The Montol Festival (often just Montol) is an annual festival in Penzance,

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

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, which has been held on 21 December each year since 2007. The festival is a revival or reinterpretation of many of the traditional Cornish midwinter customs & Christmas traditions formerly practiced in and around the Penzance area and common to much of Cornwall at one point. The festival spans several days, but the main events are held on the traditional date of the feast of St Thomas the Apostle, usually 21 December, which always coincides with the

winter solstice The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winter ...

Origin and history

Montol came about from the same community which had created Golowan, a

midsummer Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer usually held at a date around the summer solstice. It has pagan pre-Christian roots in Europe. The undivided Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian martyr ...

festival also held in Penzance, though different people were involved. The idea was formed after the success of Golowan, in order to celebrate the winter solstice in a similar manner. Montol sought to revive practices recorded by antiquarians, some of which reportedly only died out after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The first festival was in 2007 and was initially funded by grants from central government. The festival was cancelled in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Name origin

Edward Lhuyd Edward Lhuyd FRS (; occasionally written Llwyd in line with modern Welsh orthography, 1660 – 30 June 1709) was a Welsh naturalist, botanist, linguist, geographer and antiquary. He is also named in a Latinate form as Eduardus Luidius. Life ...

, in his 1700 MSS of vocabulary in the Cornish language, states that ''Montol'' means 'winter solstice'. However, he later translates the word as 'balance' (in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, ''Trutina'' – 'a set of scales').

Revived customs

Montol is not based on a particular historical festival, but rather incorporates many different recorded customs. The festival centres around Montol Eve (21 December) and several revived traditions of West Cornwall including, most predominantly, guise dancing. Guise dancing is a Cornish custom in which people dress up in costumes and masks and play music, dance, sing and take part in parades, somewhat similar to mummering elsewhere in England. During the evening large guiser processions can be seen through the town, carrying lanterns, wearing masks and traditional costumes. Early in the evening a

Lord of Misrule In England, the Lord of Misrule – known in Scotland as the Abbot of Unreason and in France as the ''Prince des Sots'' – was an officer appointed by lot during Christmastide to preside over the Feast of Fools. The Lord of Misrul ...

is chosen from among the masked revellers by the drawing of coloured beans. The Lord of Misrule leads the main processions and has certain honorary functions, although there is no historical basis for this part of the event prior to 2007. Since 2010, Pen Hood (the Montol Obby Oss) and Penglaz (the Golowan Obby Oss) appear later on, leading parades and revelling, with the evening culminating in the ceremony of the "Chalking of the Mock". The Mock is a Cornish

Yule Log The Yule log, Yule clog, or Christmas block is a specially selected log burnt on a hearth as a winter tradition in regions of Europe, and subsequently North America. The origin of the folk custom is unclear. Like other traditions associated wit ...

, which is marked with a

stick figure A stick figure, also known as a stickman, is a very simple drawing of a person or an animal, composed of a few lines, curves, and dots. On a stick figure, the head is most often represented by a circle, which can be either a solid color or som ...

and then burnt on the Montol bonfire. In the early years of the festival, the bonfire was a beacon was lit at Lescudjack Hill Fort, in a similar vein to the beacons lit by the

Old Cornwall Society The Federation of Old Cornwall Societies (FOCS) was formed in 1924, on the initiative of Robert Morton Nance, with the objective of collecting and maintaining "all those ancient things that make the spirit of Cornwall — its traditions, its ol ...

at midsummer. More recently, the bonfire has been held at the Princess May Recreation Ground, opposite Humphry Davy School. Other customs include the Cornish candle dance (a dance around a basket full of lit, brightly-coloured candles), and the performance of traditional Guisers plays such as '' St George and the Turkish Knight'' or ''Buffy and the Bucca''. Cornish

Christmas carol A Christmas carol is a carol (a song or hymn) on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French ori ...

s also feature during the festivities.

Historical basis

The historical basis for many of the customs described above is taken from the texts of notable Cornish antiquarians and contemporary research into the subject. A. K. Hamilton Jenkin in his book ''Cornish Homes and Customs'' describes the Guise dance processions and performances of 1831 as "like an Italian carnival" and further noted that "everyone including the rich and the great came masked and disguised on to the streets". A detailed description of the Penzance Guise dancers is given by

William Bottrell William Bottrell (1816–1881) was born at Rafta, St Levan in Cornwall on 7 March 1816. He contributed greatly to the preservation of Cornish mythology. Both he and Thomas Quiller Couch contributed folk stories of West Cornwall for Robert Hunt's ...

in his book ''Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall'' (1870–80):

Community events

The festival often includes community-oriented events such as public music, a series of workshops dedicated to the making of masks and costumes so people can join in with guise parades, community carol services, and a ceilidh.

External links

Official website for the Montol FestivalAmateur footage of the Montol FestivalOrigin of the word Montol from the Teer Ha Tavaz website (archived version)Rivers of Fire at the Montol Festival in Penzance
(Eyewitness account of the celebration)

References

{{Winter solstice Cornish culture Festivals in Cornwall December events Ritual animal disguise Penzance Cornish festivals Winter festivals in the United Kingdom 2007 establishments in England Recurring events established in 2007 Festivals established in 2007