Newsletters
Please find below the latest edition of our newsletter as well as back issues.
Welsh Society of Delaware Newsletter
Spring/Summer 2023
Welcome to the Spring 2023 Newsletter of the Welsh Society of Delaware. It’s been an extremely difficult couple of years but we are finally seeing more and more that life is returning to some degree of normalcy and we can once again safely meet in person.
2023 Membership
St. David’s Day, 1 March, is the first day of our membership year. An updated membership form is included at the end of this newsletter for your convenience. As in years past, the yearly cost is $10 per household. Please complete the form with your contact information and the full names of all those in your household who wish to be members. Checks may be made payable to “Welsh Society of Delaware.”
Welsh Language Group
We are the Welsh Society of Delaware and we are certainly proud of our Welsh heritage, but how many of our members can speak and/or read Welsh? Not many! If you have ever wanted to learn Welsh but didn’t know how to start or didn’t want to attempt learning on your own in a Welsh vacuum, then you may want to consider this upcoming opportunity.
The aim is to use Say Something in Welsh, a highly rated online learning program, to learn basic structure and vocabulary, but instead of using our new language skills to talk to ourselves or the dog or cat we will be meeting up once a month to enjoy some tea or coffee and use what we’re learning in actual Welsh conversation. As anyone who has learned a language knows, it’s extremely beneficial not only to practice regularly but also to converse with a native speaker to get a real feel for how the language is used by the people who speak it every day. Menna Holcombe, our intrepid Vice President and a first language Welsh speaker, has kindly agreed to help us by facilitating conversation and imparting her knowledge of real world usage as we navigate this new language. Well – it’s new to us but it’s actually one of the oldest languages on the planet.
The beginner level course at Say Something in Welsh was once free of charge; however, in the last year or so they decided to charge a subscription fee for all levels. They left the original beginner course (“Old Course”) online for any who wanted to access it, and this is what we will be using for our group. We will tackle one lesson per week, ideally having four new lessons under our belts when we meet to converse with Menna. The only requirements to participate are the ability to listen to the lessons on a computer, tablet or phone and the willingness to give about 20 minutes or so each day to practice. You can rewind within a lesson and replay lessons as often as you wish. Each lesson is accompanied by a vocabulary list and the sentences used in the lesson to reinforce comprehension of those words. You can find Say Something in Welsh on the web at https://en.saysomethingin.com/welsh/course1/intro or on the App Store (the app is free and there is no charge for the “Old Course”). Listen along to the intro and decide if this method of learning Welsh is interesting to you.
A start date for this program will be set once we have determined the level of interest. Please note that this program is geared toward members who are bourgeoning Welsh speakers, but all levels are welcome to join in the monthly meetup. If you are interested in learning Welsh with us, please reply as soon as possible to welshsocietyofdelaware1@gmail.com.
SAVE THE DATES
Sunday, 7 May 2023: Spring Gymanfa Ganu at Rehoboth Welsh Church, Delta, PA featuring Cor Rehoboth (Rehoboth Welsh Choir). Music will begin at 2:30pm and a te bach will follow. The church is located at 1029 Atom Road, Delta, PA 17314.
Saturday, 20 May 2023: Fair Hill, MD Highland Gathering (also known as "The Scottish Games"). Further information about the day will follow via e-mail, but typically the event runs from 8:00am to 5:00pm, rain or shine. Come out and visit the Welsh Society of Delaware booth – or, even better, help staff our booth for a two hour shift! More to follow.
Sunday, 8 October 2023: Fall Gymanfa Ganu at Rehoboth Welsh Church, Delta, PA featuring Cor Rehoboth (Rehoboth Welsh Choir). Music will begin at 2:30pm and a te bach will follow. The church is located at 1029 Atom Road, Delta, PA 17314.
Sunday, 17 December 2023: A service of Lessons and Carols will be held at Rehoboth Welsh Church, Delta, PA featuring Cor Rehoboth (Rehoboth Welsh Choir). The service will begin at 2:30pm and a te bach will follow. The church is located at 1029 Atom Road, Delta, PA 17314.
Additional events and opportunities to gather will be sent via e-mail when they are finalized.
Books and Materials Donation
A donation of books and materials from our late founder and President, Peter Williams, at the request of his late wife Lynda Schnurr-Williams, was made by Lynda’s niece Nicole Roper. We now have numerous books and articles that were authored or edited by Peter. All items will be owned by the Society and cataloged for future use.
