Saint David’s Day

Or, when to wear a leek with style.

So, there was something that I had not seen during my seven years in the UK: Prince Charles wearing a leek on his lapel.

From Wikipedia:

Saint David’s Day (Welsh: Dydd Gŵyl Dewi) is the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, and falls on 1 March each year.

[...] Many Welsh people wear one or both of the national emblems of Wales on their lapel to celebrate St. David: the daffodil (a generic Welsh symbol which is in season during March) or the leek (Saint David’s personal symbol) on this day. The association between leeks and daffodils is strengthened by the fact that they have similar names in Welsh, Cenhinen (leek) and Cenhinen Bedr (daffodil, literally “Peter’s leek”).

Males usually wear leeks while young girls wear daffodils. The younger girls usually wear their Welsh costumes to school. This costume consists of a long woollen skirt, white blouse, woollen shawl and a Welsh hat.

And so, this is why the Prince of Wales was wearing a vegetable today (or rather, yesterday).

Of course, this is nothing new for most British.