10/09/2025
My Welsh/Cymraeg word of the day is
Caseg Fedi - which translates as September Mare and is a Harvest Home Corn Dolly.
It was seen as an honour in Wales to be the one to bring down the caseg fedi, and the man who succeeded in doing so was often rewarded. The winning reaper was faced with the task of carrying the Harvest Mare into the house – making certain that it was kept perfectly dry. But this gave rise to great revelry as the women present attempted to drench it with water before it reached the house. If he’d been successful in keeping the sheaf dry, he would be given an honoured seat at the Harvest Supper table with plenty of ale to drink. But if he’d failed to keep it dry, he would have to sit at the far end of the table, have no ale to drink and suffer the taunts of his fellow diners throughout the meal!
The ‘caseg fedi’ may have represented the fertility of the harvest condensed into the final sheaf and it was believed that a spirit resided in the last sheaf of grain to be harvested. In one part of Wales, it was recorded that seed from it was mixed with the seed at planting time ‘in order to teach it to grow’.
It's also sometimes called a Gwrach which means Hag/Witch
The call and response below is a translation I found of a tradition in Wales when cutting the last stand of Wheat in the Harvest.
Reaper:
‘I tracked her,
In the late evening I followed her,
I’ve caught her, I’ve caught her!’
Other:
‘What did you catch?’
Reaper:
‘A hag! A hag! A hag’!
