The old Welsh custom of Plygain. Through long lost footage from the archives, we see some of the spirit of Christmas past in Wales.

The old Welsh custom of Plygain.

In the dark hours on the morning of Christmas Day, before the cockerel crowed, men gathered in rural churches to sing. They sang mainly unaccompanied, three or four part harmony carols in a service that went on for three hours or so. Only the men - never the women - sang at the service.

In many parts of Wales, people stayed up overnight to attend the plygain service at the parish church. Young people, in particular, would pass away the time making cyflaith (treacle toffee) and then spend the rest of the night decorating the house with holly and mistletoe. At other houses they would kindle their lights at two in the morning and sing and dance to the harp until the plygain.

In other districts, in particular country towns, this time was spent playing in the streets. In Tenby, Pembrokeshire, for example, crowds carried torches, shouted verses and blew cow-horns, before finally forming a torch procession in which the young men of the town escorted the rector from his house to the church. A similar procession is recorded in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, and also in Llanfyllin, Montgomeryshire, where candles were used instead of torches.