scotianostra:And so we come to my last historical post of the day, the month, the year and the decad

scotianostra:And so we come to my last historical post of the day, the month, the year and the decade, and it’s a meaty one, I really should have posted it in a few easily digestible segments but I left it too late in the day so here goes…..most of the post has been taken from John Gregorson Campbell’s The Gaelic Otherworld.Hogmanay high jinks, it’s all a matter of tradition in Scotland.It has been said that Hogmanay is a Godless Christmas celebrated to excess – and Scots have long known how to celebrate the New Year with devotion.With the old feast of Christmas generally discouraged by the Kirk following the Reformation, special focus was placed on New Year with the period running up to Hogmanay, and its aftermath, always celebrated as a holiday period in Scotland.With the old feast of Christmas generally discouraged by the Kirk following the Reformation, special focus was placed on New Year with the period running up to Hogmanay, and its aftermath, always celebrated as a holiday period in Scotland.This period was known in Scotland as the ‘daft days’ – a time given over to celebration, merriment and excess, with licence given for enjoyment during the often bleak midwinter.Now anyone who follows my post on here might remember the ‘daft days’ from previous posts, it is also the title of a poem by the Edinburgh Poet who inspired Burns, Robert Ferguson. It covers the period in the year running from Christmas (25 December), through New Year, and into the first Monday of the year, known as Handsel Monday. After the Reformation of 1560, the old feast of Christmas was generally discouraged by the church, but the period running up to New Year’s Eve, and its aftermath, was always celebrated as a holiday period in Scotland. The first Monday of the year was called Handsel Monday because it was the custom on that day for Scots to exchange a handsel, or gift, as a good luck token. The word handsel derives from Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon and means to ‘give into the hand’.It is still the primary period of national celebration in Scotland, with stage-managed events in Edinburgh on Hogmanay (‘New Year’s Eve’) – a word believed to derive from Old French ‘aguillanneuf’ (and in Northern French ‘hoguinane’) meaning a seasonal gift. Others suggest it was first used by the Celtic Druids and could be derived from terms of the celebration for the turning year used by the Icelandics, SaxonsIn the daft Days Fergusson describes the darkening, bleak weather, the stillness of the wildlife, and the shelter that Edinburgh offers. In the city people can take their fill of food and drink while enjoying conversation, dance and music. But he warns the reader not to drink too much aqua vitae (whisky) or else fall prey to the notorious city guard, whom he also mentions in the poem Hallow Fair.The Daft DaysNow mirk December’s dowie faceGlowrs owr the rigs wi sour grimace,While, thro’ his minimum of space,The bleer-ey’d sun,Wi blinkin light and stealing pace,His race doth run.From naked groves nae birdie sings,To shepherd’s pipe nae hillock rings,The breeze nae od’rous flavour bringsFrom Borean cave,And dwyning nature droops her wings,Wi visage grave.Mankind but scanty pleasure gleanFrae snawy hill or barren plain,Whan winter, ‘midst his nipping train,Wi frozen spear,Sends drift owr a’ his bleak domain,And guides the weir.Auld Reikie! thou’rt the canty hole,A bield for many caldrife soul,Wha snugly at thine ingle loll,Baith warm and couth,While round they gar the bicker rollTo weet their mouth.When merry Yule-day comes, I trou,You’ll scantlins find a hungry mou;Sma are our cares, our stamacks fouO’ gusty gear,And kickshaws, strangers to our view,Sin fairn-year.Ye browster wives, now busk ye braw,And fling your sorrows far awa;Then come and gie’s the tither blawOf reaming ale,Mair precious than the well of Spa,Our hearts to heal.Then, tho’ at odds wi a’ the warl’,Amang oursels we’ll never quarrel;Tho’ Discord gie a canker’d snarlTo spoil our glee,As lang’s there’s pith into the barrelWe’ll drink and ‘gree.Fidlers, your pins in temper fix,And roset weel your fiddle-sticks;But banish vile Italian tricksFrae out your quorum,Not fortes wi pianos mix –Gie’s Tulloch Gorum.For nought can cheer the heart sae weelAs can a canty Highland reel;It even vivifies the heelTo skip and dance:Lifeless is he wha canna feelIts influence.Let mirth abound, let social cheerInvest the dawning of the year;Let blithesome innocence appearTo crown our joy;Nor envy wi sarcastic sneerOur bliss destroy.And thou, great god of Aqua Vitae!Wha sways the empire of this city,When fou we’re sometimes capernoity,Be thou prepar’dTo hedge us frae that black banditti,The City Guard.In the 18th century, it was recorded that children out and about on 31 December in Scotland would shout out: “Hogmanay, Trollolay/Give us your white bread and none of your grey.”The world ‘trollolay’ from the Scots song may also come from the Icelandic word trolldir which denotes a troll or evil genii who devoured mortals who strayed into their territory.Fantastic records exist on how Hogmanay was celebrated in Scotland over time.In the Highlands and Islands, the seven days from Christmas to the New Year were known as Nollaig.During the “easy-going olden times” no work was done during the period but men gave themselves up “to friendly festivities and expressions of goodwill,” according to John Gregorson Campbell’s The Gaelic Otherworld.Another wee rhyme that was used in “olden times was ……Get up, goodwife, and shake your feathers,And dinna think that we are beggars;For we are bairns come out to play,Get up and gie’s our hogmanay!’And another I would suggest was maybe recited by first footers, chapping on the doors of their friends and neighbours to wish them a happy new year…..My feet’s cauld, my shoon’s thin;Gie’s my cakes, and let me rin!’A common saying of the festive period was often shared: “The man whom Christmas does not make cheerful/Easter will leave sad and tearful.”Hogmanay was referred to as either ‘night of the candle’ or ‘night of blows’ given the popularity of one ritual which involved a man having a dry cow hide placed over his head before being beaten like a drum as he and his friends moved around their village.Usually led by a bagpiper, the group would move around each house, turning anti-clockwise, striking the walls and reciting rhymes to raise the householders. As doors opened, the group would pile into each home to receive refreshments, such as oatmeal bread, cheese, flesh and of course, a wee dram of whisky.The leader would then give the man of the house the ‘caisein uchd’ or a shinty stick wrapped in the breast stripe of a sheep or tail of a deer. This was then singed in the fire, put three times anti-clockwise around the family and then held to the noses of all in the room, Campbell said.