diff --git a/pelican/utils.py b/pelican/utils.py
index cfbc3c23..e4ae8abd 100644
--- a/pelican/utils.py
+++ b/pelican/utils.py
@@ -184,11 +184,12 @@ def get_date(string):
             pass
     raise ValueError("'%s' is not a valid date" % string)
 
-
-def pelican_open(path):
+def pelican_open(filename):
     """Open a file and return it's content"""
-    return open(path, encoding='utf-8').read()
-
+    content = open(filename, encoding='utf-8').read()
+    if content[0] == codecs.BOM_UTF8.decode('utf8'):
+        content = content[1:]
+    return content
 
 def slugify(value):
     """