1/7/2024 0 Comments Simon pearce glass bowlThe inhabitants of the house would then offer excuses for why the team could not enter. The Mari Lwyd party would approach a house and sing a song in which they requested admittance. I ofyn am gennad i ganu (To ask leave to sing) There was usually a smartly dressed "Leader" who carried a staff, stick, or whip, and sometimes other stock characters, such as the "Merryman" who played music, and Punch and Judy (both played by men) with blackened faces often brightly dressed, Punch carried a long metal fire iron and Judy had a besom. The Mari Lwyd party consisted of four to seven men, who often had coloured ribbons and rosettes attached to their clothes and sometimes wore a broad sash around the waist. The custom used to begin at dusk and often lasted late into the night. There is a unique example provided by an account from Gower in which the head was kept buried throughout the year, only being dug up for use during the Christmas season. However, the precise date on which the custom was performed varied between villages, and in a number of cases the custom was carried out for several consecutive nights. The Mari Lwyd custom was performed during winter festivities, specifically around the dates of Christmas and New Year. An observer of the tradition as it was performed at Llangynwyd during the nineteenth century noted that preparation for the activity was a communal event, with many locals involving themselves in the decorating of the Mari Lwyd. In some instances, the horse's jaw was able to open and close as a result of string or lever attached to it, and there are accounts of pieces of glass being affixed into the eye sockets of some examples, representing eyes. On occasion, the horse's head was represented not by a skull but was instead made from wood or even paper. The Mari Lwyd itself consists of a horse's skull that is decorated with ribbons and affixed to a pole to the back of the skull is attached a white sheet, which drapes down to conceal both the pole and the individual carrying this device. The tradition has also inspired various artistic depictions, appearing, for instance, in the work of the painter Clive Hicks-Jenkins and the poet Vernon Watkins.ĭescription A Mari Lwyd, during a celebration in 2006 The absence of late medieval references to such practices and the geographic dispersal of the various British hooded animal traditions-among them the Hoodening of Kent, the Broad of the Cotswolds, and the Old Ball, Old Tup, and Old Horse of northern England-have led to suggestions that they derive from the regionalised popularisation of the sixteenth and seventeenth-century fashion for hobby horses among the social elite.Īlthough the tradition declined in the early to mid-twentieth century, partly due to opposition from some local Christian clergy and changing social conditions, it was revived in new forms in the mid-to-latter part of the century. Several earlier folklorists to examine the topic, such as Peate and Ellen Ettlinger, believed that the tradition had once been a pre-Christian religious rite, although scholarly support for this interpretation has declined amid a lack of supporting evidence. Cawte thought it more likely that the term had originally meant "Grey Mare", referring to the heads' equine appearance. Peate believed that the term meant "Holy Mary" and thus was a reference to Mary, mother of Jesus, while the folklorist E. If the householders eventually relented, the team would be permitted entry and given food and drink.Īlthough the custom was given various names, it was best known as the Mari Lwyd the etymology of this term remains the subject of academic debate. The householders would be expected to deny them entry, again through song, and the two sides would continue their responses to one another in this manner. The men would carry the Mari Lwyd to local houses, where they would request entry through song. According to these, the Mari Lwyd was a tradition performed at Christmas time by groups of men who would accompany the horse on its travels around the local area, and although the makeup of such groups varied, they typically included an individual to carry the horse, a leader, and individuals dressed as stock characters such as Punch and Judy. The custom was first recorded in 1800, with subsequent accounts of it being produced into the early twentieth century. The tradition entails the use of an eponymous hobby horse which is made from a horse's skull mounted on a pole and carried by an individual hidden under a sackcloth. The Mari Lwyd ( Welsh: Y Fari Lwyd, IPA: ) is a wassailing folk custom found in South Wales. South Wales Christmas folk custom The Mari Lwyd
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