Happy Saint David Day
Giving the day I am going to dedicate this post to the flag of St David of Wales. This is not the flag of Wales which is the famous Red Dragon Flag.
The flag of Saint David (Welsh: Baner Dewi Sant) is normally a yellow cross on a black field, although it has also appeared as a black cross on a yellow field. It has been used as a flag representing Wales (as an alternative to the Red Dragon flag), in the same sense that the crosses of Saint George, Saint Andrew and Saint Patrick are used to represent England, Scotland and Ireland (of which they are, respectively, patron saints). It is similar to the arms of the Diocese of St David's.
Coat of arms of the Diocese of St David's
The flag can be seen throughout Wales, though not as frequently as the Red Dragon. On St David's Day it often plays a central role in the celebrations.
The history of the flag is somewhat ambiguous, though it seems to have emerged at the beginning of the 20th century. One theory is that it was developed to fly atop Anglican churches in Wales, in the same way that the St George's Cross was flown outside churches in England, though since 1954 churches are more likely to fly a flag bearing the armorial bearings of the Church in Wales
Flag of the Church in Wales
In any case, the colours of the flag - black and gold - have certainly long been associated with the Welsh saint, even if not always in the form of a symmetrical cross. St David's University College,Lampeter (now the Lampeter campus of the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David), founded in 1822, adopted these colours as the 'college colours' in 1888,and the flag of St David continues to be associated with the college, and is often flown today in a form defaced to include the cinquefoils of the crest of St David's College.
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coat of arms of University of Wales, Trinity Saint David
The flag has also had military significance, representing the 38th Welsh Division in the Second World War.
Between 2003 and 2008 Cardiff City F.C. incorporated the flag into their logo. Crusaders RLFC, who started playing rugby league in Bridgend in 2006, also incorporated the flag on their logo.
The Christian Party (UK) wants to replace the current Flag of Wales to St. David's Cross.
38 Div WWII insignia
There have also been attempts the incorporate the Cross of St David into the Union Flag (Wales was seen as part of England and the flag has never been updated to include the modern constituent country). However none of these have ever had any success.
Welsh Union Flag Proposals
Feel Free to Comment. Hope you have a happy Saint David Day whether you are Welsh or not.
None of these designs are mine. Most of the info came from Wikipedia
If Wales continue to belong to united kingdom flag should be changed
ReplyDeleteperhaps you would also be interested in my "Welsh Union Jack" design?
Deletehttp://samsflags.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/welsh-union-flag.html
I'm an American, so it's ultimately the British people's choice about whether their flag should change or not. To me, the argument that "Wales is part of England, so It's already on the Union Flag" is just wrong. The only problem is that most of the proposals to incorporate Wales are ridiculous...except for that second flag above proposed by Liam Roberts.
ReplyDeleteWhat do I like about it? If you take a close look, you'll see all the four countries of the United Kingdom are finally represented EQUALLY. If you accept the notion that Northern Ireland belongs in the United Kingdom and should be represented on the flag, this finally gives that region full respect. You can see the full Scottish saltire on the Union Flag, but only a tiny red saltire is overlain it to represent Ireland. While I understand that the mismatched diagonal is supposed to show that neither Scotland or Ireland are over each other---it makes the Irish saltire look crooked. Finally, it looks just as wide as Scotland's.
I know that for most Britons who are used to the red, white, and blue colours that flag looks a bit odd, but I'm betting that the Welsh love this version.