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1935 Pasiant Heddwch Aberystwyth - cyflwynwyd yr albwm cofroddion i'r Parch Gwilym Davies o WLNU

Disgrifiadau

This scrapbook album is a memento showing photographs and clippings from the 'Cardiganshire Peace Pageant' staged by over 1,000 school children among the grounds of Aberystwyth Castle, on Wednesday 8 May 1935. Participants were drawn from primary and secondary schools across Cardiganshire [now Ceredigion], each school representing a culture of the world both through creating national costumes, and through learning about then-current issues. Participants performed to what the Cambrian News pronounced "the biggest crowd ever to have gathered on the grounds of Aberystwyth Castle." The pageant, composed by Welsh poet Cynan, was in 3 parts: a historical narrative on causes of war and peacemakers past; a 'ballet of war & peace'; and a procession of 'the children of the world'. The (14th) Youth Message of Peace & Goodwill was read out by each group of children, in the languages of nations they represented before the whole audience closed with the Eisteddfod chant of 'A Oes Heddwch!'. The scrapbook records much of Cynan's content and the narrator's script, as well as photographs of the characters portrayed, and the children / schools and nations they represented. In the 1920s-30s (when, it is important to note, the British Empire was at its nadir), pageants were seen by educationalists as the ultimate creative means for enabling learning and understanding about history and global citizenship - the key interest for the Welsh League of Nations Union (WLNU), which was tremendously active in supporting schools Wales-wide with global learning throughout the 1920s-30s. This was a generation whose parents had been the survivors of the First World War, and the passion for peace was so strong in Wales that over 1,000 WLNU local branches were active in this period. By 1935 the European situation was deteriorating, and peace activists saw the need for positive demonstrations of peace as more pressing than ever. It would have been volunteers and teachers from the Cardiganshire Area district committees of the WLNU who organised this pageant, formally hosted and addressed by the Mayor of Aberystwyth. The Mayor's office officially presented this scrapbook (most likely snipped from 'Cambrian News' clippings) to Rev Gwilym Davies of WLNU, in recognition of his peace work and his founding of the Youth Message of Peace & Goodwill. The document remains among his personal archives and papers held at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. Modern-day viewers should be aware that some of the images and narratives that appear in this archive could be considered inappropriate or offensive today (such as usage of colouring / makeup on children's faces, and contemporary debates around cultural appropriation). This is a document 'of its time' (the 1920-30s was the height of British imperialism) and its use as a reference does not infer any 'endorsement' of these practices by WCIA or any other bodies active in global learning today. Users are asked to be sensitive in selecting images or passages for further use or learning, to avoid any which may upset others or detract from / misrepresent the aims of the Peace Pageant, which were to spread human understanding and peace among the people's of the world.

Owner:
National Library of Wales
Crëwr:
Aberystwyth Town Council
Gwybodaeth drwydded
Publisher Ref:
LNU UNA RECORDS B6/6
Eitem wedi’i llwytho:
10/8/2023
Date originally created:
8/5/1935
Gwelediadau:
459
Ffefrynnau:
0

Cysylltwch â Ni

I wneud cais i dynnu i lawr neu riportio cynnwys hiliol, sarhaus neu niweidiol mewn unrhyw ffordd arall.

Man writing a letter

Sylwadau (1)

Hello, I have been going through the album for the peace pageant in Aberystwyth for 1936. On page 13 there is a photo of a little boy caring a fish
That little boys name is willy Jones and he is my father, for whom is sill alive today(he is now 95 years old) and there is a story behind that photo.
My father was 8 years old when that photo was taken, and his headmaster of his school made that fish for him and he also supply the costume as well, as you may be awear people in those days were rather poor and my father come from a large family.

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