Taking place on the first weekend after the 31st October, St Just's Feast is a very popular traditional local celebration.
With its roots firmly in the past, the weekend consists of a church service and Mayor's procession on the Sunday, and a meeting of the hunt on the Monday - with lots of drinking and entertainment in between.
As far as I can gather, Feast celebrates a dedication of the church, but has its roots in pre-Tudor England. I read in a letter in The Cornishman this week that when Henry VIII wanted to destroy the icons of the Roman Catholic Church, including the celebration of feasts, he sent a Cornishman based in Bristol, Sir John Tregonwell, to carry out his orders. Unfortunately, but fortunately for the continuing tradition of Feast, reports of plague in the area meant he did not travel to this part of the South West and Feast survived. Fascinating.
Back to the present, with the Cornish Flag flying above the church, on Sunday Pendeen Band and the bells of the church rang out clear across the sunny town, and today, Monday, the hunt milled around the Market Square ready for their Feast day hunt with the band playing them off.
