BFI

The ancient Furry Dance (also known as the Flora Day) is held annually, usually on 8 May, in the town of Helston, West Cornwall. The day begins with a band marching through the town, accompanied by children dancing in the streets. The Furry Dance itself involves the band striking up a horn-pipe tune and leading the dancers, in couples, through a succession of houses. The event is a celebration of the passing of Winter and the beginning of Summer ("For Summer is a come O, and the Winter is a gone O", as the lyrics of the ballad Hall-an-Tow, a later addition to the day, have it), and is believed to be one of Britain's oldest surviving folk traditions, dating back to pre-Christian times.

Not that this was of much concern to the Topical Budget newsreel, which was happy to celebrate the Dance as another example of Great British eccentricity, a "weird in and out the houses 'hop'".

Mark Duguid

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