Hunting the Staw Man in pictures

 

Twenty years ago, the CAM (Comité d'Animation de Mézilles) revived the ages old tradition of hunting the Sraw Man, a celebration of the arrival of Spring. Every two years, the village re-enacts this ancient fertility rite found, in various forms, all over Europe.

 

Preparations

Three week before the date of the hunt, a group of villagers spends an afternoon together weaving the fifty meters of straw rope needed to dress the Straw Man, and to freshen up his quite spectacular hat. The following week-end is spent gathering wood for the bonfire.

On the great day, the village experts dress the volunteer in his straw suit, a heavy burden he will carry throughout the afternoon.

The Hunt

There are three stages to the hunt:

• the Straw Man is tracked through the streets of Mézilles by the villagers accompanied by a brass band and a gand of "chienlits" (young men dressed in peasant smocks with brown stains of questionable origins down the back, firing rifles - with blanks, of course - in the air);
  
• the Straw Man is caught and put on trial in the presence of his (soon to be) widow. The Prosecutor presents his case: a humourous speech listing of the "evil" that has befallen the village during the previous year, and for which the Straw Man must atone. The Judge pronounces the verdict, guilty, and the sentence, death, which is immediately carried out by the "chienlits";
  
• then the Sraw Man, stripped of all honour, is transported to the bonfire on which will burn... his suit! While everyone enjoys mulled wined, and hot doughtnuts.
  

Hunting the Straw Man in pictures