In Denbighshire the parish wakes, called Gwylmabsant or the festival of the saint, were mostly held about the beginning of September. They began on the Sunday after the day of the church’s patron saint and in principle lasted the week, though by 1815 the merrymaking seldom went past the third or fourth day. Peter Roberts said the Welsh name showed the wakes had been a Christian festival from the start.
Gwylmabsant in Denbighshire
Printed under the first Sunday on or after 1 September · Denbighshire
No longer kept
In Denbighshire they are generally celebrated about the beginning of September, beginning on the Sunday after the day of the patron-saint of the church of the parish, and ending with the week
From Roberts's Cambrian Popular Antiquities, p. 128. Read the original
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