St.Piran's Day Truro
St.Piran’s Day has arrived and heralds the welcomed beginning of a new spring season for Cornwall. After all the recent storms that have seemingly battered the UK I am sure I am not alone in craving a break in the winds and a little splash of colour to our days. Thinking about it those stormy waves may have been a help for millstone surfing as it goes! (If you don’t get that reference to the story of St.Piran then click here).
I love St Piran’s Day because personally I consider that it’s one of the few real national days that we have to celebrate in Cornwall. People dress in Black, white and gold and daffodils are everywhere!
So what is St.Piran’s Day? Well briefly speaking it’s a day that’s celebrated on the 5th March each year and named after one of the patron saints of Cornwall. The reason why it’s so meaningful to the Cornish people is that the Cornish miners adopted this as their national holiday.
I find this topic poignant; while amazing engineering builds and achievements were made in reaching these ore seams I have some knowledge from watching historical dramas and documentaries about the harsh conditions they had no choice to work in. I scarcely appreciate the reality of what they endured, I don’t think any of us can without living it.
This is one celebration that emotionally connects us to our regional past and should remind us of the hardships of mining Copper, Tin and all the other lesser known mined metals from the County.
The celebrations usually consist of fanciful costumes and animal outfits that sometimes lean on the weird and macabre side but recently I learned something new there is a reason for the animal link. Apparently after Saint Piran built his oratory at Perranporth his first disciples were a badger, a bear and a fox!
I am glad that there are no Cornish Bears around now or I would would be a lot more concerned about photographing families in the woods this year for more reasons than weather patterns and dappled lighting!
Today seemed to fall short on my expectations and no animal costumes apart from one friendly mascot and this dog with it’s amazing outfit!
The origin of the Cornish flag can also be attributed to Piran as his fire burned he noticed some black rocks getting so hot that something white was pouring out of them. This is the base for our national flag of a black background with the white cross symbolising the tin.
If you were not able to make it to the Truro Parade then don’t fear as there is a Parade in Redruth on Saturday and other events across the Dutchy all weekend!
