At the height of winter, with cold nights and long, in the villages of East Wales, in the region of Gwent and Glamorgan, a strange scene could be seen. A horse's skull, wearing a thin white cloth, used as a veil, adorned with ribbons and bells, could have been carried through the streets, followed by a procession of young people. If they hit your doorstep, it was because the Mari Lwyd had chosen his home to receive their offerings. Given the strong focus for Celtic poetry, there would be a contest of verses that talk about the cold season in which they lived, about the ultimate fate of all people (death, a common theme to this season) and on the future promised that the new station, with its sun and its warmth. If you give up, Mari Lwyd could be loaded into his home and the chaos would be installed. If not, the youth of the procession would ask only for food as an offering, in a tradition close to Halloween, and proceed to the next house.
The name of Mari Lwyd is usually translated as "Grey Mare", but the Welsh word for mare is caseg, so the translation is unlikely, and the current name probably has its origin linked to Christian tradition, meaning "Mary Gray" linked to the difficult time in which the ceremony took place, and that happened again. Despite the link with Christianity, the basic ceremony is very little Christian. A skull horse loaded as a trophy, ornate, and with a level of reverence, is a return to totemic traits that Judeo-Christianity has ignored in medieval times, but people still carried Christianized as survival of their ancient beliefs. Because of its location in the provinces of East Wales, there is a likelihood that the practice is not of Celtic origin, but German, but his absence in England suggests that the Mari Lwyd is indeed a Welsh practice, and possible Brythonic origin. A ceremony with strong seasonal characteristics, and associated land, whose life begins to return at the Winter Solstice, with the presence always strong nature poetry (in Welsh, of course), and the possible representation of horse-goddesses of sovereignty, the connection of Mary Lwyd with Celtic traditions is quite strong. The practice of
Lwyd Mary remained among the people of the villages of Glamorgan and Gwent in medieval and Renaissance times, apparently without suffering persecution by the authorities really Catholic or Protestant, with only one conviction of the Methodist Church in the nineteenth century. Anyway, this time, the party became associated with gangs and thugs its importance began to decline, virtually disappearing in the early twentieth century. His practice was continued in Llangynwyd and in more recent times, was revived in some cities. Today, Mari Lwyd is again living in Wales. The legend of
Mari Lwyd has two versions: one, and Christianized, and close to the medieval practice and now we know tells us that when the Holy Family chose the stable where Mary had her child, Mari Lwyd and their foals were expelled and since then she goes wandering through villages in search of a stable to survive the winter. The other version says that on the night of the Winter Solstice, the Mari foals are taken away, and since then, around the middle of winter, she wanders in search of their children. This legend holds a strong resemblance to the story of Rhiannon, which has also taken her son, and is recovered. Rhiannon is strongly associated with the mare, and his name is usually translated as "Great Queen" (in Briton Rigantona), and connection of the goddesses of sovereignty with the figure of the horse is well known (Epona and Macha are other examples). Besides connecting the myth of the divine child who is stolen and is recovered again to bring fertility to the world, symbolized by Pryderi son of Rhiannon. Thus, we can make a hypothetical scheme of a goddess of sovereignty (Rhiannon) that your child has sunscreen (Pryderi) stolen, that brings a desert to the land (winter), but that is looked back on Solstice, when the nights are getting warmer and longer days. It will take until Pryderi grow, and reaches its peak, but at least his return is sought and that the new crop season begins. A hypothetical scheme, of course, but not so unlikely, given the immense similarities mythological and ritualistic that practice.
