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In west Wales, Christmas day celebrations started before first light with a carol service. With archive footage from the 1960s.
Last updated: 24 November 2009
Archive footage from the programme Welsh Way Of Life, rebroadcast on 21 December 2006.
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. That's Plygain.
The custom of plygain - singing from 3-6am on Christmas Day - is a tradition which still thrives in parts of mid Wales.
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Hanes
Arferion y Nadolig
Hanes y canu Plygain, gwneud cyflaith a hela dryw, rhai o hen arferion y Cymry.
