West Cornwall is all black and white in honour of St Piran!

From The Cornishman:
       

West Cornwall is all black and white in honour of St Piran

ST PIRAN'S Day has come round again and West Cornwall is holding its fair share of events to mark one of Cornwall's patron saints and the patron saint of tin miners.

Wednesday, March 5, marks the day when the life of the man who was washed up on a Cornish beach in the 6th century AD and introduced Christianity to Cornwall.

Legend has it that Irish kings, jealous of his influence with local people, had him bound to a millstone and hurled from a clifftop into the raging seas.

As he plummeted downwards, the storm abated, the sun came out and his millstone floated on the calm sea.

Cast-up on the beach at Perranporth, his first converts were a fox, a bear and a badger. He built a chapel in the sand dunes and the Cornish flocked to see him as news of his teachings spread.



On Tuesday, March 4, there will be a concert in St John's Hall from 7pm with a choir of local primary school children, accompanied by the choir of Humphry Davy School.  There will be an address by the Grand Bard and Howard Curnow will tell the Story of St Piran.

On St Piran's Day itself, the annual Penzance procession of schoolchildren, musicians, the Grand Bard, Penwith Bards, civic dignitaries and members of the Penwith Old Cornwall Societies starts at 10.15am at the top of Causewayhead.

The parade will go down down Causewayhead, to Market Jew Street as far as the post office, back up to Burton's, through Queen's Square and along Parade Street to Morrab Gardens where there will be a play showing the Life Of St Piran performed by pupils of Humphry Davy School. Finally the parade will proceed up Morrab Road finishing at St John's Hall at about 12 pm.

A proper Cornish tea can be enjoyed in St Buryan village hall from 3.15pm. This traditional celebration of St Piran's Day costs just £4 per person and includes entertainment by children from St Buryan Academy School.

In Marazion, the St Piran's Day procession will leave the town hall at 5.45pm on March 5th to progress to the Gwelva for the ceremony.  There will then be an evening of entertainment at the Cutty Sark.

On Thursday, March 6, there will be a Cornish evening for St Piran's Day at St Peter's Church hall in Newlyn at 7.30pm. It will feature storytelling by Anna Murphy, Mike Sagar-Fenton, Stephen Hall, David Barron and Liz Harman plus music from the Boilerhouse Singers. Entry is £5 and includes refreshments.

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