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nThisnis one of the odder of the Caribbean holidays: Every year innBermuda’s largest city (St. George) pomp and circumstance surroundsnan event that would seem to be very ordinary, even boring: collectingnrent.
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nAnhorse-drawn carriage brings the governor to the Old State House toncollect this “rent,” which is not a sum of money, but is insteadna single peppercorn!
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Thisngoes back to the old days of 1797, when a group of Freemasons begannrenting the Old State House for the sum of a peppercorn. St. Georgenused to be the capital city of Bermuda, but in the late 1700s thenparliament decided to build a new capital city.
Thisngoes back to the old days of 1797, when a group of Freemasons begannrenting the Old State House for the sum of a peppercorn. St. Georgenused to be the capital city of Bermuda, but in the late 1700s thenparliament decided to build a new capital city.n
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nDonyou know where Bermuda is?
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nEarliernI referred to Bermuda as being a Caribbean island—but really it’snpretty far north of the Caribbean Sea. It’s about 600 miles due eastnfrom North Carolina, well into the Atlantic Ocean. (Check out the map below.)
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nSonwhy is it often referred to as a Caribbean island? n
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Historicallynand culturally Bermuda, along with othernnot-actually-in-the-Caribbean islands such as the Bahamas, is linkednwith islands that ARE in the Caribbean Sea. One example is that manynblack people from the Eastern Caribbean islands migrated to Bermudanin the early 1900s, bringing their culture and foods. n
Historicallynand culturally Bermuda, along with othernnot-actually-in-the-Caribbean islands such as the Bahamas, is linkednwith islands that ARE in the Caribbean Sea. One example is that manynblack people from the Eastern Caribbean islands migrated to Bermudanin the early 1900s, bringing their culture and foods. nn
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nBynthe way, Bermuda isn’t a fully independent nation; instead, it is annoverseas territory of the United Kingdom. But that didn’t stop itnbeing included in the Animaniac’s “Nations of the World” Song.
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n(A less fuzzy versionnof the song can be found here—but the country names are missingnfrom this version, which is too bad. Lyrics can be found here.)
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nWhat’snthe Bermuda Triangle?
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nBasically,nthe Bermuda Triangle is pseudoscience. What I mean by that is that itnis nonsense, hokum, baloney, hogwash, and poppycock!
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nThenBermuda Triangle is a geographical area of the Atlantic Ocean that isnsupposed to be the site where an unexplainable number of airplanesnand boats have disappeared in such mysterious circumstances thatnpeople were sure that ghosts or aliens or magic had to be the cause.nHowever, studies have shown that a lot of the reports given bynBermuda-Triangle promoters were incorrect or “fudged”—by whichnI mean lied about, to make a point. In actual fact, some planes havengone down in the area, sadly, and some ships have sunk. But thennumbers of tragedies there are no more than any other area of thenocean.
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nAlsonon this date:
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nAnniversary of the first seeing-eye dog in the U.S.
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nWorld Penguin Day
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