The annual rolling of a giant head accompanied by the Mari Lwyd took place in Penarth last week to mark Hen Galan, the Old Welsh New Year.

A small number of families met on the clifftops in Penarth on Thursday (January 13) to roll the head of the giant Bendigeidfran, from the ancient Welsh Mabinogion stories, down to the beach.

The group, who met within the current Covid restrictions, proceeded to the newly re-opened Penarth Pier Pavilion for a Hen Galan celebration, on the way stopping at restaurants and cafés on the beach front with the Mari Lwyd to wish customers and staff a happy new year.

The Mari Lwyd is a traditional Welsh celebration in which revellers go to a doorway with a horse's skull dressed on a pole and in song ask for hospitality and welcome.

Traditionally those inside sing back teasingly, and banter and jokes are traded through the door until the Maril lwyd and the party are finally admitted.

A participant and local resident said: "It's wonderful that hospitality, welcome and generosity are negotiated in song and teasing.

"People here love being involved in this tradition, and although the events were sometimes recorded as riotous in the 19th century, at the heart of this are strangers asking for welcome, singing, laughing and then being received in song."

In previous years hundreds have attended the celebration but last winter, because of lockdown, the annual rolling of the giant Bendigeidfran from the ancient Welsh Mabinogion stories was confined to two people rolling the head for their daily exercise on Hen Galan.

A video of Hen Galan on social media last year helped others share in the occasion.

The stand-off at the door of the Penarth Pier Pavilion which re-opened formally in December last year under the new management of Vale of Glamorgan Council lasted 12 verses of the Mari Lwyd song before the doors opened and the Mari Lwyd party with giant's head entered.

Artist Ifor Davies read the legend of Bendigeidfran aloud to the celebration, describing how the friendly and wonderous giant continued to laugh and talk even after his head had been cut off, and how it was finally taken from Grassholm off the Pembrokeshire coast to London to be buried.

It is hoped that next year Covid regulations will allow a full community celebration to return at Hen Galan.