On the day for cutting the mistletoe, a procession of Bards, Druids, and Druidesses was formed to the forest, and singing all the while. The Arch-Druid climbed the tree and cut down the mistletoe, the other Druids spreading a sheet to receive it. This scene was enacted with great success at the Builth Wells Pageant, August, 1909--(see illustration)--which I witnessed myself with interest. The Romans had also their festival in honour of Janus and Strenia about the same time of the year. It is interesting to add that in England in the days of King Alfred a law respecting Feast Days was passed, in which the twelve days after the birth of Christ were made a season of holidays. ST. VALENTINE'S DAY. The custom of sending a pretty Valentine, or an ugly one, of love, or from mere mischief, as the case might be, was very common once in Wales. We do not hear much of Valentines at the present, however, since the Picture Post Cards have become so common. ST. DAVID'S DAY. St. David is the Patron Saint of Wales, and strange to say the only Welsh Saint in the Calendar of the Western Church (Canonized by Calixtus II.) more than five hundred years after his death. His day is celebrated on the 1st of March throughout the world where Welshmen are. In Wales there are in some places grand dinners, and speeches are made and songs sung, and at present it is customary to conduct Divine Service on the day even in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. But perhaps the most characteristic feature of the day is the wearing of the Leek, though it must be admitted that wearing the Leek on St. David's Day is not very general in the country districts of Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire at the present day, but the interesting old custom is reviving, especially in the towns, and every true-born Welshman ought to wear on the 1st of March the Welsh National Emblem which is dedicated to St. David. The origin of the custom is not known, there are many who positively assert that it originated in the days of St. David himself; that is, according to some traditions, during a memorable battle against the Saxons the Welsh obtained a complete victory over their enemies. During the engagement the Welsh had leeks in their hats on the occasion for their military colour and distinction of themselves, by persuasion of the said prelate St. David. According to other traditions, the battle of Poictiers has been named; also that of Cressy, when the Welsh archers did good service with the English against the French, under Edward the Black Prince of Wales, and Shakespeare alludes to this in Henry V.:-- Fluellen says to Henry: "If your Majesty is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which your Majesty knows, to this hour is an honourable badge of the service; and, I do believe, your Majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek on St. Tavy's Day."