Going like the clappers

Posted by Henry on August 16, 2004

In Reply to: Going like the clappers posted by Pat Melville-Baker on August 16, 2004

: From "Old Stone Crosses of the Vale of Clwyd" by Rev Elias Owen,M.A.1886.

: Customs in Tremeirchion Parish and other parts of Wales. Shrove Tuesday Customs.

: 'Most people turned out to beg, or Hel Ynyd, on Shrove Tuesday. They received from the farmers fine flour, milk, lard etc. Eggs were clapped for;-boys went about with two stones as clappers, and when opposite a farm house they clapped away with all their might and received for their pains a gift of eggs,'

That's a plausible alternative to the usual explanation of clappers in bells.