Bermuda Traditions and their sources

1125+ web files in a constantly updated compendium on Bermuda's business, culture, cuisine, customs, districts, economy, education, food, geography, government, history, internet access, laws, parishes, politics, religions, traditions, wildlife etc. For tourists, business visitors, employers, employees, newcomers, researchers, retirees, scholars. Funded by and linked to The Royal Gazette, Bermuda's only daily newspaper.

Bermuda Traditions and their sources

Cultures and customs mostly from other countries but with some local adaptation

To refer to this web file, please use "bermuda-online.org/traditions.htm" as your Subject.

Annual Exhibition (until 2002 the Agricultural Show)

The 70th was in April 2008. It is always a hugely popular, annual three day event in the Bermuda Botanical Gardens in Paget Parish usually every April, except for April 2004 when it was cancelled due to extensive damage in the Gardens from Hurricane Fabian in September 2003. All participants should contact the Exhibition Secretary, P. O. Box HM 834, Hamilton HM CX. The Exhibition - originally the Agricultural Show, named in the British style after shows there in many English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish counties - accentuates that agriculture remains part of Bermuda's history and heritage. These are the only days there is a fee to enter the Bermuda Botanical Gardens. Acrobatic and unusual acts are always flown in for the event. The 2008 imported act was the Dynamic Diplomats of Double Dutch, a professional double Dutch team who have performed live at many events for Sports Authority, Nike Town, Adidas, Tribeca Film Festival, Bloomberg Media and more. Three ladies and one male put on a show skipping to high energy old school hip hop music with all kinds of tricks and stunts including flipping over the ropes, doing splits while skipping, back bends, cartwheels, handstands and more. Highlights usually include horses and cattle, pigs, goats and other animals. There are also competitions, shows, displays and judging of cakes, fruits, vegetables, bonsai, animals, furniture making, culinary arts, riding skills, flower and vegetable growing and all crafts. Refreshment stalls are operated by registered charities.

Architecture, cess pits, sewage & water supply

Beating Retreat

Derived from an evening British Army tradition. It is not a sound to retreat but a musical call, under spotlights in the winter months, to troops to reduce operations for the night, a military tattoo. It became a local custom when the British Army was first here in the 1700s. It left Bermuda in 1953. It is performed frequently - usually, monthly - by the Band of the Bermuda Regiment, under the direction of Major Barrett Dill, EM, AVCM. The Band has dress blue and red uniforms and white pith helmets. The Band is usually accompanied by the Bermuda Islands Pipe Band, under the direction of Pipe Major A. David Frith and Drum Major Jeremy Durrell.

Bermuda Easter lilies

They were introduced to Bermuda from Japan in 1863. They flourished so much that Bermuda once exported blooms to North America and beyond. This was when Bermuda was largely agricultural, before tourism became more important. The export trade is no longer what it was but growing is still a tradition. Bermudians still send Her Majesty the Queen every year at least one choice bouquet of these magnificent flowers. Her Majesty writes to the Governor to thank Bermuda. May 2002 photo by the author.

Bermuda Festival

Bermuda Fitted Dinghies

Dinghies are a development of the British rowing dinghy or skiff, common in British coastal waters. For many years, skiffs were used as a means of transportation from one part or island of Bermuda to another. British Army and Royal Navy Officers stationed in Bermuda in the late 1800s first designed the boat as seen now. Under their patronage, the first fitted dinghy race was held in the St. George's Regatta in July 1853. The next was at the 1854 Victoria Day Regatta. The third was a St. George's Regatta in 1855 with a 10 shilling entrance fee. Four pounds sterling were added to make up purses for the first two boats to cross the finish line in the handicap event.

After several years of informal racing, the sport was organized and measurement rules adopted. It was decided that 14 feet 1 inch long would be the maximum permitted length. No decking is allowed and the keel is limited to 12 feet. All fitted dinghies have a 14-foot bowsprit, 40 foot masts and over 1000 feet of sail - more sail than any other vessel of similar length. Race rules allow the skipper to order as many people as he wishes off the boat, to gain speed. They usually depart from the stern, to give the boat a bonus in speed. There are only eight fitted dinghies. Five race on alternate Sundays from May 24 until September, in various parts of Bermuda.

They are Elizabeth, Challenger, Contest, Port Royal and Victory. The world-renowned sailor and sail designer Uffa Fox did not believe the vessel would float. But it did. The six people in a crew must improvise for survival and seamanship. They jibe from port to starboard for prevailing winds, try to keep upright, and can take on much water. To keep afloat, they jump or get pushed off. They have high speeds but are often sunk or are dismasted. Luck and talent win. They are always entertaining and often hilarious.

