WELSH TRADITIONS 5<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Love Or Romance And Marriage<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Arferion Caru A Phriodi.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Most of the traditions associated with love, or courtship, and marriage in Wales have unfortunately died out but one or two are still practised.<\/p>\n Traditionally, when a young man\u2019s eye fell on a young woman, he would not always approach her himself. He might well send his friend to ask her if she were willing to walk out with him. If her response was positive, the next step was for the young man to go \u2018knocking\u2019 – that is, visiting her at her home. He would wait until the family had retired for the night before daring to begin \u2018knocking\u2019 – throwing gravel or small pebbles at her window to let her know he was outside. If the girl was willing, he would then climb a ladder and go into her room through the window. The young couple would then spend the night cuddling and canoodling, fully clothed, on the bed – but not in the bed! In English, the custom was known as \u2018bundling\u2019. In theory, there was no sex involved – but who knows what actually went on! The lad made sure he left before the family stirred in the morning. This tradition had died out by the end of the nineteenth Century – under the influence of the Reformers, who maintained that it gave the Welsh a bad name!<\/p>\n When a couple had agreed to become a couple, there were different ways to demonstrate their fidelity. In some parts of the country, the young man would send his sweetheart a selection of nuts. In other parts, he would send her a sprig of hawthorn which she would return to him if his feelings were reciprocated. If she refused his advances, she would send him a twig from a different tree. So you can appreciate how important it was that everyone knew their trees!<\/p>\n I suppose everyone is familiar with the ancient love spoon tradition – when young men, as part of their courtship, would carve their sweetheart a wooden spoon. At first, the spoons were very plain and simple – but by the end of the Nineteenth Century, they had become far more intricate and highly decorated with different symbols. But it was not only spoons that were carved. Many museums and in particular, the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagan, have many examples of these love tokens – such as a scoop for coring apples, a sheath for storing knitting needles, a kitchen implement for cutting biscuits, a spindle used in lace making, a bookmark and so on. By the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the most treasured love token was not carved in wood.It was a gold or silver jewel decorated with hearts, flowers, words and love birds. Sometimes, the young man would send a lock of hair with the jewel.<\/p>\n There were some interesting traditions associated with marriage also. After choosing his future wife, a young man often sent a friend – as a kind of advocate – to speak on his behalf to the young lady\u2019s parents. In some areas, once the wedding had been arranged,<\/p>\n the \u2018gwahoddwr\u2019 <\/em>(bidder), wearing a black hat, decorated with flowers and carrying a long staff – would walk around the area singing a traditional invitation song – bidding neighbours to attend the wedding and the wedding feast. He would also reminding them that they should repay any outstanding debts or favours to the young couple. In other areas, a \u2018bidding letter\u2019 would be sent to invite friends to the wedding.<\/p>\n On the day of the wedding itself, following tradition, a group of the groom\u2019s friends would go on a \u2018seek out\u2019 to the bride\u2019s home to accompany her on her journey to the ceremony. They would stand outside the house singing traditional verses, with the family inside singing their replies before she emerged. This is very similar to the tradition surrounding the visits of the \u2018Mari Lwyd\u2019 <\/em>(Grey Mare) during the Christmas season. A poor family would walk to the church in what was called a \u2018priodas draed<\/em>\u2019 (foot wedding). But wealthier families would have a \u2018priodas fawr<\/em>\u2019 (large wedding) or \u2018priodas geffylau<\/em>\u2019 (horse wedding) if they travelled on horseback.<\/p>\n When life was simple and lacked colour, to a very large extent, a wedding was an important occasion in a village – and all the inhabitants would join in the celebrations – especially in the wedding feast – where there would be plenty of singing and dancing. A special beer was nearly always brewed for the occasion.<\/p>\n Local youngsters always enjoyed a wedding day. They would often place barriers on the road or footpath – a rock, branches of wood or a rope – called a \u2018cwinten\u2019 <\/em>– to try to delay the bride or groom on his or her way to the wedding. I happen to know that this tradition is still practised today in my home village.<\/p>\n This tradition is centuries old – and is probably pre – Christian – the remnants of the custom of setting the groom a number of tasks to complete before he won the hand of his sweetheart – a custom described in some of the eleven heroic Welsh medieval tales known as the \u2018Mabinogion\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n Ann M. Jones<\/p>\n WELSH TRADITIONS 5 Love Or Romance And Marriage Arferion Caru A Phriodi. Most of the traditions associated with love, or courtship, and marriage in Wales have unfortunately died out but one or two are still practised. Traditionally, when a young man\u2019s eye fell on a young woman, he would not always approach her himself. He might well send his friend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[228],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-3M4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14849,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14849","url_meta":{"origin":14512,"position":0},"title":"Welsh Traditions 7 Calan Gaeaf","author":"Alan Williams","date":"22nd November 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"WELSH TRADITIONS 7 CALAN GAEAF. In this last article in the series of Welsh Traditions we\u2019ll look briefly at the traditions associated with Calan Gaeaf. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll remember that \u2018Calan\u2019 is a Welsh word meaning \u2018the first day of\u2019\u2019 - as in Calan Mai (May Day). Calan Gaeaf celebrates\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5048,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5048","url_meta":{"origin":14512,"position":1},"title":"Early-Marriages Are Detrimental","author":"Alan Williams","date":"30th September 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Since I was little, I imagined what my future wedding would be like. The dress, the layout, the partner; all children daydream about the day they will marry their soulmate. I always wondered what they would look like, their personality, how we would meet, how old I would be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Letters"","block_context":{"text":"Letters","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=138"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14068,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14068","url_meta":{"origin":14512,"position":2},"title":"“The Marriage Portrait” by Maggie O\u2019Farrell","author":"Alan Williams","date":"14th March 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The Marriage Portrait\" by Maggie O\u2019Farrell Regular readers may remember that we reviewed this book briefly last month; it was received by one of our group from our \u201clucky dip\u201d read in December. Our group member recommended that we should all read it as our January book. The author Maggie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14151,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14151","url_meta":{"origin":14512,"position":3},"title":"Welsh Traditions","author":"Alan Williams","date":"7th April 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"WELSH TRADITIONS In this short series we\u2019ll take a step back in time to remind ourselves of some of the interesting traditions which took place in Wales in the past. We\u2019ll begin with a look at what in Welsh are called \u2018Merched y Gerddi\u2019 - literally translated, \u2018The Garden Girls\u2019.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4627,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4627","url_meta":{"origin":14512,"position":4},"title":"Ice Trap by Kitty Sewell","author":"Alan Williams","date":"26th May 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Ice Trap by Kitty Sewell Published 2007 Dafydd Woodruff, a young surgeon, experienced the horror of making a near fatal mistake on the operating table. Very shaken by this he takes a locum position in Northern Canada in a remote community Moose Creek to help overcome the guilt he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6618,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6618","url_meta":{"origin":14512,"position":5},"title":"\u2018The Age Of Innocence\u2019,Novel By Edith Wharton","author":"Alan Williams","date":"30th September 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2018The Age Of Innocence\u2019,Novel By Edith Wharton This month\u2019s book was \u2018The Age of Innocence\u2019, a 1920's novel by American author Edith Wharton. The book is set in the 1870s, in upper-class New York Society. Although we appreciated Wharton\u2019s attention to detail, we found the book introduced too many characters\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Off The Shelf"","block_context":{"text":"Off The Shelf","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=347"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14512"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14513,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14512\/revisions\/14513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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