Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

An Archive for Welsh Calendar Customs By R. U. SAYCE. A NATIONAL or regional culture consists of almost innumerable elements in the way of customs, beliefs, occupations and stories. For purposes of study, we have to abstract these from their complete setting. Occasionally, however, we may re-group several of them about some central theme, such as harvesting, marriage, or ancestral spirits, and this may provide us with a convenient classification for particular purposes. The topic of Calendar Customs offers us a thread on which we can string a very large number of cultural elements. British students have already adopted this subject as the unifying theme for the work of collecting, and the Folk-Lore Society has published three volumes dealing with the calendar customs of England, three more on those of Scotland, one on those of the Isle of Man, and is about to issue another volume on the customs of the Orkneys and Shetlands. It now remains for Wales to move forward into line with the rest of Britain, and even to take the opportunity which presents itself to make a new and distinctive contribution. At the suggestion of the Folk-Lore Society, a small committee in Wales considered what should be the first steps to be taken, and then invited a number of gentlemen, represenattive of most parts of the country and of many sides of the national life, to serve on a general council. The following officers have agreed to give their services President: His Grace, the Archbishop of Wales, D.D. Vice-Presidents Dr. T. Gwynn Jones, C.B.E. Sir Wynn P. Wheldon, D.S.O., M.A. Chairman: Sir William Ll. Davies, M.A. Secretary: J. Conway Davies, M.A., Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Associate Secretary J. J. Jones, Esq., M.A., National Library of Wales. After several meetings and discussions in Aberystwyth and Cardiff, the committee has drawn up two questionnaires, of which it proposes to