BY Clay Larroy
Make
the most of your travel experiences. Taking a cruise is a great
way to see many different places when you travel. Cruises offer many activities
and things to do while on the ship, while offering you the opportunity to
explore different locations each time you arrive at a port. Travel is a great
opportunity to learn more things. Time spent abroad helps you understand and
appreciate diverse cultures. In addition, it encourages an acceptance and
tolerance of ways of life that differ from your own. When
you want to plan a vacation contact me!
For three days each year in August, more than 20,000 people
converge on Killorglin in Kerry in Southwest Ireland for the coronation of a
goat. But not just any goat. No sir. That is King Puck on the stage in the
center of town overlooking the river Laune. It is best to be full of good
spirit in the King’s presence, because everyone else is! A three-day event
commences amidst traditional Irish music. Saturday is "Gathering Day"
and the bars are filled with patrons all weekend. "Fair Day" follows
and finally "Scattering Day". But what is this about a goat?
In the McGillycuddy Reeks, the highest mountains in Ireland,
wild goats take refuge. Each year the "Puck" is caught by the
townspeople. On Gathering Day the town’s civic leaders lead the captured and
somewhat confused goat through the town streets. When the procession reaches
the town square, Puck is coronated "King Puck" and then spends the
next three days on a raised platform 20 feet about the town, watching his mad
subjects below.
OK...appears we have some pagan underpinnings here. Certainly,
there seem to be some links to pre-Christian celebrations of a harvest and that
the male goat is well known as a pagan symbol of fertility. Some will tell you
than the festival began in honor of the Celtic sun god in an ancient festival
of Lughnasa. Another legend, however, dates the Puck’s role in the fair to 1650
when Oliver Cromwell advanced on Kerry. A herd of goats raised the alarm, with
one brave male goat running directly into town bleating a call to arms,
alerting the town’s people to the invading army of British soldiers. In his
honor, the Puck Fair came into being. King James I in 1610 granted the
livestock fair in Killorglin an official status, making the Puck Fair the
oldest continual fair in Ireland.
REFERENCE SITES:
http://www.travelresearchonline.com/
““to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice.”
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