Midwinter Traditions

This year Welcome Yule has a distinct Welsh flavor. From the stark coldness of the season revealed in the remnants of a 13th century Welsh poem to the joy and warmth of carols familiar from childhood, you will experience the turning of the season from the dark to the light.

Wales has a number of traditions that are uniquely their own, but with universal links to similar customs throughout the world.

Mari Lwyd

The Mari Lwyd is an ancient Welsh custom of death and renewal represented by the white horse's skull come back to life. The mysterious Grey Mare prowls around the village accompanied by an equally motley crew. They approach a house and sing out their opening volley. The householders respond in kind and an impromptu battle of wits, in verse, is enjoined. The Mari Lwyd wins and they enter the house to receive food and drink. And then they leave, singing their thanks and goodwill, to locate their next victim.

According to the Crafts, customs & culture in Clwyd. Booklet for 1981 International Eisteddfod

The Mari Lwyd... was carried about and the first intimation often received was the sight of this prowling monster peeping around into the room or sometimes showing his head by pushing it through an upstairs window... when the procession approached a house it was intended to visit, the leader tapped the door while the party sang the traditional rhymes... The party outside engaged in a battle of wits with the householders and sang extempore verses to which those indoors were obliged to reply in a similar... The Mari Lwyd then entered the house and paid special attention to the womenfolk, nudging, playing, neighing and biting them, besides talking... Having sung, danced and played about the party sat down to food and drink.

The Celfyddydau Mari Arts is an organization in Wales devoted to researching and preserves Welsh traditions. They have extensive articles on the Mari Lwyd traditions.

...one of the strangest and most ancient of a number of customs... that mark the passing of the darkest days of midwinter

... these long, cold nights were the time of fire festivals in Wales and across the Celtic World... All these festivals and customs reflect man's awe at nature's annual miracle of death and rebirth. That's why evergreens like the holly and the ivy are such a feature of the season...and why a dead horse mysteriously comes back to life.

... the Mari Lwyd ... involves the arrival of the horse and its part at the door of the house or pub, where they sing several introductory verses. Then comes a battle of wits in which the people inside the door and the Mari party outside exchange challenges and insults in rhyme.

Paul Millenas has written an interesting article on the Mari Lwyd.

Calennig

The Calennig is a New Year's custom where children decorate fruit, usually apples or oranges, to symbolize health and prosperity. They go from house to house to spread the good luck and collect a New Year's gift.

To quote from Welsh Folk Customs by Trefor M. Owen

"New Year is marked by all the children in the neighbourhood forming themselves in little groups and carrying from house to house their congratulations and good wishes for the health and prosperity during the ensuing year, which are symbolized by each bearing in his hand an apple stuck full of corn, variously coloured and decorated with a sprig of some evergreen, three short skewers serve as supports to the apple when not held in the hand, and a fourth serves to hold it by without destroying its many coloured honours. " (from Gentleman's Magazine, March 1819) A later description states that the apple was studded with oats and raisins and well powdered with wheaten flour, and that the prominent parts were touched with gold leaf and sprigs of box and rosemary stuck on the top of the apple... In other districts the fruit used was an orange. Verses were sung at the door of the house and a trifling given to the children.

Plygain Carols

It's 3 o'clock on Christmas morning. The air is cold and the stars are shining bright on the night sky. People carrying candles start to appear on the village street, heading for chapel and church. By the light of candles they will sing carols for hours to welcome Christmas in.

Welsh Clogging

The Welsh are famous for their music and singing. Before the middle of the 19th century, they were also famous for their dancing. The rise of the puritanical Methodist chapel in the early 1800's signalled an end to Welsh dancing. One of the few dance traditions that managed to survived was Welsh step clogging. Danced to jigs and hornpipes, with wooden clogs, these dances were very energetic and a chance for young men to show their prowess. Though as Bardd Alaw pointed out in 1848, not just the young men. "It has frequently been the case that a merry Welsh lass has danced three men down, to the great amusement of the company." (From Welsh Clog/Step Dancing by Huw Williams. Huw Williams is the premier clogger in Wales and can be heard as part of the instrumental group Crasdant)

Here is a description of Welsh Clogging by Paul Millennas.

Penillion Singing

Penillion Singing is also called Cerdd Dant. It is a type of singing peculiar to Wales that evolved from medieval bards who recited their poetry to the accompaniment of the harp. There are a number of specific rules, but basically, the harper plays one melody and the singer comes in later with a different melody or counterpoint and must end together with the harper. In some examples, the harper is free to change to a new melody at whim and the singer must compensate!

In our performance the harper plays The Ash Grove and the singer sings a counterpoint with words from the Eifion Wyn poem "Ora Pro Nobis".

New Year's Water

In south Wales, groups of boys would visit neighborhood houses in the pre-dawn of New Year's day. They would carry fresh spring water along with twigs of various evergreens. They would spinkle the people they met, as well as each room they went into. They would wish everyone a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda (Happy New Year) in return for a copper.

Hunting and Procession of the Wren

There are numerous wren traditions and customs associated with midwinter and the coming of the New Year in Wales.

You find the story of the wren becoming the king of the birds. The wren becomes king by virtue of out thinking the others. The king of the birds will be the bird that can fly the highest. The wren hitchhikes on the back of the eagle so he is able to fly higher than all the other birds.

A wren tradition that is closely allied to the wassailing traditions is the perllan. The perllan is a wren and apples arranged in a certain manner on a small board that is carried around from house to house on New Year's by a group of wassailing young men

The ritual of the hunting of the wren that takes place in Wales is also common in other countries. Some songs get very specific about how they are going to hunt the wren and what they will do with it when they get it.

The wren procession may have once been, along with the hunting of the wren, part of a larger, more elaborate ceremony. The wren is put in a wren house that is carried mightily by men from house to house, again, singing carols and imbibing wassail.

Other sites of interest

• BBC Wales - Christmas Customs talks about the Mari Lwyd, Plygain caroling, the Calennig, Wassailing, and Hunting the Wren.
• BBC Wales - Chrismas and New Year's has different Welsh greetings, customs, receipes, and links. It also has audio clips of some songs and traditions as well as short interviews.
• Museum of Welsh Life, St Fagans has information on a number of midwinter celebrations, including the Mari Lwyd, the Plygain caroling, and the Calennig tradition.