Mari Lwyd: The Skeleton Horse's Deep Past with Christmas Tradition | Monstrum
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The coastal villages of Wales around the winter holidays have a bizarre nighttime visitor: a grim skeletal horse who roams the streets with a rag tag group, demanding food and drink from neighborhood families. But is this really a monster to be feared, or one that is rather cheered?
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Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka
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You did miss out one key aspect of it however; Mari Lwyd is meant to be an equaliser. They'd generally lead the entourage of poorer villagers to the manors and halls of the rich, and essentially (jovially) threaten them until they shared their wealth (in the form of food, drink and hospitality).
Well I'll be. A socialist christmas spirit. Now I've heard it all!
based horse skull!! who would've thunk it
@@alexanderb5726 massively predates socialism, as does fairness and social justice.
@@Dismas444 I take it a joke is a foreign concept to you?
We should revive some of these older traditions
So basically, it's like trick or treating. But instead of kids dressed up in spooky attire getting candy and other sweets, it's a bunch of grown-ups (some of them probably very drunk) guiding a rapping ghostly horse skull from door-to-door asking people if they can raid their fridges and liquor cabinets.
The Welsh are creative people, ain't they
We've had the same here in Sweden with the Julbock (Yule Goat), with young men singing and asking for drinks and foods from door to door. I'm SO sad that it's dying out - and getting replaced by American Santa -_-
Note that trick-or-treating is associated with Halloween, which comes from Samhain. Wassailing - which took place from the last harvest festival until Winter Solstice - is where trick-or-treating originated from. So yes, it's Very Like That.
That would make sense since trick o treating comes from the practice of "souling." Children and the poor would go door to door offering to say prays for the souls on Purgatory ("souls, souls, a souk cake for souls.") Even though this is largely associated with the Catholic Hallowtide (All Hallows Eve, All Saints ie Hallows, and All Souls), it was also practiced in the Christmas season. I can see how this could easily morph into Wassailing.
@@carissstewart3211 well, wassailing predates Christianity in the celtic isles, but absolutely - all of those customs are very clearly closely related or even just forms of one another.
@@fthurman Absolutely not all of trick-or-treating comes from Samhain. Samhain only encompasses the British Isles. In Germanic countries for example the tradition was different, happening later in the winter (in Alpine regions even in February). In Scandinavia there was Norse mythology with the sacrifice of the golden boar and so on.
Please do not amalgamate every traditional religion into a "one fits all". It does a lot of harm.
* slamming hands on the table, foaming at the mouth * I LOVE IT WHEN THE SPOOKY IS FRIENDLY!
EXACTLY! LETS GOOOOO!!!
Ok there Kilton lol
100% agree with you friendly spooky is the best.
"that's our job but we're not mean, in this town of Halloween!"
@@fioregiallo I know that, and if it were an animal or something else irl I would completely agree with you. But I just love it when mythical creatures/monsters are depicted as benevolent, because it means the humans who created them could have an optimistic view of the strange looking and the unknown.
Thank you so much for covering the Mari Llwyd! Lovely to see a tradition from my culture given recognition!
wassail, wassail all over the town
Welsh are fricking awesome.
She needs to learn to pronounce Welsh language better though.
Have you heard of the CZcams Channel: The Welsh Viking? He also helps spread awareness of Cymraeg culture, and his Welsh is good.
Yes! Agreed! I'm American, but my great-grandparents were Welsh, and I used to adore their stories as a kid. I love learning about Welsh culture.
I'm a member of the Krewe of Krampus in New Orleans. We include Mari Lwyd in our entourage during our Krampus Run/ Parade, NOLAuf. It's one of our most popular Yule characters.
Love this!-*Dr.Z*
Mari lwyd : wales night house Christmas winter forest skull horse head glass baubles eye sockets colourful ribbons body skeleton white draped attacking children
Nice!
and does your Mari speak in welsh?
