Cooking up a traditional Welsh feast for remembrance and celebration.
Marking Nos Galan Gaeaf* as a special time by observing Welsh traditions relevant to this time of year can not only help ground and connect us more to the Welsh culture and spread awareness of Welsh culture, it can also help us to honor our ancestors via beautiful customs steeped in tradition.
*The Eve of the Calends of Winter -- that is not a typo; Calan Gaeaf undergoes soft mutation after nos and the calan becomes galan.
Photo: The Nos Galan Gaeaf 2022 feast at my house, served up to a gathering of family and friends: homemade bara ceirch (oat bread), Welsh cheddar, beef roast, and stwnsh naw rhiw.
My first Calan Gaeaf in Wales
I spent my first Calan Gaeaf (as opposed to a Wiccan-style somewhat Irish-influenced Samhain or a purely American-style Halloween) in Wales. It was 2015, and I had organized a potluck-style feast for the Bangor University Earth Religions student club with about 20 people in attendance in one of the larger classrooms we had reserved for the purpose. There was a mix of students from many different countries all gathered together for showing off costumes, sharing food and conversation, having fun, and (for the Pagans among us) to honor ancestors and the turning of seasons. Although I was in Wales and some of my Welsh friends were in attendance, I realized as we were putting together the menu that I didn't know if there were any traditional Welsh foods appropriate for the occasion. Asking my Welsh friends brought up only general suggestions such as "apples" rather than specific dishes.
We had a wonderful and various feast, including roast apples and pears, and I made sure to interrupt everyone's fun to dedicate a few solemn moments for acknowledging the beloved dead, the ancestors, and (since I'm a former servicemember myself) fellow servicemembers who had passed and/or were missing. As most people left the gathering to go on to later Halloween parties and alcohol, I was quiet in thought as my friends and I cleaned up. As I realized... even though I was right there in Cymru... I didn't know what the traditional ways of observing Calan Gaeaf were.
I had to remedy this! So I started a years' long quest of looking and reading.
Photo: My friends and me (in the witch costume of course) at the Bangor University Earth Religions club celebration of Calan Gaeaf & Halloween, in one of the classrooms in the main building, 2015. The giant spot between my eyes is a spider on my hat veil.
Photo: Herb-crusted beef roast from our Nos Galan Gaeaf feast in 2021.
The Slaughter and the Giving
There were many traditions surrounding the harvest of crops in Wales, such as the Caseg Fedi. However, these appear to have been separate from the traditions of Calan Gaeaf, which were more centered on the slaughter of livestock and honoring the dead.
"It is more likely that Calan gaeaf was formerly more closely linked with the slaughter of farm animals for winter than with the harvest."
--Owen, Trefor M. (1959). Welsh Folk Customs. National Museum of Wales, Welsh Folk Museum. Gomerian Press, Cardiff, p. 122.
A recurring theme across Welsh traditions and customs throughout the year is that of generosity. It seems that charity and hospitality were important and expected aspects of the culture and of traditional celebrations. Mention is frequently made of sharing -- between friends, between neighbours, between community members, from farm owners to the workers, and from the wealthy to the poor or less fortunate. Calan Gaeaf was no exception. Just as the crops and the animals gave their lives to nourish the lives of others, so too were people expected to give of their bounty to nourish their neighbours and do their part to support the community.
"What seems to have been a tradition of long standing is ... inviting friends and dependents to partake of a kind of feast after the slaughtering of a bullock or a fattened cow... In Meirionydd, this practice was called ciga, 'meat-eating,' and poor people were supplied with pailfuls of broth on those occasions. ... The social character of the gathering, together with the distribution of a part of the preparation to less favoured neighbours, suggests a kind of sacramental feast as the origin of the custom."
-- Jones, T. Gwynn (1930; 2020). Welsh Folklore and Folk Custom. Cockatrice Books, pp. 155-6.
Photo: Homemade bara ceirch (Welsh oat bread) and some sliced Welsh cheddar cheese from our Nos Galan Gaeaf feast in 2021.
Gŵyl y Meirw a Barachawsa
Spirits of the dead are particularly seen on Nos Galan Gaeaf, as they also are on the other two Ysbrydnos. Cheese and small loaves of bread were distributed to the poor and also to the ancestors on this night. Giving these to the poor was looked favorably upon by the Dead (Jones, 1930; 161).
This bread was called (Jones, 1930; 161):
Solod "soul cakes" (Cymricized English from soul [acc. to Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru] or sowl [possible etymology given from p. 161 in Jones, 1930.])
