Calan Gaeaf
Encyclopedia
Calan Gaeaf is the name of the first day of winter in Wales
, observed on 1 November. The night before is Nos Galan Gaeaf (N.B. Galan not Calan in this phrase, following a Welsh grammatical rule), an Ysbrydnos when spirits are abroad. People avoid churchyards, stiles, and crossroads, since spirits are thought to gather there.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, observed on 1 November. The night before is Nos Galan Gaeaf (N.B. Galan not Calan in this phrase, following a Welsh grammatical rule), an Ysbrydnos when spirits are abroad. People avoid churchyards, stiles, and crossroads, since spirits are thought to gather there.
Customs
- Coelcerth: Families build a fire and place stones with their names on it. The person whose stone is missing the next morning would die within the year.
- Yr Hwch Ddu Gwta: Legend has it that a fearsome spirit called Yr Hwch Ddu Gwta took the form of a tail-less black sow and roamed the countryside with a headless woman. Children would rush home early.
- Eiddiorwg Dalen: A few leaves of ground ivy is thought to give you the power to see hags. For prophetic dreams a boy should cut ten ivy leaves, throw away one and put the rest under his head before he sleeps. A girl should take a wild rose grown into a hoop, creep through it three times, cut it in silence, and go to bed with it under her pillow.
- Teiliwr: In GlamorganGlamorganGlamorgan or Glamorganshire is one of the thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It was originally an early medieval kingdom of varying boundaries known as Glywysing until taken over by the Normans as a lordship. Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three...
tailors were associated with witchcraft. They supposedly possessed the power to ‘bewitch’ anybody if they wished.