This website is magic …
Every year we come together, on the same night
from town and country and the edgelands in between
from Gurnards Head, up over Watch Croft, down the Chyandour Brook to the Bay
from the Red River, weaving through the stones, across Carn Brae and out to the Cape
and we dance through the streets of Penzance, eyes blazing in the firelight
with the rain on our faces and the wind in our hair.
There’s no such thing as “JUST” a party –
each one is a communion.
it will transform you from a spectator
into an actively engaged participant –
a guiser …
we’re here to inform and inspire.
What began as an attempt to preserve the actual traditions of mid-winter celebrations unique to West Penwith has grown over the years to embrace a wider community.
Re-imagining the customs of our more distant ancestors or creating new ones to take us into the future.
Using the symbolism of the sun to bind us together in the liberating spirit that inspired stolid Methodist burghers and rowdy boys and girls 200 years ago.
In the night, down by the sea, at Montol, everyone can sense the stillness, even if just for a moment amid the mayhem and feel the turning of the year.
Everyone can enjoy the comfort of community and the kindness of strangers.
We embrace our traditions, ancient and modern and share our warmth.
No-one need be alone in the cold and the dark.
Montol welcomes everyone.
Cornish by birth, or Cornish by choice,
from just round the corner or from the other side of the world.
Whether you have any faith or none,
in Sacred Books or Bucca,
believe in God or The Goddess,
hold with Humanism, Panpsychism or Science,
in the stars or the earth, or an intoxicating cocktail of them all.
We are all different
– indeed some of us are downright weird –
and all are welcome here.