St David’s day is an incredibly important day for wales, and on friday people across the country celebrated our national day. Parades took place across the country, with the biggest being on the streets of Cardiff. People sang songs, heard speeches and celebrated all things welsh. And there were plenty of calls to make the day a bank holiday.
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00:03 It's been a fantastic event.
00:09 We've had so many people.
00:12 We've had such a big turnout, as we do every year.
00:16 Many people, obviously, because it's not a bank holiday--
00:19 it should be.
00:20 As I said, it should be.
00:21 But it's not.
00:22 But because it's not, so many people, myself included,
00:24 even booked the day off work to come to this, especially,
00:27 to take part, to celebrate our national saint and what he did.
00:33 Plenty of people at the parade were calling for a bank holiday
00:35 on St. David's Day.
00:37 Former Senate member, Neil McEvoy,
00:38 says that on top of it being a bank holiday,
00:41 it would be a great opportunity to make it a tourist attraction
00:44 in the same way that St. Patrick's Day in Ireland
00:46 is celebrated all across the world.
00:49 We're going to build towards it.
00:50 We're going to have a good day today.
00:52 But Ireland is a massive tourist thing.
00:55 People go to Ireland, travel there for St. Patrick's Day.
00:57 We want that for Wales.
00:59 I mean, this diary that's half red or something
01:01 on St. David's Day.
01:03 We should have Welsh flags everywhere.
01:05 I mean, when there are other festivals in the city,
01:08 you've got those flags all over the place, bunting.
01:11 I mean, look around you.
01:13 There's nothing.
01:14 I mean, it's like--
01:17 Scotland, for example, they have St. Andrew's Day as a bank
01:19 holiday.
01:19 In Ireland, both from the Gann North
01:21 and they have St. Patrick's Day as a bank holiday.
01:23 And the way I see it is, if they can have their St. David's Day
01:27 bank holidays, why can't we here in Wales
01:29 when it comes to St. David's Day?
01:31 St. David's Day apparently isn't just for the Welsh.
01:33 We had some of our cousins from across the pond visiting
01:36 who also got involved and said they'd
01:38 spread the word about Wales back home in the States.
01:42 So we're Americans.
01:43 We're here on a school program.
01:45 We're just in the UK.
01:47 And today, we're here in Wales for the St. David's Day parade.
01:49 And we thought it would be fun to participate.
01:51 A lot of us have some Welsh ancestry,
01:53 and I have a lot of Welsh ancestry on my mother's side.
01:55 And so we just thought it would be
01:56 fun to participate in the parade.
01:58 It's awesome people to come together and celebrate.
02:02 It's very awesome.
02:03 The community is just so fun, so inviting.
02:07 Yes, definitely.
02:08 Get involved in any way you can, whether it's
02:11 attending your local parades.
02:13 So whether that's you in Cardiff,
02:14 and there's other parades that are in Wales as well,
02:17 such as in Swansea, Carmarthen, Wrexham, Aberystwyth.
02:20 They all have parades as well.
02:22 Go to your nearest parade if you can.
02:24 Take part in that in any way you can.
02:25 Help out in any way you can.
02:27 Or even if it's just the--
02:29 or even if it's just taking part in, say, a nationalised
02:32 [INAUDIBLE]
02:32 So if you work in a school, for example,
02:34 do a nationalised [INAUDIBLE] on that, or even get your schools
02:36 to come to your nearest parade.
02:40 St. David's Day is important.
02:41 It's not very often that Wales gets to shout
02:43 proud about our Welshness.
02:45 And of all days, St. David's Day at least
02:47 should be that day, whether we'll
02:49 see it become a bank holiday in the future is yet to be seen.
02:52 But if it were up to the people parading through town
02:54 on Friday, we certainly wouldn't be working March 1 next year.
02:57 James B. Watkins, reporting from Cardiff.
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