Some links to info on Mari Lwyd, Calan Gaeaf and Gwaseila Mari Lwyd Mari Lwyd is unique to this part of Wales. In its purest form (still to be seen at Llangynwyd, near Maesteg, every New Year's Day) the tradition involves the arrival of the horse and its party at the door of the house or pub, where they sing several introductory verses. Then comes a battle of wits (known as pwnco) in which the people inside the door and the Mari party outside exchange challenges and insults in rhyme. At the end of the battle, which can be as long as the creativity of the two parties holds out, the Mari party enters with another song. Calan Gaeaf Gwaseila

I would have thought that Portland Maine would be the American Halloween capital - what with Stephen King and all.Anyway. " Please help Mari Llwyd " was what we called out as kids in Treorci. We dressed up in anything at hand. It was fun before it became a business - and things definitely went bump in the night.

My mother and cousins say that Halloween wasn't a big deal in Wales until the last 15 years or so. Children didn't dress-up, and they certainly didn't go around trick-o-treating. In fact, my mom had a difficult time letting us go trick-o-treating in California, as she saw it as glorified begging. (She let us go because she didn't want us to be different from the other American kids.)Originally, it was a night to stay inside, as evil spirits roamed about for one last fling before All Saints' Day on Nov. 1. (That is why we roam around in scary costumes, so the evil spirits won't know we're human and won't take our souls. The ultimate reason to conform, I guess!)Nowadays, it is a much bigger holiday in Wales. Unfortunately (and I hope I don't offend anyone here), many of the celebrants have taken the worst of our traditions to heart. If you don't provide candy and don't secure the entrance to your property, you're likely to find garbage and other detrius thrown on your property come morning. It is a night for bonfires, firecrackers (as people have often already bought them for Guy Fawkes Night, which is Nov. 5), and hooligans.I know I sound old and crotchy with that, but I'm not trying to be! I love Wales and her people, but as those who live there know, there is the "yob" element to contend with!--Sarah!

HiDepending on your point of view Halloween has become very Americanised over here. When I was young it was called Mari Llwyd, and in some rural places there might have been street processions with someone as a hobby horse. Those days are now long gone and Halloween has been added to the list of , what I call , non - root events, and is basically an excuse for a fancy dress night in the local or for kids to get money by extortion ( personally I keep my lights out and scare any callers ha ha )

Well Ceri I disagree. Strip away the american commercialisation to death of the event and remember that end of October was a form of rural welsh harvest festival season and families would gather around fire place sharing ghost stories because the sunlight hours started to decline quite dramatically. You have to think pre industrial revolution on Welsh Halloween!!It's basically Winter eve celebration very celtic and we need to regain it back from Anglo exploitation!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calan_Gaeaf Just google it tonnes of this info available these days!!!!!Now David Hughes is talking about :clap clap gofyn wy" which what we did during Easter/Pasg. Wy/eggs farmers clearing their food supplies spring cleaning and all that is connected to each other!!!

I know that when my Dad was growing up in Amlwch they used to clap for eggs on Halloween (I suppose it was a rural trick or treat tradition), the song was something like:"Clap, Clap, gofyn wy hogyn bach ar y plyw" (Clap, clap we ask for eggs, little boys on the step)and instead of pumpkins we used rwdans(turnips) for Jack O'Lanterns

Having been born the day before the 31st, I grew up receiving nice candy treats as a kid thinking that everyone was celebrating my birthday. Ha Ha! I love the Halloween festivities, dressing up in costumes and scaring little kids.

It would just be one person and he would normally go in through the back door and out through the front

That's interesting, was it like a procession, did other people follow you or you just did it? Did you go into every room in the house to do it?

Bobbing for apples was certainly a tradition when I was young(many,many years ago).The one tradition I remember was a tall ,dark man would carry a piece of coal through the house to ward off evil and bring prosperity.As I was tall(ish) and dark(ish) I was often nominated for this.

And that site and others I looked at mentions drinking from a puzzle jug - a drinking vessel with four spouts - you have to pick the right one and stop up the others or you get splashed with the wine or beer or cider inside. I found a pic of one with this great inscription:'Within this jug there is good liquor Fit for Parson or for Vicar But how to Drink and not to spill Will try the utmost of your skill'. 'Cymru am Byth' (Wales Forever)

I found some puzzle jugs on eBay but they weren't Welsh so I'm looking to see if I can find a Welsh potter that makes them.

I'd like to know more about holidays and holiday celebrations in Wales.Halloween is coming up and I'm in the US, where this is a big deal, and in Portland, where it's a bigger deal.My three kids decide on their costumes and then we make them. There are a lot of elderly people in our neighborhood and they like having the kids come around in costume and see them and usually have plenty of great candy to hand out. My family's custom was that one parent went out with the kids and the other stayed at home with the bowl of candy. My dad preferred to be the stay-at-home parent and liked to get into costume himself and scare the crap out of the kids that came to the door.Ceri says he had no Halloween customs and it's not really a holiday in Wales. I found this on alleged traditional Halloween customs: http://www.stdavidsga-cymru.org/Halloween.html and this says that it was the New Year, which for the Irish was Samhain and something else in Scottish, and the game of bobbing for apples was originally a sort of dating game for young men and women to play together at family celebrations.
updated by @gaabi: 12/04/15 03:57:45PM