Happy Tynwald Day
1st July, 2010
As the Manx nation prepares to celebrate its National day on Monday 5th July 2010, Manx Independent Carriers would like to wish all our customers and friends a Happy Tynwald Day.
TYNWALD IN HISTORY
"Our little nation is the only Norse nation now on earth that can shake hands with the days of the Sagas, and the Sea-Kings. Then let him who will laugh at our primitive ceremonial. It is the badge of our ancient liberty, and we need not envy the man who can look on it unmoved".
The observer at St. John's on 5th July, the Manx National Day, watches a ceremony which has continued unchanged, except in detail, for more than 1,000 years. The annual outdoor sittings of Tynwald, the Manx Parliament, date back to the Viking settlements which began in the eighth century of the first millennium AD. No other parliament in the world has such a long unbroken record.
The Isle of Man is not part of the United Kingdom, but a Crown Dependency. Her Majesty The Queen is acknowledged as Lord of Mann. King George VI was the first British Sovereign ever to preside at St. Johns, in July 1945, and Her Majesty The Queen presided in 1979 when the Millennium of Tynwald was celebrated. His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales presided on Tynwald Day 2000 as her representative.
