Organisers want to bring back The Fishponds Beast and this quirky tradition
The lake at Eastville Park
The team behind organising a quirky event in Fishponds, which was set to involve a mythical beast, shame notes, a lantern parade through the streets, and a ceremonial fire, has had to cancel some elements of it due to not getting permission from the council.
Described as ‘the UK’s oldest recorded shame-eating lantern festival’, the Shame-eating Lantern Festival was due to take place on the banks of Eastville Park Lake on February 15, where locals and visitors were invited to gather with pink ‘Shame Lanterns’ and slips of paper with their most embarrassing memories of the year written down on.
Musicians were planned to assemble among the crowd to begin what is described as ‘songs of mortification to draw the beast from its slumber’ where it will ’emerge in search of delicious shame’. Then, led by lantern bearers and drummers, the beast was planning to head through Eastville Park and around the streets of Fishponds, where locals could place their embarrassing moments on paper into the beast’s open mouth as it passed.
But now organisers say that, while the event hasn’t been cancelled in its entirety, some elements have changed due to not getting the correct permissions from authorities. A spokesperson for The Fishponds Beast Revivalist Society, who had been organising the event, told BristolLive: “The event has had to be partially cancelled because we didn’t get permission from the council, a fact which I intend to write on my own shame slip to feed to the beast.
“So we will not be meeting at the lake or doing the lantern walk across the park. We will know for next year and will look to get the correct permissions for then. We remain committed to finding a way to revive this colourful Bristol tradition in future years.
“In the meantime, we will host a smaller version of the ritual at the Friends of Eastville Park Community Hub on February 15 at 5pm, where the community will be invited to feed their shame to the beast.”
The event will be completely free to attend and it’s hoped 2027 will return for the grander scaled version of the festival, as it was supposed to be.
The story behind The Fishponds Beast and the ‘shame eating ritual’
According to the official ‘Fishponds Beast’ website: “Stories of the roots of the shame eating ritual differ, but most revolve around the 13th century Monk St Polycarp. Cursed with crippling embarrassment at the stupid things he said, he began writing them down in his journal.
“But every time he did, he felt mortified at the thought that someone might read them. So, he would walk down to Eastville Park Lake at dusk to discard the latest pages.
“But one evening the unfortunate Polycarp arrived at the banks with his journal and there waiting for him was a giant, monstrous fish creature. It had started life as a simple carp, but months of gorging on his delicious shame had made it huge and monstrous. The beast demanded to be fed. But Polycarp, horrified and embarrassed, refused to relinquish his journal. The beast swallowed poor St Polycarp and his journal whole!”Many historians think that the roots are actually much older – going back to the Babylonian myth of a giant shame-eating fish man who consumed King Cyrus after he accidentally did a fart in court that was much louder than he was expecting!”