#WelshWordWednesday
For readers of ‘Not Thomas’ that aren’t familiar with Welsh, the word for today is calennig as found on page 75.
The lady next door gives Tomos a coin through the gap in the hedge, making him wait while he desperately wants to go and see what’s inside his Santa Sack.
The lady calls the coin ‘calennig‘ and it turns out to be an old fifty pence piece. But no, calennig doesn’t mean a thoroughly useless object, it means a ‘New Year gift’ – its literal meaning is ‘the first day of the month’ – and calennig is supposed to be lucky.
It’s an old Welsh custom which has stood the test of time, and these days some people in Wales still give lucky calennig to children on New Year’s Day – but I’m not sure if Tomos’s calennig brings him too much luck.
Sara’s debut novel Not Thomas – a story of child neglect, love and hope, shown through the eyes of a five-year-old – is published by Honno Press in paperback and as an e-book, and is available to buy direct from the publisher, from Amazon and from all good bookshops.
Sara Gethin 
What an interesting backstory, Sara!
Well, I consider myself a child at heart, and heaven knows I need a LOT of luck in the next couple months as I deal with The Book’s birth, so I’d like to request a calennig from the Universe if at all possible! 😇
p.s. I’m still loving Cardiff Bay as seen through the eyes of Torchwood, Season 4.
I’m going to mourn when it ends – I love it so much! It has amazing acting, production, and writing, especially the episodes by a writer named Catherine Tregenna, “a Welsh playwright, television scriptwriter and actress” according to Wikipedia. Wales is a very cool hotbed of talent!
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Catherine is from Llanelli, my hometown! I agree with you, Dyane – she’s an excellent writer.
Sending you some imaginary calennig for your book launch next month, although I’m sure you won’t need the luck. (And cookies for charity are a lovely idea. Cakes / cookies – as long as there’s lots of sugar and unnecessary calories, what’s the difference?!) xxx
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WOW! Small world, eh???
There will be a small mountain’s worth of sugar, I guarantee that. 😉
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