Bwyd Cennad y Meirw "food of the messenger of the dead"
Bara a Chawsa y Dygwyl y Meirw "bread and cheese collected/for collecting of the feast day of the dead" (bara a chawsa or barachawsa = to collect bread and cheese, from Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru where the phrase is used specifically in the following context: bara-chawsa dydd gŵyl y meirw)
Following are some ways people asked for "the food of the messenger of the dead" (i.e. bread and cheese) when going from door to door on Nos Galan Gaeaf (Owen, 1959; 139-40):
In Edeirnion:
"Welwch chi'n dda gai damed o fwyd cennad y meirw?"
("Please may I have a little of the food of the messenger of the dead?")
In Dinas Mawddwy:
"Bara a chaws, bara a chaws Os ca'i beth, mi neidia', Os na cha'i ddim, mi beidia'." ("Bread and cheese, bread and cheese, If I get some, I'll jump, If I don't, I won't.")
In Bryneglwys:
"Dega, Dega, dowch i'r drws, A rhowch i gennad y meirw."
("Dega, Dega, come to the door, And give to the messenger of the dead.")
In Carmarthenshire & Cardiganshire:
"Rhanna, rhanna! Dydd gwyl eneidie, Rhan i 'nhad am gywiro sgidie, Rhan i mam am gywiro sane, Rhan i'r plant sy'n aros gartre."
("Share, share! All Soul's Day, A share to my father for mending the shoes, A share to my mother for mending stockings, A share to the children who stay at home.")
The ancestors themselves were also given offerings of bara a chaws (bread & cheese).
"Indoors there was feasting, followed by various contests. In Caernarfonshire, white cheese and oatmeal bread were eaten, and a piece of bread was placed on the windowsill outside, these words being repeated in doing so:
Gwen y gwnei â dy holl deulu, [or Gwyn y gwnelych â‘th holl deulu]
Hen a gei di genni leni.
May you bless your whole family,
This is what I give you this year," (Jones, 1930; 159 & 161).
I don't have window sills on the outside of my house, and my family's graves are too far away to make it there to visit every year. So I offer bara a chaws to my ancestors on Nos Galan Gaeaf at my ancestor altar, and I leave the offerings with the English translation of the traditional saying, since none of my beloved dead spoke Welsh.
Photo: Three skulls candle holder, each skull with a lit tealight in it, on my ancestor altar.
Omens, Stwnsh, & Tylwyth Teg (Fair Folk), Oh My!
Calan Gaeaf wasn't only a solemn time reserved for the dead. Work was suspended, and community members would assemble to play games, play music, dance, and light bonfires. Once the bonfire was lit, people would play music, and others would dance around the fire sunwise, spiraling in closer with every turn around it, running and dancing forwards and backwards through the smoke. Some said it was good luck if you dared to get close enough to run through the edge of the fire's ashes and caused sparks to fly! At the end of the bonfire festivities, people would throw stones marked with their names into the fire and run home (before the Hwch Ddu Gwta [Black Tailless Sow] or the Ladi Wen [White Lady] came to get them!) The next day, if you found your stone burned clean in the ashes, your good luck was secured, but if it was burnt and soiled, it was a bad omen, and if you couldn't find it, it was an outright death omen! (Jones, 1930; 156-8.)
Speaking of death omens, some people took candles with them to church at night and lit them. A bright, strong light was a good omen, a sputtering or pale light was a bad omen, and a "perishing flame" was a death omen. In Llŷn it was said that a young woman’s candle flame went out, and she died within 3 weeks (Jones, 1930; 161-2). Young people would walk backwards to a bush and pull a handful of grass in which a hair of their future partner would be discovered (Jones, 1930; 160). Blewyn can mean both hair and grass, so there is also an interesting play-on-words linguistic link invoking sympathetic magic here. People who were brave enough would also venture out to church at night to hear the spirits cry out the names of those who were to die in the coming year (Jones, 1930; 161). (Click the link above to hear a wonderful telling of just one such story by the Welsh witch Mhara Starling!)
Other forms of divination and games were also a big part of observing the Ysbrydnos (Spirit Night) of Nos Galan Gaeaf, if the sources we have left to us have anything to say about it! Divination for who was going to get married, who was to be the future spouse, or to find out who was going to die over the coming year appear to have been the most popular. One such form of divination WAS the food -- or rather, was in the food -- the Stwnsh (or Stump) Naw Rhiw, the Mash of Nine Sorts in English.
"A traditional Welsh divination meal served on Nos Calan [sic] Gaeaf (Halloween), particularly popular in Carmarthenshire in the early part of the 20th century. The mash consists of potatoes, carrots, turnips, peas, parsnips, leeks, pepper, salt and new milk. Into the mash is placed a ring. The girls who made the mash then consume it; the girl to find the ring in her bowl is believed to be married within the year. The number nine has significance in Celtic folklore, being a number of completion (3x3). However, the meal itself, at least in its documented form, is obviously a modern creation, what with the inclusion of potatoes, a New World food. There may have been an older form of the dish using a different vegetable or root than potatoes, but I haven't found a record of it."
