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November 23, 2006
Santa goes green in Wales
By JENNA TOWLER
November 21, 2006
SOURCE: The Sun (UK)
A WELSH town will celebrate an old-school Christmas when Santa ditches his Coca-Cola inspired red suit in favour of traditional pagan green.
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 2.
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.”
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.
The town will also be hosting a live Nativity, however, no divine births are scheduled.
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.”
Posted by andrewanissi at November 23, 2006 11:49 AM