Bermuda Gombey dancers

A tradition that began when black slaves were first brought from Africa and the Caribbean. "Gombey" is derived from an African word meaning rhythm. It was originally intended to be performed only on Boxing Day (December 26) and New Year's Day - the two days of the year when slaves were given a rest from their labors. Today, Gombey dance and prance on Boxing Day, New Year's Day, other important events such as football (soccer )matches, at festivals or parades and holidays, also at hotels and guest houses. There is a method of collecting contributions from spectators. The musical accompaniment is usually a kettle drum with two snare drums, covered with goat skin, and a beer bottle fife which produces the sound of a flute crossed with a whistle. Their acrobatic Bermudian members whose routines are based on African, American Indian, Biblical, British "mummers" and West Indian lore and traditions. Each group is a "crowd." The Captain wears the most elaborate costume and is the crowd leader. The Wild Indian and Trapper have a perpetual chase. The Chiefs also carry large tomahawks and shields. Warriors or Choppers include children of families. Under the Captain, the dancers have duets and solos simulating combat. Once, they also re-enacted biblical stories like David's fight with Goliath. Gombey troupes include Warner's Gombeys, Norford's, the Shakey Smith Troupe, Richardson's, and Wilson's Troupe. Books include Gombey Boy and Bermuda Gombey by American born Bermuda author Mrs. Louise Jackson.

Bermuda Heritage Day Parade

A fun day, held on Bermuda Day, May 24. With floats, dance groups and majorettes.

Bermuda Islands Scottish pipe band

The band's history goes back to when Scottish regiments - and a Canadian Scottish Regiment, the Pictou Highlanders - were stationed in the British Army garrison in Bermuda. Kilted pipers played bagpipes and drums on Church Parades from once very substantial Prospect Garrison in Devonshire (which no longer exists). They marched into the city of Hamilton and also attended civilian church services, usually at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Then the band went to the waterfront on Pitt's Bay Road. It became a tradition.

A pipe band still plays, although the British Army left in 1953. It was originally the Bermuda Pipe Band. It performed the Beat Retreat with the Bermuda Regiment. It also played at weddings, funerals and at hotels. This band is what is left and does the same thing. It is under the direction of Pipe Major A. David Frith and Drum Major Jeremy Durrell. One of the most famous local bagpipers was Pipe Major William Huntley Playle. Others include William (Billy) Ferguson, still playing after more than 40 years.

Bermuda kite flying on Good Friday

Passion Flower

Another legend associated with the Easter holiday - although Easter Sunday itself is not a public holiday - is that of the passion flower, of which there is a Bermuda species.

This climbing vine requires a sheltered southern location and a great deal of care, so you will not see it in exposed local gardens. It has five sepals or five identical petals. Spanish missionaries who first discovered the flower in South America made it known how the petals represented the disciples without Peter and Judas. The legend was imported to Bermuda as well. The double row of colored filaments, known as the corona or crown, appear to show to some the halo around the head of Christ and to others the crown of thorns.

Bermuda Passion flower

The violet stamens and other parts of the flower appear to show the wounds and nails Christ endured.

Bermuda Marathon Derby

Bermuda Moongate

Bermuda Moongate (left) and original Chinese one, from which the Bermuda one was copied (right)

This is not Bermudian originally but Chinese or Japanese or both, many centuries old. (In July 2004, a Japanese garden with a structure almost identical to what in Bermuda is called a moongate, won a Silver Gilt prize at the Royal Horticultural Society show at Tatton Garden in the UK). The first plan for one in Bermuda was brought from a Chinese garden in 1860 by a local sea captain. He drew the design of a circular, ornamental wooden gateway to a garden or place of inner repose and, once back in Bermuda, built one of his own. It was copied. It has since been adopted by Bermuda as a national symbol. There are many now in Bermuda. The Bermuda version is built of Bermuda stone and often but not always used as an entrance to a garden. There is also a New England version, in granite, of the Chinese design, as the attached photograph shows.

Legend has it that people who walk through a Moongate, especially young lovers and honeymooners, are blessed with good luck. The real Oriental origin of the Moongate was almost completely lost locally when the former gardener of the Duke of Westminster in the United Kingdom was employed to lay out the grounds of the (former) Bermudiana Hotel in the 1920s being built at that time by the Furness Withy shipping group. This was the first of the Bermuda Moongates in hotel properties.

