Costume and things to wear
Torchbearers have traditionally worn a dark colour in fairly heavy fabric. This makes us look stern and forbidding and keeps us from distracting attention from the more colourful costumes of the other performers as well as protecting us from our own torches. Also unlike some of the other performers we get to wear our own clothes under the costume element of our clothes and don't have to strip off to little but paint...
Own clothes
These should be as black as possible and made of natural fibre. The outer layer will need to be fireproofed 24 to 48 hours before the procession, so you need to decide what you're wearing and make sure it's clean in time:
- decent boots
- gloves
- trousers
- long sleeved black top or jacket
- you may want to wear a hat or hoodie, which is OK as long as it doesn't show under the hood of the costume - no baseball caps or top hats!
- earplugs - these are essential especially since most of us are very near to the drummers (and we'll need them for the walkthrough as well). We will try to find somewhere to buy them in bulk.
We won't be able to carry bags around with us on the procession, so it's worth choosing clothes with pockets for essentials like money and keys, and keeping what you carry to a minimum.
Torchbearer Costume
- tabard, i.e. an oblong of fabric folded in half with a hole for the head plus tape to tie it at the sides. This will have a design in yellow on the
front or back (or both). The design in 2005 was the Norse rune Kenaz:
which means torch. There's no sewing involved in making these except to attach the tapes, but painting will take a little time and needs to allow time for drying before the tabard is fireproofed.
- hood, made of the same material as the tabard, just an oblong folded in half and sewn or glued along two sides, this will also need tape to hold it on
- bag - for torch balls, or rather to go around the poly bag paraffin soaked torch balls will be in. We need a strap to either sling this over the shoulder under the tabard or tie it round the waist. These will need to be redesigned to be significantly more fuel-proof, after Samhuinn.
Facepaint - in 2005 our faces were painted black with a yellow design on.
In 2004 our design was the Ogham rune Duir, which means "oak tree" and represents solidity and dependability
Beltane should be providing facepaint, but we will need to spend money on fabric, tape, paint, makeup brushes and sponges, earplugs etc.