“In this style, the villages, men and boys, went from house to house – preceded in many cases by a piper, and drowning the animosities of the past year in hilarity and merriment,” according to Campbell.Fancy dress and guising was a popular element of Hogmanay in Scotland through time. The rich would dress for fun, while the poor would dress up to entertain and collect food for their last feast of the year.Holly and cheese were other elements of a traditional Hogmanay. Holly was hung in the belief it would keep the fairies away with boys whipped with a branch of the greenery.A slice of cheese cut at this feast was considered to have a “special virtue” if the piece contained a hole. A person losing his way during the ensuing year, in a mist of otherwise, has only to look through the hole and he will see his way clearly,” according to Campbell’s account.Sometimes the owner of the lucky cheese would place it under their pillow for good luck.Hogmanay night was sometimes referred to as New Year’s Night with the fire in the home playing a central part in the superstitions during the countdown to midnight. It was feared that letting the fire go out would invite bad luck into the home with only householders – or a friend – allowed to tend it. Candles were usually lit as back-up to ensure a flame remained in the house with 31 December often referred to as Candle Night as a result. If the fire went out, no one was allowed to ask a neighbour for kindling to start another.New Year’s Day, like the first of every quarter of the year, was a great ‘saining’ day across the Highlands and Islands when rituals were at their most intense to protect cattle and houses from evil.Juniper was burnt in the byre, animals were marked with tar, the houses were decked with mountain ash and the door-posts and walls and even the cattle were sprinkled with wine.Campbell said: “Nothing was allowed to be put out of the house this day, neither the ashes of the fire nor the sweepings of the house, nor dirty water, nor anything else, however useless or however much in the way.“It was a very serious matter to give fire out of the house to a neighbour whose hearth had become cold, as the doing so gave power to the evil-minded to take away the produce from the cattle.The morning of 1 January started with a dram poured by the head of the household with a spoon of half-boiled sowens given for luck. A young man entering with a armful of corn was considered a joyful omen but a “decrepit old woman asking for kindling of her fire was a most deplorable omen,” Campbell’s account said.It was unlucky for a woman to enter the house, or anyone to come in empty handed, with a form of the superstition evolving into Scotland’s tradition of ‘first footing’.Of course no post about the Auld Year ending and new one beginning would be complete without mentioning Auld Lang Syne.Every year, the streets ring with the same lilting song. Sweet, nostalgic, hopeful; “Auld Lang Syne”  it has become an absolute tradition in New Year’s Eve celebrations.It is also the second most song, sung around the world, only Happy Birthday is sung more often.Burns never intended his work to act as a farewell to the old year; it’s a piece which partially reproduces, partially originally pens an older folk tune.He originally sent the piece to the Scots Musical Museum with a note: “The following song, an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man.”Don’t shoot the man for it, the same was true of many of James Hogg and Walter Scott’s tales of folklore and verse.The phrase “for auld lang syne” essentially boils down to “for (the sake of) old times”. It’s a work which essentially calls for the preservation of our oldest, dearest friendships; perhaps observed in the reflective quality of New Year’s Eve itself. A time when people come together to recall past joys and sorrows, specifically those spent in each other’s company.Now, there are several variations of what’s sung on New Year’s Eve; first off, I have posted Burns’ original Scots verse if you want to keep things authentic. Below that, a simplified English translation.BURNS’ ORIGINAL SCOTS VERSEShould auld acquaintance be forgot,and never brought to mind?Should auld acquaintance be forgot,and auld lang syne?CHORUS:For auld lang syne, my jo,for auld lang syne,we’lltak‘ a cup o’ kindness yet,for auld lang syne.And surely ye’ll be your pint-stoup!and surely I’ll be mine!And we’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet,for auld lang syne.CHORUSWe twa hae run about the braes,and pou’d the gowans fine;But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,sin’ auld lang syne.CHORUSWe twa hae paidl’d in the burn,frae morning sun till dine;But seas between us braid hae roar’dsin’ auld lang syne.CHORUSAnd there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!and gie’s a hand o’ thine!And we’ll tak’ a right gude-willie waught,for auld lang syne.CHORUSENGLISH TRANSLATION.Nah dinnae bother wae it, if ye cannae sing the Scottish version ye don’t desrve tae ken the English yin. ;)Happy New Year when it comes to all my followers here on Tumblr. John Gregorson Campbell was a Scottish folklorist and Free Church minister at the Tiree and Coll parishes in Argyll, Scotland. An avid collector of traditional stories, in he became Secretary to the Ossianic Society of Glasgow University in the mid-1850s. -- source link

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