Wales Culture2

Wales is a country mainly of hills, mountains and valleys. Considering this, a lot of traditions were sustained by a farming tradition which was ruled by the physical environment, high rainfall and low temperatures (Owen, 1991,p. 1). Mixed farming was practiced, peat cut (Owen, 1991, pp. 4 - 5).

Oats constituted a major element in the traditional diet (Tibbott, 1991,p. 11). In the seventeenth century, cooking on the open hearth was the only method common to all households (Tibbot, 1989, p. 63). The hearth was the centre of a home where many activities took place such as baking, boiling meat and vegetables, telling stories (Owen, 1991, pp. 24 - 37). Food and drink form an important component in studying a country's culture indeed.

Oral and also written folk material witnesses that there was a tradition of storytelling. The centre for folk-narrative research is the MWL where over fifteen thousand examples of recorded narratives are archived. Wales' premier cultural event is the Royal National Eisteddfod which started in 1176 and was revived in the eighteenth century (Edwards, 1990, p. 5). It is a competitive annual festival of music, literature and arts. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century a lot of Welsh music was played on the harp and on the fiddle (Saer, 1991, p. 23). One successful collection of Welsh folklore was Welsh Folklore by Elias Owen which was published in 1896 (Owen, 1991,p. 121).