The National Eisteddfod is an intrinsic part of Welsh cultural identity. The Eisteddfod has been running since 1176 when Lord Rhys of Cardigan Castle invited poets and musicians to a grand gathering.
Although Scotland has the Highland Games there’s nothing quite like the National Eisteddfod elsewhere in the UK.
This year’s event is expected to attract 170,000 visitors and at least 6,000 of them will be competing in the poetry, singing, dancing and art competitions. There will be a main pavilion seating 3,500 which turns into a concert venue by night, two open air stages, a literature and science pavilion and 325 trade stands to enjoy.
One of the biggest attractions will be ceremonies of the Gorsedd of Bards. In Welsh cultural terms, there is no greater honour than being a Bard. One man who perhaps embodied the spirit of everything that the Eisteddfod represents was the late Ray Gravell. ‘Grav’, as he was best known, served as the Grand Sword Bearer in the ceremonies of the Gorsedd of Bards, a role he undertook with great enthusiasm.
Indeed, his status as a rugby legend coupled with his support for the Eisteddfod and its youth movement, the Urdd, has left a lasting impact.
I’m sure this year’s event will be a success and it’s great to see visitors from around the world taking part and enjoying what is undoubtedly one of Wales’ most important cultural events.
Mae’r Eisteddfod Genedlaethol yn rhan priodol o ddiwylliant Cymru. Mae’r Eisteddfod mewn bod ers 1176 pan wahoddodd yr Arglwydd Rhys o Gastell Aberteifi feirdd a chantorion i’r digwyddiadau mawreddog yno.
Er fod chwaraeon yr Ucheldir yn yr Alban, does dim all gymharu a’r Eisteddfod Genedlaethol yn unman ym Mhrydain Fawr. Disgwylir i’r digwyddiad eleni ddenu 170,000 o ymwelwyr, gyda o leiaf 6,000 o’r rhain yn cystadlu yn y barddiaeth, canu, dawnsio a chelf a chrefft.
Bydd yno y prif babell sydd yn eistedd 3,500 ar gyfer cystadleuthai’r dydd, ac yna cynhelir gwahanol gyngherddau ynddi gyda’r nos. Bydd yno ddau lwyfan agored, pabell len, pabell wyddoniaeth a 325 o stondinau masnachol i’w fwynhau. Un o’r atyniadau mwyaf yw seremoni Gorsedd y Beirdd.
Mewn termau diwylliannol Cymru does na anrhydedd pwysicaf na bod yn aelod o Orsedd y Beirdd. Un person a wnaeth ysbrydoli popeth sydd yn cynrhychioli’r Eisteddfod roedd y diweddar Ray Gravell, mwyaf cyfarwydd i ni fel “Grav” a wasanaethodd fel “Cludwr y Cleddyf” yn seremoni’r cadeirio a’r coroni ac a ymgymerodd gyda balchder a brwdfrydedd.
Yn ddiau ei statws fel chwarewr rygbi, a’i gefnogaeth tuag at yr Eisteddfod, yr ifanc, a’r Urdd sydd wedi gadael gwrthdrawiad parhaus. Mae’n ddiamheuol y bydd y digwyddiad yn lwyddiant mawr eleni eto, a braf yw gweld ymwelwyr y byd yn mwynhau un o ddiwylliannau pwysicaf Cymru.
Comment by orphan on August 5, 2009 at 6:21 pm
I don’t wish to underplay the importance of Welsh Cutural identity. If you are Welsh, I suppose it must be of high priority in your life and it is with some degree of apology to Mr Davies that I make this comment on his blog.
It is the FIRST blog on the site however and as a non Welsh but very frustrated conservative, looking for signs of life from my party, it only serves to increase the frustration.
The appalling government of New Labour has destroyed the very fabric of our country over the last 12 years and now seems on some suicide pact to take down as much as possible of what is left, before it is (hopefully) dumped out on the steets come next May. I am looking for hope for the future, fighting talk that just might give us an inkling that a future Conservative government might turn back the socialist, liberal lunacy that we are enduring. With all due respect, I dont see it. The overwheming impression of the site is one of smugness and unavoidable complacency. As we look at the social and economic wreckage that is the Britain of 2009, any real conservative must surely despise New Labour and all that it stands for. On so many fronts, this disgraceful bunch of spiteful hypocrites has introduced ruin to our country. They have ensured that their poison has reached every corner of society. Not a business, school, town hall nor office has been left free of socialist dogma, always controlling, always preaching and always restricting. The only beneficiaries are the ever growing minority groups.
On the Blue blog, I see very little evidence of distaste. There seems little determination to give New Labour the absolute kicking that it needs to have, so that our children can enjoy living in the democracy that their grandparents fought for. That democracy is going down the pan faster than was imaginable only a few short years ago. As a conservative, I want to see a determination to destroy New Labour and its crazy ideas, for ever. In that sense, the Blue Blog is mighty disappointing, I’m afraid, and I cannot be sure of voting blue next May. At the moment, no party reflects my anger, frustration and yes, yearning for revenge against the morons who have brought about such destruction in our great country. If the Conservative Party does not awake from its self congratulatory smugness, and prepare to fight what it is supposed to stand for, it may yet get a nasty surprise, for, to be certain, the New labour zealots will not go easily.