GUISE DANCING WITH THE SCALEYBACKS OF HAKEY BAY

Guise (pronounced ‘Geeze’) or Goose dancing was common in South West Cornwall in the Middle Ages but has only been seen sporadically in recent years. Usually a midwinter celebration of mischief, it featured processions, drama, song, music, and games, the emphasis being disguise and having fun - a break from the mundanity of everyday life. Recently-formed St Ives Montol Guild THE SCALEYBACKS OF HAKEY BAY revive the custom here on Feast Monday 2024, meeting at The Golden Lion at Market Place to start a pub-orientated procession in the town which included calling at The Three Ferrets and The Castle Inn and noisy dancing outside The Sloop.
Historian Margaret Courtenay wrote in 1886 :
“Every year since the 1860s, guise dancing, or wearing any disguise at all in the streets of St Ives, was expressly forbidden, with posters displayed in prominent places reminding one and all of the ban. Every year, it was spectacularly ignored.”
In 1898 a resident of St Ives High Street wrote:
“St Ives streets at night are a perfect pandemonium. Parties of men, boys, and girls parade the thoroughfare dressed in all sorts of outrageous and fantastic disguises. These are invariably followed by a noisy throng, singing, screaming, and shouting - some of the ‘musical’ instruments used being concertinas, tin pans, fluting and bones, ‘May horns,’ etc, etc."
Guising traditionally started on Christmas Day and ended on the Twelfth Night. People went from house to house and pub to pub, singing, making noise and arriving at a door asking for admittance, food, and drink. In return, they would gain entrance by singing, dancing, or winning a rhyming competition with the inhabitants. This competition could go on for some time and include many insults. Eventually, they would be let in for food, drink, and merriment which they would enjoy until moving on to the next house or pub, starting all over again.
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THE ROYAL FAMILY AND St IVES • THE ROYAL FAMILY AND S...
REMEMBRANCE AND 'IN MEMORIAM' • REMEMBRANCE AND 'IN ME...
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AUTISM'S GOT TALENT ROADSHOW • AUTISM'S GOT TALENT RO...
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[@melissahampson-smith3850]

Fun had by all. May there be many more xx

[@Cornishpastyman]

It is hoped to be a regular part of future Feast Day evenings.

[@user-vq4eg4cj8t]

奇怪的「遊行」……富有特色。