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May Day Bank Holiday Fun at Cregneash 4 May 2006 With story telling, crafts, music and dance on offer, there was much fun to be had by all at this year’s May Day celebrations at Cregneash Folk Village this Bank Holiday Monday. The centre-piece of this year’s celebrations was the revival of an old custom that has not been practiced on the Island for many years; a mock battle between the Queen of Winter and the Queen of Summer performed by children from Rushen Primary School’s Year Five. The Queen of Winter and the Queen of Summer, along with their captains and troops, marched through the village and met for a mock battle outside Harry Kelly’s cottage, where the winter troops surrounded the summer troops until the crowd paid a ransom! Luckily for everyone, the ransom was paid and the Queen of Summer won the day! Nicola Tooms and Katie King, Assistant Curators, said:  ‘May Day at Cregneash was such great fun, it was excellent to see so many people enjoying themselves. We would like to thank the Year Five children and teachers from Rushen Primary School, they worked hard to practice their lines and their performance was brilliant!’ Visitors had the opportunity to see traditional Manx cookery as the May day feast was prepared, listen to members of the Manx Poetry Society read poems and stories by the fire, make a ‘crosh cuirn’ to take home to keep evil spirits away and join in the dancing with the Manx Folk Dance Society. As well as learning some Manx with Manx language officer Adrian Cain, children also enjoyed themselves making May Day cards with the Manx greeting ‘Laa Boaldyn Sonney’ (Happy May Day). Cregneash Folk Village is part of the award-winning Story of Mann and is open daily from 10am to 5pm. More stories >>>
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