Mari Lwyd, the ancient Welsh tradition linking back to the ancient Celtic goddess Epona and the mythological Rhiannon, welcomes the new year by parading a life size puppet constructed around the skull of a horse along with a group of characters who each have a role to play in the celebrations. These characters vary from group to group and the Ystrad Fari Lwyd (from Ystradgynlais) includes a character in white representing the New Year and one in black representing the old year. They carry decorated sticks with bells on.
scribblah 
what an intriguing custom, how fun to capture it with drawing
Thanks, it is linked to a lot of other horse goddess customs across Europe 🙂
goodness, that sounds even more intriguing
Going back thousands of years, possibly to the Neolithic 😀
that’s a long time!
Oh yes. We got a lot of time over here 😀
haha!
Cool drawing and thanks for explaining the tradition.
Thanks Sharon 🙂