Happy Saint Patrick's Day on March 17!

Did you know that there's another Celtic holiday this month? Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, was born somewhere between 462 and 512 AD, and tradition says that he died on March 1, 589 AD. In Wales, it is traditional to wear either a daffodil or a leek on March 1st, Saint David's Day. Leeks are associated with Saint David, and daffodils are a symbol of Wales.

The best-known heraldic symbol of Wales is the red Welsh Dragon or Y Ddraig Goch. And so, in honor of Wales and Saint David's Day, this month is all about dragons!

Happy (belated) Saint David's Day

and Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Sylvia

Dafydd and Gwyndaf studied with "The Queen of the Harp" Nansi Richards Jones (1888 - 1979). Nancy learned the harp from Welsh Romany gypsies, and also studied with harpist John Thomas at the Guildhall School of Music in London. She played both triple harp and pedal harp and was appointed Royal Harpist to the Prince of Wales in 1911. She held this title until her death. I loved hearing the Roberts brothers' stories of this amazing woman.

Several years after meeting Dafydd and Gwndaf, I bought a Welsh triple harp and taught myself to play. I'll tell you more stories about my triple harp experiences in a future issue of this newsletter.

P.S. Here's one of my funny memories of traveling in Wales. After a trip to Ireland in the early 1980s, I went to see Dafydd and Gwyndaf perform at the National Eisteddfod. Unfortunately, I took the wrong ferry from Ireland and landed a long way from my destination. After renting a car and driving for hours, I finally arrived at the Eisteddfod after midnight. I decided to sleep in my car in the parking lot, but my main priority was to find the restrooms. I found them but was baffled by which one to choose. One said DYNION, and the other said MERCHED, but there were no stick figures on the door to tell me which was which. Since there was no one else around, I figured it didn't matter, so I just picked one. The next morning, I followed other women into the one marked MERCHED.

This article is part of my ongoing series about Hawaii .

Hanalei Bay, here on the north shore of Kauai, is my favorite spot in the world. In 1990 we purchased a house just a few blocks away from this beautiful bay and named it The Harper's House. We advertised it as a vacation rental in my mail order catalog for about ten years because it included a harp to play on! My current condo is about a 10-minute drive away from this gorgeous bay.

Hanalei Bay has been featured in many movies, including S outh Pacific (1958) and George Clooney's The Descendants (2011).

Many people also say that Hanalei Bay is the home of Puff the Magic Dragon, and that the land called Honalee in the famous 1963 Peter, Paul and Mary song was really about Hanalei. However, according to a 2004 article in our local Garden Island newspaper, Peter Yarrow said the song was not written about Hanalei, and that the similar name was just a “serendipitous coincidence.” Also, contrary to popular belief, the song is not about drug use. It is about the "innocence of childhood lost."

The lyrics of Puff the Magic Dragon began in 1959 as a poem by Peter Yarrow's Cornell classmate Leonard Lipton, who was inspired by the 1936 Ogden Nash poem titled The Tale of Custard the Dragon. Peter later added the melody and gave Lipton credit for the lyrics, along with half of the song's royalties.

The song lyrics say:

"Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee." Notice that Honalee rhymes with "sea," but Hanalei would rhyme with "bay."

So, it seems to me that if they had meant Puff to live in Hanalei, they would have written:

"Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the bay and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Hanalei ."

All that being said . . . Puff really DOES live in Hanalei. If you know where to look, you can see him sleeping by the bay. He's a bit hard to see in the photos, because his body blends in with the green mountains behind him, so I'm giving you some help. The brown triangle amidst the green foliage is his eye. His back goes on, and on, and on, as far as your imagination will take you around the bay.

*P.S. By the way, my father was a huge fan of Ogden Nash, and The Tale of Custard the Dragon was one of my favorite poems when I was a child. I even memorized it for a poetry assignment in grammar school.

This month's sale features books, PDFs and cross-stitch patterns about Wales and dragons. The code word is Dragon . 

   

To get the 15% discount on the products below, enter the code word Dragon in the Promo Code box on your shopping cart page and click "Enter Code" by St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2020. For more information, see the "How to get the 15% discount" section at the bottom of this newsletter.



15% off select sale items when you use the code word Dragon

Our newsletter promo codes are redeemable online and are only valid for the items featured in the sale section of this newsletter. They are not valid for phone or email orders. This month's code word is Dragon , and it is valid for 15% off the select books and PDFs in the sale section above. Just because an item is mentioned somewhere in this newsletter doesn't mean that it is on sale. It must be in the sale section.  

 

Here's how to get your newsletter discount at harpcenter.com :

#1. Put the items you want to purchase in your cart. 

#2. On the page where you view the items in your cart, type this month's code word Dragon in the "Promo Code" box and click on "Enter Code."

The actual price of the featured sale products on this page will then automatically change to reflect the discount. You'll also see a note below the Promo Code box saying the name of the promo code you entered and the percentage amount of the discount.  

 

REMEMBER: you must enter this month's code word Dragon in the Promo Code box and click "Enter Code" on your shopping cart page by March 17, 2020 to get the discount!

If you forget, or if you have trouble adding it to your order, email Sylvia immediately .  

 

Offer expires at the end of the day on 3/17/2020.

newsletter@harpcenter.com

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