New Year Celebrations

101 THINGS YOU (PROBABLY0 DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT WHITCHURCH

31 New Year Celebrations

The turn of the year, and the last few hours of a turbulent twelve months that many might be quite prepared to forget!

How many New Years have there been in our village? Obviously, thousands, but I wonder what happened in times gone by?

In recent times, New Year seems to have been taken over by Hogmanay and the fireworks in London, but it was not always so

Whilst many of our local traditions are largely forgotten there are still memories of celebrations of years gone by. First Footing, Calenig and of course the Mari Lwyd. In the long-lost times, there was also the Roman feast of Saturnalia

In the rural past (before industry came to Whitchurch), there were only scattered farms and just a few cottages. Everyone knew everyone. Was it the case that New Year was more important than Christmas?

Was this the same for hundreds of years? A Welsh-speaking rural community where traditions were very important. Deeply religious, but at the same time mindful of the natural world; the risk of bad luck at the beginning of the New Year would be disastrous. Life was so fragile

To achieve that good luck was very important, so the invitation of a dark-haired man to cross the threshold, seconds after the chiming of the New Year was special. This happened across south Wales, even in living memory

The Calennig (winter festival) in Cardiff has been part of the local Christmas/New Year season in recent times. However, the traditional Calennig in rural Wales was very different. An apple complete with three stick ‘legs’ and raisins as decoration for each child, and a first-day celebration with the children running from house to house singing and ‘trick-or-treat’ splashing of water

And of course, the performance of the Mari Lwyd; strongly held in the rural areas of south Wales where groups of (mainly) men dressed in strange garb with a horse’s skull mounted on a long pole with a white sheet, ribbons, bells and lantern lights, all visiting neighbouring houses in the early hours of New Year’s Day singing and performing their elaborate show

The supporters of the Mari Lwyd would sing and entreat the householder to invite them in, whereas the householder would try his (or her) best to prevent this with song and poetry (called Pwnco). There are many stories of this pageant in the villages north of Whitchurch in the 19th century, and I’m sure that the Mari Lwyd was well known in our village too

The whole thing seems to have died out early in the 20th century, but there have been many attempts to resurrect it. The Folk Museum at St Fagans have held reconstructions in recent years

Wouldn’t it be lovely to think that Whitchurch could plan such an exciting event again, but the horse skull and costume would only be the start. I’m told that there are still Welsh-speaking poets locally who have recorded the Pwnco repartee. So, all of this could be possible. What do others think?

Below is a sketch (a bit fanciful perhaps) of the nightmarish Mari Lwyd

Does anyone know where we could obtain the skull of a horse?

Perhaps for now, in these covid-ridden times, it’s best to bar the door, draw the curtains and throw an extra log on the fire. And if you hear some outlandish sounds outside, just pretend you’ve already retired to your bed

Anyway, stay safe, have a happy New Year and Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

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