Montol Festival

The Montol Festival is an annual heritage, arts and community festival in Penzance, Cornwall held between the 16th and 22nd of December each year. 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. Every year the main event, Montol eve is held on the traditional date of the feast of St Thomas the Apostle,usually the 21st of December, which always coincides with the Winter Solstice. The main event of the festival is Montol Eve on the 21st of December every year. During the evening large guisers processions can be seen all over the town, carrying lanterns, wearing masks and traditional costumes. During the festival there are a series of workshops dedicated to the making of lanterns which are used in a large lantern parade on 21 December in Penzance Town Centre followed by the lighting of a beacon at Lescudjack Hill Fort one of the most ancient sites in the Penzance parish. There are also arts events with the theme of light and darkness, disguise, topsy turvy and Cornish traditions.The word Montol originated in 1700 when Edward Lhuyd visited Cornwall noted the phrase Montol, or An Vontol as being the Winter Solstice.The eve of the Winter Solstice has also been celebrated as the date of King Arthur's birthday by the Cornish for over 1000 years.Montol could be considered as the winter equivalent of the towns famous Golowan Festival the celebration of summer solstice on the year's longest day. The lighting of the Mock and other light and fire traditions were held in high importance by local people, often selecting huge logs for burning often made of ash, many antiquarians noted the similarity between the midsummer fires and the midwinter dances, and burnings some producing large studies on the matter.