Unfortunately, Bermuda Moongates do not export very well as Bermuda stone is very heavy. But you might be able to obtain a design from a local architect and have one constructed if you wish, overseas, or refer to Chinese designs for the original kind.

Bermuda Moongate song

Bill Hyden wrote on July 30, 2001 with a message for this author. " I have never been to Bermuda but a friend of mine, music composer Ralph Blane, co-wrote a song "Step Though a Moongate." Many years ago, when I worked at KVOO radio station here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, we put out a record of the song, with Ralph singing. On the flip side of the record is "Bermuda Blue." Unfortunately, the record is 45 rpm and not many players handle that anymore. Ralph Blane is now deceased. He was quite a noted composer. One of his best known compositions was "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and other songs of the movie "Meet Me In St. Louis."

A local version of Step Though a Moongate, by Gene and Pinky Steede, confirms the Oriental origin of the Bermuda Moongate in the words of the song.

Bermuda Triangle

There is a great deal of misunderstanding about this in the USA, Canada, Britain, Europe and elsewhere. It is assumed, wrongly, that this mythical area is solely in Bermuda. To be entirely accurate, Bermuda is only one point of the three in - and by far the smallest of - the Bermuda Triangle. 88 percent of all the events of the Triangle happened much closer to Florida - especially Miami - or Puerto Rico, the other two points of the Triangle. Technically, Bermuda is near to it but not actually in the Sargasso Sea where the majority of events may have occured. Draw a triangle between Bermuda, Miami and Puerto Rico to get an idea of the Bermuda Triangle and then consider the effect of enormous Florida, large Puerto Rico and tiny (only 21 square miles) of Bermuda. This is the descending order of importance of the three places in the Triangle.

It may disappoint some to know this but there has never been any effect at all of the Bermuda Triangle on any of the customs and culture of Bermuda. This author was told personally by an elderly writer in the USA who studied the Triangle that when the original " Bermuda Triangle" was coined in the USA, it was supposed to have been the "Miami Triangle" but Miami objected as it did not want to lose visitors. The "Puerto Rico Triangle" was the second choice, but it too objected, for the same reason. It is alleged that no one from Bermuda bothered to reply so the name stuck by default. This has never been proven so may be mere speculation. What is known to be true is that there have been quite a few ship and aircraft losses on the Triangle over the years, a few near Bermuda, but none at all in living memory. The interesting Bermuda Triangle website is done from the USA by an American, given the prominence of Florida and the US Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in the combination of facts and myth. Several books have been written about it.

Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI) Christmas Parade

An after-dark marine spectacle, free to all, on a Saturday evening in December before Christmas, watched mostly from vantage places ashore. After 5 years, it is now an established tradition. It is sponsored and planned by BUEI. It draws a bigger audience than any other festive activity in Bermuda, over 20,000 spectators. More than 70 boats of all shapes and sizes, all covered with lights in a fantastic display, cover a measured course twice. Imagination and ingenuity of boat owners are incredible. Prizes are given in a number of categories. There are also sightseeing boats. The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club opens its doors - and its restaurant - to the public for the boat parade. The event ends with awesome fireworks display. It is superb, not to be missed by any local or visitor.

British spelling

Local advertisements, brochures, guide books, newspapers etc. spell certain words in the British - not American - way. This may be confusing to our visitors, more than 90 percent of whom are American. Some words used locally, like "scheme," have a less pleasant connotation in the USA. Some British words end in "our" but the American equivalent ends in "or" for example, "harbor." Do you write your birthday 7 4 60 or 4 7 60? It depends on whether you are American or British or Canadian. The Bermuda Government spells its local Official Notices in the British and Canadian way. But if one writes for a mostly American audience, it is good manners to do it the American way. The Royal Gazette daily newspaper publishes its date of issue the American, not British, way. Traffic signs are confusing to Americans because distances are shown in meters (metres in Britain), not miles. And gasoline (petrol) prices are confusing to Americans because they are in liters (liters), not gallons. Most Americans think, wrongly, that gasoline is cheap in Bermuda because of the posted prices, but in fact they pay more in Bermuda for a liter (0.22 gallon) than for a gallon back home. And Bermuda drives on the left, not right, despite the fact that we have 8 times more visitors than locals every year. It is confusing...

Christmas & Boxing Day Pantomime & Holidays

Cup Match

Dramatic arts

In serious, comedic and other works, the Bermuda Musical & Dramatic Society, Black Box Productions, Jabulani Repertory Company and others provide cultural entertainment.

