British Popular Customs, Present and Past / Illustrating the Social and Domestic Manners of the People. Arranged According to the Calendar of the Year.

by T. F. Thiselton-Dyer

Isle of Man.

Waldron, in his Description of the Isle of Man (1859, p. 125) says that on Christmas Eve every one leaves off work, and rambles about till the bells begin to ring at midnight. Lord Teignmouth (Sketches of the Coast of Scotland and the Isle of Man, vol. ii. p. 264) states that they then all flock to the churches, bearing the largest candle they can procure. The churches are decorated with holly, and the service, in commemoration of the birth of our Saviour is called Oiel Verry.—See Train’s History of the Isle of Man, 1845, vol. ii. p. 127.