(1833) Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern, (edited) full transcript here, * Cawte, Edwin (1978). Only some organised firework displays. Parochial History of Cornwall, * Sandys, William (ed.) Ah! And so it went on for a few more years. Since 1991 the Golowan festival in Penzance has revived many of these ancient customs and has grown to become a major arts and culture festival; its central event 'Mazey Day' now attracts tens of thousands of people to the Penzance area in late June. But what is the earliest reference, and where does the word ‘Golowan’ come from? The classic, contemporary account of the guise dancers' horse was given by Richard Edmonds who described the horse as being: "represented by a man carrying a piece of wood in the form of a horse’s head and neck, with some contrivance for opening and shutting the mouth with a loud snapping noise, the performer being so covered with a horse cloth, or hide of a horse, as to resemble the animal whose curvettings, biting, and other motions, he imitated.". “T. The author, known just by the initials “T. Strictly speaking, this is made out of two words – gool – Cornish for feast, fair or festival – and Jowan – the Cornish for the name John. 07815960719 07557308932 Mazey Day, launched each year by the Mayor of Penzance and the Mock Mayor of the Quay, is the centrepiece of the festival, in which artists, schools and other community groups fill the streets with music and giant sculptures in a series of parades. an eye!” At last they stop suddenly ; and an eye to this enormous needle being opened by the last two in the string, (whose clasped hands are elevated and arched) the thread of the populace run under, and through: and continue to repeat the same, till weariness dissolves their union, and sends them home to bed: – which is never till near the hour of midnight.”. In Bulgaria, fires are lit with daring barefoot dances on the hot coals. Midsummer celebrations have been held across Europe for centuries, forming an important – and still relevant – mark on the wheel of the year. The celebrations were centred on the lighting of bonfires and fireworks and the performance of associated rituals On Midsummer-day, in modern times, the inhabitants, of this parish were greeted with sounds resembling the discharge of musketry in different directions, proceeding from holes bored in rocks, which being charged with powder were exploded in succession; and on the same day a new flag was displayed on every mine, and the night was ushered in with noisy festivities, and bonfires blazing on many of the hills. A letter in the Cornishman published the same day (7th July 1881) lamented “Much as I uphold old customs, for “old fashions please me best,” and should regret seeing fireworks in our town put a stop to ; yet, if better conduct and less rough play cannot be obtained, I think that we may just as well let the custom die out. This is a good description of the Serpent Dance that we do today down Chapel Street to the quay. He describes some of our midsummer customs: “In Cornwall, the Festival Fires, call’d Bonfires, are kindled on the Eve of St. John the Baptist, and St. Peter’s Day, and Midsummer is thence, in the Cornish tongue, call’d Goluan, which signifies both Light, and Rejoicing.” This is the earliest printed reference to the word we use today – Golowan. Golowan Festival. 07815960719 07557308932 By 1880, the Cornish Telegraph (30th June) picked up on the tensions that were starting to form after some particularly rough behaviour: “Considerable discomfort was caused by the presence of bands of roughs who arm-in-arm rushed among the town knocking people down. Trade: golowan-trade@hotmail.com. Menu. The horse was a character associated with 'Old Penglaze' in the guise dancers' games of forfeiture, described by William Sandys: "Another essential character is Old Penglaze who has a blackened face and a staff in his hand, and a person girded round with a horse’s hide … to serve has his horse … The master then goes up to the delinqent and, taking up his foot, says: “Here is my seal, where is old Penglaze’s seal?” … Old Penglaze then comes in on his horse which winces and capers about grotesquely … The shoe of the “colt” is taken off and Penglaze gives him one or two hard blows on the sole of the foot, after which he rides off again, his horse capering more than ever before and sometimes throwing the old gentleman off.". M. A. Courtney in her book Cornish Feasts and Feasten Customs describes a delay to the Newlyn festivities in 1883 when the majority of the Newlyn fishing fleet were at sea, returning to celebrate the fire festival many days after the actual event. In the week leading up to Mazey Day each year  there is an election of the Mock Mayor of the Quay and, on Mazey Eve, a spectacular fireworks display with the appearance of Penglaz, Penzance’s ‘Obby ‘Oss, accompanied by the Golowan Band. Golowan (sometimes also Goluan or Gol-Jowan) is the Cornish language word for the Midsummer celebrations in Cornwall, UK; widespread prior to the late 19th century and most popular in the Penwith area and in particular Penzance and Newlyn. At the West Penwith Petty Sessions held in Penzance on 2nd July and reported in the Cornishman the next day, several people were charged and pleaded guilty to fireworks offences. Golowan Festival: | | ||| | A bagpipe band from Mid Argyll walk along Alverton Str... World Heritage Encyclopedia, the aggregation of the largest online encyclopedias available, and the most definitive collection ever assembled. This explosive and glittering compound has been smartly compressed, the top of the hand-rocket finished off with a piece of touch-paper, and, dozen after dozen, the completed weapon placed in a secret corner for re-production and use on the famed Midsummer Eve.”, In the same 1875 piece, we learn that “a trusted few formed themselves into what we call a committee – an anonymous but representative body to whom is confided a large sum of money, never larger than this year, with longer pockets; and these find money for a band of musicians, all the tar barrels and other casks of the neighbourhood, firewood, furze, &c., and men to place and ignite the combustibles. The Penzance Golowan was one of the last examples of this practice in Cornwall until its prohibition by the Penzance Borough Council in the 1890s due to increased insurance premiums in the town and perceived fire risk. The History of Golowan. Contributions from musicians and artists from the Celtic nations are a regular feature as are a variety of other musical contributions. The celebration of midsummer Penzance, 18th to 27th June 2021. The modern Golowan Festival in Penzance started in 1991 as an attempt to revive many of the traditions stated above. The ancient Golowan celebrations were also the inspiration for the Old Cornwall Societies' midsummer bonfire celebrations. Proud to be awarded the 2016 WOCA Best Family Event – Golowan Festival. The festival’s “big weekend” stretches over three days: Mazey Eve, Mazey Day and Quay Fair Day. Then the villagers, linked in circles hand-in-hand, danced round them to preserve themselves against witchcraft, and when they burnt low, one person here and there detached himself from the rest and leaped through the flames to insure himself from some special evil. The midsummer bonfire ceremonies (Tansys Golowan in Cornish) were revived at St Ives in 1929 by the Old Cornwall Society[1] and since then spread to other societies across Cornwall, as far as Kit Hill near Callington. In 1881, the Cornish Telegraph (7th July) reports that on St Peter’s Eve a firework smashed the window of a sitting room above a shop in the Green Market (where some of the bigger bonfires were traditionally burned) and struck a man in the eye, which also set another man’s coat on fire, and burnt another’s arm. [9], In his Cornish dictionary, Robert Morton Nance believed the character of Old Penglaze to be the horse and believed that Penglaze was a genuine Celtic noun for a hobby horse, something one of the above mentioned quotations contradicts. ", Porthleven and Newlyn in particular being centres for much of the celebration of St Peter's-tide because of St Peter's role as the patron saint of fishermen. 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