Monday, 4 May 2026

The Straw Bear of Whittlesea


The Whittlesea "Straw Bear" is now part of a local folk-festival happens every year in Cambridgeshire on the second weekend after the Epiphany. The modern festival's website is here.

What's particularly interesting though is not just the strong völkisch air to proceedings but also that a few years after the Straw Bear custom was finally revived (after about seventy years of abeyance due to a ban by the police in Edwardian times), quite by chance the locals involved heard about a very similar "Straw Bear Festival" that takes place ever year round about Shrovetide at Walldürn near Frankfurt in Germany.

Parallel evolution? Or is the Cambridgeshire Bear a distant Protestant cousin of a more authentic, Catholic animal who's celebrations back in Germany are part of the run-up to Lent?

Well all's fair when it comes to speculation about these things, and given that the English are good at keeping popular folk-traditions going but not so good at reviving things (especially in our own ghastly day and age) I say long may it continue!

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