Penarth Welcomes the New Year with Head Rolling Event and a Visit from Mari Lwyd
By The Editor 16th Jan 2020
Last Sunday hundreds of people took part again in the annual Penrolio (head rolling) in Penarth to mark Hen Galan, the Old Welsh New Year and welcomed multiple Mari Lwyd's to the town.
The celebrations began at 1.00 pm when the internationally celebrated artist Ifor Davies read the story of the giant Bendigeidfran from the old Mabinogion tales, and then made a ceremonial sawing of the Bendigeidfran Window frame.
The Mabinogion stories tell how the head of the giant Bendigeidfran feasted with friends at Harlech for seven years, before travelling to the island of Grassholm in Pembrokeshire, before being taken by sea to London.
The Penarth Penrolio celebrates a rolling of the head to London after the head arrived on the Bristol Channel.
Prior to leaving Grassholm Bendigeidfran's friends are said to have opened a window that let in sorrows, and Sunday's celebrations began with a symbolic sawing of the Window of Sorrows.
This year there was also a smaller children's window of sorrows and Ifor Davies was joined in the ceremonial sawing by Jamie Parry, aged 7, from Ysgol Penygarth.
The head of the giant Bendigeidfran was then rolled down the hill from Penarth Clifftops, down to the beach, accompanied by the singing of the Bendigeidfran head rolling song, wind and brass instruments and the attendance of the Penarth Mari Lwyd.
This year the Penarth Mari Lwyd was joined by two visiting Mari Lwyds from Monmouth and Brecon. The head of the giant Bendigeidfran, which was two metre's tall this year, was made by pupils at Ysgol Penygarth with the artist Haf Weighton.
The head of Bendigeidfran was carried along Penarth beach and at the same time, the Mari Lwyd party undertook the tradition of visiting restaurants along the seafront performing Mari Lwyd singing, teasing, welcoming and blessings at Romeo's Italian Restaurant and James Sommerin's.
The afternoon ended at the Penarth Pier Pavilion where the crowd performed a Mari Lwyd ceremony on the threshold, with three Mari Lwyd's present, then concluded with singing and refreshments in the Pier and at Washington Tea Rooms.
This year's happening was led by artists Parry&Glynn who are the artistic directors of the cultural facilitation company Coleridge in Wales Ltd, based in Penarth.
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