The Customs and Traditions of Wales

Trefor M. Owen

Description

Trefor M. Owen’s seminal work educates, enlightens and entertains with a far-reaching yet accessible text, which paints a colourful and comprehensive portrait of a nation’s rich folk culture. The Customs and Traditions of Wales is an illuminating and engrossing insight into a subject that continues to unfold and develop in contemporary life. Despite an increasingly globalised society that has transformed local communities, folk customs are still practised and enjoyed the world over as people combine modern-day and historical rituals and embrace opportunities to learn about their past, and Owen’s influential study has maintained its relevance as customs change and evolve.

Sujets

• Traditions
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Customs

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 20 avril 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783168279
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Trefor Meredith Owen, 2014. © ffoto Nant.
The Customs and Traditions of Wales
Trefor M. Owen
Second edition, with an introduction by Emma Lile

UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS
2016
© The estate of Trefor M. Owen and Emma Lile, 2016 First published in 1991 This updated edition published in 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owners except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright owners’ written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff, CF10 4UP.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library CiP Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-78316-825-5 e-ISBN 978-1-78316-827-9
The right of the estate of Trefor M. Owen and Emma Lile to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction to the New Edition
Preface
1 Working the Land
2 Customs of Hearth and Home
3 Community Traditions
4 Church Festivals and Practices
5 Changing Traditions
6 Studying Folk Customs
Selected Reading List by Chapter
List of Illustrations
Cutting peat on the moorland above Llanuwchllyn, Merioneth
Melin Bompren mill and corn-drying kiln, Synod Inn, Cardiganshire
Cist styffylog or oatmeal chest
Ffair Dalis, the well-known horse fair held at Lampeter, Cardiganshire
Caseg fedi or corn maiden
The medel or reaping party on Y Fadfa farm, Talgarreg, Cardiganshire, in 1889
The fire on the floor at Pont-faen, Ciliau Aeron, Cardiganshire
Cottage interior at Dolgellau, Merioneth, c .1836, by Edward Pryce Owen
The stable loft at Hendre-wen Farm near Llanrwst in the Vale of Conwy
Glazed earthenware puzzle jug, dated 1711
A Mari Lwyd and its party in Llangynwyd, near Maesteg, during the early twentieth century
Wren house, probably the only surviving example, made in 1869
An idealized portrayal of the bidder in his distinctive headdress and carrying his decorated staff of office as he invites guests to a bidding
A tŷ unnos or squatter’s cabin in the Welsh Folk Museum, St Fagans, built as an experiment by architectural students in 1988
The handball court at Nelson, Glamorgan in 1914
Bathers at St Winifred’s Well, Holywell, Flintshire, c .1890 (reference PH/30/55)
Funeral procession in the Tre-lech district of Carmarthenshire at the beginning of the twentieth century
The Wake at Holyhead from Edward Pugh’s Cambria Depicta , 1816
An open-air prayer meeting held near Llyn Eiddwen, Cardiganshire, 1911
Admission ticket to a lecture on ‘The Best Way to Live Happily’ held in a chapel schoolroom in 1879 as a substitute for a bidding, to assist a newly married man
Nazareth Chapel Sunday school class, Tal-y-bont, Cardiganshire, c .1897
Trophy won at a choral competition held at the Crystal Palace, London, in 1872 and 1873
Acknowledgements
The authors and publishers wish to thank the following copyright holders who have kindly permitted the reproduction of photographs:
ffoto Nant: Trefor M. Owen
Flintshire Record Office: St Winifred’s Well (image reference PH/30/55)
National Library of Wales: cottage interior, Dolgellau
National Museum of Wales: peat cutting, Melin Bompren, cist styffylog , Ffair Dalis, caseg fedi, medel , hearth at Pont-faen, stable loft, puzzle jug, Mari Lwyd , wren house, bidder, tŷ unnos , Tre-lech funeral procession, prayer meeting, admission ticket, Sunday school class, Crystal Palace Challenge Trophy (the ‘Caradog Cup’)
Richard Burton Archives, Swansea University: handball court, Nelson
Roderic Bowen Library and Archives, University of Wales Trinity Saint David: Holyhead wake
Introduction to the new edition
A masterfully penned gem of a guide, The Customs and Traditions of Wales by Trefor M. Owen constitutes one of the seminal works in its field and since its publication in 1991 has become the first port of call for all those interested in this fascinating area of study. Along with his classic Welsh Folk Customs , this concise yet comprehensive text has informed and inspired several decades of readers, providing, as it does, a scholarly, yet immensely readable, overview of a country’s rich social and cultural heritage. The book’s compelling narrative is a model of poise and precision, with the author’s enthusiasm for the subject emanating throughout. The reader is treated to an engrossing exploration into the ways and mores of a people once so bound together by the agricultural calendar, with the text further enlivened by colourful eyewitness accounts which provide additional commentary thanks to their vivid portrayals of pre-industrial rural life in Wales.