--Mary Jones Celtic Encyclopedia maryjones.us/jce/stwmp.html
Apples were also a common feature around Calan Gaeaf time and also doubled as both a tasty treat and a method of divination. The apples, and also nuts, were placed in the hot ashes of a fire for divination. The nuts bursting open with a loud crack in the heat was a good omen, but smoldering until burnt without popping open was a bad omen. Bobbing for apples, or even trying to catch an apple with your teeth as it hung from the ceiling or a stick by a string, were also popular (Jones, 1930; 156 & 160).
The hearth was supposed to be cleaned on Nos Galan Gaeaf, and it is said the Tylwyth Teg (Fair Folk/Fair Family) were out and about, visiting houses especially on this night. If they came upon your house, and your hearth was not clean, this would displease them (as dirty places tend to do) -- and it's just not recommended to displease the Fair Folk... (Jones, 1930; 160-1.)
The good ol' jack o' lantern is popular this time of year in the U.S., with many a grinning orange face greeting you at the doorstep. Wales has its own precursor to our giant pumpkin version. The bwgan rwdan, or "turnip ghoul" is much harder to carve than a pumpkin, but it also turns out looking much creepier -- more like a skull or a cackling ghost! They were made, as the name indicates, by carving out turnips and putting a lit candle inside, and then the ghoul "was placed on a roadside tree" (Jones, 1930; 158).
A Feast for the Living and the Dead
As you may have noticed, all of the above references to food -- disjointed and mentioned separately in their initial publications -- come together quite nicely to make a well-rounded complete meal: bread, cheese, beef, mashed veggies, and apples and nuts. How convenient!
Enough of all this talking about food, let's get to it!
Here below are the recipes I personally use for our Nos Galan Gaeaf feast at my home. (Of course, feel free to use your own favorite recipes instead if you wish.)
Photo: Homemade bara ceirch (oat bread) and some sliced Welsh cheddar cheese from our Nos Galan Gaeaf feast this year (2022).
Bara Ceirch (Oat Bread)
This recipe for Welsh oat soda bread is from Walesonline.com where Welsh chef Angela Gray shared some of her recipes. Their web page is difficult to read because the recipes are all listed one after the other with no obvious breaks, so I'm adding it here too with a couple of minor notes I've added from when I've made it. You can view the original recipe here: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/food-drink/recipes-from-angela-gray-1814570
50g (2oz) plain white flour (all-purpose flour or bread flour)
250g (8oz) plain wholemeal (whole wheat) flour
100g (4oz) porridge oats (rolled oats broken into pieces, as for instant oatmeal/porridge, or you can just use whole rolled oats -- I do, and it comes out wonderful)
One teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
One teaspoon sea salt
One teaspoon sugar
25g (1oz) butter cut into pieces
500ml (18 fl oz) thick buttermilk or low fat yoghurt
(if you don't have buttermilk, use 350ml whole milk with a couple of tablespoons of yoghurt mixed in)
Pre-heat oven to gas mark six, 400F, 200C and lightly dust a baking sheet with flour.
Mix flours, oats, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a bowl and rub in the butter.
Make a well in the centre, pour in the buttermilk or yoghurt (or milk and yogurt mixture) and mix in quickly with a knife. Bring together gently with the fingertips. The dough should be thick, sticky, and shaggy but not dry. If the dough is too loose/wet, add flour until it becomes sticky and shaggy.
Place dough on a lightly floured work surface and shape into a 20cm (8ins) round. Place on the prepared baking sheet and cut a deep cross in the top.
Bake for 40-45 minutes. Stick a toothpick into the center of the loaf to make sure it’s cooked through. If the toothpick is clean when you pull it out of the center, the loaf is done.
Cover with a clean tea towel and cool on a wire rack. You must let it cool for at least 20 minutes. If you cut it too soon, the bread will still be too soft, and it will fall apart as you cut it.
To serve: break or slice and eat within two days.
Photo: Herb-crusted beef roast from our Nos Galan Gaeaf feast this year (2022).
Herb Crusted Welsh Roast Beef
The recipe I use for the beef roast is directly from the website Eat Welsh Lamb & Welsh Beef. I don't need to tweak it -- the meat has come out a perfect medium-well (which is how I like it) two years in a row now by following the instructions as given. I have used both top round and top sirloin, and both turn out excellent.
Photo: Stwnsh Naw Rhiw (Mash of Nine Sorts) from our Nos Galan Gaeaf feast this year (2022).