@@pbsstoried I like what you did for the video the how everything moves and everything almost like a painting coming to life keep up the good work
FINALLY! A totally creepy yet rather benevolent and joyful Christmas monster! I can see Mari Lwyd as the Ernie to the Krampus' Burt!
The Ernie to the Krampus’ Bert is amazing and I’m using it!
I believe this also still persists in Newfoundland Canada, where it was explained to me as needing to rap battle a horse in order to keep your liquor😂 which is about as Newfie As It Gets
That's right! We call it mummering and often people wear sheets over their faces with holes cut out - very creepy like ghosts lol
My Dad's boss was Welsh, and he always had a Mari Llwyd in the import shop he ran after he retired. I remember asking him about it once, and he said 'Oh, she's what you youngin's would call a beer guzzlin', snack eatin' rap battle horse' and I've never forgotten that description.
"rap battle" is the best way to describe it, really. It's got a lot of improvisation involved. And yeah... Lot of snacks and beer
La Befana is not evil at all, she is an old lady who brings candies or little toys inside of socks to good children and coal to the bad ones during the night between 5th and 6th of january. This traditional character is older than Christmas itself, since la Befana was already known during the Roman Empire. She appears as a fairytale witch, old (and maybe ugly) but she is completely harmless and she travel on a flying broomstick.
I'd definitely surrender a few verses in.
"Please don't enter my house,
I have nothing to even feed a mouse.
Don't look over there,
The pantry is bare.
Dang it I've been found out,
Now I can't keep you out.
I now have nothing to hide,
So please come inside."
This reminds me of the pantomime dragons of Asia who also mess with people. I have a personal experience with it. My husband a couple of friends and I were in the Chinese pavilion at Epcot Center a long time ago. The dragon was about patrolling his territory and we wanted to get a picture with it but my husband demured, saying he didn't want his picture taken. The dragon was on my side, however, and chased him around until he was laughing so hard he had stop for breath. Then the dragon lovingly put his head against my husband's, and I have a great picture of my husband barely able to stand up, defeated by a dragon.💋
Awwww so sweet
龍不败
This story made my day!
That is adorable! ^^
I usually prefer Halloween over Christmas, but creatures like this skully guy makes me like it more. While Mari Lwyd isn't a mean entity like Krampus or Grylla, I feel like they are needed to encourage difference and activity for folks all over the world. It's such a fascinating thing of what lurks in the end of the year in every culture.
Also, Europe may be more sociated with Christmas, but I kinda also want to mention Namahage from Japan. Krampus japan-ised. (In a tradition way, not the anime way)
For anyone interested, there's some lovely old clips from the BBC here on CZcams of the Mari Lwyd singing in practise.
Strange that no one has connected this to the Púca, the equine trickster monsters common throughout Celtic folklore: especially given the motif of the Mari Llwyd chasing people, and the fact that it is led around by a well-dressed man. The Púca is a warning to not trust strangers that you meet at night, particularly aimed at young women. Sort of seems like the Mari Llwyd fits into that very well, imo.
Our Pwca tends to be a little guy, at least in the stories I know. Usually someone who helps or causes chaos around the house but no particular horse connection.
@@gota7738 ah hmmm... that makes sense. I'm more familiar with the Scottish version tbf.
Thanks for showcasing Welsh culture. I know a few people have mentioned the off pronunciation but don’t be discouraged. Welsh is a difficult language with unusual pronunciations that are really hard to master, especially if you’ve not heard them spoken aloud before. You could easily have shied away from discussing the topic completely due to the difficult names like the town Aberystwyth (pronounced Aber-wrist-with), but you didn’t. So I appreciate the effort nonetheless.
You literally just wrote it as she said it in the video 😅 It's how the (English) automatic announcer on the train says it, so I can assume you've visited!
It's aber-us-twith. There's no "wrist" in the name. It's a common mistake.
@@I1like1wood1ash that must be my mistake. I grew up in Carmarthen and we would say Aber-wrist- wyth. Apologies!
I don't know why I found the sequence of the Mari Lwyd chasing the kids around funny and heart warming.
