BBC.com is reporting that a battle between the Queen of Winter and the
Queen of Summer is to be the highlight of the May Day celebration on the Isle of Man. The fight is apparently
based on an old Norse custom.
The festival, called "Laa Boaldyn," apparently has its origins in the
Celtic calendar. However, "the battle itself is actually a Norse custom which was absorbed into the
traditional May Day celebrations of the Manx people," said Nicola Tooms, Assistant Curator for Manx National
Heritage.
Sounds pretty interesting. If we were still living in England, I might have nagged my
English husband to go take in the celebrations — however, he tells me that it always rains on May Day in England, so
it might have been a hard sell.