This Land of My Fathers

Happy St. David’s Day

Saint David’s Day (Welsh: Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant or Dydd Gŵyl Dewi; Welsh pronunciation: [ˈdɨːð ˌɡuːɨ̯l ˌdɛu̯.i ˈsant, ˈdiːð ̩ɡʊi̯l ˌdɛu̯.i ˈsant]), or the Feast of Saint David, is the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, and falls on 1 March, the date of Saint David’s death in 589 AD. The feast has been regularly celebrated since the canonisation of David in the 12th century, by Pope Callixtus II, though it is not a public holiday in the UK.  Traditional festivities include wearing daffodils and leeks, recognised symbols of Wales and Saint David respectively, eating traditional Welsh food including cawl and Welsh rarebit, and women wearing traditional Welsh dress. An increasing number of cities and towns across Wales including Cardiff, Swansea and Aberystwyth also put on parades throughout the day  To celebrate St David’s Day we have a guess choir –  who will sing the National Anthem of Wales -” Land of our Fathers”. but the national anthem of Wales is also one of the most impressive national anthems anywhere. I am no singer but when I join in the singing of this wonderful composition I sing way above my level of competence. I think that other immigrants in Wales, wherever they may come from, go through a similar experience of becoming almost as Welsh as the Welsh themselves. The magic is indeed unique… You will find the translation below.  Saint David  was born in Caerfai, south west Wales into an aristocratic family.  He was reportedly a scion of the royal house of Ceredigion, and founded a Celtic monastic community at Glyn Rhosyn (The Vale of Roses) on the western headland of Pembrokeshire (Welsh: Sir Benfro) at the spot where St David’s Cathedral stands today.  David’s fame as a teacher and his asceticism spread among Celtic Christians, and he helped found about 12 monasteries  His foundation at Glyn Rhosyn became an important Christian shrine, and the most important centre in Wales. The date of Saint David’s death is believed to be 1 March 589.  His final words to the community of monks were: “Brothers be ye constant. The yoke which with single mind ye have taken, bear ye to the end; and whatsoever ye have seen with me and heard, keep and fulfil.”  For centuries, 1 March has been a national festival. Saint David was recognised as a national patron saint in the 12th century at a peak time of Welsh resistance to the Normans.  He was canonised by Pope Callixtus II in 1120. The 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys noted how Welsh celebrations in London for Saint David’s Day would spark wider counter-celebrations amongst their English neighbours: life-sized effigies of Welshmen were symbolically lynched,  and by the 18th century the custom had arisen of confectioners producing “taffies”—gingerbread figures baked in the shape of a Welshman riding a goat—on Saint David’s Day.  In the poem Armes Prydein (The Prophesy of Britain), composed in the early to mid-10th century, the anonymous author prophesies that the Cymry (the Welsh people) will unite and join an alliance of fellow-Celts  to repel the Anglo-Saxons, under the banner of Saint David: A lluman glân Dewi a ddyrchafant (“And they will raise the pure banner of Dewi”). Although there were occasional Welsh uprisings in the Middle Ages, the country was briefly united by various Welsh princes before its conquest[13] at different times, and it arguably had a very short period of independence during the rising of Owain Glyndŵr,  but Wales as a whole was never an independent kingdom for long. Henry Tudor, 2nd Earl of Richmond, who was born in Pembroke Castle as a patrilineal descendant of the Tudor Dynasty of North Wales, became King Henry VII of England after his victory over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, to end the Wars of the Roses. Henry’s green and white banner with a red dragon became a rallying point for Welsh patriotism with the memory of Saint David on his Feast Day. Henry was the first monarch of the House of Tudor, and during the reign of that dynasty the royal coat of arms included the Welsh Dragon, a reference to the monarch’s origin. The banner from Henry’s victory was not adopted as the official Flag of Wales until 1959.  The flag of Saint David, however, a golden cross on a black background, was not part of the symbolism of House of Tudor.

This land of my fathers is dear to me  Land of poets and singers, and people of stature Her brave warriors, fine patriots   Shed their blood for freedom

 Chorus: Land! Land! I am true to my land! As long as the sea serves as a wall for this pure, dear land May the language endure for ever.

 Old land of the mountains, paradise of the poets, Every valley, every cliff a beauty guards; Through love of my country, enchanting voices will be Her streams and rivers to me.

 Chorus

 Though the enemy have trampled my country underfoot, The old language of the Welsh knows no retreat, The spirit is not hindered by the treacherous hand

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