Its nice that instead of being a creepy monster, it just wants to have fun. Thanks for talking about its history
And now I can't help thinking of the Mari Lwyd bopping along to Cyndi Lauper's 1980s hit song. 😅😁🐎🐴🎄🎉
This one really spoke to me. I love winter and snow, but it’s also a time that is personally very difficult to get through from an emotional standpoint. It’s comforting to know that historically others have also had complicated feelings about this time of year.
personally very difficult to get through from an emotional standpoint
Dammit, this hit in the feels. Merry Christmas, except I find this time hard to be merry about. Everything does feel like a standstill for some reason.
It's so nice to see other people exploring my culture glory to Wales! Hehe
If I had one critique I would say your pronunciation of Mari Lywd wasn't great, but I understand the Welsh Language is a mine field and appreciate anyone who attempts it. Nadolig Llawen ❤
I’ve been obsessed with Mari since I learned about her as a kid. I couldnt find info on her (save the wiki page) and I had no idea of the specifics. I’m obsessed with her all over again !
You can find a good deal of credible information from a Welsh person here:
czcams.com/video/YU5pk-Hc758/video.html
The Welch Viking has a video 9n CZcams from a year ago that's interesting too.
I could see this as being made into a movie that takes the audience by surprise. Most of the time, and how it behaves, the focus characters perceive the Mari Lwyd as some sinister monster that wants entrance to their home to harm them. Only to find that, once the creature is finally inside, it's actually benevolent, or at least benign.
It'd be awesome if Laika Entertainment (Of Coraline, ParaNorman, Boxtrolls, & Kubo and the Two Strings fame) produced it their signature style of stop motion animation!
Ever since Sam O Nella Academy mentioned this creature in a video, I've always wanted to learn more! Thanks for covering it :D
THANK YOU! I WAS TRYING TO REMEMBER WHAT CHANNEL I SAW AN ANIMATION OF IT ON.
Saved my month
The tradition reminds me of Terry Pratchett's "Hogfather" story.
In Welsh, the colour “grey” (llwyd) is pronounced “choyd”, but with a little breath on the “ch”. It’s hard to approximate the Welsh “LL” sound in English! It’s between a “ch” and an “sh”, but not quite either.
I love the videos that cover mythology outside standard UK influence. I mean, a skeletal horse wearing ribbons and parties hard? That's awesome!
Mari Lwyd IS standard UK influence, though. UK = includes Wales. Perhaps you're thinking English influence?
Once you learn lots of stuff like this, carols like we wish you a merry christmas make a lot more sense.
@7:10 Silver on the Tree is the fifth and final book in the pentalogy "The Dark is Rising Sequence."
The reason it has not been a movie yet is because they DID try to make the series into movies in 2007, hoping to capitalize on the fantasy-adventure magic that propelled Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Shrek, and Narnia to box office gold. However, they completely butchered and bungled it.
They rushed it into production, changed a lot of plot elements (including the main character's age, which is an important plot point in the books), mashed events from several early books together or jettisoned whole swathes of the book's narrative, and then tried to "action" the whole thing up since the books are often more intellectual than physical and they didn't trust that to play on screen. And clumsy branding and marketing generated confusion over which character "the seeker" even was. The result was a SUPER flop.
I looked it up and to date it has made less than $32M on a $45M budget. It was a wide release in over 3,100 theaters, but backed by a relatively anemic marketing campaign--leading to it becoming the second biggest flop of ALL TIME to have opened in at least 3,000 theaters. In fact, it cost more just to print the film copies for the 3,200 theaters than the film made in it's first weekend of release. It has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 14%.
I LOVED the books growing up, and was super excited when the movie was announced, but what they did with the first one killed any chance of the rest getting made. I'm hoping now it can be rediscovered as a well-funded Amazon TV series type thing. I think that format would serve the material much better anyway.