Stwnsh (or Stump) Naw Rhiw -- Mash of Nine Sorts
I've adapted a recipe for Stwnsh Rwdan (Swede Mash) that was shared on food.com and added the traditional ingredients to make a recipe for Stwnsh Naw Rhiw. It turned out quite tasty. The original recipe for Stwnsh Rwdan on which this recipe is based can be found here: https://www.food.com/recipe/stwnsh-rwadan-welsh-mash-427722
I don't know if it is intentional on the part of the Welsh or not, but when I made this dish, I noticed that when the white vegetables (potato, turnip, parsnip), orange vegetables (carrot), and green vegetables (peas and leeks) are cooked and mashed separately from one another and then mixed together, the result is a swirl of white, green, and orange, invoking the colors of the Welsh flag (since orange is often used in food applications as red).
Side benny for me as an American who also celebrates Halloween -- the colors are also quite festive Halloween colors!
250 g potatoes, peeled, chopped
150 g turnips, peeled, chopped
150 g parsnips, peeled, chopped
150 g carrots, peeled, chopped
150 g leeks, chopped
50 g peas (frozen or fresh)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon each salt & pepper (or to taste)
Peel and wash the vegetables, as required, and cut into coarse pieces.
Boil all vegetables of the same color together. One large pot for the whites (potatoes, turnips, and parsnips), one small pot for the carrots, and one for the leeks and peas together. Boil for about twenty minutes or until all are cooked soft through. Especially check the tenderness of the parsnips, as these take longer to cook to full tenderness.
Drain and mash each in its own pot until smooth, and then mix gently in milk, salt, and pepper to taste. (You may want to use a blender for the leeks and peas, as they can be quite fibrous if only mashed with a hand masher due to the fibres in the leeks and the skins from the peas.)
Mix the contents of each of the three pots together in a serving dish, putting in the white mixture first since it is the most volume. Swirl the green and orange into the white and serve hot.
Photo: Stuffed baked apple topped with sweetened yogurt from our Nos Galan Gaeaf feast this year (2022).
Stuffed Baked Apples
I follow this recipe directly from Health.com which used to be at this web address: https://www.health.com/recipes/stuffed-baked-apples-with-maple-yogurt-cream
However, this web address no longer exists, so I'm sharing the recipe here.
Prep: 20 mins, Cook: 40-50 mins, Total: 1 hr~1 hr 10 mins
4 large apples
1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup chopped pitted prunes or dates
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (substitute holiday "mixed spice" if necessary)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
Preheat oven to 375ºF. Using an apple corer or paring knife, core apples to create a 3/4-inch-wide tunnel; do not cut through bottom of apples. Stir together oats, prunes, apricots, nuts (if using), 2 Tbsp. maple syrup, and pumpkin pie spice/mixed spice. Spoon mixture into apples, packing in filling and mounding it slightly on top.
Place apples in an 8-inch square baking dish and pour 1/2 cup water into bottom of dish. Dot tops of apples with butter and loosely cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake until apples are tender but not falling apart, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Let cool slightly.
Stir together yogurt and remaining 1 Tbsp. maple syrup. Serve with warm apples.
I hope this feast menu arranged based on the surviving accounts of Welsh Calan Gaeaf customs and traditions will inspire you to also incorporate or reinvigorate traditions significant to you for this time of year in your own home.
Happy cooking!
Bendithion Calan Gaeaf!
Sources referenced:
Hollyhead, Brett (2022). The Salopian Mare: Spirit of the Harvest. Derived from: https://mossmatthey.com/the-salopian-mare-spirit-of-the-harvest/
Jones, T. Gwynn (1930; 2020). Welsh Folklore and Folk Custom. Cockatrice Books.
Owen, Trefor M. (1959). Welsh Folk Customs. National Museum of Wales, Welsh Folk Museum. Gomerian Press, Cardiff.
Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru. https://welsh-dictionary.ac.uk/gpc/gpc.html
Jones's Celtic Encyclopedia (2004). Stwmp Naw Rhyw. Derived from: maryjones.us/jce/stwmp.html
"Jimmy, the Welsh Viking" (2020). Spooky Welsh Halloween Traditions. Derived from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfpIXfTqrkM&t=49s
Starling, Mhara (2022). The Hwch Ddu Gwta, a Welsh Halloween Folk Devil | Nos Galan Gaeaf Folklore. Derived from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1T_AyAL5AQ
Starling, Mhara (2022). The Halloween Spirit Predicting Death | Angelystor | Welsh Folk Tales. Derived from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A-aaX7g9s4&t=152s
Oat Soda Bread recipe by Welsh chef Angela Gray derived from: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/food-drink/recipes-from-angela-gray-1814570
Herb-crusted Welsh Roast Beef recipe derived from: https://eatwelshlambandwelshbeef.com/recipes/herb-crusted-roast-welsh-beef/
Stwnsh Naw Rhiw recipe based on Stwnsh Rwdan recipe by "Coasty" derived from: https://www.food.com/recipe/stwnsh-rwadan-welsh-mash-427722
Stuffed Baked Apples recipe derived from (web page no longer exists): https://www.health.com/recipes/stuffed-baked-apples-with-maple-yogurt-cream
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