Wednesday, February 28, 2007

'Gwnewch y pethau bychain'

Do the little things.

Tomorrow commemorates the patron saint of Wales, St. David, who was born in the sixth century at Henfynw, Cardigan. He is represented by the Welsh symbol of the leek, which is said to have protected the countrymen in combat, turning the tide and wresting victory from their Saxon enemies during battle. In honor of St. David, i think i'll plant a bulb of aromatic leek, and maybe make some Mushroom, Leek, and Potato Soup.

I admit it: i'm a sucker for all things Celtic, like most. I get fascinated by Interlace work in general. One of my favorite of the particularly Welsh traditions is that of Love Spoons. I am such a dip. The best part of the Celtic tradition (like any) are the stories. There's a lot of confusion about the origin of all things Celtic, where they came from and what they mean. Bradley W. Schenck, who has some amazing designs, often gets "origin" questions, and i like his answer:
We monkeys have a natural tendency to want to assign meaning to things. That's got nothing to do with whether the meanings were there already.
These patterns in their historical form were not symbols, and didn't represent specific ideas.

Anybody who tells you something else is probably trying to sell you something.
Yup, that's a keeper, not only for the meaning of Celtic interlace, but for darned near anything.

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