St Piran's Day

What it is

St Piran's Day is Cornwall's own national day, fixed each year on 5 March. It honours Saint Piran, one of the county's patron saints, who is also the patron of tin miners. People in Cornwall call it Gool Peran in their own language. The day is not a public holiday across the county, though several town and city councils give their workers the day off. It is a day for Cornish identity: flags, parades, music and the Cornish language all appear. Communities abroad, especially in the United States, keep it as well.

From the tin mines

The day has its roots in the working year of Cornish tin miners. Saint Piran's feast was one of a group of miners' holidays, alongside Picrous Day and Chewidden Thursday. Miners at Breage and Germoe treated the feast as their patron's day until at least 1764. A saying recorded in the 1800s held that miners kept the holiday because their ancestors were said to have been given secrets of tin-making by the saint. The week before 5 March was called Perrantide, a time of heavy eating and drinking. The day after was called Mazey Day, a name now used by the revived Golowan festival in Penzance, and a heavy drinker was described as drunk as a Perraner.

A modern revival

In the closing years of the 1800s and the opening decades of the 1900s, campaigners for Celtic culture wanted Cornwall to have a national day like other nations, and they took up Saint Piran's feast. Interest grew steadily after the 1950s. By the early years of this century, almost every Cornish community was marking the date in some way, and Saint Piran's flag is flown throughout the county on the day. The observance has become a focus for the Cornish language and for Cornish identity more broadly.

Parades and towns

Bodmin's parade, begun in 1999, brings Cornish pipers and children's dancing through the streets, followed by speeches from the mayor, the Lord Lieutenant and the Grand Bard, and performances of Cornish plays and songs; 400 people came in 2009. Truro's procession ends with speeches outside the cathedral, with music and dance, and the winner of a shop window competition is announced there. Penzance has a Furry dance with 500 children and a schools concert. Redruth, first held in 2011, was billed as the biggest celebration in Cornwall. Bude walks behind a piper, Callington holds a supper with music and poetry, Falmouth parades with schoolchildren, and St Ives processes through its streets.

Today and change

Not everyone in Cornwall gets the day off. Nine town and city councils have given their staff a holiday, and some schools let parents take children out for it. In 2006 a Cornish MP, Dan Rogerson, asked ministers to grant Cornwall a holiday on 5 March; that year some Bodmin council workers were granted it, and from 2009 Penzance Town Council offered its employees the day. Cornwall Council voted in December 2011 to ask for a bank holiday if the May Day holiday were moved. A petition gathered only 363 signatures.

How St Piran's Day is kept

The day varies by place, but the usual shape is a public procession, often with Cornish pipers and schoolchildren, followed by speeches, music, dance or children's plays. Some towns hold a walk or a supper instead, and others run shop window competitions. Redruth adds a rugby match, a market, fairground rides and evening music. Saint Piran's flag is flown, and churches hold religious observations. The day is also used to promote the Cornish language and to mark Cornish identity.

When and where

It falls on 5 March each year and does not move, because it is fixed to Saint Piran's feast day in the church calendar. Being a saint's day rather than a season, it has no variable date, and the observance lasts a single day.

Cornwall is its home, and the day is kept in towns and villages throughout the county. Bodmin, Truro, Penzance, Redruth, Bude, Callington, Falmouth and St Ives all have their own events. It is also celebrated in Grass Valley, California, where Cornish miners settled from the middle of the 1800s, and Cornish genealogy groups across the United States gather for it.

What St Piran's Day means

For Cornish people the date carries a sense of nationhood: it gives Cornwall a national day of the kind other nations keep, and the flag flown on 5 March marks that identity. Saint Piran is a patron of the county and of its tin miners, so the day also recalls the trade that shaped Cornish working life. Communities overseas use it to remember the miners who left home and the ancestry they share.

Questions people ask about St Piran's Day

See also

ChristmasA festival of Jesus's birth, kept on 25 December with gifts, lights and shared mealsHalloweenAn annual observance on 31 October marking the eve of All Saints' Day, rooted in Christian tradition and Celtic heritageValentine's DayA Christian feast day and cultural celebration of love kept on February 14 in many countries.Labour DayA day honouring workers, kept on 1 May in most countries and on other dates elsewhere

Good reading and sources

• BBC NEWS | UK | England | CornwallBBC, Article
• BBC NEWS | UK | England | CornwallBBC, Article

• St Piran's Day on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-14.