Girl wears national dress at the 2002 music Eisteddfod in Llangollen

At least 15,000 council tenants in the city received a copy of the county council's tenants' annual report 2002, which included a free calendar.

This listed the feast of the patron saint of Wales as 10 March instead of 1 March.

A council spokesman said it was a typographical error and apologised for the mistake.

He said: "Despite the best efforts of the people involved with producing publications, errors do occasionally slip through the net.

"It would be a shame to focus upon this error and not upon the rest of this well-produced publication.

Cardiff council apologised for the error

"We are sure people will not be misled into thinking the traditional date of St David's Day has changed."

Last year the authority's annual report was short-listed for an award.

The spokesman said: "This year's is in the same style and without that mistake would be to the same standard."

Welsh men and women traditionally mark St David's Day by wearing a daffodil or the image of a leek in their lapels.

Leeks became the national emblem, according to legend, after St David advised the Britons on the eve of a successful battle against the Saxons to wear leeks in their caps to easily distinguish friend from foe.

St David, or Dewi Sant, as he is known in the Welsh language, lived in the 6th century.

He was a Celtic monk and archbishop and he was one of the many early saints who helped to spread Christianity among the pagan tribes of western Britain.

St David travelled far on missionary journeys through Wales, where he established several monasteries.

St David is said to have been of royal lineage. His mother, Non, was said to be a niece of King Arthur.

His father, Sant, was the son of Ceredig, who was prince of Ceredigion, a kingdom in west Wales.

St David's Day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death in 589 and dates back to 1120 - when St David was canonised by Pope Callactus the Second.

In 1996, bones were found in St David's Cathedral, Pembrokeshire, which, it is claimed, could be those of the patron saint.

The Welsh Assembly Government has sought to make St David's Day a public holiday, but the UK Government has rejected the proposal saying it would cost businesses too much.