Myrrh

An traditional story on the Isle of Man was that the myrrh could be seen blooming at midnight on Christmas Eve.

This fabulous event ushering in the day of Christ's birth was also said to be accompanied by the waking up of the bees and the bullocks going down on their knees, though accounts differ as to whether this was to be seen at the start of the old or new Christmas Day (6th January or 25th December).

Although this might be thought to be the stuff of mere folklore, newspaper accounts show that myrrh was found to be blooming in the Isle of Man as late as the 1950s, and the tradition lingers on in folk memory across the Isle of Man today.