Originally published as ‘a pocket guide’, which by definition, should be succinct and small in size, Owen’s text is far-reaching in its subject matter, sufficiently broad for the layman, yet also detailed enough to educate and enlighten folk-studies students. Chapters are devoted to the hearth and home, agriculture, community life and the parish church, as well as a concluding section covering the first recorders of traditional culture and the development of human geography and ethnology as academic disciplines. Primarily based on the agricultural year, folk customs relied largely for their continuation on the seasonal calendar, which tended to mark important occasions by communal celebrations, some of which originated in a pre-Christian era. Such social conviviality punctuated the monotony of the drudgery of hard physical labour and imparted drama and excitement into everyday lives. Work and play were intertwined within the countryside, with both integral to the livelihoods of the common folk. Owen elucidates the profound changes Welsh rural societies underwent during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, both as a result of industrialization and the growth of Nonconformity. Growing urbanization and the Methodist Revival led to a long-term transformation of previously agrarian communities, as their rites and rituals, mostly possessing pre-industrial roots, were increasingly perceived as rather backward-looking against the new regulated work regimes of the growing coal-mining and iron-working societies. Many were subsequently discouraged and suppressed by changing social ideals and even viciously attacked as sinful in religious quarters, to be superseded by what were considered more virtuous forms of recreation. Although a counterculture revolving around the chapel and the coalfields gradually emerged, within which the bygone practices of yesteryear were often unwelcome, some of the old traditions stood strong and survived intact. Difficult as it is to imagine in our modern society, replete with regimented timetables and office schedules, Owen demonstrates how influential and profound the turning of the seasons was to our ancestors. Calendar traditions and customs were once so intimately connected in a Welsh society where tradition dictated, local autonomy reigned supreme and social cooperation was key to harmonious living.
During my eighteen-year tenure as folk customs curator at St Fagans National History Museum, Trefor Owen’s customsrelated publications remained virtually permanent fixtures on my desk, so regularly were they consulted. As undoubtedly the most thumbed volumes when responding to the many and varied public enquiries, undertaking research or preparing gallery exhibition panels, I recommended Owen’s books to folk studies enthusiasts on countless occasions. In recent years, however, I became aware of the increasing difficulty in acquiring his titles, their having been out of print for some time and often obtainable only by trawling antiquarian bookshops and websites. How wonderful it is, therefore, that The Customs and Traditions of Wales is now reprinted, thus ensuring a continued profile for a subject which has long fascinated and enthralled. Trefor Meredith Owen, distinguished ethnologist and anthropologist, was a highly respected and widely acknowledged authority on Welsh folk customs. Curator of the Welsh Folk Museum, St Fagans (renamed the Museum of Welsh Life and currently St Fagans National History Museum) between 1971 and 1987 and president of the Society for Folk Life Studies between 1977 and 1980, he lectured frequently throughout Wales and on a European stage, and was one of the driving forces behind the advancement of the academic study of folk life across the United Kingdom. Other numerous accolades included the presidency of the Cambrian Archaeological Association, vice-presidency of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion and honorary fellowships of the Folk Lore Society and Aberystwyth and Bangor universities. Owen was one of the founders of the University of Wales’s Guild of Graduates’ Ethnology and Folk Life section, and later its president. He worked closely with University College Cardiff in establishing a master’s course in Welsh Ethnological Studies, for which he was made honorary professor. In addition to his two volumes on folk customs and traditions, he published many Welsh and English articles on ethnology-related issues and in 1985 founded and edited the National Museum of Wales journal Medel (‘Reaping’) which was devoted to this field.
Trefor M. Owen (1926–2015)

Trefor Owen at work in the Welsh Folk Museum, St Fagans, 1966. Family photograph.

Trefor Owen and his wife Gwen, Penegoes, 2011. © ffoto Nant.
Born in his mother’s home town of Dolgellau in 1926, son of John Thomas Owen, a bank official, and Mary Frances Meredith (known as Minnie