Each month, Dr Chloë Woolley, Manx Music Development Officer at Culture Vannin, looks at a well-known Manx song and its history:

All over the island, schools, businesses and the public are getting ready to celebrate the ancient tradition of Hop tu Naa!

The songs, dance and quirky customs associated with October 31 and the Celtic New Year’s Eve are what makes it uniquely Manx.

Hop tu Naa, historically spelt ‘Hop dy Nei’ or ‘Hop T’an Oie’, is said to mean ‘this is the night’, and with origins linking to Hogmanay, Samhain, Hallowe’en, All Hallow’s Eve and Hollantide, it stands alongside ‘Hunt the Wren’ as one of the island’s oldest enduring customs.

The festivities include scooping out turnip (or moot) lanterns with a spoon, fortune-telling, a lively processional dance, and a rich array of songs passed down through the oral tradition and history books.

The Vocabulary of the Anglo-Manx dialect of 1924 said children would sing at doors and collect coppers for a 'taffy spree'. When they didn’t receive a reward, they would bang loudly on the doors with cabbage stalks and turnips!

Many regional variations of the Hop tu Naa rhyme exist, with certain features evolving over time.

A grinning pole cat in the Manx Gaelic version is referred to as a wild cat, bull cat, or witch cat in other renditions, and depending on the tale, the singer might encounter an old woman ‘baking bannocks and roasting collops’ in Scotland, ‘baking cakes’ in London, or back home in the Isle of Man ‘baking bonnags’.

Ramsey has a menagerie of creatures in their song, featuring a very hungry witch!

‘Hop-tu-Naa, Hop-tu-Naa.

Jinny the Witch she ate the horse

She ate the mane and the tail of course.

Jinny the Witch she ate the cow

But how she ate it, I don’t know how.

Jinny the Witch she ate the sheep

She left the wool all in a heap.

Jinny the Witch she ate the hog

She ate the cat and she ate the dog.

Jinny the Witch went into the house

She ate the ringie, she ate the mouse.

Jinny the Witch, she’ll soon be in view

And if you’re not careful she’ll eat you too.

Jinny the Witch, she’s in your house

Give us a penny and we’ll chase her out.

If you’re going to give us something give us it soon

For we want to be home by the light of the moon.’

The infamous Jinny the Witch began to appear in songs in the 1890s when poet T.E. Brown noted down this rhyme in Castletown: ‘Jenny Squinney went over the wall, To get a rod to beat the foal. Hop tu Naa.’

Jenny has since evolved into Jinny, and she soon became a recurring figure in most of the songs. Some believe she was a real Manx woman called Joney Lowney, accused and tried for witchcraft 300 years ago.

So on October 31, make sure you ask for a song when Hop tu Naa revellers visit your house, and give them extra treats if they have a carved turnip lantern!

To learn the Hop tu Naa songs, tune and dance, visit www.manxmusic.com