Are you going first footing this year?
29th December 2021
Hello and welcome to today's wee article you wonderful bunch of awesome superstars.
New Year is fast approaching, so let's talk about some Scottish traditions!
Do you know that in Scotland, we celebrate New Year more than we do Christmas?
It is a fact, although Christmas gets more and more popular each year.
Let's rewind in history.
Christmas was virtually banned in Scotland for around 400 years, from the end of the 17th century to the 1950s. During the Protestant Reformation the straight-laced and boring Kirk (church) decreed that Christmas was a Popish or Catholic feast, and as such needed banning.
So right up until the 1950s there was no Christmas in Scotland! Also many Scots worked over Christmas. In fact, many people now still check whether they are working on Christmas or New Year and will swap Christmas to have New Year off.
We also have a public holiday on January 2nd not just January 1st!
Traditionally then Scots would celebrate their winter solstice holiday at New Year when family and friends would gather for a party and to exchange presents which came to be known as hogmanays.
We don't say New Years Eve, we say Hogmanay and boy oh boy, you will never have seen so much drink drunk in your lives as at Hogmanay.
It is thought that many of the traditional Hogmanay celebrations were originally brought to Scotland by the invading Vikings in the early 8th and 9th centuries. These Norsemen, or men from an even more northerly latitude than Scotland, paid particular attention to the arrival of the Winter Solstice or the shortest day of the year and celebrated its passing with some serious partying.
In Shetland, where the Viking influence remains strongest, New Year is still called Yules, deriving from the Scandinavian word for the midwinter festival of Yule. I remember when I was working up there, at Yules there would be bonfire after bonfire and whisky drinking like it was pints of beer!
Before midnight on the 31st December you should:
clean the house
taking out the ashes from the fire
aad most importantly you should clear all your debts before “the bells” sound at midnight
The message is to clear out the remains of the old year, have a clean break and welcome in a young, New Year on a happy note.
We welcome the bells by singing Robert Burns‘ “Auld Lang Syne”. Burns published his version in 1788, although the tune was in print over 80 years before this.
“Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne
For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne,
We’ll take a cup o kindness yet, for auld lang syne.”
Before Covid, you would see the bells in at a Hogmanay party, to welcome friends and strangers with warm hospitality and of course lots of enforced kissing for all. You could knock on a door and be welcomed in.
Back to the title now ... To ensure good luck for the house the first foot of the New Year (the first foot over the doorstep into the house) should be a tall dark-haired male, and he should bring with him symbolic pieces of coal, shortbread, salt, black bun and a wee dram of whisky. I was often made to go first foot people being tall and dark.
The dark-haired male bit is believed to be a throwback to the Viking days, when a big blonde stranger arriving on your doorstep with a big axe meant big trouble, and probably not a very happy New Year!
Tomorrow I shall tell you about some of the happenings that people do on the first of January!
Copyright @TengoLoTodo 2021 and yes All Rights Reserved. All images, words, and ramblings are from the author unless otherwise stated. Lead Image from unsplash.
And don't forget ;)
Haste ye back.
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Scotland.
It's hogmanay 🎉 happy new year! What a nice tradition you got there. Oh my I haven't cleaned our home and I Don't know if my grandma did as we are not at home yet. We are here at my boyfriend's house because ours was still not completely fixed because of the typhoon and it's raining here as well