Hpo Tu Naa on the Isle of Man

 

 

 

 

 

Years, many many years ago when most people had black and white only TVs, there was a educational program on a 3:30 Pm, aha! just when one got home from school. "An educational program", you could call it a travel log......and it really was informative.  Aimed at  {I think} gradeschool kids and stressing  customs and everyday life.  One day it featured The Isle of man....and so it goes.   Always wanted to see Hop Tu Naa....in person.

Hop-tu-Naa is celebrated on Saturday, October 31, 2026, with main public festivities—such as the Hop tu Naa Festival at Cregneash—taking place on that day. [1, 2]

Key 2026 Event Detail 

Main Festival Date: Saturday, October 31, 2026 [1]
Location: Cregneash Folk Village, Isle of Man [1]
Festival Sessions: 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM or 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM [1]
Activities: Turnip carving, traditional music, dancing, and the story of Jinny the Witch. [1]

Would you like information on ticket prices or booking requirements for the Cregneash event?

 

 

 

What is Hop-tu-Naa and how do Manx people mark it?

Rebecca BrahdeIsle of Man

CULTURE VANNIN

Hop-tu-Naa is the oldest unbroken Manx tradition

Manx people are preparing to mark Hop-tu-Naa by carving turnip lanterns and singing about Jinny the Witch.

The Celtic festival is the oldest unbroken tradition on the Isle of Man, and is celebrated on 31 October to mark the transition from summer to winter.

Although typically compared to Halloween, it is considered the Celtic New Year, as it celebrated the safe gathering of the harvest, and was a sign that preparations had been made for the coming winter.

James Franklin from Culture Vannin said the date marks the point where "the veil between this world and the other world is at its thinnest, making us open to outside influences like witches or fairies."

What does Hop-tu-Naa mean?

Hop-tu-Naa is a relatively modern name for the night in Manx Gaelic which has been adopted since the 1940s.

Before that, the holiday was referred to as Hop-tu-Naa night, and had previously been called the night for singing Hop-tu-Naa.

Mr Franklin said that while some believe it is just a sound that was adopted in the traditional song called Hop-tu-Naa, others believe that it could refer to the fairies, the trolls and the elves, linking the celebration to older Norse era beliefs.

What are the traditions?

CULTURE VANNIN

Turnip-carving is a core feature of Hop-tu-Naa

A key part of Hop-tu-Naa is turnip carving, in which the root vegetable is hollowed out, decorated and turned into a lantern.

These turnip lanterns are often taken around the community, a custom which Mr Franklin said could be linked to a belief that fire serves as "protection against evil" on Hop-tu-Naa night.

"The great thing about carving turnips is that you earn it by the end, because it is so much more difficult" than carving a pumpkin, he said, adding that the smell of a turnip lantern was "something special".

During the evening, children often go around houses singing traditional songs including Hop-tu-Naa, the tune of which varies across regions, as well as songs about the Manx folklore character Jinny the Witch.

Some fortune-telling rituals, which have not continued, saw young women bake and eat a "dumb cake" in silence during the evening, before walking backwards towards bed with their future husbands believed to appear in their dreams that night.

Many of these customs were believed to garner good luck for the coming winter and ward off evil spirits.

Who is Jinny the Witch?

Jinny the Witch has become an intrinsic figure in the tradition, referred to during either through song, or costume.

Tales of Jinny the Witch stem from Joney Lowney, a woman from Ballaglonney who lived about 300 years ago.

She had six children, and would go around and ask for money, but it was soon noted that bad luck would fall on those who had refused her.

However, she was also known to help people, by gathering herbs and making potions with them, often being asked by farmers to provide a cure for a sick animal.

Her notoriety grew on the island, as she was famed for her magic.

But one day she questioned the quality of sacks of flour being distributed to the poor by the Bishop's miller, and once she spoke, the mill machinery stopped, and could never be revived.

She was arrested and charged with practicing witchcraft, found guilty at trial, and spent 14 days at Peel Castle.

She was fined £3 and ordered to wear a white sheet and stand at the Market Cross of the four main towns, Castletown, Douglas, Ramsey and Peel holding a sign that said "for practices in sorcery and witchcraft".

What events are taking place?

A number of events will be taking place in the coming week to mark the festival:

• Hop-tu-Naa Festival at Cregneash: Taking place on Saturday, the event will see turnip carving, music, dancing and story-telling, which will run from 10:00 until 12:00 BST or from 13:00 until 15:00.
• Great Laxey Mine Ghost Trains: Running on Saturday and Sunday
• Laxey Hop-tu-Naa Trail: Running until 2 November, free trail maps can be picked up from the Winn Boutique, the Co-op, the Commissioners' Office, the Beach Stop Cafe, or The Shed
• The Enormous Turnip at Cregneash: Music and storytelling, taking place from 11:00 until 13:00.
• Turnip-carving at Cregneash: taking place from 10:00 until 16:00 on Monday to Friday, with an additional one-hour sessions held at the historical site on Wednesday at 10:00, 12:00, 13:30 or 15:00 for those under 5.
• Children's Hop-tu-Naa Dance Party: From 18:00 until 19:00 on Friday at Morton Hall in Castletown

 

 

 

rambling about Pumpkins, a memory

By  now i think you have noticed how much i like Halloween.  It is the holiday i look forward to  almost as much as Christmas....and some years more  than Christmas.  The spookyness of Halloween here in the piney wood is thick with the dark ,quiet nights, save for the occasional owl hoot or the rustling 0t a wild turkey or deer walking thru the still standing cornstalks. 

