Thank goodness for Cup Match.

Just in time, everyone got a break from elections, political splits, worries about divided parties and communities and all of that and were able to celebrate what's good about Bermuda.

But Cup Match isn't just about cricket, conch stew and Crown and Anchor.

The holiday marks two key dates in Bermuda's history: Somers Day, which marks the beginning of the Island's permanent settlement, and Emancipation Day, which marked the end of slavery in Bermuda (and throughout the British Empire) in 1834.

It is fitting that these two days share a holiday, because they say a good deal about the nature of the Island, good and bad. And they symbolise the Island's diversity and how the different cultures and races that make up the Island sometimes rub uneasily together, but ultimately blend together to make this Island a unique and special place.

Sir George Somers may have had no idea that the Island would still be British 394 years after he and the rest of the Sea Venture crew and passengers stumbled ashore from their wrecked ship. But it is, and while some may bridle about colonialism, it is from Britain that we derive our institutions and much of our beliefs.

Emancipation marked the beginning of Bermuda's slow march to freedom and universal adult suffrage, a process that was improved this year with the introduction of single seat constituencies.

And Cup Match melds the most English of games, cricket, with the Bermudian spirit, which is never more alive than over this holiday.

And Bermuda would not be the same without cricket either. But it wouldn't be Bermuda cricket without people running out onto the wicket to stuff money in a century-making batsman's pockets or blasting out music when another wicket falls.

In the same way, the triumph of the Bermuda Regiment Band and the Gombeys at the Edinburgh Tattoo this weekend celebrates that same melding of cultures.

Still, as they performed at Edinburgh with the best military bands in the world, the combination of the very British (but uniquely Bermudian) Regiment Band and the Gombeys, with their Afro-Caribbean roots, seems to symbolise the intermingling of cultures that makes Bermuda so singular, in the same way that Cup Match does.

At the same time, the Gombeys and the Regiment Band do not perform to international acclaim without tremendous self-discipline, preparation and sacrifice. And the same is true of Bermuda's cricketers when they perform on a Cup Match wicket, when Shaun Goater scores goals in England, when Gary Burgess performs in an opera or when Heather Nova performs at a music concert.

They are all different, and yet they embody Bermuda. And they bring the best things about Bermuda out, combining hard work and self-discipline with tolerance and friendliness.

And they show that when all of those qualities are combined, they make Bermuda not just another world, but a better world.