I was honestly thinking about the same thing when she said that. I adored the books, and watched the movie. The movie was practically a different story with a “The Dark is Rising” skin on it. I kind of hope that no one tries to make the series into a movie, though. All the most recent book-to-movies/shows I’ve seen for some of my favorite series have had their stories meddled with to the point where they don’t feel like the same tales. And I’m normally not a “read-the-book” purist! I’d like to see the scenes from the books brought to life (Imagine the encounter with Tethys or the Wild Hunt!), but I don’t think any current screen writer could leave the story alone enough for it to stand on it’s own.
@@corvidaegudmund1186 There have certainly been some high profile flops, but there have been good adaptations, too. Game of Thrones comes to mind (before they ran out of source material and then started focusing on future jobs elsewhere, anyway). And Gaiman's work has been doing OK with American Gods, Sandman, and Good Omens. A lot of graphic novels and comics have had good adaptations, like Sweet Tooth and Preacher. Paper Girls was even surprisingly good, if criminally underpromoted. His Dark Materials wasn't that bad, though it was missing some energy to it. Witcher had a strong start, too, before floundering. And The Magicians and Outlander have huge cult followings. Oh, and The Expanse is absolutely brilliant.
It can work, but it does have to be the right team making it for the right reasons.
When i lived in Malaysia as a little kid, our Japanese neighbor invited us for a little New Year's Eve party, just my family and hers. She instructed us not to drop the bowl of beans on the table and went outside with a bag, but her baby son did it anyway. And immediately someone dressed as an oni barged into the room, and all of us kids grabbed the beans and started tossing them at her. So yeah i think the popularity behind party monsters are because of our love for the (artificial) thrill and danger, which might be why Mari Lwyd also chases little kids for fun
In South America, Central America & even Mexico, the is a tale of a Horse-headed Woman known as La Siguanaba/Sihuanaba, I hope you can eventually do a video on her.
In Brazil we have a legendary horse that has fire instead of a head. Originally it was a woman who slept with a priest or something like that
I heard that it was a Headless Mule not a Horse,
I also heard about another creature called "Almamula" or "Mulanima" which is like a mule that is forced to wear dragging chains,
And another creature called "Muladona" or "Donamula" which is a Mule with a Human Woman's head & breasts on the mule chest but still has mule ears,
Anyways there are plenty of Equine related monsters in myths around the world.
I'd like to point out that "L" and "LL" are pronounced completely differently in Welsh.
Send Llwyds! (j/k) I was introduced to the Mari Llwyd, as were so many outsiders, by Susan Cooper, who also tried her best to teach us Welsh pronunciation (she's half Welsh). nowadays, I expect her tales of rural English life are just as important as that of Wales, since younger generations raised in suburbia or cities don't have the experience of being embedded in the weather and daylight-defined cycles of nature and farmland.
One thing I didn't fully appreciate when I read those books when I was younger is just how much the Welsh traditions are "original" Britain, so to speak, although again Cooper did her best to get it across: as waves of Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and my ancestors the Vikings/Danes invaded, Britain's indigenous people were pushed west and north, hanging on longest in Wales. So the Mari Lywd may be a little remnant of that very old strata when horses first came to Britain and were immensely special.
I'm also reminded of some even older, curious finds at Must Farm, that amazing Bronze Age site that gives us a very different idea of how people could live in a sort of watery fenland, in stilt roundhouses. They shaped skulls of red deer (I think) to be used in some ritual manner. Early hobby horses, even before the horse came to the British Isles? Who knows.
The idea of the Mary Llwyd once frightened me, but now I love the idea that it may be an echo of traditions stretching far, far back, to when the glaciers pulled back and Doggerland first foundered. We have so little left in the modern world from those times, even though really, in the lifespan of Earth ot even humankind, it wasn't that long ago.
Mari Lwyd isn't unique (even in Wales) - there are many similar hobby horse customs elsewhere in Britain and as pointed out in the video none of them are referenced before about 1800. They were a poor man's hobby horse with the aim of making a bob or two in depths of winter.
Attempting to link them to some distant ancestral past is simply wishful thinking.
