Wedding season is associated with summer nowadays, but in the past, when farming and fishing took place during the fine weather, followed by a busy harvest, many weddings took place during winter or early spring. Like today though, music and dancing was a very important part of the gatherings and this is reflected in the traditional songs, tunes, dances and curious customs found in the Isle of Man.
The eve of a wedding was announced by the blowing of horns outside the bride’s home, apparently to ward off bad spirits. Next morning, a fiddler was hired to lead the wedding procession, and of course, play for dancing into the early hours! Whether on foot or horseback, it was good luck for the procession to circle the church three times before entering, and at the start of the ceremony the groom might present the bride with a pair of white gloves, as depicted in the song; “Piyr dy Laueyn Baney”.
After leaving the church, local children would hold a rope across the road and the bride and groom had to pay a ‘footing’ to pass. For poorer couples, a ‘dollan’ (sieve) was left out to collect money from the guests to cover the cost of the fiddler’s “deservings” – these were known as ‘penny weddings’. Incidentally, the dollan (but with skin still intact) is also the Manx word for the drum known as a bodhran.
Folksong collector WH Gill brought the traditional tune, “Car y Phoosee” to wide-spread fame in his comical song, “A Manx Wedding”, published in Manx National Songs (1896). Still popular today, the Manx dialect song describes a typical wedding scene; “Be off to the weddin', you young people all, For all are expected, the great and the small...
Within the song, Gill describes local musicians – Karran the Cornet, and fiddle players Archie Cuckoo and Phillie the Desert – and names popular national songs – Mannin Veg Veen, Bollan Bane and Mylecharane. A favourite verse for many tells of the Manx tay – “And custards and jellies from Mrs Cregeen. A better confectioner naver was seen! Mrs Cregeen? Yes, Mrs Cregeen! The lek of them jellies has navar been seen”!
Probably because of the song’s instant popularity, Manx wedding re-enactments became fashionable, as seen in an old Pathé film featuring a solo fiddler and elderly man doing a jig! And for Manx societies around the world, ‘An Old Manx Wedding’ was a good excuse for to dress up, socialise and reminisce about the Island.
Mona Douglas collected the dance for Car y Phoosee and it is easy to learn - either performed by two couples or as a progressional dance for more – handy for a wedding ceili!
Instructions are in the book Rinkaghyn Vannin (now available to download) and a step-by-step video will soon be released by Culture Vannin. The song itself is performed by Harmony Chorus on the Best That’s In album, and you can learn the melody on fiddle with Dr Laura Rowles in her instructional video. A folk session favourite, the tune has also been arranged by classical composers over the years – George Tootell in 1926, and more recently in a book by pianist Madeline Kelly, and by organist Nicholas Roberts in Culture Vannin’s publication, Celebration and Contemplation.
If you have a wedding on the horizon and want a Manx flavour, then head to manxmusic.com to find Manx performers and musical inspiration!
MFDS 'A Rare Oul Manx Wedding’ performance at Kirk Maughold, July 1957 [photo donated to CW from Sheila Corkill]
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