While most of us ring in the New Year with champagne and fireworks, Wales has a collection of ancient traditions that make everywhere else look frankly boring. From zombie horses demanding entry to your home, to children collecting coins at dawn, to an entire valley that celebrates New Year two weeks late, these are the Welsh customs that deserve to come back.
Here’s what your grandparents might remember, and what you’ve probably never heard of.
The Mari Lwyd: A Horse Skull That Rap Battles You
If you’ve never seen a Mari Lwyd, let me paint the picture. A real horse’s skull, mounted on a pole, draped in a white sheet decorated with ribbons and bells. Glass bottles or baubles for eyes. Sometimes a hinged jaw operated by string so it can snap at you. And it’s coming to your front door.
The Mari Lwyd (meaning “Grey Mare” in Welsh) was traditionally carried from house to house between Christmas Day and Twelfth Night by a group of men. When they arrived at your door, they didn’t just knock. They sang.
What followed was called pwnco, essentially a rap battle in Welsh. The Mari Lwyd party would sing verses demanding entry. The householder had to sing back with excuses for why they couldn’t come in. This back-and-forth would continue, getting increasingly creative and insulting, until one side ran out of rhymes.
If the Mari won (which she usually did), the group was invited inside for food and drink. Once inside, the Mari would cause chaos, chasing children, trying to steal things, and generally being a nuisance while the person under the sheet pretended to struggle to control her.
By the 1960s, the tradition had almost died out completely. Welsh Methodists and chapel-goers had spent decades objecting to the drunkenness and rowdiness that followed the Mari around. But in recent years, it’s come roaring back.
Today you can see the Mari Lwyd in Llangynwyd near Maesteg, where the tradition never fully died. Chepstow holds annual Mari events. Llantrisant Folk Club takes her around local pubs. Students at Aberystwyth University have revived the tradition through the streets of town. And in Llanwrtyd Wells, a torch-lit Mari procession takes place on New Year’s Eve itself.
If you want to experience it, Tafarn Sinc in Rosebush, Pembrokeshire regularly hosts Mari Lwyd evenings with proper pwnco singing. Check their Facebook page for dates.
Calennig: The New Year’s Gift Tradition
Before children went trick-or-treating at Halloween, Welsh kids had Calennig.
The word comes from the Latin “Kalends” meaning the first day of the month, and the tradition saw children going door to door on New Year’s morning collecting small gifts. But they didn’t just knock and ask. They came prepared.
Children would carry a Calennig, a decorated apple or orange stuck on three sticks like a tripod. The apple would be studded with cloves, nuts, oats, dried fruit, and sprigs of evergreen like box or rosemary. Some were covered in gold leaf. The three-legged design meant it could stand upright, and these were often given to householders as good luck charms to display in their windows throughout the year.
As they went from house to house, children would sing verses wishing the household a happy new year. Different regions had different songs, but many followed a similar pattern. One version from 1950s Aberystwyth translates as: “Today is the start of the new year, and I have come to you to ask for coins, or a crust, and bread and cheese. Come to the door cheerfully, before next New Year’s Day comes, many will be in the grave.”
Cheery stuff.
In return for the singing and the good luck wishes, householders would give the children money, sweets, bread and cheese, or other small gifts. The tradition was especially strong in the South Wales Valleys and Monmouthshire, where groups of boys would set out at dawn and work their way through the village until dusk.
There was a catch though. In many parts of Wales, the Calennig had to be collected by midday. Turn up after noon and you’d get nothing.
The tradition has largely died out, but many Welsh families still give money to children on New Year’s Day as a nod to the old custom. If you grew up getting a pound coin from your grandparents on January 1st, that was your Calennig.
First Footing: The Luck of the First Visitor
Like Scotland, Wales had strong beliefs about who should be the first person to cross your threshold in the New Year.
The ideal first footer was a tall, dark-haired man. This superstition is thought to date back to the Viking invasions, when a blond stranger at your door usually meant trouble. A dark-haired man, more likely to be a fellow Celt, was a sign of safety and good fortune.
Some Welsh families took this seriously enough that the man of the house would leave through the back door just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, walk around the building, and knock on the front door at the stroke of twelve. He would bring symbolic gifts: salt for seasoning, silver for wealth, coal for warmth, a match for kindling, and bread for sustenance.
What you absolutely didn’t want was a woman or a red-haired man as your first visitor. Both were considered terribly unlucky for the household. The superstition was strong enough that some women would refuse to visit neighbours on New Year’s Day for fear of bringing bad luck.
Other New Year’s superstitions in Wales included never lending anything to anyone on New Year’s Day (it would mean giving away your luck for the whole year) and making sure the house was thoroughly cleaned before midnight, so you weren’t carrying the old year’s dirt into the new one.
Hen Galan: The Valley That Celebrates New Year on January 13th
In the Gwaun Valley near Fishguard in North Pembrokeshire, New Year falls on January 13th. And they’re not being difficult about it, they’re being traditional.
When Britain switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1752, most of the country adjusted and moved on. But the residents of Cwm Gwaun refused. They kept celebrating their festivals according to the old calendar, and they still do.
Hen Galan, meaning “Old New Year”, is marked every January 13th with traditions that have barely changed in centuries. Children go door to door singing and collecting Calennig in the morning. Farmers used to brew their own beer for the occasion. Families prepare a feast on par with Christmas dinner. And everyone ends up at The Dyffryn Arms, known locally as Bessie’s, to toast the New Year properly.
The valley has around 300 inhabitants, and the tradition is so embedded in local life that children get an unofficial day off school to participate. Mari Lwyd also makes appearances during Hen Galan, making the Gwaun Valley one of the best places in Wales to experience authentic New Year traditions.
