Cockenzie and Port Seton Box Meeting

Where:	Cockenzie and Port Seton, East Lothian, Parade starting and ending at the Harbour
When:	Saturday in early September (every fifth year)
Time:	11am-6pm approx with Parade at 2.30

Cockenzie and Port Seton is a single settlement and a Friendly Society was founded there over 200 years ago to provide a fund to help widows of local fishermen lost at sea. The box was the collection place for the society funds and today the Box Meeting procession is led by the Box Master and The Preces , his helpers who carry the container for him. Also expect Friendly Society banners, boats, fishermen and women and brass and pipe bands. When the party reaches the Thorntree Inn on the High Street, there’s a lengthy stop for traditional dancing and refreshments, then the parade ends at the harbour, where speeches are made and seafaring songs are sung. The ladies in fishwife costumes wave their hankies and toss coins on board for luck as the ships sail out of the harbour, in memory of their ancestors waving off their menfolk as they left the port for the herring fishing, which took them from home for many months of the year. Originally the event was held later in September, to mark the return of the Herring Fleet at the end of the season, but now it’s usually early in the month and it happens every five years, not every year.