March 1, 2015

Happy St. David’s Day (A Wee Bit Late)

St. David’s Day is the Welsh equivalent of Ireland’s St. Patrick’s day, although celebrated in a much more restrained way, with some singing of Cwm Rhondda, the Welsh national song, otherwise known as Bread From Heaven and maybe drinking the local brew, Brains Beer.

It’s ten years this month since I moved to the UK, first working in London, and then in Wales, a country that’s not well-known, but can be described as the Appalachia of the UK. For many years, it had a strong coal mining economy, but during the Thatcher years, that all ended. As in Appalachia where there are hills and hollers, in Wales, families live in the Valleys, deep in the hills, where Welsh is still the preferred language. IMG_6718

Right after I arrived, Wales was playing Ireland in a massive rugby game, and we had tickets. Picture this if you can – a stadium filled with 70,000 rugby fans who had come from all over Wales and Ireland for this final match. And then picture the vast majority of these fans singing hymns and Tom Jones songs, while waving inflatable leeks and daffodils. They sing nearly the entire game, and it’s actually pretty fabulous to hear.

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Wales has a huge history of singing. Every colliery, or mine, had its own men’s choir and at the end of the summer, there’s a huge festival of Welsh language and culture called an Eisteddfod where groups come from all over Wales to compete and sing. If you’ve ever seen the movie, “How Green Was My Valley” about a Welsh mining town, you will see how the men sing all the time.

Wales is surrounded by the “Ring of Iron” a series of more than 400 castles which protected it from the sea to the west and England to the east. Funnily, the most comprehensive list is maintained by someone in Baltimore. While most of these castles are now ruins or gone completely, some still remain, including the castle where I worked, St. Donat’s Castle, a 12th century castle on the top of cliffs overlooking the Bristol Channel.imageimage

It was owned by newspaper mogul William Randolf Hearst, who expanded it to about three times its original size by buying buildings across the UK and Europe and glomming them onto St. Donat’s. You can see pictures of St. Donat’s here and here. You can see pictures of my ten favourite Welsh castles here.

On my last trip, I only visited Castell Coch, a 19th century Gothic Revival castle, just outside Cardiff. Andy, the children and I zipped up for a quick photo op, racing the setting sun. IMG_6900IMG_6907IMG_6924

If you’re in Baltimore, you might see this symbol of Wales on the back  of my car.image

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!

7 comments:

  1. I do wish there was more hooha for the Welsh at least in the pubs! They really are great singers and I do like their accent. Did you like Gavin and Stacey? It was great pr and brought the cool factor which was good to see for Wales

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    1. I didn't watch much of G&S, it came on after I left. Torchwood was set in Cardiff, and the first season of the new Dr. Who was being shot there when I was there... the one with Christopher Eccleston. I used to watch them film and it was fun to pick out spots that I knew.

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  2. What a wonderful post.....always so much to learn. Seeing that snippet of "How Green Was My Valley" brought back memories of my parents sitting in our small living room, watching it as many times as it was aired. Thanks, Meg. Angela Muller

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  3. My mother was a Luellen (American-ized by her father from Llewellyn) and would approve.

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    1. All of those bloody double letters killed me. I'd drive around a round-about twice to find the right way, because all the words looked the same to me!

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  4. We were just in Portmeirion last week, which is the most eccentric little place. The scenery in north Wales is spectacular, along the coast and into Snowdonia.

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