Tynwald Day - The Tynwald Ceremony at St John’s
Tynwald Day is the National Day of the Isle of Man and is usually celebrated on 5th July; if this is a Saturday or Sunday, then Tynwald Day is held on the following Monday.
On this day Tynwald, the Manx Parliament, meets in St John’s instead of its usual meeting place in Douglas. Tynwald Day is attended by the two branches of Tynwald: the House of Keys and the Legislative Council, also the Judiciary and the representatives of the Towns, Villages, Parishes and the Churches. All participants are wearing small bunches of bollan bane, also known as mugwort, a Celtic custom adopted by the Vikings when establishing Tynwald.
His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor is the representative of His Majesty the King, who is the Lord of Mann, and presides over Tynwald except on the occasions when the Lord of Mann or another member of the Royal Family is present.
The Military and Manx Units march on and line up on the Front Green. The Lieutenant Governor arrives to take salutations, inspect the Guard and the Band. The Lieutenant Governor will lay a wreath at the War Memorial and all observe a one minute silence.
The Lieutenant Governor moves to the Robing Room and from there to the Chapel to join all the other attendees for the Church Service that begins at 11.00 am. After the Church Service, which ends with the Manx National Anthem, the processions from the Chapel to Tynwald Hill begin with the Choir and Choristers, followed by the Official Tynwald Guests and the congregation.
The President of Tynwald is preceded by the Manx flag and wears a wig and light blue robes with silver decorations. The Lieutenant Governor is preceded by the Sword of State, which is thought to date back to the 15th century, is blunt for safety reasons and displays the Manx triskelion or three legs symbol.
The Processional Way is strewn with rushes, a tradition going back to the Celtic custom of pacifying the sea god Manannan by offering bundles of rushes on Midsummer’s Eve. The length of the path is lined with flagpoles, which fly both the red Manx flag and the blue parliamentary flag.
As Tynwald is an open air Ceremony, anyone can watch proceedings. Grandstands are erected to give the pubic a better view of the Hill.
Tynwald Hill is an artificial mound, said to contain soil from all 17 of the Island’s parishes and made up of four circular platforms. The Lieutenant Governor, the Sword Bearer and the Officers and Members of the Legislative Council occupy the top tier. Officers and Members of the House of Keys are seated on the second tier, other Officials on the two lower tiers.
After the singing of the Royal Anthem and on the direction of the Lieutenant Governor the First Deemster instructs the Coroner of Glenfaba to ‘fence the Court’, which is carried out using a particular wording in English and repeated by Yn Lhaihder (The Reader) in Manx. The Coroners of the four sheadings appointed for the coming year will come forward to take the oath and receive their ceremonial staves of office from the Lieutenant Governor. Then the laws that have been agreed during the past year and have received the Royal Assent are read out by the First Deemster in English and by the Second Deemster in Manx after which members of the public have the opportunity to present petitions for redress of grievances.
After the National Anthem the participants are called off the Hill for the processions back to the Chapel for the Captioning Ceremony. During the Captioning Ceremony in the Chapel, documents certifying the passing of the laws are signed by the President of Tynwald and the Speaker of the House of Keys. After the conclusion of the captioning of the Acts the Lieutenant Governor and the Legislative Council withdraw to leave the Members of the House of Keys for a short meeting of their House.
When all business is complete, all leave the Chapel.
When the Lieutenant Governor departs through the Lychgate, this concludes the formal Ceremony.
www.tynwald.org.im/tynwald-day