St David's Day undated

It’s St David’s Day! March 1st, the national day of Wales but you will not see much of a celebration a small march in the town centre maybe if it has not been cancelled due to snow. At 6am there was no snow and the local council shut most if not all the schools in Cardiff, still not seeing the snow. Around the country, it is a bit of a damp squib of a celebration and not due to the weather.

It was nothing as I remember as a kid it was more a kid’s celebration us boys would front up with a sword and shield, but if you were unlucky, you would turn up as a miner what fun was that. A yard full of sword wheeling boys would give health and safety a major heart attack today.

The girls would don the Welsh national dress much the same as today but the sword and shields have been binned in favour of a tacky rugby top and less people are likely to wear a leek or daffodils today I did not see anyone wearing either while out shopping and yes it was snowing.

There has hardly been any kind of a build-up that I have noticed leading up today. and I live in the capital of Wales. You would be led to believe it was just another day going by the front pages of my local papers. The simply fact of the matter is St Patrick day will be a big celebration than St David's Day.

Thinking back it was strange we turned up all war like when St David was a holy man not a knight. So why sword and shield I have no idea, but It was fun. Mum would get us a plastic sword and shield for Hopkins on James St, which always was a bit of a disappointment.

The sword would never last, it would always bend at the hilt and go all floppy. I was always envious of my mate Peter Owen, his dad a dab hand with wood, and would make him a wooden sword and shield, he would soon lay waste to the plastic swords brigade. If you were to send your kid to school all tooled up with a sword and shield (Plastic mostly) the armed police and helicopter would descend in seconds today.

It was a short day in school, half day with no lessons. The would be readings, songs and poems. We would always get a rendition of Matilda who was a very naughty girl.

To this day, it is still one of my favourite poems. Also today, the girls still have the Welsh dress but to show your true Welshness these days the wearing of the awful Welsh Rugby shirt, which is a disgrace, is the norm for both sexes. I made my sons wear Cardiff City tops to school.