PORT TALBOT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
  • Home
  • Timeline
  • About us
  • 2024 Meetings
  • Blogging Port Talbot
  • Documents
  • Bibliography
  • Gallery
  • 3D models of buildings past
  • Videos
  • People of the town
  • Membership application
  • Passion Play Behold the Man
  • Links
  • Committee Members and Officers
  • Port Talbot Roll of Honour
  • Members login
  • Contact us

Year's End

5/12/2013

2 Comments

 
It's the winter solstice in a couple of weeks' time, then Christmas, two events that have merged into one, for most people, since the advent of Christianity. 

What will you be doing to celebrate the solstice, or the Roman Festival of Saturnalia, or the birth of Christ? A pagan sacrifice (please restrict yourself to vegetables and inanimate objects), engaging in unbridled revelry, or attending a candlelit carol service? Or just enjoying the company of family and friends? 
Picture
In his book, The History of Taibach and District, Les Evans lists the Christmas traditions associated with South Wales: the church Plygain service on Christmas morning, Christmas football matches that survived from an older game of Y Bel Ddu, the burning of furze on the hills, the Mari Lwyd (with its enjoyable attributes of booze, rhyme and revelry!), and the Cutty Wren which apparently became extinct in Port Talbot at the end of the nineteenth century. Although even at some historical distance the practice of catching a wren, and attaching it to some holly branches, and parading it between Baglan and Aberafan is likely to make contemporary consciences wince:

As I went out to Baglan Hall,
I saw a wren upon a wall;
I up with my stick and knocked him down,
And brought him home to 'Bravon town.

One custom local to Margam that I came across while researching for Real Port Talbot was the following from the National Museum of Wales' website:

Loaf cake: Loaf cake was synonymous with Christmas celebrations in the industrial valleys of south Wales. The dough, prepared in large quantities, would be carried to the local bakehouse where the baker would be responsible for baking the cakes for a penny or two per loaf.

Neighbours were invited to taste each other's cake, and tradition has it (in the district of Margam near Port Talbot) that if a young maid was given the opportunity to taste thirteen different cakes in one season, she would marry before the following Christmas.


I didn't include it in the book because I couldn't find confirmation or verification of it anywhere else. But if you know of a young maid who tasted thirteen cakes and got lucky then please let me know! 

I don't have loaf cake for you but here's the next best thing, a slice of home-made (by me) Bara Brith (after all you're going to have enough of all that rich stuff soon), to wish you and yours a Happy Solstice/Festival/Christmas/Holiday and a good and joyful end to 2013.
Picture
The History of Taibach and District, A. Leslie Evans, privately published 1963, republished with a post-script by Alun Books, Port Talbot 1982.
2 Comments
Vance Broad
5/12/2013 06:08:03 am

Don't forget the Celtic tradition of bringing a recently dead ancestor back into the dwelling space to revere their memory. Said ancestor's spirit would of course be captured in a nearby young tree and it would be the tree that was brought into the dwelling and not the body of the deceased. Churches banned this Pagan ritual right up until the late 19th century so just remember that when you see a Christmas tree, it is because Pagan Celts believed in spirits returning to the woodland. We still 'touch wood' for luck and so as not to offend or tempt fate to this day, as homage to our leafy ancestors. Barking mad if you ask me - like certain members of the Royal family!

Reply
Lynne link
5/12/2013 06:26:37 am

I'm all for a dollop of paganism, Vance. Now where's my tree?!

And of course, in the interests of fairness, having mentioned Margam parish I should have included Aberafan's Legend of the Sacred Salmon, one that used to appear under Aberafan Bridge on Christmas mornings, tame enough for people to stroke. Any reports this year will be gladly received.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Lynne Rees

    Picture
    Lynne Rees was born and grew up in Port Talbot and blogs as 'the hungry writer' at www.lynnerees.com. Her book, Real Port Talbot, an upbeat and offbeat account of the town and surrounding area, from Bryn to Sandfields, from Margam to Baglan Bay, and everything in between, is published by Seren Books.

    Archives

    April 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    RSS Feed