by Timocleia Gwilym, Fifth Year, Gryffindor
The Mari Lwyd, or y Fari Lwyd, is a tradition around the holidays celebrated principally by Muggles in South Wales. It got its start likely in the 17th century, with Muggles first writing about it around the year 1800.
The Mari Lwyd tradition is attached to the larger British tradition of wassailing. Wassailing is a holiday tradition observed all over the British Isles by both Muggle and Wizarding folk alike. It likely originated early in the Middle Ages. It is entirely possible that Godric Gryffindor and the other founders participated in wassailing, or played host to wassailers. In wassailing, a group of men and women (in Muggle tradition, usually men only) wander their village, visiting houses. They carry with them a container of a beverage called wassail, and sing holiday carols in an effort to convince the occupants to allow them in and share their food or presents. This is usually a joyous affair.
In the Mari Lwyd tradition, the wassail is replaced by the Mari Lwyd, a horse-figure made from a pole, a dead horse’s skull, a white sheet and various ribbons or other decorations. Sometimes jewels are placed in the skull’s eye sockets to simulate eyes. Sometimes the mandible (jaw bone) of the skull is rigged with strings so that it will open and close. The Mari Lwyd is accompanied by four to eight singers (sometimes more, even), often dressed up in specific costumes. The leader of the Mari Lwyd procession is always dressed in a top hat, along with a coat with tails. Basically, he (and it is almost always he) is dressed as a 19th century gentleman.
The fact that the rather happy wassail is replaced by a horrifying apparition of a dead horse does not dampen the festive holiday mood of the participants of the Mari Lwyd. The group will approach a house and sing, demanding entry. If the occupants of the house are feeling equally festive, they will sing back, denying them entry, and then the two groups will sing verses at each other in a musical duel or debate called the pwnco. At some point, the occupants of the house will grant the Mari Lwyd singers entry, and they will have a party. The Mari Lwyd will then move on to the next house. A typical song to be sung by the group bearing the Mari Lwyd might be:
Wel dyma ni’n dwad
Gy-feillion di-niwad
I ofyn am gennad
I ofyn am gennad
I ofyn am gennad i ganu
Or in English:
Well here we come
Innocent friends
To ask leave
To ask leave
To ask leave to sing
And this will be the start of the pwnco.
The name ‘Mari Lwyd’
Muggle sociologists have a number of different theories as to what the name ‘Mari Lwyd’ actually means. There are some who feel it is a reference to the Virgin Mary. However, in Welsh, the name, which is pronounced ‘mah-ree loo-ud,’ actually means ‘grey horse.’ Of course, the ‘horse’ in this sense is actually white, but it is only a representation. Note that the word ‘pwnco’ is pronounced ‘poon-koh.’
Origins and History of Mari Lwyd
Mari Lwyd is a relatively recent tradition, with the first instance recorded as having happened in the year 1798. There are no earlier references to this tradition, either in English or Welsh literature, and no references to it or anything like it during the Middle Ages or the Renaissance. For this reason, it seems to have arisen after the institution of the Statute of Secrecy. It is prevalent only in a part of Southern Wales, in and around Glamorgan, Cardiff, Monmouthshire and Pembrokeshire. The instance in 1798 was actually observed in North Wales, but it seems that this is because the Leader that particular evening was from Glamorgan, and had brought the tradition with him to the North. It does not seem to have survived there.
By the end of the 19th century, the Mari Lwyd tradition had mostly disappeared from Wales. In the mid-to-late 20th century, the tradition became somewhat popular again, and happens among Muggles to this day.
The Welsh Wizard historian Morgan Davies (c. 1946) posited a possible Wizarding connection to the Mari Lwyd tradition. In researching local family histories, he found that in the year 1711 a witch by the name of Rhiannon Jones was in Glamorgan watching a wassailing group singing when she was attacked by an English Dark Wizard by the name of Johnathan Walpole. Davies posits that Jones had spurned Walpole’s affections. In any event, Walpole’s attack was serious and injured some of the Muggles present. It may have also involved rogue Dementors. He was driven off when Miss Jones cast a Patronus Charm; her Patronus was a horse (in fact, a mare). Davies suspects that this might be the origin of the Mari Lwyd: a ghostly horse that came to the rescue of the wassailers. In following years, they left off with the wassail and instead re-created the incident by carrying a representation of the horse Patronus. To this day, Muggles now carry similar representations of the horse Patronus, totally oblivious to its true nature.
Conclusions
Whether influenced by a long-ago Patronus Charm or no, the Mari Lwyd has somewhat murky origins, but is practiced mostly by Muggles in South Wales. It is a holiday tradition similar to wassailing, and perhaps derived from wassailing. Its signature totem, the horse’s skull, may be terrifying, but it’s all in good Welsh holiday cheer.
Nadolig Llawen (Happy Christmas)!
