Welsh Traditions (Working Title)

 

 

‘Welsh Traditions’ is a community based project that collaborates with children in Llanbradach and the Gwent area. The series of portraits shows a mixture of children (aged 5 to 13) who will be participating in the St David’s Day tradition of dressing up in various forms of traditional Welsh attire on the 1st of March. 

 

It is tradition for the girls to wear red checkered dresses, shawls, pinafores and a large black hat, while boys will wear a waistcoat, trousers and a dai cap, or as coal miners to pay homage to Wales’ famous history of coal mining.

 

The Welsh traditional costume was worn by rural women in Wales and has been documented during the 18th and early 19th centuries. By the 1880s, the costume had gone out of general use and was adopted as the national costume, worn by women at events such as Royal visits, church, chapel and for photographs. It became tradition for girls to wear it in celebration of Saint David’s Day just before the First World War and is now recognised as the National Dress of Wales. 

 

On completion, the mini series will be displayed in local libraries, community centres and village halls. The larger scale project will explore the preservation of the Welsh language and traditions in Wales.