Going Green For Christmas
Seems the Welsh are tired of their merry gift-giver being dressed like a Coke bottle. So they are dressing their Santa (aka Sion Corn) in the traditional pre-Coke green.
Green Santa card from Traditions Store.
“Llangollen will recapture ancient Welsh Celtic traditions at its upcoming Christmas Festival instead of going along with the Coca-Cola inspired image of Santa Clause decked all in red. Father Christmas – known in Wales as Sion Corn – will parade through the town in his true colour of green as he heads towards his grotto in the town library on December Ian Parry, Llangollen’s town clerk, said the town is trying to get back to its roots. ‘We are trying to highlight some traditional things that should happen in a Welsh Christmas. Getting Santa back into green is just one of them.’”
Llangollen will also be encouraging traditional pre-Christian Welsh practices this holiday season.
“Other traditions being resurrected include a day of feasting on cheese on toast, predicting the future using treacle toffee or Taffy shapes and an appearance by the lucky pagan Grey Mare or Mari Llwyd…Festival organiser Sarah Meade said: ‘Everything about the Festive period is a hotch potch of ancient pagan traditions and more modern marketing practices all spun together under the Christian celebration of the birth of Christ. It’s only when you start looking a little deeper into what makes the Christmas we know and love so well that this starts to become apparent.’”
You can find out more about the Grey Mare/Mari Llwyd, here. For those worried that this town in Wales has gone completely Pagan, they are also holding a live Nativity scene. It seems Great Britain cares little for America’s anxiety over the “pagan” influences on our modern Christmas celebrations. Perhaps we should take a cue from the Welsh and simply ignore the media-fueled “War on Christmas” this year and have a good time with our hodge-podge of Christian and pagan traditions.
One response so far
Perhaps we should take a cue from the Welsh and simply ignore the media-fueled “War on Christmas” this year and have a good time with our hodge-podge of Christian and pagan traditions.
What? you mean some of that “Peace on earth, good will towards men” kind of stuff? Radical thoughts, Jason…