Krampus, Yule Cat, and this guy. There seems to be a lot of creepy Santa variants across the world. At least this one is friendly.
I would also mention the grinch (even if he is not very ancient, but after all he is also a "Christmas monster".)
Just make sure you've got you new clothes on and the Yule Cat will be fine with you, even if you're misbehaving
Has the Mari Lwyd ever actually been in D&D? I know it isn't in 5e, even the image they showed was homebrew. But 3e had an insane number of monsters, so did it appear there?
Based on what I looked up, it's very much a homebrew monster that they treated as actually being in the game. There's a multitude of different versions posted each with different abilities and stuff.
Another great holiday video! These have become a tradition in their own right. I would LOVE to see you do a video on the Yule Lads next year. I've become fascinated with them since watching the Drawfee videos where they tried to draw what they thought they should look like. (Coincidentally, judging from the bloopers, you might also be interested in Drawfee's video on drawing mascots for the most ridiculously named towns in the UK.)
As much as I enjoyed this episode the only thing I had a problem with was the thing I expected to… the pronunciation.
Mari as Mary, that’s fine but the Lwyd is supposed to sound more like “l-oid” or with a slightly different spelling Llwyd but both sounding like the name Lloyd with a slight lisp sound on the “Ll”. Slight lisp being the easiest way to explain how to pronounce a Welsh letter.
Let's not even start on Aberystwyth
I've always pronounced Lwyd like you pronounce the colour llwyd. Loo ead I think phonetically in english.
Mari has more of a Mah, a bit like Marry.
I first heard of this tradition through a Mercedes Lackey novel, "Home from the Sea" (one of her Elemental Masters series, which threads historical fantasy, folk tales, and magic all together into quite fun narratives). In that novel the action all takes place on the coast of Wales, across autumn and winter, and the Mari Lwyd makes not one but two appearances - one is merry and full of laughter and quite "kid friendly," but the second visitation is a LOT darker. I had wondered which one was closer to accurate, especially as Mrs Lackey usually does quite a lot of research for this series of novels... Including some of the stranger twists and turns of folk-lore and old customs.
I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE to see a longer treatment of winter solstice traditions - if not from Monstrum then from Fate & Fabled perhaps? It would be so wonderful to hear more about the many cultures across the whole world - especially the ones we DON'T find as familiar, like what the Maya might've done, or the indigenous peoples of Australia (who would be holding such observances in "spring" by the global calendar, right?).
Coming from a family with a lot of roots in Germany and Poland I'm really interested in the Norse/Germanic traditions of course but - it's always so great to learn about the not so familiar, and y'all handle these topics SO damn well!
Yes! More solstice traditions!
Yes. There has never been a film adaptation of The Dark Is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper. Ever.
Wow this is an interesting monster. While I am familiar with many of the creatures featured on Monstrum I am not familiar with this one. While I understand that we have holidays like Halloween it’s really hard for me to imagine a creature like this to bring merriment and cheer. If I saw this outside my door wishing to come in I would lock the doors and hide. lol Thanks Dr. Z and monstrum staff for teaching me about the Mari Lwyd.
Fekin love Mari Lwyd, my fav winter tradition
In my area of rural North Dakota, the custom of Norwegian julbukking was popular up until the 80s although it’s not done anymore probably because it is much easier to travel from the remote farmhouses to group gatherings than it once was.
Culturally we have drifted from visiting homes unannounced (still done in rural areas of you live in a farmstead though!)
Bobs Burgers Halloween Episode actually featured a version of them
Love Bob's Burgers
What?! Awesome, I’ll have to check it out.-*Dr.Z*
Who ever eats nasty burgers 🤢 You disappoint me, Emily 😔
@@-Thauma- it's a Television Show, a comedy...
@@-Thauma- it's a Television Show, a comedy...
They did make a movie out of Susan Cooper’s Dark Is Rising books, but it was barely a pathetic shadow of the story and is definitely best forgotten. I can’t even recall what it’s called. I was so excited to stumble across it, then immediately disappointed that I’d bought the dvd. I’d love to see them give it a real try. I loved those books, and still think of them regularly.
