Tynwald Day 2012: Thousands celebrate Manx national day

Thousands of people gathered in St John's earlier to celebrate Tynwald Day, the Isle of Man's national day.

It is the only day of the year when parliament is held in the open air and the public get the chance to lobby the law makers by presenting petitions.

The ancient ceremony has been held at Tynwald Hill for more than 1,000 years.

This year's event was the first to be presided over by Clare Christian, the President of Tynwald, which is the world's oldest continuous parliament.

Artist events

The historic day was first codified by the Manx parliament on the hill in 1417. New laws are promulgated in both English and Gaelic.

Mrs Christian replaced Noel Cringle, who stood down shortly after last year's ceremony.

Local artists ran a series of classes on Manx music and art and entertainment group the Play People performed live, as well as giving workshops in activities including parkour and unicycling.

The whole ceremony was streamed live on the BBC Isle of Man website.