Mari Lwyd Ornament

This horse-headed figure probably looks like a Halloween monster to most people, but the Mari Lwyd is actually a Welsh Christmas custom. It's part of a larger British tradition of hooded animal figures that parade around English and Welsh villages at Christmastime. Regional variations of the parade involve wassailing, short comedy routines, or even the rural country version of rap battles. Historians used to see it as a vestigial remnant of some ancient Celtic rite, but we now think the Mari Lwyd started out as the humble farmer's hobby horse; an act of emulation after a hobby horse craze swept through the English upper classes in the 17th century.

These Lwyd Ornaments are laser engraved on baltic birch wood. Ornaments are 4.75" w x 4.7" h and painted with acrylic paint.