midwinter humming

As we reached the shortest days of the year in 2023 I dreamed up a ritual to mark it, drew it and then set it in motion. I invited a local people to come together to mark midwinter by walking through Abergavenny humming tunes adorned with and carrying glowing handmade globe lanterns. From conception to the evening event myself and my able assistant Andrew inflated balloons with single out breaths, cut and glued and dangled sticky globules of goey, dripping things in our kitchen scooting pots and pans out of the way. We blew and stuck and hang into the dark evenings, not knowing if it might all come together in time. Not knowing if we might be rained off. When the evening arrived, people crowded into our small living room, fixing lanterns on with headbands, by tying them onto coats... At last we were ready and ventured out, lucky the rain had abated for a while. As we walked down the road a little we were met by more company joining us on the pavement, we welcomed with waving lanterns, shared out some glowing globes and were on our way down the hill from Maerdy towards the town. As we walked we hummed seasonal and other songs as well as improvised tunes while strolling, dancing and laughing. Along a long dark road in Abergavenny and on into Bailey Park.