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24 Jan 14 - 09:28 AM (#3595237) Subject: Folklore: St Dwynwen's Day, January 25 From: Mick Tems This Saturday (and next Wednesday Jan 29 for Llantrisant Folk Club), people from South Wales up to the North will celebrate Dydd Santes Dwynwen, St Dwynwen's Day, with music, dance and song. Dwynwen is the patron saint of all lovers and her day is celebrated on January 25. She lived during the fifth century and was one of the prettiest of Brychan Brycheiniog's 24 daughters. The story goes that Dwynwen fell in love with Maelon Dafodrill, but unfortunately her father had already arranged that she should marry someone else. Maelon was so outraged that he raped Dwynwen and left her. In her grief Dwynwen fled to the woods, where she begged God to make her forget Maelon. After falling asleep, Dwynwen was visited by an angel, who appeared carrying a sweet potion designed to erase all memory of Maelon and turn him into a block of ice. God then gave three wishes to Dwynwen. First, she wished that Maelon be thawed; second, that God meet the hopes and dreams of true lovers; and third, that she should never marry. All three were fulfilled, and as a mark of her thanks, Dwynwen devoted herself to God's service for the rest of her life. Remains of Dwynwen's church can be seen today on the island of Llanddwyn, off the coast of Anglesey. Llantrisant Folk Club (at The Windsor Hotel, Pontyclun) is celebrating a belated St Dwynwen's Day on Wednesday January 29; songs of love, longing and lust will definitely receive high marks! |
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24 Jan 14 - 09:48 AM (#3595246) Subject: RE: Folklore: St Dwynwen's Day, January 25 From: Mick Tems Sorry... click on Llantrisant Folk Club, and that should direct you to our glorious page! |
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25 Jan 14 - 09:38 AM (#3595508) Subject: RE: Folklore: St Dwynwen's Day, January 25 From: GUEST,roy jones Thanks! |
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14 Feb 14 - 03:00 AM (#3601348) Subject: RE: Folklore: St Dwynwen's Day, January 25 From: GUEST,Paul Seligman Here's a nice nature walk blog showing pictures of the island where the story is set: Llandwyn Island |
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14 Feb 14 - 10:09 AM (#3601432) Subject: RE: Folklore: St Dwynwen's Day, January 25 From: GUEST,leeneia Best wishes to the club, and thank you, Paul, for the pictures. |
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14 Feb 14 - 07:23 PM (#3601583) Subject: RE: Folklore: St Dwynwen's Day, January 25 From: GUEST,John Jones Dydd Santes Dwynwen is the all Welsh lovers celebrate, rather like the English St Valentine(in Latin, Valentinus) who was is a widely recognised third-century Roman saint commemorated on February 14 and associated since the High Middle Ages with a tradition of courtly love. Nothing is reliably known of St. Valentine except his name and the fact that he died on February 14 on Via Flaminia in the north of Rome. It is uncertain whether St. Valentine is to be identified as one saint or two saints of the same name. Several different martyrologies have been added to later hagiographies that are unreliable. For these reasons this liturgical commemoration was not kept in the Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical veneration as revised in 1969, although he continues to be honoured on February 14th in the extraordinary-form Roman calendar of saints. In this case, St Dwynwen seems to have the truer story, and she's made in Wales - not like the obscure foreign saints that the English worship! |
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15 Feb 14 - 12:55 PM (#3601764) Subject: RE: Folklore: St Dwynwen's Day, January 25 From: Q (Frank Staplin) "....that the English worship!" Thinking back some 80 years, I remember that we made valentines in grade school, and exchanged them. "Worship" or any discussion of a Saint(s) Valentine was never mentioned. Today I read a bit in Wikipedia about Valentines and found where that old "roses are red and violets are blue" cliché that we put on our childish cards came from. She bath'd with roses red and violets blew, And all the sweetest flowers, that in the forest grew. Edmund Spencer, 1590 The rose is red, the violet's blue, The honey's sweet and so are you. Thou art my love and I am thine; I drew thee to my valentine: ....... Gammer Gurton's Garland, 1784 |