I remember being so excited for that movie, thinking (more hoping really) that it was going to be as well done as the Harry Potter series. I left the theater crying before the it was even over. 😢 I would love so much to see someone who really cares for the story take it on.
@Sirona279 ooof, I'm so sorry you wasted theater time and money on it. :( I hadn't heard anything about it until i saw the dvd in a clearance bin, so I was at least watching it my own living room where I could scream my disappointment and fury at the tv. I don't think I could have stayed in the theater either.
Was coming here to say this very thing, it was The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (2007), I have never actually watched it all the way through but I knew there was going to be issues when I saw they started with the second book in the series and key characters from the books were missing. I only read the first three when I was a kid, or up to whichever one Greenwitch was.
@@NoSubculture the series is definitely worth finishing! I remember really enjoying the last two books. I still have my copies stashed away somewhere, and now I'm thinking I need to pull them out for a full re-read. :D
Dr Z and the team at Storied, I wish you all a Scary Solstice! ❤
I learned about the Mari Lwyd by pure chance in 2015 from a web comic. The more I learned, the more I was delighted by how ominous looking, yet festive and light-hearted it was. It inspired me to make a red horse skull costume for Halloween (since I live in Texas).
What is the name if the webcomic? I am interested.
This is so fascinating! I remember seeing the Mary Llwd from social media posts a few years ago and left me confused but interested. After learning about this beast, this is amazing. You're basically doing trick-or-treating in December, and it sounds like SO much fun. I might try it someday.😂
"There'll be *scary ghost stories* and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago."
Short answer: It's cold, dark, and depressing...let's party!!
Yes I know what this tradition is, I'm glad Dungeons & Dragons do it justice!
it's curious, I didn't know this "Christmas monster", a real "night-Mary of Christmas", already at Halloween there is a joyful connection with the fear of death and the night. perhaps one day we could make a hybrid holiday (which might be called: Christ-oween or Hal-mas) with trees illuminated by pumpkins or pumpkins with Christmas symbols.
I love hearing about all these old traditions, and I'm glad people are trying to bring some back.
Diolch! I appreciate you covering this, it's my favorite holiday.
*scrolls through her subscriptions* *sees new Monstrum episode* *gasps quite loudly* AND IT'S ABOUT A CHRISTMAS MONSTER I NEVER HEARD OF!! *enjoys every second like always*
Absolutely love storied and monstrum 😊
I absolutely love these christmas themed videos! Ill save this for now and watch it on christmas eve
I have seen The Mari several times in productions from The Isles, but did not realize it was an actual tradition! I mean when I saw Monty Python (as one example) doing their looney skits with an actor in robes and wearing a decorated horse skull, I thought '...it's what you do with a non-existent costume budgest and half baked idea😅 But Terry Jones (God rest his soul) was a proud Welshman🤔🤔
Thanks Dr. Z and everybody we don't see for Storied!!❤
AHHHHHH I didn't know Epona was a mythological horse in the real world! That's so cool!
It's not Christmas until Dr. Z comes bearing gifts of monstrous creatures. 🎄
Fantastic! I've wanted this monster for a while now. Great job as always.
Love the Susan Cooper books! The one time they tried to make a movie it was an abomination (The Seeker--The Dark Is Rising). Come on, Netflix, do the right thing!
This sounds awesome. I love learning about the rich and spooky history of things most people take for granted
I love your videos and I find your videos very interesting. Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
I have been wassailling, and mumming which is very similar but taking a small play to perform around in the same way, many times. Its a really fun tradition and we always combined it with collecting for charity by singing and playing to drive out evil spirits to ensure abundance and prosperity in return for a donation to our pot. All round a lovely Christmas or solstice tradition to maintain and experience. ❤😊
I'm glad you finally did this. We brought this to our neighborhood here in the states about 10 years ago.
