Lantern Night

Once a year, Porthgrey lights every window and every boat. Nobody agrees on how the custom began. The fishermen say it was to guide a lost boat home in a storm. The vicar says it began as a feast of St. Brannoc. The landlord of The Man Overboard says it began because his great-grandfather had a surplus of candles, and he may be the only one telling the truth.

By 1953 Lantern Night filled the town. Families came home, visitors came from Penzance and Truro, the Anchor Hotel was full to the attic, and the population of Porthgrey roughly doubled for a night.

The Register

By old custom, every household in Porthgrey enters its names in the town book in the week before Lantern Night, and every visitor signs it on arrival. The book is kept by the clerk of the Town Registry, Mr. Walter Grigg, who keeps it the way other men keep a church.

In 1953 the Lantern Night Register held 7,140 names, district by district. The original is in the Cornwall Record Office. Edmund Hale has a certified copy. So do you.

The festival, as it was

See the 1953 programme, found folded inside a hymn book in St. Brannoc’s.