Editing Caerleon (section)

===Culture and community===
====Caerleon Festival====
{{Main|Caerleon Arts Festival}}
{{more citations|section|date=November 2022}}
[[File:Caerleon Tree Sculpture.JPG|thumb|upright|Tree sculpture in Caerleon]]
Caerleon has hosted an [[arts festival]] in July each year since 2003, established initially to welcome participants and sculptors from around the world.<ref>{{cite web |title=Caerleon Arts Festival 2003 |url=http://www.caerleon-arts.org/ |website=Celf Caerleon Arts |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030718074616/http://www.caerleon-arts.org/ |archive-date=18 July 2003}}</ref> Many of the sizeable sculptures are retained around Caerleon as a [[Sculpture park]] and local landmarks. The arts festival coincides with the Roman military [[Historical reenactment|re-enactment]] in the amphitheatre which demonstrates Roman military armour, [[Roman infantry tactics|infantry tactics]], cavalry tactics, equipment and [[siege engine]]s such as [[ballista]]e. Recent developments with the festival have seen expansion, with the inclusion of a literary festival, food and drink offerings and music events staged at venues including Caerleon Town Hall and [[St Cadoc's Church, Caerleon|St Cadocs Church]]. The open-air Roman amphitheatre hosts an annual [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]  play. The 'Big Free Weekend' alongside the [[River Usk]] is two full days of free live music and dance on three stages at the Hanbury Quay, the 17th century Bell Inn marquee and the Festival Meadow marquee. A diverse range of performers are featured including folk, idie, rock, choirs, celtic and international dance. The Festival field hosts displays, performances and vendors of crafts and [[visual arts]].

====Mari Lwyd====
{{main|Mari Lwyd}}
Writing in 1951, local historian and folklorist [[Fred Hando]] described the traditional journey through Caerleon of the Mari Lwyd or "Venerable Mary", a tradition similar to that of [[Hoodening]] found in [[Kent]], [[Padstow]] and [[Cheshire]], and involving a man dressed with a horse's skull. The jaw of the skull could be made to move, with the aid of rods. Hando's informant, Gus Sergeant of Bulmoor, reported that the Mari Lwyd had not been seen in the town for at least 20 years, but he was still able to describe it:
<blockquote>We filled the eye-holes with wadding and '[[Marble (toy)|pop alleys]]' and fixed great ears made of wadding stiffened with cardboard; then we stuck rosettes on the sides of the skull and strung long coloured ribbons as reins.</blockquote>
One man acted as leader of the Mari, holding the ribbons, and then came the Mari itself draped in a white sheet. It was followed by three singers, who sang in [[Welsh language|Welsh]] although "they didn't understand the words". On occasion, the procession of the Mari Lwyd would start as far north as [[Newbridge-on-Usk]] and proceed through the town, ending as far south as [[Goldcliff]]. The party would be invited into houses along the way and given "money and home-made cakes and gallons of beer". Another of Hando's informants provides a description, dated 1841, of the Yuletide tradition:

<blockquote>The custom of chaunting at their neighbours' doors on the [[Twelfth Night (holiday)|Twelfth Night]] ... on which occasion they are fantastically dressed with ribbons of various colours. One of the party carries a horse's head decorated in the same manner. Representations of trees, to which are appended apples and oranges, are also carried about, and on one of the branches an artificial bird, called "Aderyn Pica Llwyd" (the grey hobgoblin bird) is placed.<ref>{{cite book |editor-link=Fred Hando |editor-last=Hando |editor-first=F.J. |year=1951 |work=Journeys in Gwent |first=R.H. |last=Johns |title=Newport |chapter=Chapter&nbsp;2 – The Mari Llwyd at Caerleon}}</ref>
</blockquote>