Calan Gaeaf

1. Calan Gaeaf The Welsh Hallowe’en

2. Calan Gaeaf • In most of the Celtic countries the evening of 31st October is associated with the Otherworld, the world of spirits and was seen as a time when the the two worlds, human and spirit overlapped. • In Welsh tradition this was the time when the two particularly frightening apparitions, the Hwch Ddu Gota and the Ladi Wen could be seen.

3. Calan Gaeaf • Other traditions held that all those who would die over the following year could be seen by looking through the parish church keyhole at midnight on Calan Gaeaf. • The evening was also associated with divination or trying to see into the future. • The most popular range of traditions was that of seeing the person you would marry in spirit form.

4. Calan Gaeaf • This could be done in several ways. One was to sow flax at a crossroads at midnight on Calan Gaeaf. • An important element in Calan Gaeaf traditions was the lighting of a large bonfire, although by the end of the 19th century this became associated with Bonfire Night held on 5th November with its associations with Guy Fowlkes. (Guto Ffowc).

5. Calan Gaeaf • In North Wales this was the time when people collected food or gifts that would be sold to pay for prayers for the souls of the dead in purgatory. It was called ‘hel bwyd cennad y meirwon’. • By the end of the 19th century, most of the religious aspects of the festival had been lost and it became an occasions for singing and fun-making.

6. Calan Gaeaf • An authentic description of a real rural Welsh Hallowe’en night can be found in a collection of folk customs published in the 1862 by Glasynys (“Cymru Fu”). • He clearly shows that even by then, the emphasis was on having fun (rather than concentrating on the more serious aspects).

7. Calan Gaeaf • Glasynys gives us a picture of a rural mountain community in North Wales who all congregate in a farm-house for the evening. • Outside the bonfire is being prepared on the top of a hill, whilst indoors the game of apple-dunking is already taking place. • It is obviously an occasion for the youth of the area to relax in each other’s company.

8. Calan Gaeaf • Special drinks are prepared for the evening: diod griafol (berry-wine) and meth (mead, fermented honey). The food is a large piece of farm cheese. • There are nuts as well which are used in a custom for divining who will be your husband.

9. Calan Gaeaf • There are other entertainments as well. • The local poet arrives who reels off his poems about local characters, and people who have come to the evening. • A musicial as well: in this case a fiddler. No mention of a harpist.

10. Calan Gaeaf • After some songs and poetry, it is the turn of the girls to throw the nuts into the large bonfire as it burns out. • If the nut makes a loud click, then everyone laughs because it means the girl is in love or will soon be in love. Sometimes the pieces of nut jump out of the fire and do in the direction of one of the boys congregated.

11. Calan Gaeaf • But everyone wants to get away from the fire before it finally goes out, because this is the moment when the Hwch Ddu Gwta will appear and attack the last person to leave! • In short: divination, the Otherworld creature, and the souls of the dead.

12. Calan Gaeaf • The Hwch Ddu Gwta was a creature that people feared on Nos Galan Gaeaf (Hallowe’en Night). • In the Conwy Valley people said: • Hwch Ddu Gwta ar ben pob camfa/gyda’i nodwydd ddur yn nhu ol yr ola’. • This belonged to the time when people lit fires on the hillsides to drive away bad spirits, and brought some of the fire to their own homes.

13. Calan Gaeaf • If you did not do this you were in danger of being consumed by the Hwch Ddu Gwta. • The creature would wait at each stile and would drive a hot steel pin into the unfortunate victim. • Some people claimed they had seen the pig with its piglets on Hallowe’en night (Ceredigion).