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Flora Day
Through the front door, out of the back, and on down the street.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Town streets; dances on Flora Day
- Legend from
- Recorded 18th century
- Best time
- Flora Day, 8 May
- Tone
- Light-hearted
Seven in the morning, and the band strikes up outside the Guildhall. Helston is dancing.
On Flora Day in May, Helston dances. Couples follow the band up Meneage Street and in and out of shops and houses, starting with the Early Morning Dance from the Guildhall at 7am. More than a thousand schoolchildren in white dance at 9:50, the Midday Dance follows at noon, and the Evening Dance at 5pm. The Hal-an-Tow is a rowdy street play that features Robin Hood, St George and St Michael, the town's patron saint. Robert Hunt recorded that anyone caught working on the day was carried on a pole to the river and made to leap over it, landing in the water.