What better way to celebrate St David’s day on 1 March and St Patrick’s day on 17 March than with a feast and themed activities.
St David’s day activities
For St David’s day, our residents had many suggestions on how to mark the occasion. We handmade Welsh dragon bunting to decorate the home and had a lovely crafting session making daffodils. Crafting projects are such a great way for our residents to come together to chat about the task in hand, share stories and have a good natter. There is also a real sense of achievement in creating together.
Daffodil crafting
Group crafting table
We also made Welsh love spoons. The carving of Welsh love spoons is a centuries old tradition in Wales. Young men used to carve a love spoon from one piece of wood to give to their loved one. Symbols of love such as hearts, Celtic knot work, bells and horseshoes were intricately carved to create a beautiful gift. This tradition is enjoying a revival and although we didn’t whittle any wood, we did decorate some wooden spoons as gifts to celebrate St David’s day.
Welsh love spoons
Helping with the sticking
The St David’s day feast
Our chefs here at West Eaton put together a splendid St David’s day afternoon tea, with all the traditional fare. Dorothy was delighted that we had her favourite – griddled Welsh cakes. There was also bara brith, directly translated as “speckled bread” and rather like a fruit cake, deliciously moist from soaking the fruit overnight in tea. And of course, a celebration of all things Welsh would not have been complete without eating Welsh rarebit whilst listening to the Llanelli Male Voice Choir.
Preparing for St Patrick’s Day
After the fun of St David’s Day all our residents are very much looking forward to celebrating St Patrick’s day. They have started on the decorations for our home, with handmade Irish flag bunting and colouring of shamrocks.
Irish flag bunting craft
And then there’s the feasting. Maybe we will be starting the day with freshly baked soda bread, make an Irish stew for lunch, then bacon and colcannon for dinner, followed with a slice of rich chocolate Guinness cake for dessert! No wonder the Irish are so lucky!