NAFOW 2023
This year’s North American Festival of Wales (NAFOW) will be held August 30 through September 3, 2023 in Lincoln, Nebraska. This year’s festival will consist of not only concerts, seminars, special guests such as winners of the Urdd Youth Eisteddfod; Ifor ap Glyn (the National Poet of Wales 2016-2022); musical guests Gwawr Edwards, Rhys Meirion, Steffan Lloyd Owen, Dylan Morris, Leisa Dafydd and Triana; and Dick Cavett (Welsh Nebraskan and TV legend, joining by Zoom) and award winning composer Robat Arwyn directing the 91st National Gymanfa Ganu, but will also feature a tour to Wymore, Nebraska, home of the Great Plains Welsh Heritage Centre (Canolfan Treftadaeth Gymreig y Gwastadeddau Mawr) and the Archive for Welsh America as well as the Homestead National Monument.
The Great Plains Welsh Heritage Centre includes artifacts from settlers including Welsh dinnerware, Welsh woolens, love spoons and more. On the property are a renovated schoolhouse as well as a Welsh garden and mural depicting the story of immigration from Wales to the Great Plains. The museum also boasts the Archive for Welsh America, home to the only repository of the Welsh-language newspaper Y Drych in microfilm format. Issues date back to 1851 and are available to genealogists and researchers. The Great Plains Welsh Heritage Project will receive NAFW’s Heritage Medallion for their work in collecting, displaying and preserving Welsh artifacts. To learn more about the Project and to view People of the Prairie: The Welsh in Nebraska (Pobol y Paith), a mini-documentary about Welsh- American history produced for Nebraska’s Sesquicentennial, visit www.welshheritageproject.org.
As an extension of the festival, on September 4-5 there will be a visit to Arvonia, Kansas, established in 1869 by Welsh settler John Mather Jones and now home to several restored buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After an overnight in Emporia, Kansas, heavily settled by Welsh immigrants in the 19th Century, guests will return to Lincoln. These tours will offer guests a chance to learn more about the hearty and determined Welsh who migrated to the prairies to begin new lives.
The festival hotel is the Lincoln Marriott Cornhusker Hotel, 333 South 13th Street, Lincoln, NE. Rates are $114-$134 + tax per night; parking is $11.25 per day. Registration is open through www.nafow.org. Call 1.888.236.2427 to book a room at the hotel (group name North American Festival of Wales). For additional information, contact www.festivalofwales.org.
Ninnau Subscriptions
One of the best ways to keep abreast of what’s happening in the Welsh and Welsh-American communities is to read Ninnau, the North American Welsh newspaper. Articles about Welsh language and culture, North American Welsh Societies’ events and much more can be found in each addition.
Subscriptions are available for the paper version only; the electronic version only; or both. If you’re interested in subscribing to Ninnau & Y Drych, please visit their website here. You can also e-mail to ninnaupublications@gmail.com; or phone 607.279.6499 for further information.
Just for Fun
Do you have a favorite Welsh recipe you would like to share? Have you traveled to Wales recently, or do you have a story about Wales or Welsh culture you would like to share? Have you read any books by Welsh authors or seen any Welsh television/movies? If so, we would love to hear about it – send a message or review to welshsocietyofdelaware1@gmail.com and your submission may be published in the next edition of our newsletter.
Spring and Summer yn Cymraeg
Below are some Welsh words associated with the Spring and Summer seasons. How many do you already know?
English Welsh
Spring Y Gwanwyn
Summer Yr Haf
Outdoors Awyr agored
The garden Yr ardd
Flowers Blodau
Sunshine Heulwen
Warm Cynnes
Fine weather Tywydd braf
Thunder Taranau
Lightning Mellt
Rain Glaw
Vacation Gwyliau
We hope you have enjoyed this issue of the Welsh Society of Delaware newsletter. Please direct questions or comments to welshsocietyofdelaware1@gmail.com.
Elly Barczak, President Menna Holcombe, Vice President
E-mail: welshsocietyofdelaware1@gmail.com
Facebook: Welsh Society of Delaware
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/welshsocietyofde/home
Welsh Society of Delaware Newsletter
Spring/Summer 2019
Spring is in the air and it’s time again for our Welsh Society of Delaware Members Newsletter. I hope this finds you all well as we look forward to sunny days and warmer temperatures!
