When is Peat Cutting Monday?
Peat Cutting Monday is a public holiday in the Falkland Islands on the first Monday in October. It has been observed since 2002.
History of Peat Cutting Monday
Traditionally a spring festival, Peat Cutting Day was the time of year when Falkland Islanders went out to cut cubes of surface-soil peat which was then used as the primary fuel for heating homes and cooking food in the islands.
Peat is found in pockets all around the Falklands with large deposits in the area around Stanley. Without such a handy supply of fuel, settlement of the Islands would have been unlikely. The use of peat continued for many years though today has been replaced by kerosene or diesel in most households.
The smell of peat burning is very nostalgic and remains in the air at some places around Stanley and elsewhere.
As the need for peat cutting has diminished, Islanders instead use the day to go fishing and camping.
Falklands Day
Falklands Day is the celebration of the first sighting of the Falkland Islands by John Davis in 1592, and is commemorated on 14 August. It was once seen as the National Day of the Falklands but has largely been replaced by Liberation Day which commemorates the end of the Falklands War.
Falkland Day ceased be to a public holiday in 2002 when the Executive Council moved the holiday to provide for the re-introduction of Peat Cutting Monday, on the first Monday in October.
The date marks the first recorded sighting of the Falklands on 14 August 1592 by English explorer John Davis who captaining the 120-ton vessel ‘Desire’ in that month was blown by a storm into ‘certaine Isles never before discovered’. Davis account was published in 1600 in London by Richard Hakluyt.
The Falklands’ coat of arms motto is precisely “Desire the right” in honor to Davis and includes an image of his vessel ‘Desire’.
