We are just finishing a salad lunch at the tiny restaurant opposite the library when the dragons walk past. A bright red patch on a black face, a black-and-red body, head waving in a friendly fashion. A fairly amicable dragon, as dragons go. A large wooden elephant follows, a man’s face peeping out tentatively from inside a crate on its back. Behind that, a bunch of little fairies dressed in pristine white, with identical “don’t-mess-with-me” looks on their faces.
And just then, a little boy, a pair of white trousers in the midst of all the frocks, turns to the girl next to him and sticks out his tongue at her. For a moment, there is a frisson of unrest among the fairies but hard discipline kicks in, overriding the attractions of a street brawl.
The ever-informative Wikipedia says: “In 1564 the Midsummer Watch Parade (in Chester) included 4 gyants, 1 unikorne, 1 dromodarye, 1 luce, 1 camell, 1 dragon, 6 hobbyhorses and 16 naked boys.” The naked boys have gone into hiding, but most of the others are still around at the parade: giants, dragons, camels and dromedaries (the single-humped camel), hobbyhorses (and elephants). Huge floats convey the dragons and the sun and the moon and several stars, little girls dressed in lacy white frocks, old men and women in blue fancy suits, and tall men on stilts making them taller still. And jugglers and fire-eaters and drummers marching to their own beat. Perhaps the luce, too, whatever it is.
The Midsummer Watch Parade at
Chester is a ritual believed to have begun in 1498, according to the city council, with “the outstanding features of the show (being) the Giants—enormous structures made of buckram and pasteboard and carried by two or more men”. Somewhat disturbingly, the naked boys featured even then: “There were also fantastic giant beasts including the unicorn, the elephant, the camel and the dragon. Originally the dragon was beaten by six naked boys, but this practice was banned in the late 16th century”. There’s something to be said, then, for Elizabethan morality.
Today, the parade is one of Britain’s largest and most colourful street carnivals. But there is no sense of anticipation, no eager waiting crowds, in fact, no major indication that such a parade is about to take place, except for the posters all over town. One minute, all is quiet on the streets, with just a few tourists craning their necks to see the well-preserved Tudor buildings lining the streets. And the next, dragons and drummers are out in full force, and the streets are chock-a-block with people.