With each step, go forward, part II
In the last edition of the newsletter I wrote about our interest questionnaire and our attempts to gain momentum as a Society. I’m so very pleased to say that in the last few months we’ve had several very successful meetings and we would love to build on that success as we move through 2019. Once again I ask you, our members, to keep the lines of communication open and let us know what you want to see in your Welsh Society. We’re small now, to be sure, and that can sometimes have an effect on what we’re able to achieve; however, we know we’re proud of our Welsh heritage and if we’re working together and actively participating then we can only grow as a result.
We hope you enjoy this edition of the newsletter and, as always, we welcome your feedback. If you know of an upcoming event that we’ve missed here, please send us an e-mail and we’ll notify members. If you would like to submit an event or an article about an event you’ve attended, please let us know and we’ll try to feature it in an upcoming edition. If you have programming ideas, please speak up. The Welsh Society of Delaware belongs to all of us, and our contributions – whether large or small – will add up to a Society that will be around for our children, our grandchildren, and beyond.
Ninnau Subscriptions
One of the best ways to keep abreast of what’s happening in the Welsh and Welsh-American communities is to read Ninnau, the North American Welsh newspaper. Articles about Welsh language and culture, North American Welsh societies’ events and much more can be found in each edition. If you’re interested in subscribing to Ninnau & Y Drych, please visit their website at http://www.ninnau.com/subscribe.html; e-mail to ninnaupublications@gmail.com; or phone 607.279.6499 for further information.
Welsh Language
Have you ever wanted to learn Welsh but haven’t been quite sure where to start? We all know that Welsh is not the most commonly spoken language in Delaware so it’s hard to imagine actually being able to learn and actually use it – until now. Court Jones, our newest member, has offered to facilitate a learners’ group using the online language training program Say Something In Welsh. Each week individual members use the program to go through two lessons. These are typically about 30 minutes each, and can easily be done in the car, on a walk, or anywhere you have some spare time to listen and respond. Every Wednesday evening from 8-9 pm we go online and chat with each other using what we’ve learned on our own during the week.
This group is appropriate for every level of learner, including complete novices with no exposure at all to Welsh. To try out the site, visit https://www.saysomethingin.com/welsh. If you’re interested in joining us, please e-mail welshsocietyofdelaware1@gmail.com for more information.
Video Discussion Group
The new Video Discussion Group has really taken off. Our first meeting, held in January 2019, found seven of us discussing “The Welsh Knot,” a 2011 documentary focusing on some of the challenges of growing the use of the Welsh language in Wales. We met in February to discuss the first two episodes of “The Story of Wales,” another documentary but this time in five parts. “The Story of Wales” is a fascinating look at the history and culture of Wales from prehistory to the time just before World War II. Our next meeting, to discuss the last three episodes, will be held on Saturday, April 13. Please refer to the e-mail for details, or send us a note at welshsocietyofdelaware1@gmail.com. Again, we welcome your feedback and your suggestions – if you know of a video or movie relating to Wales or Welsh culture that you would like to share with us, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
Upcoming Events – Welsh Society of Delaware
May is fast approaching, and we will once again host our Welsh Society of Delaware information booth at the Colonial Highland Games (a.k.a. “The Scottish Games”) on Saturday, May 18, 2019. The event opens at 8:00 am and runs until 6:00 pm. Please consider taking a two-hour shift staffing the booth, where we greet visitors and answer any questions they may have about Wales and Welsh culture; providing display items such as books, maps, genealogy resources or other items related to Wales or Welsh culture; and/or providing baked goods for our sale table. Our home made Welsh cakes are famous at the Games and every year we meet repeat customers!
The Scottish Games at Fair Hill is a very important event in the field of piping competitions. This is our primary outreach event of the year, the perfect opportunity to introduce ourselves and provide information about our Welsh heritage to visitors from around the corner and around the world. For details about the 2019 Games, please visit their website at http://fairhillscottishgames.org/.
Members who staff the information booth will be provided with free admission for the day. Sign up information will be available by the end of April.
