Rushes
	Presiding Officers | Tynwald in Douglas | Remuneration and Allowances | Seating Plan | Tynwald in St. John's Bollan Bane | Rushes | Fencing the Court | Former Members of Tynwald | Tributes
	An unusual feature on Tynwald Day is the spreading of rushes (actually sedge grass or marram grass) on the processional way from the Chapel to the Hill. As with the wearing of of Bollan Bane, the rushes point to traditions at such gatherings from times before the Vikings arrived. The burning of rushes on bonfires on the Celtic Sun God festival of Belthaneon South Barrule in early summer as well as sun-wise dancing round the fire, was replicated also at the Manx Gaelic Oenach Midsummer Festival. A bonfire was again the central rite of this festival, the communal nature of which was that all contributed materials to it. Chiefs and priests attended a temple service (later a Christian church service), both as worship, and as affirmation of the authority of the King and the proclaimed heir, before procession to the scene of the bonfire; the resemblance to Tynwald Day is inescapable. According to an old Manx ballad, the only yearly tribute levied on Manxmen by the wizard-chief Manannan was a bundle of rushes delivered to him every St. John's Eve, i.e. the Eve of the Midsummer festival. The strewing of the path with rushes represents a former sacrifice or offering to the Spirit of Vegetation. In Celtic tradition on Man, Manannan is associated as the god of the sea, god of the waters above the earth and under it, god of fertility and crops, and god of the rushes and swamps. As with other aspects of folk memory the significance taken on later of the rushes has married with traditions that have followed. The Vikings added to the Oenach their tradition of Thing meetings; the Christian church replaced pagan worship but on the same site and on the same day; the rushes, for a time, being brought from every parish figuratively to cause the lawmakers to pass through every parish in which the new laws were to become binding; and walking sun-wise three times round Tynwald Hill as bringing good fortune.