Burning the Straw Bear

Last year we went to the Straw Bear Festival for the first time, so this year we decided we'd visit on the Sunday, when the bear is burnt. It didn't really have the same atmosphere, being held in the local school, and we waited a long time for the actual ceremony to begin, getting absolutely frozen. 

But there was a real feel of excitement as the procession approached, a motley mix of gaudily bedecked Molly dancers playing accordians, recorders, drums and various brass instruments including a euphonium. This heightened as the first flames started licking round the feet of the bear, and culminated in the handing round of wheat stalks (a talisman for fertility in the coming year) as the bear was reduced to ashes. The start of the new farming year was marked with a tremendous burst of klaxons. It all felt very strange and pagan (think Wicker Man) but I'm glad that such traditions seem to be thriving in this corner of the Fens.