Dewi Sant

We should have also noted yesterday that March 1st is also the feast day of Dewi Sant (St. David), Bishop of Menevia, the Patron Saint of Wales. Welshmen commemorate the abstemious saint, who drank only water and ate only vegetables, by singing and eating leeks, which may be why this holiday has never caught on in the New World as compared to St. Patrick's, which is celebrated by singing and drinking beer.

"Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which, your majesty know, to this hour is an honourable badge of the service; and I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day." - Fluellen in Shakespeare's "Henry V".