Calennig

On the 30th and 31st of December between 11am and 12.30pm we will be making Calennig gifts(like the one in the picture above!)

At 2pm there will also be a chance for you to sing with the Calennig gift you have created. It's going to be so much fun!

And if you are wondering what the apple on a stick is all about, here's what Trefor M. Owen has to say in his fantastic book 'Welsh Folk Customs':

'The giving of gifts on New Year's Day is an ancient custom once widely observed but more recently displaced by the growing importance of Christmas and Christmas presents. The collecting of calennig (New Year's gift)is a Welsh form of this custom.

[...]the collecting of calennig began early in the day and continued until noon. An account published in 1819 describes the custom in the following words: '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.''