eregyrn-falls-art: A Very Merry Pines Christmas! Encounter with the Mari Lwyd(click to embigge
eregyrn-falls-art:A Very Merry Pines Christmas! Encounter with the Mari Lwyd(click to embiggen)The Mari Lwyd (most likely meaning: Welsh for “grey mare”, but thought by some to be related to “Holy Mary”) is a wassailing tradition in Wales. It features a group of people who carry a dressed-up horse skull on a pole (but operated a bit like a puppet, with a body made of a sheet, given eyes and ears, and decorated with ribbons and bells) from house to house, to ask for food and drink. In some traditions, Mari Lwyd asks to be given riddles by the householders, until its handlers can solve one and gain entrance. In other traditions, both the Mari Lwyd’s companions and the householders sing a response song in which the householders offer excuses as to why the Mari Lwyd cannot enter, and once they run out of excuses, the party is allowed in.There was a Cambridge Christmas Revels performance a few years ago that featured a Mari Lwyd, which was the first time I’d encountered it, and I was instantly charmed. “It’s just not Christmas without a horse skull on a stick going around knocking on all the doors in town”, we remarked to each other, sagely.In reality, it was startling how adorable and sympathetic a horse skull on a stick could manage to be, especially when little children came out and tamed it with a handful of sugar.Stan, of course, is the man you want to put in charge of asking the riddles (or coming up with the excuses as to why the Mari Lwyd cannot enter), while Mabel is happy to skip straight to offering it hot chocolate!I don’t know if I’ll get a separate piece done to show all the Pines’ sweaters, so for the record, they are: Mabel is wearing a “Meowy Xmas” sweater (that would have a kitten head wearing a Santa hat Dipper’s is obviously holiday lights (knowing Mabel, they can probably light up Stan’s says “Deck the Halls”, complete with brass knuckles; and Ford’s says “Axial Tilt: The Reason for the Season” (after my big solstice write-up, I couldn’t resist that one for him!). (All found via web-search, except for Stan’s.) The Mari Lwyd is based on a bunch of different references.Happy holidays, everyone! Whatever you are doing (or not doing!), I hope your next few days are what you most want them to be. Peace and merriness, warmth and light and good cheer to you all! -- source link
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