Straw Bear Festival

It's been three years since I visited the Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival, but today Pete, Alex and I spent the afternoon there in perfect weather - crisp and sunny but with very little breeze. There are always so many interesting characters and costumes among the many teams of dancers - not to mention the audience. It was hard to choose an individual image so I've put a few in extras.

The festival of the Straw Bear or "Strawbower" is an old custom known only from a small area of Fenland on the borders of Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire, though similar ritual animals have been known in other parts of Europe, and still appear in parts of Germany at Shrovetide.
On Plough Tuesday, the day after Plough Monday (the first Monday after Twelfth Night), a man or boy was covered from head to foot in straw and led from house to house where he would dance in exchange for gifts of money, food or beer. The festival was of a stature that farmers would often reserve their best straw for the making of the bear.

The custom died out early in the 20th century, c.1909 (probably because the local police regarded it as begging), but it was resurrected by the Whittlesea Society in 1980.The festival has now expanded to cover the whole weekend when the Bear appears. On the Saturday of the festival, the Bear processes around the streets with its attendant "keeper" and musicians, followed by numerous traditional dance sides (mostly visitors), including morris men and women, molly dancers, clog dancers and others, who perform at various points along the route. 

At the end of the afternoon we met up with a whole set of other nature conservation bods - one of whom I hadn't seen for about fifteen years! A very nice break from completing my accounts...which will now have to wait until tomorrow.