: History

What is the Mari Lwyd?

One of the most well-known Welsh customs is the Mari Lwyd, meaning 'Grey Mare', a horse-figure carried from door to door by wassail-singing groups during the Christmas season.

Popular in South Wales during the 19th century, the tradition features a real horse's skull, usually decorated with coloured ribbons and rosettes and with glass bottle eyes. The lower jaw is fixed on a spring which shuts the mouth with a loud snap and brings the creation to life. A long white cloth is draped down the carrier which hides him from view.

Occasionally the head was of wood, one account says paper, and in around 1935 a group of boys in Swansea used a pillow, but a horse's head was characteristic. The same horse's head tended to be used annually, for it was buried in lime to preserve it for most the year, and dug up each December.

How is Mari Lwyd celebrated?

In terms of the celebration itself, the custom used to begin at dusk and often lasted late into the night. During the ceremony, a party of usually all men, would carry the Mari through the streets of the village singing and dancing. The Mari does not hunt alone, for depending on the area and the amount of people in the wassailing party, she can be joined by an array of other characters named Punch and Judy, the Sergeant and the Merryman.

Even very small groups usually have a leader, who holds the reigns to control the horse and take charge of the singing.

They would visit every house or pub in the village and stand in front of the door to sing traditional songs.

Next followed the pwnco, an improvised rhyme and verse contest between the Mari party and the inhabitants of the house.

There was a lot of leg pulling, and the verses were usually quite mischievous.

Traditionally these exchanges would be done with the door closed, and the contest could last for some time, sometimes even an hour or so, until one side gave up.

If the Mari side lost the contest, they would have to leave without being admitted to the house. However this would have been quite a rare occurrence, as the Mari entering the building was thought to bring good luck, so they would usually win (or be allowed to win).

Alternatively, the Mari party might sing one last verse begging for entrance.

Once inside, the entertainment continued with the Mari running around neighing and snapping its jaws, creating havoc, and frightening the children, while the Leader pretended to try to restrain it.

The Merryman played music and entertained the householders. Punch and Judy would also be part of the festivities. The participants would be rewarded with food and drink, and sometimes received a gift of money as well. The visit concluded with a traditional farewell song.

Popularity of the Mari Lwyd

With the earliest account of the Mari dating from 1798, the boom years, as regards to the amount of horse's heads in existence, were between 1850 and 1920.

Apart from one or two sightings in the north, the ritual remained exclusive to south Wales, being especially popular in Glamorgan, Monmouthshire and Carmarthenshire.

A general decline occurred in the number of Mari Lwyd groups during the twentieth century. One of the reasons normally given for its demise is the decrease of Welsh speakers, preventing inhabitants from replying to the Mari group, as the Mari Lwyd contest was almost always sung and performed in Welsh.

Another reason for the custom's decline was the increasing rowdiness and drunkenness which became associated with it. This was seen as unacceptable behavior especially with the rise of the Chapel and Methodism in Wales.

However there has been a growing interest in the Mari Lwyd in recent years, and this has resulted in a resurgence in groups performing this tradition across all of Wales.

Join us at St Fagans this Christmas to witness the Mari Lwyd tradition brought to life, explore our full Christmas programme here

The Mari Lwyd Song Audio and Lyrics

Happy New Year!

At one time in Wales – New Year’s festivities were even more important than Christmas. In fact, one resident of Cynwyl Elfed, Carmarthenshire, in the 1860s, said that the chief importance of Christmas was , ‘that it was within a week of New Year’s Day, the biggest day of the year’.

New Year has always been important in that it symbolized hope and starting afresh, every January 1st we make resolutions and try to turn over a new leaf. It’s not surprising therefore, that this period was associated with future fortunes.

It was said that one’s behavior at the beginning of the year was held to influence his fate for the proceeding twelve months. The custom of ‘letting in’ in the New Year is familiar throughout most of Britain and in Wales, the first visitor to enter somebody’s house was of great significance, depending on their sex and personal characteristics.

For instance, on New Year’s Day in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire it was unlucky for a woman to see a woman first, and for a man to see a man first. People from Pencoed, near Bridgend, believed it bad luck to see a red-haired man first; in Pembrokeshire it was lucky to bring a fresh loaf into the house on January the first.

What is calennig?

A well-known Welsh tradition, still seen in some areas, is the collection of calennig (New Year’s gift) where children rise early and carry from door to door, as bearers of good luck, a decorated apple, pierced with three sticks and adorned with a sprig of box and hazelnuts.

The children usually sing a simple verse and in return usually received a gift or food or money for their troubles. Rhymes and songs were concisely worded and their message was to announce the New Year's arrival, to wish the family a prosperous twelvemonth, and to ask from it ‘calennig’ or (New Year's Gift).

Two boys collecting Calennig in Llangynwyd c. 1904-1910

Here is a verse sung in Cardiganshire and Pembrokeshire:

(I left my house today
With my bag and my stick,
And here is my message to you,
Fill my bag with bread and cheese.)

What is the New Year’s water ritual?

The New Year’s water ritual also took place in some parts of Wales, where children, after filling cups or small bowls with spring water, which they’d drawn from the well that morning, dipped into it a sprig of box, myrtle or mistletoe. This was then sprinkled either on grown ups hands and faces or around the house, in order to do away with the old year and usher in the new. The adults gave them a small gift in return of the sprinkling, which was commonly regarded as a sign of cleansing or or purifying.

Two girls at Tenby partaking in New Year's water ritual, 1928.

Railway posters displayed at Machynlleth Station, circa. 1930s

Railway Posters displayed at Machynlleth Station, circa. 1930s

Railway posters are colourful works of art that epitomise the era in which they were produced. Amgueddfa Cymru’s collection comprises about 60 examples, and these provide a good representation of the types of posters produced and displayed all over Wales.