What a very spooky Christmas tradition. Definitely not something my mom would want us to do for Christmas.
That said, what an awesome video! I can't wait for the next one!
Can you please do a video about the history of the bad reputation given to bats through stories of vampires, the public prospective of bats, and reports of vampire bats killing humans through rabies? I also think everyone is waiting to see an episode about dinosaurs in cinema and the impact Jurassic Park had on the planet. Lastly, I think we need to learn about the history of King Kong.
Very informative! Thank you!
Season's Screamin's!
I was completly unaware of this mythology. Thank you so much for covering it. Its a wonderful feeling that takes me back to childhood when i learn new things.
That was really cool, thank you for the tales.
Thanks for the video
So happy to see Mari Llwyd and wales (my home from Powys) some attention!
One of the reasons culturally it is not well know was that in 19th century “Welsh-ness” was being discouraged by the English. The English churches and education system discouraging old traditions and the Welsh language (Welsh knot)
Its basically a Christmas rap with a talking horse skull somit doesn’t take your Christmas treats too and it’s sounds like a lot of fun
4:12 it's quite possible. In Bulgaria we have something very similar to wassailing. Perhaps there's a very ancient common tradition as a predecessor to both.
I always thought that the Mari Lwyd was a faery akin to the kelpie as the krampus is. Great video, I love Christmas monsters ❤
There's a theory it derives from an ancient Celtic horse Goddess Rhiannon/Epona so that might not be too far off...
@@jasonbrennan9918
A theory - but nonesense.
There is no reference to any of these 'mast' hobby horses before the 1800's.
@@Wotsitorlabart I meant the character herself not the specific practices. Sorry, should have been clearer
I can picture my great great granny smiling broadly as this video makes it's presence known to her. She was the last Welsh-born member of my family, from a village in Anglesey
Who knew that Death was such a party animal when he was on his break for Christmas!
A spooky skull-headed creature that is actually playful and jolly - makes a nice change! 😊
Great video. A very scary solstice to all!
This was an interesting one. I first learned about the Mary Lwyd playing AC Valhalla[You Dress up as her to get candy during one mission] so hearing more background on the legend is really interesting
Thank you! Now I'm inspired for creating a special Xmas D&D one-shot!
new monstrum just dropped; today is a good day
Amazing video!
I would love to see a video on goblins. keep up the good work
The songs asking to be let in to sing together reminds me a lot of the door to door singing that mirrors Mary and Joseph asking for shelter in catholic Christmas.
I had no idea this was part of wassailing ! This was positively fascinating!
I always loved how this one looked!
Im not sure if you take suggestions from the comments, but I think the dahu would make a good video subject.
My best friends are working a local Yuletide festival as Mari Lwyd and Krampus. So cool.
Hey, happy holidays! I really like what your doing here. It is fun to learn about new traditions and rituals .It makes you more curious to learn about monsters you never heard of.I live in sri lanka so I grew up on fearing the Sri Lankan demon ' Mahasona' and the Sri Lankan witch ' Kuwani' .
These are my favourite episodes, monsters that I have never even heard of before😄
Thank you
Don't be lwyd, that's rwyd!
It fascinates me that somehow things boiled down from something in the past to a person in a horse skull mask and a robe with a group of friends drinking and merry making around the village. Humans are an odd bunch.
Y is pronounced as a U in Welsh. That was one of the things I took away from reading Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising series.
And yes, Susan Cooper’s books have been made into really bad films. They were horrible adaptations.
Oh! Kekri-goat (or Nuuti-goat ) from Finland is very similar to Mari Lwyd
This reminds me of the Siguanaba legend from Guatemala and central America
Nice! It's not everyday we get spooky Xmas!
Okay, this is insane, I love it
Love his show!!! ❤❤❤
Are you certain the Dungeons and Dragons version of Mari Lwyd is official? It looks fan-made.
Fitting how we get to one of the weirdest Christmas creatures. Though I was thinking you were going to tackle elves.
I do love seeing my countries traditions being covered!