If you’re looking for an excuse to extend the festive season, or if you missed New Year entirely, Hen Galan is worth the trip to Pembrokeshire.
Hunting the Wren: The Forgotten Tradition
This one has mostly died out in Wales, but it was once widespread across the country.
Between Twelfth Night and January 12th, groups of young men would go out to catch a wren, the smallest of all British birds and traditionally known as the “King of Birds”. Sometimes the bird would be killed, but often it was captured alive and placed in a small decorated cage or box called an “elor” (a bier, like you’d carry a coffin on).
The wren would be carried in procession through the village, with the group singing songs praising the tiny king and asking for food, drink, or money in exchange for the good luck that seeing the wren would bring. They’d always stop at the “big house” in the area, where they’d be invited in for wassail and refreshments.
In Tenby, a special wren-house was constructed with glass panels on both ends so people could see the bird inside. It was decorated with ribbons and carried by four men on poles, who would pretend to struggle under the enormous weight of this tiny bird, playing up the absurdity of treating the smallest bird as the mightiest.
In Pembrokeshire, the wren was often released alive after the procession. In other areas, it was ceremonially killed, possibly echoing an ancient tradition where a symbolic king was sacrificed at year’s end to ensure good harvests in the year to come.
The custom has died out in Wales, though the old wren-hunting songs survive and are still sung in folk circles. In Ireland and the Isle of Man, the tradition is being revived, and perhaps Wales will follow.
Nos Galan: The Race That Ends the Year
In Mountain Ash in the Cynon Valley, New Year’s Eve means running.
The Nos Galan Road Races have been held every December 31st since 1958, celebrating the legendary Welsh runner Guto Nyth Brân. Born Griffith Morgan in 1700 in the village of Llwyncelyn, Guto was said to be so fast he could catch hares, foxes, and even birds. Legend has it he once ran from his home to Pontypridd and back, a distance of seven miles, before his mother’s kettle had boiled.
His running career was managed by Siân o’r Siop, a local shopkeeper who organised races and collected prize money. Guto won consistently, eventually retiring with Siân before the age of 30. But in 1737, he came out of retirement for one final race against a runner known as Prince of Bedwas. The prize was 1,000 guineas, equivalent to around £210,000 today.
The race covered twelve miles from Newport to Bedwas. Prince took an early lead, but Guto produced a devastating uphill sprint near the end and won. Moments after his victory, Siân slapped him on the back in congratulation, and he collapsed and died on the spot.
Today, the Nos Galan races begin with a church service at Llanwynno, where a wreath is laid on Guto’s grave. A torch is lit and carried the four miles to Mountain Ash, where races begin for all ages. The event attracts over 1,700 runners and 10,000 spectators, with a mystery celebrity runner revealed each year to carry the torch for the final leg.
The races used to finish at midnight, timed to end exactly as the New Year began. Now they finish around 9pm to make it more family-friendly, but the fireworks and celebrations continue into the night.
Plygain: The 3am Carol Service
Strictly a Christmas tradition rather than New Year, but worth mentioning because it shaped how Welsh families spent the nights leading up to the festivities.
Plygain was a candlelit carol service held in churches and chapels between 3am and 6am on Christmas morning. The name probably comes from the Latin “pullicanto”, meaning to worship at cock-crow, or the Welsh “plygu”, to bend in prayer.
To stay awake for the service, families would gather the night before for toffee-making. Treacle was boiled in pans over an open fire to make cyflaith, while people played games, told stories, and prepared for the long night ahead. Homes were decorated with holly and mistletoe, and when the time came, entire villages would process to the church by torchlight or candlelight, filling the dark lanes with flickering light.
The service itself featured unaccompanied singing, usually three or four-part harmonies performed by male voices. Each family or group would take turns singing their own carols, some passed down through generations.
The tradition still lives on in parts of mid-Wales, with rural churches and community halls hosting Plygain services throughout December and January. Cadw sometimes organises Plygain events at historic sites like Tintern Abbey and St David’s Bishop’s Palace.
Why These Traditions Matter
Most of these customs served the same purpose: bringing communities together during the darkest, coldest, most isolated time of year.
Before cars and phones and central heating, Welsh villages could be cut off for weeks in winter. The Mari Lwyd gave neighbours an excuse to visit each other, share food and drink, and fill the dark nights with song and laughter. Calennig taught children the value of community, and gave adults a reason to open their doors. First Footing reminded everyone that the first connection of the new year mattered.
The traditions that survive, like Nos Galan and Hen Galan and the revived Mari Lwyd, do so because they still serve that purpose. They bring people together. They mark the turning of the year with something more meaningful than watching a clock.
If you want to experience Welsh New Year traditions for yourself, your best bets are:
The Gwaun Valley, Pembrokeshire for Hen Galan on January 13th, with Calennig, Mari Lwyd, and proper old-style celebrations.
Mountain Ash, Cynon Valley for the Nos Galan Road Races on December 31st, with the torch procession, races, and fireworks.
Llangynwyd, near Maesteg for one of the most authentic Mari Lwyd traditions still practised, usually between Christmas and Twelfth Night.
Chepstow for the annual Mari Lwyd event in January, often held near the castle.
Tafarn Sinc, Rosebush, Pembrokeshire for Mari Lwyd evenings with proper pwnco singing throughout the winter season.
Your grandparents might remember some of these. Your children probably won’t unless we keep them alive. And honestly, wouldn’t you rather have a horse skull rap-battling at your door than another year of Jools Holland?
Blwyddyn Newydd Dda.
