Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival

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Straw bears parading down a Whittlesey street

I'm fascinated by festivals that occur only in one specific location. One such is the Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival, which takes place in mid-January each year. Whittlesea (now known as Whittlesey) is a market town just outside of Peterborough. During the Victorian era, it was the custom on the Tuesday following Plough Monday (the first Monday after Twelfth Night) to cover an individual in straw from last autumn's harvest and parade them around the town. The 'bear' was made to dance in order to receive gifts of money, food or drink. Similar customs can be found throughout Europe, but this particular custom is local to this small area of fenland.

In the early twentieth century the tradition went into decline, partly as the local police disapproved of the custom, seeing it as begging. The last sighting was in 1909. However, Whittlesea Society revived the tradition in 1980, and since then it has gone from strength to strength. Now taking place over the second weekend in January, the festival features a bear being paraded throughout the town, stopping at various public houses along the way. The route is so long that two people share the role of the bear, each wearing the costume - which adds around 5 stones to their weight - for half of the parade.

The modern-day festival features traditional folk dancing, a decorated plough as part of the procession, street performances and mummers plays. The bear is ceremonially burned on the Sunday, leaving the way clear for a new bear to be constructed from the next harvest's straw. And so the cycle continues.

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