The Patron Saint of Wales

The Patron Saint of Wales is Saint David. Saint David's Day celebrates the life of the Patron Saint of Wales on March 1- The Welsh patriotic festival it celebrated since the 12 th century.

Saint David's parents were descended from welsh royelty. His father was prince of Powys. Saint David was educated at the monastery of Hen Fynyw, his teacher Paulinus was blind but according to legend, David cured his teacher's blindness, that is one of thousands miracles attributed to wales' patron. By the 9th century he had became known as Aquaticus or Dewi Ddyfrwr in Welsh. Saint David died on 1 march 589 A. D.

In the year 1120, Pope Callactus II canonised David as a Saint, and Patron Saint of Wales, the country where he had served as archbisshop.The town of sain Davids is the smallest city in the UK.

March 1 is marked with a tradicional feast and the wearing of a leek or daffodil wich are Wales' national symbols.

WELSH PEOPLE

They aren´t Anglo-Saxon; their ancestors were Celtic. The Welsh language is formed for the Latin and the Celtic languages.
They have a strong personality and they preserve their traditions, languaje and customs.
They are interested in literature, poetry and music(which is very rich); their ancestors defended it, and values as friendship, nobility, bravery and the War.
Poets are the more important people and they are called Druids.
There are strong differences in the social behaviour between English and Welsh people, if see you and he knows that you are new in the city, immediately invites you to drink a pint.
There are other differences in their physiognomy.
Young people fell the Wels Pride.
There are Festivals where poets show their compositions in Welsh language, then the elderly say who the winner is.
This poet is "the bearer of the Welsh language", is somebody who had achieved the best merits in the last year to transmit and promote Welsh language to the next generations.

CURIOSITY:Meaning and origin of the Wales (Cymru)-Flag:

The national flag of Wales is Y Ddraig Goch (English: The Red Dragon), consisting of a red dragon passant on a green and white field. As with any heraldic charge, the exact representation of the dragon is not standardised and many renderings exist.
History
The flag was granted official status in 1959, but the red dragon itself has been associated with Wales for centuries; indeed, the flag is sometimes claimed to be the oldest national flag still in use, though the origin of the adoption of the dragon symbol is now lost in history and myth. A plausible theory is that the Romans brought the emblem to what is now Wales during their occupation of Britain in the form of the Draco standards borne by the Roman cavalry, itself inspired by the symbols of the Dacians or Parthians.[1] The green and white stripes of the flag were additions by the House of Tudor, the Welsh dynasty that held the English throne from 1485 to 1603. Green and white are also the colours of the leek, another national emblem of Wales.
The oldest known use of the dragon to symbolise Wales is from the Historia Brittonum, written around 830, but it is popularly supposed to have been the battle standard of Arthur and other ancient Celtic/Romano-British leaders. It is particularly associated in Welsh poetry with Cadwaladr king of Gwynedd from c.655 to 682.
Many legends are associated with the Welsh dragon. The most famous is the prophecy of Myrddin (or Merlin) of a long fight between a red dragon and a white dragon. According to the prophecy, the white dragon would at first dominate but eventually the red dragon would win, this eventual victory and recapturing of Lloegr would be, according to Welsh legend, brought about by Y Mab Darogan. This is believed to represent the conflict in the 5th and 6th centuries between the British Celts (who later became the Welsh) and the invading Saxons

LANGUAGE

English is spoken by almost all people in Wales and is therefore the de facto main language. However, northern and western Wales retain many areas where Welsh is spoken as a first language by the majority of the population and English is learnt as a second language. 21.7% of the Welsh population is able to speak or read Welsh to some degree (based on the 2001 census), although only 16% claim to be able to speak, read and write it, which may be related to the stark differences between colloquial anD literary Welsh. According to a language survey conducted in 2004, a larger proportion than 21.7% claim to have some knowledge of the language. Today there are very few truly monoglot. Welsh speakers, other than small children, but individuals still exist who may be considered less than fluent in English and rarely speak it. There were still many monoglots as recently as the middle of the 20th century.Road signs in Wales are generally in both English and Welsh; where place names differ in the two languages, both versions are used (e.g. "Cardiff" and "Caerdydd"), the decision as to which is placed first being that of the local authority.
Welsh is a living language, used in conversation by thousands and seen throughout Wales. Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages should be treated equally. Public bodies are required to prepare and implement a Welsh Language Scheme. Local councils and the Welsh Assembly Government use Welsh as an official language, issuing official literature and publicity in Welsh as well as in English. Road signs in Wales are in English and Welsh, including the Welsh versions of place names.
The Welsh people are keen to keep the language alive so Welsh is a compulsory subject for all school pupils up to the age of 16 in Wales. Welsh medium schools are also increasingly popular.

CAPITAL CITY

The capital city is Cardiff. The Romans had a fortress here in the first Century AD, but Cardiff’s a lively youngster really. It was officially designated as capital in 1955

POPULATION

The population of Wales in the United Kingdom, currently stands at around 3 million people, so there’s plenty of room.
This would make Wales the 136th largest country by population if it were a sovereign state.
According to the 2001 census, 96% of the population was White British, and 2.1% non-white (mainly of Asian origin). Most non-white groups were concentrated in the southern port cities of Cardiff, Newport and Swansea. Welsh Asian communities developed mainly through immigration since World War II. More recently, parts of Wales have seen an increased number of immigrants settle from recent EU accession countries such as Poland – although some Poles also settled in Wales in the immediate aftermath of World War II.
You’ve got 3 National Parks and 5 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, all part of a landscape that offers opportunities for all kinds of activities. Walking, cycling, climbing, golf, mountain biking and paragliding are just the beginning of the list.
You’ve also got lots and lots of castles (over 400 at the last count), the Welsh National Opera (one of the world’s premier Opera Companies), the largest single-span glasshouse in the world (at the National Botanic Garden of Wales), and a cool flag with a Red Dragon on it.

AREA

Wales is located on a peninsula in central-west Great Britain. Its area is about 20,779 km2 (8,023 sq mi) – about the same size as Massachusetts, Israel, Slovenia or El Salvador and about a quarter of the area of Scotland. It is about 274 km (170 mi) north–south and 97 km (60 mi) east–west. Wales is bordered by England to the east and by sea in the other three directions: the Môr Hafren (Bristol Channel) to the south, Celtic Sea to the west, and the Irish Sea to the north. Altogether, Wales has over 1,200 km (746 mi) of coastline. There are several islands off the Welsh mainland, the largest being Ynys Môn (Anglesey) in the northwest.

LOCATION

LOCATION:
Wales is the friendly green hilly bit on the western side of Britain. We’re about 2 hours west of London by rail or by road.
It might not take you long to get here, but you’ll find that Wales is a very different place.
Is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west.