Pixie Day

On the Saturday nearest to Midsummer’s Day on June 24th, many residents of Ottery, St. Mary commemorate the day pixies were banished from their town. Locals says that the pixies hated the sound of bells ringing so when the town first hung a bell in St Mary’s Church in Ottery and rang it in 1454, the pixies were forced to move away, but they did not go without a fight. The pixies tried desperately to capture and imprison the bell ringer but failed and that is why they left the town and were not seen or heard of  for over 500 years.

However, in 1954, locals of Ottery decided to establish Pixie Day to commemorate the day the pixies exiled the town, and every since then it is believed that the town is full of pixies on the Saturday before Midsummer’s Day. The celebration starts with a large fete in the early afternoon on the Land of Canaan. In the evening, hundreds of local Cubs and Brownies dress up as pixies. The ‘pixies’ head to St Mary’s Church where they capture and drag the bell ringers to the town square where a re-enactment of the pixies’ exile takes place. Afterwards there is a huge firework display on the Land of Canaan.