St Peter’s day (29th June), along with St John the Baptist’s day (25th June), is an important marker for mid-summer celebrations. Bonfires were lit on both St John’s Eve (Midsummer’s Day, this was the Summer Solstice before changes in the calendar) and St. Peter’s Eve. In Tudor England both these celebrations included music, processions, garlands of flowers, drinking ale and feasting.
Locally St. Peter’s Day is the fixed point for the timing of Parwich Wakes, and gardeners in the village used to regard this as the best time for digging your first new potatoes.
The Odd Fellows Ale drunk at their feast on Saturday is a recent revival of a very old tradition. Chris and the A52s are keeping alive local music making. Our Carnival Parade is a reminder of the Tudor processions, and the floats in the parade echo the decorated carts popular in the north as part of the build up to hay making.
Being currently between vicars there is no St Peter’s Day service in Parwich Church this year, but Andrew Robinson, lay reader wrote the following on St Peter for us: (more…)



























The Wakes Market will be as usual on the afternoon of Wakes Saturday (27th June).







