Christmas Island, Nova Scotia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christmas Island,[1][2] Nova Scotia (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean na Nollaig) is a Canadian community of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. It has a post office, a firehall and a very small population. It has a beach with access to the Bras d'Or Lake. A small island just off shore, also named Christmas Island,[3][4] encloses Christmas Island Pond,[5][6] a pond that runs into the lake.
The original inhabitants of the land, the Miꞌkmaq people, called the area Abadakwichéch, which means "the small reserved portion."[7] Christmas Island received its present name from a Mi'kmaw leader, said to have been a chief named "Noel", which translates from the French as "Christmas", who died and was buried on the island opposite the beach.[8][9]
The first European settlers in the area arrived in 1802–1804. Angus McNeil, a native of Barra, in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides was one of the first. He was soon followed by other MacNeils from Scotland, attracted by reports of the good agricultural farmland that was available, as well as the nearby fish stocks in the Bras d’Or Lake.[10] By June, 1812, Donald, James, Alexander, Roderick, and John MacNeil were living at Goose Pond, and Hector and John MacDougall, and Donald McNeil were at Christmas Island. Other early settlers were John McKenzie, Hugh Gillis, and Archibald McDougall. John McDonald came from South Uist in 1822 and settled at Rear Christmas Island.[9]
A log Roman Catholic Chapel was under construction by 1814, and completed in 1815. A new church was built in 1823–1824. The new St. Barra Roman Catholic church was consecrated on 22 July 1883, and a League of the Cross Hall was completed in October 1908. In 2015 the Bishop of Antigonish ordered the church closed because of a declining congregation. However, a few parishioners continue to hold services in the church. The Diocese considers them to be trespassers. The parishioners maintain that a nineteenth-century deed names the church's trustees as its rightful owner.[11]
A schoolhouse was in place in Christmas Island by 1875, and in 1918–1919 a new school building was completed.[9]
The Post Office was moved from a neighbouring community to Christmas Island for January 1856.[9]
