Photo: Hogyncymru - modern painting of Mari Lwyd, Wikipedia

Hexmas is just around the corner, and this year we will present four different Yule demons on each of the four Advent Sundays - this Sunday we present the zombie skeleton horse from South Wales, Mari Lwyd.

In the darkest months of the Welsh year, a white horse appears: the mysterious, menacing Mari Lwyd.

With conflicting theories of the actual origins of Mari Lwyd, scientists are not sure whether Mari is actually a demon or not. 

One Welsh translation of it, Grey Mare, makes the connection to pale horses with roots in Celtic and British mythology, where you often see these cross over to the underworld.

Another translation, Grey Mary, tries to link this to the pregnant horse sent out of the stables in the nativity story when Mary arrived to have Jesus. The horse then spent days roaming the land trying to find somewhere new to have a foal. Many Mari fans believe the character to have come from pre-Christian pagan origins, but this has yet been impossible to prove.

There's a skeleton horse outside the door asking rude riddles and singing?!

Dressed with festive lights and decorations, Mari is traditionally taken around a village, often between Christmas Day and Twelfth Night (variously on either January the 5th or 6th) usually accompanied by a horse caretaker (ostler), and in some regions accompanied by other folk characters like a jester, a Lady and an array of other characters named Punch and Judy, The Sergeant and The Merryman.

Photo by Frederic Evans (Two photographs from early 20th century. The left image was taken between 1904 and 1910, and the one of the right between c.1910 and 1914)

When the groups get to a house, they sing Welsh language songs or wassails (kinda like carolling), or more traditionally indulge in a ritual called pwnco. 

The ritual known as pwnco

This ritual can carry on in an hour or so and involves an exchange of rude rhymes with the person who lives there. If Mari and her gang manage to get entry, the household is said to have good luck for the year to come.

Once inside, Mari would often try to steal things, chase people while neighing and snapping its jaws, creating havoc, and frightening the children.

"The Living are defended by the rich warmth of the flames which keeps that loneliness out," his poem goes. "Terrified, they hear the Dead tapping at the panes; then they rise up, armed with the warmth of firelight." VERNON WATKINS, THE BALLAD OF THE MARI LWYD

The tradition in modern society

Every year the Welsh and the English greets each other in celebration at their border by meeting on The Old Wye Bridge which divides the two countries.

Take a look into the ancient folklore tradition, and the people who help keep it alive:

Learn more about pre-Christian Yule demons in our last part of the advent calendar next Sunday! 

Read about Krampus from 1st Advent.

Read about The Yule Cat from 2nd Advent.