Costermonger's Harvest Festival, EnglandEvery year, London's Pearly Kings and Queens -- a charitable group recognizable by their dark suits, embroidered with pearl buttons -- gather to celebrate the Costermonger's Harvest Festival.
For 125 years, the London harvest festival has had a troupe of shimmering mascots. The Pearly Kings and Queens -- deemed Britain's "second royal family" -- are renown for their dark suits emblazoned with hundreds of mother-of-pearl buttons, a tradition started by Henry Croft, an orphan-turned-street sweeper. He first got the idea from costermongers, or street hawkers, who used to line the seams of their pants with pearl buttons found on the street. He took it a step further and coated his whole suit -- top hat and all. Naturally, it wasn't long before he was a popular London fixture; he used his notoriety to raise money for various charities.
Each borough of London has its own Pearly Kind and Queen, and as a whole, the group functions mainly as a charitable organization. According to Doreen Golding, the Pearly Queen of Old Kent Road and Bow Bells, charity and harvest go hand-in-hand.
"It doesn't matter what faith you are. At the end of the year, when all the crops are gathered and have been given to people in the community, it's typical to then give them out to all the homeless people who haven't got any food," she says. Like Croft, the "Pearlies" use their fame to fund raise.
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