Railway posters were a familiar feature when travelling on the railway, being displayed in stations, ticket offices and on platforms hoardings. They were used to entice the public to board the railway and escape from their daily routine. Generally they presented idealised images of popular holiday resorts, such as Tenby and Aberystwyth; historic towns, such as Caernarfon; and the countryside and coastline of north Wales, Pembrokeshire and Gower. These had all been made accessible by the lines on which the railway companies operated. It is often claimed that the railway invented the ‘package holiday’.

During the early years of the railways most advertising was in the form of simple printed leaflets and handbills. However these gradually became more elaborate, and with improvements in colour lithography in the later part of the 19th century there was a revolution in poster printing, as the colour poster became cheaper to produce.

Although railway posters have been in popular use since the late nineteenth century, it is generally regarded that their heyday was between 1923 (when four large companies, the Great Western Railway, Southern Railway, London, Midland & Scottish, and London & North Eastern Railway were formed) and 1947, when the railways were nationalised. However, Amgueddfa Cymru has many examples of British Railway posters produced in the 1950s and 60s which are equally eye catching and interesting, and often much more bright and cheerful.

The jolly fisherman

Some posters combined both images and slogans. One of the most famous is John Hassall’s image of a ‘jolly fisherman’ skipping along the beach, and the slogan “Skegness is SO Bracing”. The ‘jolly fisherman’ became the mascot of Skegness and is believed to have contributed to the success of this resort as a holiday destination. A G.W.R. poster by John Hassall in our collection, dating from c.1925, advertises Milford Haven, and depicts a fisherman and a boy holding fish with the slogan “Milford Haven – where fish comes from.”

The Museums collection comprises about 60 examples, and these provide a good representation of the types of posters produced and displayed all over Wales. Examples range in date from about 1914 into the 1960s, with the 1950s and 60s very well represented. Each railway company developed their own distinct style, and they all used some of the finest poster artists of the day. Our collection includes excellent examples by Norman Wilkinson, Charles Pears & John Hassall.

Commander Evans returns the flag to Scoutmaster T.W. Harvey on board the Terra Nova on 17 June 1913.

The flag being retrieved from the rubble of the scout hall in Wyverne Road, Cathays, Cardiff after the German bombing raid of 30 April 1941

When Captain Scott's Antarctic Expedition ship, the Terra Nova, sailed into her home port of Cardiff on 14 June 1913, she had not only the White Ensign flying at the stern, the Welsh flag on the mainmast and the Cardiff City coat of arms on the foremast, but another, much smaller flag fluttering at the bow. Bearing the colour of the 4th Cardiff Scout Troop, this little green flag had accompanied the expedition to the Antarctic and back.

The 4th Cardiff (St Andrews) Troop had been set up in the Cathays district of Cardiff in October 1908, just five months after the first publication in book form of Scouting for boys by the organisation's founder, Robert Baden-Powell. Despite its title as the 4th Cardiff, it was the first scout troop established in Wales.

In March 1910, their Scoutmaster, T.W. Harvey, ordered a flag from the Boy Scouts headquarters in London, with the intention of presenting it to Scott's upcoming expedition to the South Pole. The flag cost six shillings, plus threepence postage, and the invoice, which was returned with the payment by postal order, he marked "Urgent. For Captain Scott Terra Nova for South Pole".

The flag was presented to the expedition in June 1910 when the Terra Nova was in Cardiff to take on coal and other supplies prior to sailing for Antarctica on 15 June. It was one of several flags given to the expedition in Cardiff with requests that they be taken to the South Pole. The flags certainly made it to the expedition's base hut at Cape Evans on McMurdo Sound in the Ross Sea, but it is unlikely that they were taken by Scott to the South Pole itself.

The 4th Cardiff scouts formed a guard of honour on the quayside at the Roath Dock when the Terra Nova sailed back into Cardiff on Saturday 14 June 1913. Three days later, on 17 June, some fifty members of the troop gathered on the deck of the Terra Nova to see their colour handed back to their Scoutmaster, T.W. Harvey, by Commander Teddy Evans who had assumed command of the ship after the death of Scott. Addressing the boys, Evans said, "Well, boys, here's your flag, and I hope you will treasure it. It has been a long way. If you become such good soldiers as Captain Oates, you will be good men."

Following the flag's return to the scouts, it hung, framed, in a place of honour in the scout hall in Wyverne Road in Cardiff until the night of 30 April 1941 when a German land mine, dropped during an air raid, destroyed the building. A search of the ruins soon afterwards revealed that, remarkably, the flag had survived intact. But that wasn't the last of the flag's adventures. The rebuilt hut in which it later hung burnt down, and yet the flag survived. Replacement premises in Cathays flooded when a pipe burst, but still the flag came through unscathed.

Now in the textile collections of Amgueddfa Cymru, the flag of the 4th Cardiff (St Andrews) Scout Troop has been reunited with two of the other Terra Nova flags which flew on the ship when she returned to Cardiff, the White Ensign and the Welsh flag.

The edge which would have been exposed to the wind is quite frayed. This type of damage is often found on flags. There are also lines of black soiling on the front, the source of which has not yet been identified, but is comparable to the soiling found on the other two Terra Nova flags in the collection. Small rust marks, pin holes and long tacking stitches indicate that it was previously displayed on a stiff board inside a frame. It has also suffered substantial light damage to its front side. Unfortunately, light damage cannot be reversed, but the physical structure of the flag will be supported with the use of conservation-grade materials.

Faded areas, stains and tears help us to understand how the flag has been used, stored and displayed during its 103 year history. Our goal is to preserve as much information about its past as possible.