Weird New Year’s traditions predate recorded history, blending over time with winter solstice and eventually the Christmas season to form a circus of wonderful winter strangeness. Everyone feels the magic when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve and the old year expires at last and the sparkling new year is born. Toasts are made, kisses exchanged, balls dropped, and fireworks race skyward dazzling the night.

Mari Lwyd and her band of merrymakers take traditional caroling to a rollicking level of festivity, going door to door at houses (or pubs) and engaging in a battle of rhyming verses and insults with the inhabitants in an effort to earn their way inside. Whoever stumbles first in the rhyme battle is the “loser,” but Mari Lwyd always ends up being invited in regardless because “she” brings good luck for the coming year by scaring the snot out of any lingering negative spirits. Once inside, the singing continues, and the Mari Lwyd bands are known for their impressive capacity for food and drink and good-natured flirtation with the ladies. The roving pack of merrymakers might include a Leader, who holds the reins of the horse; a Sergeant; Punch and Judy; among others, all in costume or disguise.