The Serpent dance is a traditional
Cornish dance associated with the
Midsummer
Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer usually held at a date around the summer solstice. It has pagan pre-Christian roots in Europe.
The undivided Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian mart ...
festival of
Golowan and Cornish cultural events such as
nos lowen
Nos Lowen (former spelling Noze looan) is a style of Cornwall, Cornish-Celtic dance, and associated music and events similar in style to the Brittany, Breton Fest Noz but featuring only Cornish dances. Nos Lowen is Cornish for "happy night". ...
(earlier spelling
noze looan.
detailed description of the Golowan serpent dance form An Daras the Cornish culture website
Below is a description of the dance as performed in the Golowan fire festival in
Penzance
Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...
in the 19th century from J S Courtney's ''A Guide to Penzance and Its Neighbourhood'' (1845):
''"The proceedings finished by the boys and girls from the quay, whose torches had by this time expired, dancing in a long line hand-in-hand through the streets, in and out and sometimes over the now low burning tar-barrels, crying out, "An eye, an eye". At this shout the top couple held up their arms and beginning with the last the others ran under them thus reversing their position."''
Cornish culture
Penzance
European dances
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