Merry Christmas to all! Gee, Laura, that thing is scaring me now!
It's fun to see various Christmas traditions.
My Welsh traditions have some weird stuff too. Such as Grey Mare:
"A pre-Christian custom associated with the end of the Christmas season, formerly carried out in all parts of Wales but now almost disappeared, is that of the Mari Lwyd ( Grey Mare). It can however still be seen at Llangynwyd near Maesteg every New Years Day. A horse's skull with false ears and eyes attached, along with reins and bells, covered with a white sheet and colourfully decorated with ribbons, is carried around on a pole. The Mari Lwyd is carried from door to door and is accompanied by a party of people. At each door, poems are recited in Welsh. Those inside the house reply also in verse refusing to let the Mari Lwyd in until this battle of verse and insults (or pwnco) is won. The Mari Lwyd parties gained a bad reputation for for drunkenness and vandalism as they roamed the villages. This was unacceptable behaviour especially with the rise of the Chapel and Methodism in Wales, and so the custom was changed. Christmas carols were sung at the doors and the battle of insults and verse disappeared. In some areas the Welsh language gave way to English."
Get a load of the Grey Mare from the link below. Scarier than the goat?
http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Wales-History/MariLwyd-llantrisant.jpg
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