page_title: Hop-tu-Naa (dance)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Hop-tu-Naa (dance) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: 'Five Manx Folk Dances' collected by Mona Douglas and set to music by Arnold Foster
context_page_description: Hop-tu-naa is a traditional Manx dance connected to the hop-tu-naa festivities around 31 October in the Isle of Man. It is a simple processional dance for any number of two pairs of dancers. The dance shares its name with the festivities and the music to which the dance is connected.
context_section_description: The dance was collected by Mona Douglas from children she met in the road in Laxey. As Douglas noted for other dances, it is possible that this dance was collected from children as it had been retained as a children’s game rather than as a formal folk dance. It is not known at what date it was collected, but it was first mentioned as having been complete and collected in the Five Manx Folk Dances published in 1936. It was first published in Seven Manx Folk Dances.
  Douglas’ writings about the dance offer differing descriptions for the circumstances of its performance. Her published writings refer to its having been performed as a part of a Hollantide procession through Douglas carrying turnip lanterns, but other notes she speaks of its being linked to beating the bounds and the leaving of turnips and other vegetables at the doors of neighbours.
  Other unpublished notes by Douglas refer to the dance as having been performed at occasions other than at hop-tu-naa, such as at the Mheillea, turf cutting and the boat supper. The overlooking of these other uses of the dance has been explained with reference to the need for Douglas to name the otherwise nameless dance when publishing:
  As a simple processional dance [hop-tu-naa] would be used for any procession and was not connected with one specific calendar custom. However, upon the need for publication a name would have been settled on, and as a well known calendar custom would give the dance more historical credence it would seem reasonable to settle on that element of the dance for publication purposes.
  Douglas' writings refer to another 'slightly different' version of the dance having been collection by Philip Leighton Stowell. However, no records of this dance are known of amongst the Leighton Stowell publications or unpublished papers.
caption: Mona Douglas Five Manx Folk Dances
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