St Piran’s Day: some things you need to know about the annual Cornish day

With delicious pasties, pies and Poldark all coming from Cornwall, this is an area of England that is certainly worth celebrating!
Together with one other important word starting with the letter “p”, that is also a vital part of the area’s culture: St. Piran!

Also called the Feast of Saint Piran, this day acts as the official national day of Cornwall, located in the very southwest portion of Great Britain.
Held on this day, March 5, it is named after St. Piran himself, who is believed to have brought Christianity to the region about the 6th century, considered to be one of the patron saints of Cornwall and particularly of those who were miners of tin.
His feast can be traced back to at least the 18th century, though it may have taken place prior to that.
Despite the event died out for a while, its modern interpretation was re-introduced by locals in the late 19th and early 20th century, when Celtic revivalists wanted to provide the people of Cornwall with their own day of celebration and honor.
By the early 2000s, most communities in Cornwall had begun holding various events, activities, parades, parties and celebrations in honor of St. Piran’s Day, including dances, live music events, poetry, processions, speeches and so much more, where the black and white flags of St. Piran can often be seen waving in honor of the day.

Historically, St. Piran was a bishop from Ireland whose name can also be spelled Pyran.
According to legend, he was born in Ireland about the 6th century, and he was known for his strong faith and his ability to perform miracles, including big classics such as turning water into wine and raising the dead.
His life took a strange turn when he was accused of heresy by preaching the word of the Gospel and thrown into the sea in a millstone.
However, instead of drowning, he calmly floated back inland and lived to tell about it. He miraculously floated across the Irish Sea and ended up on the Cornish coast, where he made his new home, where his first followers were a badger, a bear and a fox.
Piran is also said to have had the gift of miracles, and is believed to have discovered tin in Cornwall when a black stone on his fire leaked a white liquid in the shape of a cross, although it had previously been mined by the Romans, but it had been forgotten in subsequent times.
You know the Cornish flag?
The black one with the white cross?
Well, not by chance, it’s called St Piran’s Flag and it’s all to do with tin itself, which brought in a lot of money for the area. Legend has it that St Piran rediscovered tin smelting. He smelted some ore containing tin which caused a white cross to appear on his black hearth stone and thus the icon of the flag was born.
Despite his miraculous life, St Piran’s story also has a tragic ending.
As story goes, St Piran lived an impressive 200 years. However, his demise remains shrouded in mystery as there are no records of his death, only tales of him falling down a well, and apparently he was found of the drink.
His remains were lost until the 7th century when a group of Irish monks came to Cornwall and discovered them by following a vision of a bright light in the sand dunes.
They reburied him in a churchyard, which eventually became the site of St Piran’s Oratory, a small chapel that still stands today.

The contemporary celebration of St Piran’s Day as a national emblem of the people of Cornwall began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and during the 1950s, the festival has grown in popularity. Almost every Cornish community now throws a festival to commemorate the occasion.
Perrantide is the week leading up to St Piran’s Day, a time to eat, drink and be merry. There are usually all sorts of activities and events happening across the county to mark the occasion and the list is growing year on year.
‘Trelawny’ or ‘The Song of The Western Men’ is a popular song about Cornishmen matching to London to heroically free the unjustly imprisoned Trelawny from the tower.
I’m not sure if it was John Trelawny (24 April 1592 – 16 February 1664), a Cornish baronet and soldier from Trelawne, High Sheriff of Cornwall who fought for Charles I in the English Civil War, or Jonathan Trelawney, (24 March 1650 – 19 July 1721), Bishop of Bristol, Bishop of Exeter and Bishop of Winchester, best known for his role in the events leading up to the Glorious Revolution, that took place from 1688 to 1689 in England and involved the overthrow of the Catholic King James II, who was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange, and event which ultimately changed how England was governed, giving Parliament more power over the monarchy and planting seeds for the beginnings of a political democracy, but that’s a minor detail.
Basically it’s a song about how brave and amazing Cornish folk are which is why it’s become the unofficial Cornish anthem.
The Trelawny Shout began in 2015 and is fast becoming one of locals’ favourite St Piran’s Day traditions.
It’s basically a large singalong happening in pubs throughout Cornwall at the same time and, not by chance, the song of choice is “The Song of The Western Men”.
Parades and processions will be taking place across Cornwall and most Cornish towns celebrate with a furry dance. Don’t worry, as this doesn’t involve animal hide or excessive your hair growth because a “furry” is actually just a processional dance performed in rows of four, often by children.

Either way, overlapping with the changing of the seasons and the warming of the weather, St. Piran’s Day offers a beautiful opportunity to visit the rugged countryside and magnificent seascapes located here.
From Penzance to Padstow, from St. Ives to Truro, there are dozens of incredible towns and locations for sightseeing, beach-crawling, fishing and so much more.

You must be feeling fully informed on St Piran’s Day now, so all that’s left for you to do is grab a pasty and celebrate!
Happy St Piran’s Day to everyone!