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St Ives Feast Day Celebrations

The St Ives Feast is an ancient tradition that celebrates the consecration of the Parish Church of St Eia in 1434 and offers a rare chance to watch the game of Hurling the Silver Ball, a centuries’ old form of rugby.

2023 Feast Celebrations

Sunday 29th January 11am Church Service and refreshments, St Uny Church, Lelant
Sunday 5th February 11.15am Mayor’s Parade and Church Service, St Ia Church
Monday 6th February 9.15am leave from the Guildhall
9.30am St Ia Well Porthmeor
10.30am Hurling of the silver ball from the St Ia Church wall
11am – midday events at the Guildhall
Midday return of the silver ball to the Mayor
7pm Feast Monday Rugby Match St Ives RFC v Cornwall Fire & Rescue St Ives Rugby Ground, Alexandra Road.

At around 10.30am, the Mayor of St Ives will hurl the ball into the crowd on the beach whilst shouting guare wheg ya guare teg (fair play is good play in Cornish). The game, also known as Cornish Hurling, dates back at least one thousand years, and originally involved physical rough and tumble as two teams from different parts of the parish tried to keep possession of the ball. At modern day feast, the game is played by played by children and teenagers, who run around the town and try to keep possession of the ball.  The procession slowly return to the Guildhall. The Councillors drop pennies to the children in the crowd from the balcony, and wait for the clock to strike noon, at which point the child with the ball returns to collect their reward from the Mayor.On the Monday, each year a civic procession including musicians and schoolchildren make their way through the town’s narrow, cobbled alleyways wearing pieces of ivy in remembrance of St Eia, the patron saint of St Ives (who is believed to have crossed the sea from Ireland on a boat made of ivy) to Venton Ia, the well of St Ia. The parish priest then blesses the ball, made of sterling silver, hammered into two hemispheres, bound around a core of applewood and held together with a silver band. After the blessing, the procession returns to St Ia Parish Church yard for the main event, the Hurling of the Silver Ball, which is one of Cornwall’s oldest customs.

Excerpt from 1974 Borough of St Ives booklet – Feast Day

Videos of Feast Day
1977 – BFI
1991 – Cornish Pasty Man
2011 – St Ives TV
2013 – St Ives TV
2015- St Ives TV
2016 – St Ives TV
2017 – St Ives TV

Images courtesy of St Ives Times & Echo, Nick Pumphrey, Nik Read

Event Date

February 6, 2023

10.00 am

Location

St Ives Guildhall
TR26 2DS

Accessible

Fully accessible
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