13/10/2026
CYNHAEAF - HARVEST
Across Wales, Cynhaeaf would have been celebrated with a variety of rituals and customs, differing from place to place. Some of these customs would often involve the personification of sheaves as animals or people and one of the best documented of these was the tradition of 'Y GASEG FEDI'.
The 'Caseg Fedi' or 'Harvest Mare' was imagined to be the spirit of the harvest, galloping from place to place as the wheat was cut. She was finally cornered and caught in the last bundle of cut grain. This sometimes involved a competion among farm workers, who would take turns throwing sickles in order to sever the bundle. The winner would then have to make a 'wet run' back to the farmstead while the women of the house tried to soak both runner and sheaf with pans and buckets water! If brought indoors dry, it would be woven into a corn figure to be kept for good luck. This would then be ploughed back into the land the following spring, symbolising a bridge between the old agricultural year and the new. This could also be thought of as the spirit of the mare 'teaching' the new wheat to grow.
We have now harvested our wheat across all of our Postcode Gardener sites, made our own Caseg Fedi and together with our bakers made a beautiful Harvest Loaf.
Many thanks to all the schools in the Abertillery Learning Community that took part in wheat growing, grain milling and bread making - we hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have! Huge thanks also to Friends of the Earth and The Co-operative Bank for making this project possible π
If you would like to have a go at making your own Caseg Fedi and/or you would like to take part in a special WHEAT GROWING COMPETITION, then come along to our FREE NOS GALAN GAEAF event on Friday 30th October - it will be lots of fun!
More information to follow ππΎ
Friends of the Earth Cymru / Cyfeillion y Ddaear Cymru
Blaenau Gwent CBC
Frankie Baker
