the land rose up and became a hill with the village on top. A white dove, which became his emblem, then settled on his shoulder.

So have a fantastic day, people of Cymru!

Meanwhile ...

Up in Lanark in Scotland, March 1st is time for the excellently-named Whuppity Scoorie.

     

Whuppity Scoorie is a festival celebrating the approach of Spring and begins at 5.45pm. Excitement builds as local children gather outside St Nicholas’ church in the High Street, clutching curious paper balls constructed mainly from wrapping paper and newsprint and attached to long strings. 

After the clock strikes six and the bell starts to toll, the kids run clockwise around the kirk whirling their paper balls like maces ; after three laps of the church there is a scramble for pennies. The origins of the event are uncertain but most theories seem to agree that there is a link to the days becoming longer or that the children are driving away the Devil.

Charmingly, no one seems to know why it's called Whuppity Scoorie or even what it means.

I rather like that.