| Where: | Llandysul, Pembrokeshire at St Tysuls Church |
| When: | Second Saturday in January |
| Time: | From 10 am to approx 3.45 |
Calan Hen is a Welsh festival celebrating the Old New Year and it is held each January on the second Saturday of the month, having been celebrated annually at Llandysul for nearly 200 years. There is a special church service with readings from the Welsh Bible, in which each of the churches in the local group take a half-hour slot throughout the day. In the villages of the area during the day children call at the houses, singing in return for sweets and money while in the evening the whole community gets together for traditional Welsh food and a good old sing-song.
Helpful Hints
In 2025 it should be on Saturday January 11th.
The only time that the service had to move venue was 2015 when the church was being repaired after a lightning strike.
Click here for the church website and contacts: http://www.sttysulonline.co.uk/home
and Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StTysul/
Photo by Arosmae.
View this location on the map.
is this not a tradition that came about because the pope wanted to get rid of thirteen days and the people rioted so what has this to do with a little village in wales ?the welsh so proud that the romans did nt conquer them and their celtic beliefs
As we are approaching Hen Galan 2016, I just wished to raise a question as to which day should be New Year’s Day 2016 according to the old Julian calendar.
According to this website it is January 12th whereas other sites state January 13th.
However, I would argue that both dates are incorrect and New Year’s Day 2016 in the Julian calendar is January 14th of the current Gregorian calendar. When the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582, 10 days were “lost”. When Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, 11 days were “lost” ( 1 extra day for no Gregorian Leap Year in 1700). Since then, a further 2 days needed to be “lost” ( for no Gregorian Leap Years in 1800 and 1900).
This gives a total of 13 days difference since 1582 between the Gregorian and Julian calendars. By adding these 13 “lost” days to January 1st of the Gregorian calandar the correct day for New Year’s Day in the Julian calendar will be on January 14th 2016.
Hi Rob,
An interesting point! It’s rather like the debate over what date twelfth night falls on so I would logically use that as a yardstick – if you take 6th January as Twelfth Night and Old Twelfth Night as 17th (this date is commonly used and so-named for wassailing customs), there’s a difference of 11 days to correspond with the British adoption of the calendar in which 11 days were lost, which would mean that Old New Year should be 12th….but I wouldn’t claim to be an authority on the Julian calendar! Incidentally your message prompted me to contact the vicar re the dating of Hen Galan and they now hold it on the second saturday in the month rather than on a set date, so if you want to attend the custom it’s easy to predict the right date 🙂
Best wishes,
Averil
Hi Averil,
It is nice to know that you were interested in my comment.
I suppose that the answer to these questions is whether to regard the events as purely customs and to leave date accuracy as being of secondary importance.
Your point about 12th Night can be a custom or according to the Church of England, quite specifically, the night before the Epiphany. Coincidentally, I spoke to an old school chum on Tuesday 5th January who now lives in Spain. He commented that the next day, 6th January, was to be a regional holiday which was the feast of the Epiphany.
Also, yesterday, 7th January, saw the Orthodox Christian church celebrate Christmas Day with television showing Vladimir Putin attending mass in Russia. The date is precisely 13 days after we celebrated Christmas on 25th December. Applying this same time gap to New Year’s Day, the orthodox New Year’s Day will fall on January 14th.
My original query regarding Hen Galan was raised simply because there was no logical backing for either the 12th or 13th of January. Clearly, since the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752 when 11 days were “lost”, one could argue that January 12th should be the old New Year’s Day but only if no correction was made for the Julian leap year days in 1800 and 1900. These were extra days in the Julian calendar (not in the Gregorian calendar) and should not be ignored if Hen Galan is meant to be an accurate Julian New Year’s Day. The date of January 13th for Hen Galan is somewhere between, neither the original and unchanged 12th January nor the mathematically correct 14th January.
If you might be interested in some good calendar information have a look at this link :-
http://www.timeanddate.com/topics/calendar
Regard,
Rob
Thanks for the link,Rob – I shall check it out.
I often use Steve Roud’s “The English Year” as a reference point, as his book is very much concerned with the customs and current practice of traditions rather than the strict accuracy or not of the dating – and of course calendarcustoms is about getting people to the right time and place for an event rather than debating the logic of why a date for the event is chosen. Roud just covers England not Wales so there is no entry for Hen Galan but 12th/13th of January is logical if you just account for the 1752 change and don’t make any further corrections – and I don’t think that Hen Galan’s organisers at Llandysul are worried about marking the Julian New Year’s Day too accurately or they wouldn’t have swapped it to the nearest Saturday instead.Makes my job easier anyway 🙂
Best wishes,
Averil
Odi’r Wyl arbennig hon yn mynd o hyd?
Hi Elwyn,
Yes indeed it’s happening on 14th from 10 am- I double-checked via Facebook messenger with the organisers at the start of the year. Hope you can get there and enjoy it!
Best wishes,
Averil