Discover the Magic of the Winter Solstice
during Montol Night
Just before Christmas, Penzance is taken over by
masked and disguised people who seem to be floating through the
allies of the harbour town setting it alight with a 'River of Fire'.
This fascinating procession is part of the Montol Festival which is a
six day art and community festivity and takes place on the day of the
Winter Solstice, always around the 21st of December.
The Montol Festival was re-introduced in 2007 to
celebrate Cornish traditions which have been thought to be lost and
to create a counterpart to the popular Midsummer’s Golowan
Festival. On the eve of the Montol, Cornish for Winter Solstice, the
people of Penzance and the neighbouring villages join the festivities
wearing traditional masks and mock formal costumes which remind one
of the Venetian carnival as well as participating in Guise dancing
and Cornish carol singing.
To honour the death and rebirth of the sun,
lantern-lit processions wriggle their way through the town starting
from various areas until the streams of fire form one big river which
is met by the Lord of Misrule at the highest point of Penzance,
Lescudjack Hillfort. The Lord of Misrule, who is chosen at random,
has the honour to light the beacon and lead the procession through
town.
Throughout the festivities, participants and
visitors cannot only enjoy traditional Cornish Guise dancing as well
as acrobatic displays and Christmas carol singing but also indulge in
the mesmerising masks and dresses worn by the crowd just as it used
to be centuries ago.
The end of the procession but by far not the end
of the celebrations is the chalking and burning of the Mock, the
Cornish Yule log. This old Cornish tradition welcomes the New Year by
chalking a stickman or woman on to a log.
Seeing Penzance lit up during a cold winter's
night is by far the most exciting part of the Montol festival and a
very special place to reflect on the past 12 months.
For more details, please also
visit the official Montol Festival website: http://www.montol.co.uk/.
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