St Piran's Day

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Saint Piran's Day
Stpiraninpenwith.JPG
St Piran's day parade at Penzance in 2006
Observed by Cornish people
Type National day
Celebrations Parades and social events,
Religious observations.
Date 5 March
Next time 5 March 2025 (2025-03-05)
Frequency annual

St Piran's Day (Cornish: Gool Peran) is the national day of people in Cornwall,[1] held on 5 March every year. The day is named after one of the patron saints of Cornwall, Saint Piran, who is also the patron saint of tin miners.

Origins

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Main article: Saint Piran

St Piran's Day started as one of the many tinners' holidays observed by the tin miners of Cornwall.[2] Other miners' holidays of a similar nature include Picrous Day and Chewidden Thursday. The miners of Breage and Germoe observed St Piran's feast day as that of their patron saint until at least 1764.[3]

"St. Piran's Day was said to be a favourite with the tinners who having a tradition that some secrets regarding the manufacture of tin were communicated to their ancestors by that saint, they leave the manufacture to shift for itself for that day, and keep it as a holiday."[4] There is little description of specific traditions associated with this day apart from the consumption of large amounts of alcohol and food during 'Perrantide', the week leading up to 5 March.[2] The day following the St Piran's Day was known by many as 'Mazey Day', a term which has now been adopted by the revived Golowan festival in Penzance. The phrase 'drunk as a perraner' was used in 19th century Cornwall to describe people who had consumed large quantities of alcohol.[5]

Revival

A re-enactment of Piran crossing the Irish Sea, Helston, 2009

The modern observance of St Piran's day as a national symbol of the people of Cornwall started in the late 19th and early 20th century when Celtic revivalists sought to provide the people of Cornwall with a national day similar to those observed in other nations. Since the 1950s, the celebration has become increasingly observed and since the start of the 21st century almost every Cornish community holds some sort of celebration to mark the event. Saint Piran's Flag is also seen flying throughout Cornwall on this day.[5]

Parades and celebrations take place in a number of towns and cities including:[6]

  • Bodmin - A parade through the streets with Cornish pipers and a children's dance. Speeches by various notables, including the town mayor, Lord Lieutenant, and Grand Bard of Cornwall, followed by children's performances of Cornish plays and songs. 400 people attended the parade in 2009.[7] The parade was started in 1999.[8]
  • Bude - a St Piran's day walk led by a piper and attended by hundreds of people annually.[9]
  • Callington - Shop decorations and a St Piran's Supper with Cornish music and poetry.[6]
  • Camborne - singing with Cadgwith Singers at Camborne Rugby Club.
  • Falmouth - parade through the town including nearly 100 school children. Shop window competition.[10][11]
  • Launceston - Piping the Flag at Launceston Castle, followed by a procession through the town ending at Harvey's Bar including a night of traditional live music with renowned local musicians, e.g. Rob Strike, Crowns.
  • London - Kernow in the City, annual live music event at Rich Mix in Shoreditch. Featuring hosts from Wrecker's Wednesday the Monthly Cornish London meet up event, Cornish Music, food, drink and culture
  • Marazion - Procession led by mayor and mace-bearers through the streets, a short ceremony with food and entertainment afterwards.
  • Newquay - St Piran's Feast. Annual Pasty Throwing competition at Newquay Zoo.
  • Penzance - annual performance of St Piran Furry dance and procession through the streets by 500 children. Annual St Piran Schools Concert.[12]
  • Perranarworthal - St Pirantide celebrations at the Norway Inn. Cornish Evensong.
  • Perranporth - Saints and Skinners Festival: A double celebration of St.Piran and St.David with traditional Cornish music.
  • Porthleven - Raising the Flag ceremony with the Old Cornwall Society. Cornish dancing by three local schools.
  • Redruth - first held in 2011 and billed as the biggest St Piran's celebration in Cornwall. It includes entertainments in the town centre before a parade to the rugby club where there was a market and fairground rides, with a rugby match. During the evening there are various live music events at venues across the town. In 2011 over 2000 people attended the rugby club events while hundreds more attended events in the town. 2012 saw three separate marches from different parts of the town converge as one giant procession at the miner's statue before heading to the rugby club.[13][14]
  • Rock - Homecomers celebrate St Piran.
  • Roche - St Pirantide celebrations, Victory Hall.
  • St Issey - Cornish music and singing.
  • St Ives - Procession through the streets.[12]
  • Troon - Annual Mebyon Kernow St Pirans Fete.
  • Truro - Procession through the streets with speeches outside Truro Cathedral, which has a St Piran themed lunch menu in its cafe, and a Cornish folk music session afterwards.[15] Hundreds of people attend the parade annually.[16]
  • Westminster - The St Piran’s Day reception is an annual celebration, held by Cornish MPs in Westminster since 2011. It is attended by MPs, members of the House of Lords and Government ministers from across the UK who come to learn more about Cornwall’s unique culture, heritage and identity. Dan Rogerson MP said of the 2012 event "The aim is to increase understanding of Cornwall’s Celtic heritage and culture in order to inform future debates on devolution, identity and government policy... and we are aiming to go bigger and better next year."
  • USA - St Piran's day is also celebrated annually in Grass Valley, California, United States, to honour the Cornish miners who participated in the area's mining history beginning in the mid 19th century.[17] In addition, Cornish genealogy organizations throughout the United States meet in celebration of Cornish history.

St Piran's Day Bank Holiday proposal

In 2006 Cornish MP Dan Rogerson asked the government to make 5 March a public holiday in Cornwall to recognise St Piran's Day celebrations. More recently[when?] there has been a petition for the holiday. Some council workers in Bodmin were granted the holiday in 2006,[18] and from 2009 Penzance Town Council offered its employees a St Piran's Day Holiday following a campaign by the Celtic League.[19] A total of nine town and city councils across Cornwall have given their staff the day off.

There have been other calls and petitions for a Cornish public holiday on 5 March. It has been suggested that a move from the May Day Bank Holiday to a St Piran's Day Bank Holiday in Cornwall would be worth £20–35 million to the Cornish economy.[20]

In December 2011 Cornwall Council voted in favour of asking the government to make St Piran's Day a bank holiday in Cornwall, should they decide to move the May Day holiday.[21]

A petition for a county wide day off at the Cornwall council website, closed with only 363 signatures, and fell far short of the 50,000 signatures required.[22][23][24]

Towns and cities that give their staff an annual day off work for St Piran's Day:[25]

Schools that give parents the option of taking their children out of school for the day:[26]

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Saint Piran's Day", Historic UK
  3. ↑ Attwater, D. (1965) The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. Penguin Books; p. 288
  4. ↑ Hunt, Robt., Popular Romances of the West of England
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "St. Piran's Day", Cornish Culture
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 An Daras Archived January 26, 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Celtic League - St Piran bank holiday
  20. ↑ Western Morning News, Cornish National Holiday worth £35m, 23 November 2011 - http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Cornish-national-holiday-worth-pound-35m/story-13929647-detail/story.html?dwrMeth=addComment&afterReg=Y
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ http://www.freepetition.co.uk/cornwall/Mostpopularpetitions.aspx?PageId=7
  23. ↑ http://www.freepetition.co.uk/cornwall/SignPetition.aspx?ppcode=%20P2ID24620154515
  24. ↑ https://www.celticleague.net/news/st-pirans-day-petition/
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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