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nAnfestival of lights! And a harvest festival!
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nTraditionally,nthis Celtic festival involved climbing a hill to gather bilberries,nfeasting with family, building bonfires, and a whole lot of dancing.
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nSincenthe people celebrated on hilltops, you can imagine why this festivalnwas known as the festival of lights—can you imagine seeingnflickering firelight from numerous nearby hilltops, as people dancednaround their bonfires?
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nHowever,nI didn’t find evidence that this holiday is celebrated much thesendays on the Isle of Man.
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n(Anothernname for this Celtic festival is Lammas. See this earlier post for how the holiday isncelebrated in Scotland.)
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nThenIsle of Man? The Kingdom of Mann? Manx?
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nWorld-famousnfor a yearly two-week-long motorcycle race, which is nicknamed thenTT, the Isle of Man is located between the two major British Isles. nOn a world map, the Isle of Man is just a speck between the mainnisland of England/Scotland/Wales, and the island of Ireland andnNorthern Ireland. n
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nItnis not part of the United Kingdom, as I expected it to be, but is anself-governing “British Crown Dependency.” It’s a complicatednthing, this “dependency” status—residents of the Isle of Mannhave passports that state that they are “British Citizens,” butnthey are not considered part of the European Union, as most Britishncitizens are, so they lack certain rights in E.U. countries
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nInhabitednsince before 6500 B.C.E., the people of the island were influencednfirst by Gaelic culture and later by Norse traditions. The languagenof Manx, which is an offshoot of Gaelic, is one of the officialnlanguages on the island, but of course, these days most Manx peoplenspeak English.
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The “Three Legs of Man” is a curious symbol found on the Manx flag and shield. |
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nAsnI was reading about the history of the island, I kept coming up withnreferences to “Mann” with two “N”s. The “Mann flag,” then“Kingdom of Mann,” the “Lords of Mann,” and other referencesnmake me believe that the island name used to have two “N”s, backnwhen it was a translation of the Manx name “Ellan Vannin.”
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nAsnI read that the Romans used to call the Isle of Man “Mona,” Inremembered that the third book of Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain seriesn(books based on legends from Wales, which is quite close to the Islenof Man) was set on the Isle of Mona! I was excited to see thisnconnection—but I checked on Google and found out that the fictionalnIsle of Mona, in the kingdom of Prydain, is really based on an islandnthat is much larger and much, much closer to Wales: the Isle ofnAnglesey. Apparently, the Isle of Mona is Anglesey’s original name!
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nAlsonon this date:
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nAstronomer Maria Mitchell’s birthday
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