Reference to the custom of 'clapping for eggs' at Easter, Llanfair-yng-Nghornwy School Log Book, 1915

Description

This page from the Llanfairynghornwy School Log Book of 1915 contains a reference to the north Walian rural custom of 'clapping for eggs' at Easter. In Anglesey, this was known in Welsh as 'clepian wyau'. During the week before Easter local children visited homes begging for eggs. They often carried wooden egg-clappers and chanted the following words as they went: 'Clap, clap, gofyn ^wy, i hogia' bach ar y plwy' [Clap, clap, ask for an egg for little children on the parish]. Children might collect as many as 150 to 200 eggs each and these were proudly displayed on the dresser in their home, with the eggs of the eldest child being placed on the top shelf, and those of the second on the second shelf, and so on. Despite facing strong opposition by nineteenth-century schoolteachers who deplored the detrimental impact on school attendance, the custom of 'clapping for eggs' remained extremely popular among the children of Anglesey. Indeed, by the early years of the twentieth century, members of the teaching profession appear to have resigned themselves to the fact that few children would be present in the days before Easter and, as this source shows, the custom was formally celebrated with an official school holiday.