Upcoming Events – Friends and Neighbors
· Our longtime friends the Rehoboth Welsh Choir (Côr Rehoboth) will be performing a joint concert with The Irishman’s Chorale (Amhranai Na Gaeilge) on Saturday April 27 at 3:00 pm at Calvary Baptist Church in Bel Air, MD (GPS address 206 Courtland Place, Bel Air, MD 21014). The concert is free of charge; however, a free will offering will be taken.
· Next up for Côr Rehoboth will be their semi-annual Gymanfa Ganu on Sunday, May 5 at 2:30 pm at the Rehoboth Welsh Church in Delta, PA (1029 Atom Road, corner of Main and Pendyrus Streets, Delta, PA 17314). The event is free of charge and will include a Te Bach after the program.
· Welsh Heritage Week will be offered from July 28 to August 10, 2019. The first week will consist of classes at Nant Gwrtheryn, the language center on the Llyn Peninsula of North Wales. The second week will be based in Llandudno. Participants will enjoy the Eisteddfod and a fabulous Gymanfa in Salem Chapel at Caernarfon. Sightseeing highlights include the National Eisteddfod, Bodnant Gardens, and Harlech Castle just to name a few. For further details regarding registration and itinerary, please contact Beth Landmesser at hwyl@ptd.net or call 570.814.7689.
· Mark your calendars for the 2019 North American Festival of Wales (NAFOW), to be held August 29 to September 1 in Milwaukee, WI. According to HWYL, the Welsh North American Association’s newsletter, a number of exciting events are planned including a Talent Night and a visit to Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s home, situated about 120 miles west of Milwaukee. For further information, please visit the Welsh North American Association’s website at http://www.wngga.org/.
Music of Wales
Our newest member, Court Jones, has come up with a great idea to support the music and musicians of Wales and to expose this talent to a broader audience. You should have recently received an e-mail from him containing information on music sharing. If you have not yet considered taking part, please think about the impact of spreading the word about some of the great music coming out of Wales. Not only is this idea a celebration of Welsh music but also celebrates Welsh language and culture. Please see the text of Court’s message below:
Helo, Pawb (Hello, Everyone)
My name is Court Jones, and I’ve only been aware of my Welsh ancestry for a bit over a year. In my journey into Welsh culture, I’ve found Wales has produced and continues to produce amazing music from rock, blues, jazz, traditional, instrumental to more modern sounds like alternative and punk. I think it would be great to share Welsh music with our group. Each month, an email containing Youtube and SoundCloud links to songs from Welsh singers and bands from different genres can be sent. To create this list, input is needed from all of you regarding what types of music of you like. If you are interested in this, please email delawarejones@comcast.net and answer the following questions:
1. What types of music do you listen to? Alternatively, you can list singers/bands, as well. I’m trying to get an idea of everyone’s musical preferences to generate something everyone would like to listen to.
2. How do you listen to your music? Do you play CD’s, albums, or radio. If you stream music, what platform do you use, i.e., Amazon, Pandora, Spotify, iTunes…etc? If enough people use a specific platform, I should be able to generate ‘playlists’ to enjoy.
Please reply to delawarejones@comcast.net and I will begin creating link Youtube and SoundCloud links to listen to music for free over the internet.
Court Jones
Member Articles
Looking at our membership roster, our members come from many places and varied backgrounds. If you have a particularly fond memory of Wales as either a resident or a traveler, a fabulous Welsh recipe you would like to share, a favorite book or movie that pertains to Wales or the Welsh, genealogy in Wales, etc. you are welcome to submit a short article for publication in the newsletter. Just send an e-mail to our general mailbox at welshsocietyofdelaware1@gmail.com with your article in the body of the message or attached as a Word document.
Finally, as we all know, Wales took the Six Nations title this year and their captain, Alun Wyn Jones, is the 2019 Six Nations Player of the Championship. Not only is Jones an outstanding player and captain, he is also a gentleman. You’ve no doubt already seen this, but below is the link to a news article about this gentle giant displaying traits we know to be very common among the Welsh people: a strong fighting spirit coupled with genuine kindness. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/lovely-thing-alun-wyn-jones-15985854
We hope you have enjoyed this edition of our Welsh Society of Delaware newsletter. We appreciate your interest and welcome your questions and comments.
Elly Barczak, President
Menna Holcombe, Treasurer/Secretary and Membership Administrator
E-mail: welshsocietyofdelaware1@gmail.com
Facebook: Welsh Society of Delaware
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/welshsocietyofde/home