Every Day Is Special: Cornwall

Showing posts with label Cornwall. Show all posts

October 26 – Allantide in Cornwall, England

Posted October 26, 2019

(Saturday nearest to Halloween)

Cornish foods and customs come from
Cornwall, England, the southwestern
county pictured above in pale pink.

The Cornish festival of Allantide is sometimes celebrated on the Saturday nearest to Halloween...and is sometimes celebrated on Halloween itself, October 31. Like so many other Halloween things, the festival is a mix of pagan and Christian customs.

Allantide is sometimes called Saint Allan's Day or the Feast of Saint Allan. Allan apples are large and red, and they appear to be ubiquitous symbols of the holiday. They make store windows festive, they are given out as gifts on Allantide, and they feature in games and fortune-telling activities. For example, a girl might put an Allan apple under her pillow at night in the hope that she will dream about the man she will someday marry.

Don't try this at home! This is one of the most dangerous games I've ever heard of: A wooden cross is hung from the ceiling. Above the cross are lit candles, and below the cross dangle a few Allan apples. The goal is to bite or eat an apple, without using one's hands, and the punishment for being to gentle or too rough is - a face full of hot wax??? What?? I can just imagine candles falling onto players, hair catching on fire, and hot wax permanently blinding eyes. Craaaaaazy!

The other thing I saw plenty of in Allantide descriptions is the turnip lantern, similar to the pumpkin jack-o-lantern.

Finally, Allantide includes a custom similar to one from Day of the Dead celebrations: the family puts up a table display dedicated to dear ones who have died over the years.

Also on this date:

Angam Day in Nauru

Austria's National Day

Cereal manufacturer C. W. Post's birthday

Mule Day

Anniversary of the opening of the Erie Canal

Armed Forces Day in Benin

St. Demetrius's Day

Intersex Awareness Day

Plan ahead:

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November holidays
November birthdays
Historical anniversaries in November

March 2 - Pasty Day

Posted on March 2, 2019

Have you ever had a small savory pastry? A sort of meat-and-potatoes tart?

I'm talking about pasties - not pastries, with an "R," mind you, but past-ies - which are a British version of small meat pies.

Here are some things that are used inside Cornish pasties:

Diced beef

Diced potato

Turnip

Onion

Salt and pepper

Maybe other seasonings?

All of those uncooked ingredients must be put into the uncooked pastry (pie crust or puff pastry), which is then sealed by being crimped. (According to the Cornish Pasty Association, if it isn't crimped, it isn't a Cornish pasty!) The pastry can be glazed with egg or milk or both, and then the pasty should be slowly baked.

In a way, a pasty is a bit like Polish pierogies and Italian raviolis.

For Pasty Day, in the U.K., there is a crimping contest to crown the world's fastest crimper. Mr. and Mrs. Pasty (pictured here) have been walking, cycling, and rowing all over the county of Cornwall to rouse interest in pasties, and I guess this pair sings, as well! Finally, there will be some pasty giveaways surprising and rewarding emergency and rescue crews who have done wonderful things this past year. (U.K. citizens nominated deserving crews, apparently.)

Here is a traditional pasty recipe.

Apparently some variations of the traditional "innards" IS allowed. Check out the cheese and bacon, lamb and mint, and pork and apple pasties:

There are also variations of crimping techniques:

Cornwall looks lovely!

Also on this date:

Anniversary of Massachusetts ratifying the Bill of Rights – 150 years late!

Texas Independence Day

Dr. Seuss Day

Peasants' Day in Myanmar

Birthday of activist / reformer Elaine Brown

World Book Day in the U.K. and Ireland

First Ballet in Britain

The Iditarod begins

(First Saturday of March)

Sock Monkey Day

(First Saturday of March)

Plan ahead:

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And here are my Pinterest boards for:

March 5 - Saint Piran's Day in Cornwall

Posted on March 5, 2017

This is the National Day of Cornwall.

Except...Cornwall is not a "nation"!

It is a county and a "unitary authority area" in England.

And England isn't a nation, either - it's a country that is a part of the nation of the United Kingdom!

I suppose many governmental units either were independent realms or nations at one time or want to be. And even if a region has always been part of a larger nation, and its people have no designs of ever breaking away, people in that region can still feel a loyalty to and an identity with that region!

Today Cornwall celebrates all things Cornish. There are a lot of Cornish flags raised or carried, and Cornish food, music, and dance abounds.

Saint Piran is considered the patron saint of Cornwall and also of tin miners. Almost every community in Cornwall celebrates the day: We're talking Cornish pipers, children's dance performances, speeches, competitions (I love the idea of the Annual Pasty Throwing contest at Newquay Zoo!), Cornish poetry, singing, rugby matches, fetes, and lots and lots of parades.

There are also some celebrations outside of Cornwall - Cornish culture is celebrated today by some in London, for example, and there is even a tin miners' celebration in Grass Valley, California!

Cornwall is known for its dramatic coastline...