There are the soft breezes that rattled the dry leaves  the  dry leaves hanging tightly  from tree branches.  Swirling gusts of wind that send the fallen leaves racing across the yard, stirring crisp, dry swirling leaves into a frenzy that i think is the definitive sound of late October.   

 Stealthy but far from silent creatures who walked along the edges of the creek as they foraged for something extra to eat before the long winter's sleep began, become more bold. 

The days growing ever shorter, i would bring my  paper bags from the A&P to a friends house, along with crayons scraps of cloth, images cut from advertisments about Halloween.  Patiently covered with each one with omages witches, Owls, spooky trees, whatever we could think of to decorate them for "Tricks and Treats".  Some nights we didn't make it home before darkness fell, so deeply engrossed in decorating our  paper bags with images  fit Trick or Treating .  Fog especially near the creek was  both scary and beautiful.  It came from the ponds near the the swamp, and floated like specters, past our eyes and in our dreams.

 

With the lengthening nights  carved pumpkins t guarded  many front doors.   Some houses had one, and some many. Each lantern had a  a candle was and still is surprising to me how much lite spilled from the faces each one of those faces carved into each orange  lantern.  

When it wa my turn to blow out candle for that night i  must admit that i looked over my shoulder, and around the corners of the house.
Reasoning that one never knew what might be haunting the darkness, after all the cemetary was nearby.

Pumpkins were carefully selected and brought into the house to ripen quickly before carving.  It was always fun to scrape out the seeds in their orange octopus looking clumps, and sticky and slimy feeling clumps, the next day we separated the seeds, some to plant next year and some to roast and eat .  Walking thru the  vines and pumpkin patch looking for the perfect pumpkin to make into your own Jack-O-Lantern was an honor. It seemed that way to me. Only certain pumpkins were destined to be come Jack-O-Lanterns.

Some pumpkins were for pies , and others were feed to the cows. 

Craving a Jack-O-Lantern a right of passage. 

We would load out old truck with pumpkins and may-be some corn stocks if there were any nice ones left and  a couple bails of hay.   An even greater right of passage was riding into town with my Dad and a load of   pretty pumpkins into town on an October Saturday and selling them to folks who didn't have gardens.
Our truck was never piled that high with pumpkins, not for fear they would fall off, but because we would get a ticket, at least i think that was the reason.

I considered myself more than lucky to have my own pumpkins to carve, and in my heart i loved the misshapen ones best, as you never knew how they would turn out until you light the candle and set them out  in the dark night for everyone who passed by our house to enjoy.

thank you to all of the people who took all of these cool pictures!!!

haiku--- , tricks or treats

 Owl by the gate waits
Pumpkin's glowing eyes await
at darkness we ride

Grandma's Kitchen a magical apple cake

 tThe days grow shorter and the nights longer, a chill edges thus the house, every room except the kitchen. T here  the warmth of the cook's stove and the aroma of vegetables cooking, the sweetness of  apple cobbler  blend with fresh coffee warm ones body and soul.   I for one start to miss summer before the vivid leaves of autumn leaves even begin to fall.  

Old Tyme Halloween Postcards

 

              

            

pumpkins, glorious pumpkins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                       

 

 

 

                                                                                     

 

its, well its not a telestitch

 

OPPS it's not a telestitch it's something I made up, or may-be it is something else.  Poetry fascinates me.  Puzzles  fascinate me.  Words facinate me.

Errr UMMM ummm UHHH errrr UMMM, I wasn't paying good attention and got it wrong, no wonder it was so easy to write a telestitch, I was doing it wrong.....got it now,  last letter of the last word in the  line, NOT the first letter of the last word in a line.  

I would like to say I made that error because I was excited to learn something new....but I can't truthfully say that or can i????  

 

M

  Or can I?  Merriam Webster defines a telestich "as a poem in which the consecutive final letters of the lines spell a name."  So i tried to rework it.

 weary, longing for sleep 

looking out the window
the mottled colors of evening

a long day ends 

slumber rewards the tired 

sunrise begins each new day

quiet streets to roam
things so endearing
day dreams of adventure
all good things await me
imagination grandly soars

 

 

OK perhaps a nice enough poem....but it won't work, it's not a telestich.  I could claim  anew poetic form, so i looked one up. "What   is a poem called when the first letter of the last word in a line?" 
 

the reply was " Last-Word Acrostic: The first letter of the final word in each consecutive line spells out the hidden text." 

  

Good night, sweet dreams!