On Tuesday, I cooked a stwmp naw rhiw to ward off the spirits. Tonight is Nos Galan Gaeaf (the eve at the start of winter) and there is plenty more stwmp naw rhiw to be going on with!

Here is the recipe for stwmp naw rhiw, translated from Welsh as "the mash of nine sorts": Potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips, peas, leeks, pepper, salt, milk. Boil the ingredients (except the milk), drain, and mash (using the milk). The stwmp naw rhiw is exceptionally tasty, and the spirits will not trouble you.

The old celtic year drew to a close, and Nos Galan Gaeaf marked the end of Summer and the beginning of Winter. Nos Galan Gaeaf was, according Trefor Owen, curator of what is now called The Welsh National History Museum at St Fagans, Cardiff: "The weirdest night of the three nights during the year." There were many folk customs which were marked in Wales, including this rhyme from Tenby, Pembrokeshire. Owen says: "Another potent place on this eve was any cross-roads where spirits were supposed to linger... the custom of "sowing hemp" was carried out at midnight by the women. Having raised a little of the ground, the women would chant:

Hemp see I sow, hemp seed I'll mow;
Whoever my true love is to be
Come rake this hemp seed after me."

"The shape of the person would appear and rake the hemp seed."