A
festival of lights! And a harvest festival!
Traditionally,
this Celtic festival involved climbing a hill to gather bilberries,
feasting with family, building bonfires, and a whole lot of dancing.
Since
the people celebrated on hilltops, you can imagine why this festival
was known as the festival of lights—can you imagine seeing
flickering firelight from numerous nearby hilltops, as people danced
around their bonfires?
However,
I didn't find evidence that this holiday is celebrated much these
days on the Isle of Man.
(Another
name for this Celtic festival is Lammas. See this earlier post for how the holiday is
celebrated in Scotland.)
The
Isle of Man? The Kingdom of Mann? Manx?
World-famous
for a yearly two-week-long motorcycle race, which is nicknamed the
TT, the Isle of Man is located between the two major British Isles.
On a world map, the Isle of Man is just a speck between the main
island of England/Scotland/Wales, and the island of Ireland and
Northern Ireland.
It
is not part of the United Kingdom, as I expected it to be, but is a
self-governing “British Crown Dependency.” It's a complicated
thing, this “dependency” status—residents of the Isle of Man
have passports that state that they are “British Citizens,” but
they are not considered part of the European Union, as most British
citizens are, so they lack certain rights in E.U. countries
Inhabited
since before 6500 B.C.E., the people of the island were influenced
first by Gaelic culture and later by Norse traditions. The language
of Manx, which is an offshoot of Gaelic, is one of the official
languages on the island, but of course, these days most Manx people
speak English.
 |
The "Three Legs of
Man" is a curious
symbol found on the
Manx flag and shield. |
As
I was reading about the history of the island, I kept coming up with
references to “Mann” with two “N”s. The “Mann flag,” the
“Kingdom of Mann,” the “Lords of Mann,” and other references
make me believe that the island name used to have two “N”s, back
when it was a translation of the Manx name “Ellan Vannin.”
As
I read that the Romans used to call the Isle of Man “Mona,” I
remembered that the third book of Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series
(books based on legends from Wales, which is quite close to the Isle
of Man) was set on the Isle of Mona! I was excited to see this
connection—but I checked on Google and found out that the fictional
Isle of Mona, in the kingdom of Prydain, is really based on an island
that is much larger and much, much closer to Wales: the Isle of
Anglesey. Apparently, the Isle of Mona is Anglesey's original name!
Also
on this date:
Wren Day used to feature capturing a real, live wren (poor thing!) and used to be very wild. However, the holiday has evolved into a friendlier event. It is a Celtic tradition, and it is most commonly celebrated in Ireland, the Isle of Man, and Suffolk (England), but it is celebrated by some elsewhere in Europe as well.
