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Folklore festivals
Kirklees is home to exciting festivals throughout the year. Festivals celebrating local traditions
and culture are a must for anyone looking for entertainment.
February - Imbolc Fire Festival, Marsden
The Imbolc celebration started 12 years ago, and marks the time when the Earth begins to wake-up after its winter
sleep. Imbolc, literally meaning 'Ewe' Milk' is a 2000 year old Celtic Festival, and a marks the first signs of
spring. This free event features a procession along the canal as well as a fire 'circus' accompanied by music and
usually a short drama. The festival closes with a firework finale.
February - Moonraking Festival, Slaithwaite
The Moonraking Festival celebrates an event that reputedly took place in 1802 in the village of Slaithwaite, and
is one of the great quirky events in British folklore. Allegedly smugglers threw barrels of illegal alcohol into
the canal and seeing customs and excise officers feigned stupidity and claimed they were trying to rake out the
moon. Each year a procession of colourful lanterns follows a route through the village and lights up the canal
before the tale is re-enacted. The celebrations end with a firework display.
March - St Patrick's Parade, Huddersfield
This family event has continued to grow in popularity since its inception in 2001, with each year's parade
improving on the last. The highlight is a parade of themed floats through Huddersfield Town Centre, 'top and
tailed' with Irish bands. The festival also includes majorettes, Irish dancers, traditional and modern music,
disco, street entertainers, fancy dress artistes, Leprechauns, Molly Malone and much more Irish fare, including
merchandise stalls, booklets, rosettes, hats and flags - in short, something for everyone.
April - Cuckoo Day, Marsden
This annual event welcomes the return of the cuckoo to Marsden when the townspeople celebrate with a day-long
festival with clog dancing, music, a procession and a famous 'cuckoo walk'. Artistic workshops, an all-day craft
fair, banner-making, a village procession, maypole and Morris dancing and cream teas all culminate with a lively
evening ceilidh at Marsden Mechanics Hall. Marsden's reverence for the cuckoo stemmed from the fact that the
spring and sunshine always came with its arrival. In days gone by legend has it that the people of the village
built a huge wall to try to prolong the cuckoo's visit.
July - Caribbean Carnival, Huddersfield
The carnival began as an event to celebrate the cultural traditions of the Caribbean and has now developed so
much that it's become a major event in Huddersfield's social calendar. The day is now enjoyed by the diverse
cultures represented in Kirklees and beyond. The carnival takes place in Greenhead Park following the Queen's
Ball and a massive colourful parade through the town.
World Together
Kirklees has become the home to people and communities whose family origins and cultural heritage are spread all over the world.
estalished white British, Irish, South Asian, West Indian, Chinese and East European communities in addition to refugee and asylum seeking communities, Kirklees is perhaps one of the most culturally diverse regions in the UK.
World Together celebrates this rich diversity in art, dance and music, by providing a platform to showcase the talent, art and skills within our local communities in order to enjoy each other's culture, music, history and traditions
August - Dewsbury Feast, Dewsbury
Over a week of fun for all the family, with something for everyone and guaranteed to bring a smile. The 'feast'
starts at Crow Nest Park with the traditional Dewsbury Gala including the ever popular Flower, Vegetable and
Handicrafts Show. The week also features a Sportsfest featuring football, rugby, basketball, netball, athletics
and cricket, as well as Bhangra and Bollywood exercise.
The highlight is Dewsbury on Sea, a full four days of family entertainment celebrating the British seaside
tradition - from buckets and spades on a specially constructed beach, to the simple old-fashioned fun of donkeys,
roundabouts, Punch and Judy, beach entertainers, Tarot readings and tasty seaside food - there's even a pier!
This four day festival, with Dewsbury Market at its heart, marks the fact that two of the most notable seaside
traditions are rooted in the area. - illuminations and lettering rock!
Illuminations were first erected in neighbouring Heckmondwike, before even Blackpool and the technique of
lettering place names through rock was also developed in Dewsbury. These bits of history, together with the fact
that Dewsbury is just about as far from the sea as you can get in this country, led to Dewsbury holding the first
ever inland 'on sea' festival, an event that has now been copied by several inland towns throughout the region.
December - Tolling the Devil's Knell, Dewsbury
An old custom observed every Christmas Eve in Dewsbury, this rite has
carried on for 700 years, with only a short break during the war years, when bell-ringing was forbidden for
security reasons. The tenor bell, known as 'Black Tom', is tolled once for every year since the birth of Christ,
to remind the town's people of the defeat of the devil. The final stroke is timed to ring exactly at midnight,
after which the first communion of Christmas is celebrated. Legend says that the practice began in the 13th
century when a local baron gave a bell to the church as penance for killing one of his servants, and ordered that
it be rung each Christmas Eve to remind him of his crime. For many years the good people of Dewsbury believed that
the tolling of the bell would keep the Devil away from the parish for the next 12 months.
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