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Beginning with the Welsh

April 18, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Every year, Patricia and I take our little business to a round of festivals that preoccupy the majority of our summer. Rather than the heavy weight of a full-time permanent storefront, of bricks and mortar, we haul tents and tables to numerous parks in an assortment of cities. We set up our one-day or weekend establishment and hope for the best from the weather. By and large, it is a lot of fun. 

Fun, yes but there is also a lot to learn. Into every situation in life come a variety of characters and one never knows how that will play out. With experience, there is proof of what works and what does not in a day or a few days of steady interaction. For us, selling our sterling silver Celtic jewellery, it is all about the stories, the myths and truths (as far as anyone really knows about history), the philosophies and the humour.

This weekend, we are off to Stratford to attend the Welsh Festival. This is an annual couple of days of singing, mostly, as you might imagine and we really enjoy being there. The Welsh, unlike our other shows, moves about the province, this year Stratford, next year maybe Ottawa. Given its early schedule in the months of festivals, it is held indoors. 

For many years, they have invited a choir but, this year, well-known soloists will come from Wales and the festival is centred around the Saturday evening concert, staged usually in a church.

The choirs are often all male, sometimes young and other times older, but they all speak the sing-song Welsh and the air rings with its odd notes. It is said that to speak Welsh must begin as a baby. So, it is impressive the language has been so nurtured as it has and the people are proud of their own fluency with it. Like many traditional languages, the Welsh went through a period of diminished use but later in the 20th century, interest was renewed. Now it is taught in schools in Wales as emersion, children speaking it in the classroom and socially.

To me, the true value of the festivals is their educational worth, for there is a Welsh workshop over this weekend and chances to learn more about traditions and stories. The songs tell the history. The attendees mainly stick together with the various activities.

It is a different sort of mindset to the other four Scottish festivals we will attend from July 1 through to mid-August. Those are open – the pipe and drum bands playing, the variety of athletic games, which are all about being very strong and the marketplace.

The festivals vary in size. Some have an entry fee for visitors; others are in open parks. They have all been staging the events where they have been hosting for much of their existence.

The Embro Highland Games, a one-day event, takes place on July 1, regardless of the day on which that falls. The first games were held in 1856 by the Embro Highland Society in Caledonia. Disbanded in 1888, the games were revived in 1937, making it the oldest highland games in Canada.

Just up the highway from here, Orillia Highland Games takes place on the weekend of July 20, a happy day in the lovely Couchiching Park, facing the lake of the same name. Everyone was so delighted to be back and the kilted bands, playing their pipes and drums, marched in the park and played on the Main Field,

Glengarry Highland Games [in Maxville, Ontario] and the Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games (July 9 to 11) vie with each other as to size and age. 

So close to Orangeville, Fergus is the definitive games and includes everything anyone could wish for. The culture, traditional Scottish dancing, the clan’s tent and much more in the way of entertainment – just terrific.

The festivals and games matter primarily for the way in which they keep the cultures current. So many people in Canada have ancestors coming here from Britain and remembering where we come from helps to remind us who we are. In these times of disruption when people are losing their traditional homes abroad and this country’s population is becoming very mixed, two things matter: to remember and enjoy knowing where we each come from and learning to appreciate the memories of others with very diverse histories.

The old saying that if we don’t know our pasts, we will make the same mistakes in the future does not convince me that is true. It does seem to me that we anyway make the same mistakes over and over as if we tie ourselves into our own vicious circles.

Yet, we must learn and we must do better. It begins in education and that begins in the home. Once a child is going to school by the age of five or six, what they have heard at home, the stories and attitudes of their parents and guardians are what they take into their lives.

Parenting is the most important thing we ever do, the biggest responsibility. Our children are the adults of tomorrow and what we teach them about our values can define how they will run the world.

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