Golowan Festival

Golowan (sometimes also Goluan) is the Cornish language word for the Midsummer celebrations in Cornwall, UK; they were widespread prior to the late 19th century and most popular in the Penwith area and in particular in Penzance.

Towards the end of these festivities the local youths of the town would take part in the ancient serpent dance called "thread-the-needle" and jump or pass themselves through the dying embers of the flames.

Tar barrels were presently erected on tall poles; some on the quay, others near the market, and one even on a rock in the midst of the sea; pretty female children tript up and down in their best frocks, decorated with garlands; and hailing the Midsummer-eve as the vigil of St.

[6]” (Royal Cornwall Gazette, 4 July 1801) "Considerable discomfort was caused by the presence of bands of roughs who arm-in-arm rushed among the town knocking people down.

The Borough Magistrates's Petty Sessions as reported in the Cornish Telegraph of 8 July 1857 stated "The mere act of letting off fireworks in the town or highway is in itself a serious offence, and subjects the offender to a severe penalty, but that law, as far as Penzance is concerned, is pretty nearly an anomaly and on Midsummer and St Peter's Eves is set aside and fireworks are allowed by common consent on those evenings.

The account recalls the "grassy slopes along the Cape animated by the movements and mirth, the music and the laughter" and short boat trips out on the sea from Priest's Cove called a "troll" or "troyl".

Thursday features a popular election of the 'Mayor of the Quay' and the Friday, Mazey Eve takes place around the harbour area of Penzance from where there is large firework display.

Schools, entertainers, community groups and others take part in a series of processions that include music, giant sculptures and variety of other artistic activities.

Penglaz owes its inspiration to the descriptions of the hobby horse that once accompanied the Christmas guise dancers in their perambulation of Penzance during the nineteenth century.

"[14] Barbara Spooner in her 1958 article on the Padstow 'Obby 'Oss[15] incorrectly described the 'Obby 'Oss associated with "Old Penglaze" as a "horse's skull held up on a stick by a hide covered or sheet-draped man" without checking the original source written by Richard Edmonds in 1846.

Robert Morton Nance expressed the view that "the May day games and Morris Dances, with their own type of hobby-horse, which includes a rider, had been brought in from England too recently to have acquired Cornish names[citation needed]".

[18] The modern Golowan festival's Penglaz essentially takes its appearance from Barbara Spooner's mistaken 1958 description and resembles strongly the Mari Lwyd of Welsh tradition.

The hilltop bonfires that form a chain are currently held at Kit Hill, St Breock beacon, Castle An Dinas, and Redruth.