Moonpig card wishes a ‘Day Saint David Happy’

Stephen Price

A greetings card has been made available for sale at online retailer Moonpig, wishing its recipient a Hapus Dewi Sant Dydd, which can be translated as ‘Day Saint David Happy’.

The card, seemingly made by AI shows a Welsh dragon with a mistranslation of ‘Happy Saint David’s Day’ which should read ‘Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus’ and is currently available for £3.99 as a small square card, or £5.99 for a large square card.

In the Welsh language, verbs and adjectives generally follow nouns, but this translation has simply switched the English words for Welsh and left them in their original order, making it non-sensible in Welsh.

Saint David’s Day, Dydd Dewi Sant, or the Feast of Saint David, is the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, and falls on 1 March, the date of Saint David’s death in 589 AD.

A screen shot of the card was shared to the popular Facebook group Arwyddion Cymraeg Gwael on Saturday 7 February, and has already received a great deal of attention – in particular laughing emojis.

One commenter pointed out that ‘mae’r ddraig yn wynebu’r ffordd anghywir hefyd’ – i.e. ‘the dragon is also facing the wrong way,’ just to add to the many failings of AI.

Moonpig recently reported a bump in sales thanks in part to its increased use of AI to help design cards, personalise customers’ messages and answer queries.

The company said sales rose 6.7% to £169m in the six months to 31 October 2025 and remained strong in the weeks since then, largely thanks to increased orders and spend per order.

Former chief executive, Nickyl Raithatha shared: “AI is now designing a lot of cards for us,” said its. He said technology had helped create everything from baby and birthday cards to corporate greetings linked to a particular business.

“It is still being managed by our in-house team. We make sure a person will look at it and it is relevant and exciting for customers. We don’t want to fill our site with generic design. We are treading carefully.”

Raithatha said the company was “not looking at this as a threat or reduction in jobs” but it could step up productivity by suggesting 50 or more designs that a person could edit, adapt or curate rather than designing just one or two cards in a day.

“We still need that creativity,” said the CEO, who stepping down at the end last year before being replaced by Catherine Faiers, the chief operating officer of the secondhand car marketplace AutoTrader.

Critics have, however, argued that Moonpig and its customers should support working artists whose livelihoods depend on sales of smaller items such as cards, with this one demonstrating the resulting lack of integrity in many of the designs.

In the words of Moonpig, Day Saint David Happy everyone!

Moonpig has been asked to respond.

And for those wanting to brush up their own Welsh in time for Dydd Dewi Sant…

Click here to find out more about SaySomethingInWelsh.

Click here for more info on DuoLingo.

Click here for information on local Wales-based Welsh classes or London classes (Not exhaustive so please check social media and search engines for what’s on in your area)

Click here to find out more about Lingo Newydd.