This year, Mudiad Meithrin celebrates a very special birthday as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding at the National Eisteddfod in Bangor, 1971. Despite the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, a host of activities are currently being organized to mark this special occasion. See a list of them below:
- A new Mudiad Meithrin logo has been specially designed to celebrate the 50th birthday.
- Several Welsh companies have donated items to a hamper of goods as a prize to a competition especially for the Cylchoedd Meithrin to create anything as part of the celebrations e.g. displays or exhibitions, birthday card etc.
- 50 of our Cylchoedd Meithrin will receive a time capsule to bury, and another 50 will receive apple trees for planting in the autumn. These will be accompanied by plaques to mark the occasion.
- Lowri Roberts (winner on the S4C show ‘Y Stiwdio Grefft’) has created a mural to accompany an ‘englyn’ (verse) specially composed by the current Archdruid of Wales, Myrddin ap Dafydd – this will be distributed to all the Cylchoedd.
- A series of ‘Dawnsio Gyda Dewin a Siani Sionc’ videos has been produced and a DVD of these will be presented to the Cylchoedd – they’ll also be on our Youtube channel.
- A 50th Anniversary Book is currently being written by Mererid Hopwood and we aim to launch it in October.
- The digital ‘Dewin and Doti Festival’ will be held between 14-18 June 2021 with Dewin and Doti, Martyn Geraint and Siani Sionc.
- Our ’50th Celebration Week’ will be held between 5 -10 July 2021. The Cylchoedd will receive a ‘celebration pack’ for the event in due course.
- Over 80 celebrities have recorded short videos wishing Mudiad Meithrin a happy birthday, and these will be shared across our social media platforms from May onwards
Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies, Chief Executive of Mudiad Meithrin, said:
“The whole mission and purpose of our work is to use the early years as a medium to create new Welsh speakers from children who would not otherwise speak Welsh and the experience of learning through play is paramount in its own right. But I believe that the greatest legacy of the Mudiad will be to see that it is not needed one day, when our care and education system automatically provides the best possible support to the youngest children through the medium of Welsh. Hopefully that will be realized before reaching the 100th anniversary!”