Drystone walling or dyking

Drystone walls, still found in some parts of Bermuda, are limestone walls made without mortar.

Festival of Lights

This is always in December. The Bermuda Electric Light Company, the only electricity service, awards prizes.

Gardening

Gombeys

Dancers similar to those in Africa and certain parts of the Caribbean, from black families. They dance at certain times of the year and on special days. They appear in the 2003 Edinburgh Tattoo. The word Gombey comes from the African Bantu language and means both rhythm and drum. Noteworthy and quoteworthy are the books "The Bermuda Gombey; Bermuda's Unique Dance Heritage" by Louise A. Jackson and "Bermuda: Traditions and Tastes" by Judith Watson.

Hasty Pudding Theatricals

Always in March - from Harvard University. Annual visit to Bermuda. Sponsored by the Bermuda Government's Department of Tourism. Ticket prices and times and information at phone 295-1727.

Johnny Barnes

From the roundabout (rotary in the USA) near Crow Lane Park in Paget Parish, Johnny Barnes, a remarkable Bermudian senior citizen, has made a unique tradition for decades of waving a cheery "Good morning" - in all weather - to commuters exiting the parish to enter Pembroke Parish - where there is a statue to him just off the busy East Broadway main road - to work in or near the City of Hamilton.

Photograph by Government Information Services

Music choirs, classical, calypso and soca music

Onions (people)

Onions were introduced to Bermuda in about 1616 from Britain as English onions - before they reached the USA. Not until the 1830s did they become a major export. By the mid 19th century, Bermudians became known as Onions and Bermuda as the Onion Patch. The popularity of the by-then Bermudianized British Onion, or Bermuda Onion, led to the development of Bermuda Onion seed in Texas in 1898. In Texas, a farming community called itself the Bermuda Colony (later, Bermuda, Texas), on the north side of the Nueces River in Dimmit County. Competition began between Bermuda and Texas to export onions. A combination of what the Texans could do with their onions with the new railway system nationwide in the USA that Bermuda could not and high tariffs imposed by the USA, led to decline of the industry in Bermuda. After the Great War, exports were finished. Today, more people in the USA get their onions from Georgia than Texas. One reason may be that onions take six months to harvest.

Palm Sunday Walk

An annual favorite, a different location each year over several miles of flat and hilly areas in places usually barred to the general public, run by the Bermuda National Trust. Walking shoes with non-slip tread are recommended. No dogs or wheeled vehicles (such as mountain bikes and strollers).

Peppercorn Ceremony

Portuguese Cultural Association

There are many people of Portuguese extraction (mostly from the Azores) extraction. Some are still Portuguese nationals, despite long residence that in any other country would have qualified them as citizens. The Association has a splendid troupe of dancers, men in red waistcoats and women in red skirts and tight bodices. They dance to traditional Azorean tunes, on special days including the Bermuda Day May 24 Parade celebrations.

Roof Wetting

When new houses, apartment blocks and office buildings gave their roofs completed, to seal out the rain, wind and moisture, locals celebrate with a roof wetting on the roof. Usually, an owner and contractor or builder are the key persons and climb the outside of a roof via a ladder. A bottle of black rum is either poured on the roof or is shared.

Shark oil barometers

Bermudians rely on unique, shark-oil based "barometers" to predict storms and other severe weather, even with electronic meteorological facilities available. Once, local St. David's Islanders cooked shark in its own liver oil. After being melted down in the hot sun, it was poured into any soda (carbonated beverage) bottle and hung outside. The appearance of the oil altered consistently with changes in the weather. From that time on, bottles of shark oil began appearing on walls or terraces.

Local practitioners of the art today say a reliable way of knowing what the weather is going to be like is to secure them with string, hang them up, then read how the shark oil settles or remains cloudy. Some old timers still check shark oil before going into deep waters. There are dozens of theories on why shark oil changes with the climate and whether it really is effective. The only one that seems to fit is that electrical changes in the atmosphere affect the shark's liver and alert the shark to move out to deeper water before a bad storm. The oil retains this function when removed, and the change is visible, the oil switching from a clear golden color like cooking oil to milky white.

Shark oil is common in many countries with sea access and so are soda bottles and shark oil barometers, so there is no need to export them from Bermuda.

Bermuda War Veterans Association	Registered Charity 140
Bermuda War Veterans Commissioners	See Bermuda Government Boards