The Penarth Mari Lwyd will be let loose in Penarth on Sunday the 12th of January 2020.

The Mari Lwyd is a tradition followed mainly in the old Glamorgan area, and takes part on the celebration of the new year on the Julian calendar – this is now on January 14 on the Gregorian calendar.

The National Museum of Wales explains that: ''Mari Lwyd describes the horse-figure formerly carried from door to door by wassail-singing groups during the Christmas season.

''This figure (which is, of course, represented in other countries) seems to have been once known all over southern Wales but during the present century relatively little has been seen of it outside of Glamorgan, where it is not yet completely extinct.

''The attendant ritual began with the singing of traditional stanzas by the Mari Lwyd group at the door, soliciting both permission to sing and entry into the house, and issuing a challenge to a versifying contest.''

The celebrations start at Penarth Clifftops around 1.00 pm and will begin by rolling the head of the giant Bendigeidfran, made by pupils from Ysgol Pen y Garth, down the hill to the beach, arriving at Penarth Pier Pavilion around 2.00 pm.

Timetable:

1. 00pm – Penarth Clifftops, CF64 5BP: Rolling Bendigeidfran's head.
2. 00pm – Penarth Pier Pavilion, CF64 3AU: Mari Lwyd. Mari Lwyd is an old Welsh custom in which a party carrying a horse skull on a pole covered in a white cloth make their way from door to door singing, searching for hospitality.