Calan Mai

Welsh terms for May Day, celebrated as the beginning of summer, although not to the extent of the Goidelic Beltaine. In early Welsh literature Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwythyr fab Greidawl were thought to contend for the beautiful Creiddylad each Calan Mai. Until the mid-19th century, bonfires were built and ghosts were thought to wander the countryside. The power of the dyn hysbys [magician] would be stronger at this time. Calan Mai was always thought opportune for courtship and for celebrating the regeneration of nature. In north-east Wales the summer branch, a variant of the European maypole, was carried from house to house. Sometimes this procession would be accompanied by the Cadi Haf [cadi, effeminate male; haf, summer], or Yr Hen Gadi [the old cadi], a buffoonish figure with blackened face in a man's coat and a woman's petticoat who collected money in a ladle. Attempts by the Christian Church to associate Calan Mai with St Philip and St James obscured much of its pagan origin.

Bibliography

• Trefor M. Owen, Old Welsh Customs, 3rd edn. (Cardiff, 1974)

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