“rud a dh’itheas tu, rud a dh’òlas tu is rud a chumas tu blàth”
“something to eat, something to drink and something to keep you warm”
As Americans, Christmas has become for us a huge elaborate commercial event, starting earlier each year and lasting for months with lots of lights, displays and presents. Contrast this with Scotland where traditionally Christmas has been asimple religious ceremony centered around Midnight Mass – without the commercialism and ritual gift-giving.The Presbyterian Church in Scotland in the past to regarded Christmas as a Catholic feast.As a result Christmas was not traditionally celebrated in Scotland because it was banned for nearly 400 years until the 1950's. There are records of charges being brought against people for keeping "Yule" as it is called in Scotland.
New Year’s or Hogmanay was and still is the large traditional winter holiday for Scots. Until the 1960s, Hogmanay or “Ne'erday” (a contraction of "New Year's Day" in Scots) in Scotland took precedence over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Day was a normal working day (unless it fell on the Sabbath) in Scotland until the 1960s. The gift-giving, public holidays and feasting associated with mid-winter were held between the 31st of December and the 2nd of January rather than between the 24th and 26th of December. So if there is a specifically "Scottish" aspect to Christmas it is that it was not celebrated!
Hogmanay is the Scots word for the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner. Its official date is the 31st of December. However this is normally only the start of a celebration which lasts through the night until the morning of the 1st or, in many cases, the 2nd of January.
The most widespread Scottish Hogmanay custom is the practice of first-footing which starts immediately after midnight Dec 31st. This involves being the first person to cross the threshold on the new year of a friend or neighbor and often involves the giving of symbolic gifts. This may go on throughout the early hours of the morning and well into the next day. The first-foot is supposed to set the luck for the rest of the year, so it is important that a suitable person does the job. A tall, dark man bearing a gift is preferred. In Scottish folklore the first-foot, is the first person to cross the threshold of a home on New Year's Day and a bringer of good fortune for the coming year. The first-foot usually brings several gifts, including perhaps a coin, bread, salt, coal, or a drink (usually whisky), which represent financial prosperity, food, flavor, warmth, and good cheer.
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George Young CLSNA Senior VP Seanair agus Seannachie
We spent part of the time listening to Celtic Music Radio online (www.celticmusicradion.net) from Glasgow during their celebrations.
Then, somehow, we managed to stay up for the new year.
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Rick
The paintings, poetry and music Are all merely water drawn from the well of mankind And must be returned to him in a cup of beauty So he may drink And in drinking, come to know himself. --Lorca