Floral

The day dawned bright and breezy on Flora Day, the early showers of rain dried quickly on the pavements and the dancers were subject to a following breeze as they wheeled and turned through our local town.

Flora Day is a pre-Christian tradition which celebrates the arrival of Spring. The town band leads the dancers through the streets, gardens and, in some streets, the houses of the town. The Morning Dance starts the day around 7am with gentlemen in top hats and tails leading ladies in evening dress to the tune of the Flora Dance played by the town band. There are no words to the Flora Dance - please put all memories of Terry Wogan from your mind. The tune is passed from band member to band member - there is a fierce family and local tradition to the players - and is played from memory.

The Hal-an-Tow follows which is positively pagan in appearance; the dancers are bedecked with leaves and flowers, there are drums and whistles and shouting while George and the Dragon re-enact their battle along with our local MP, Andrew George who takes the part of the Cornish Patron Saint, St Piran, complete with granite millstone which he must carry for the duration of the dance. Some form of penance presumably. The dancers sing " For Summer is a come, O, And Winter is a gone, O" - "Tow" to rhyme with the 'O'. This is the most raucous part of the day.

My daughter danced in the Childrens Dance which starts at around 10am. There are well over 1,000 children in the procession (imagine all those white dresses for the girls and cricket whites for the boys!). They all wear a spray of Lily of the Valley, on the right pointing downwards for the girls, on the left facing upwards for the boys. Boys wear their school ties and girls wear flowers in their hair to represent their schools - forget-me-nots for the secondary school.

The ladies and gentlemen of the town take to the streets again for the Midday Dance and yet again for the Evening Dance at 5pm. Traditionally it was the gentry of the town who danced although these days there is some kind of selection process in operation.

Taken as a whole, it's quite an extraordinary day. The sight of the young people dancing together quite literally brings a tear to my eye - I've never seen anything like it anywhere else.

Knitting Content? Well, I had knit most of a Jane Austen shrug from the Mason-Dixon book for my dancer but, sadly, dress rules did not allow for a cardigan.

Posted by Anita at May 14, 2009 11:29 AM