Happy St. David’s Day! March 1 is the feast day of St. David, patron saint of Wales. It is said that St. David lived on bread and leeks. The leeks gave the saint a strong and clear voice for preaching his sermons. (On a side note, the Roman emperor Nero also ate leeks to help his singing voice.) There is a song for this day! St. David’s Day Song highlights the daffodils along with St. David.
In Wales, people celebrate with parades, concerts and eisteddfodau (festivals of music, language and culture). They also celebrate wearing daffodils or leeks. Daffodils are the national flower of Wales and leeks are the national symbol, though at one time there was some trash talking about whether the daffodil or the leek should have that claim. Welsh legend tells of a battle on March 1 in the seventh century where soldiers in the army of King Cadwallon of Gwynedd wore leeks in their helmets as an identifying symbol. They fought off Saxon invaders after eating leeks growing in a field nearby.