The New Year

Many families prefer to bring in the New Year at home, with music or dancing, cards or talk. As the evening advances, the fire is piled high – for the brighter the fire, the better the luck. The members of the household seat themselves round the hearth and when the hands of the clock approach the hour, the head of the house rises, goes to the main door, opens it wide, and holds it thus until the last stroke of midnight has died away. Then he shuts it quietly and returns to the family circle. He has let the Old Year out and the New Year in. New greetings and small gifts are exchanged, glasses are filled - and already the first-footers are at the door.

First-footing, in the usual sense of the term, means visiting in the early hours of New Year's morning; but the first-foot, strictly speaking, is the first person (other than a member of the household) who crosses the threshold after the midnight. According to an ancient Celtic tradition, the appearance of the first-foot can bring good or ill luck in the coming year. Generally speaking, any healthy, robust person, or one of kindly disposition or good repute, is lucky. The first-foot, on crossing the threshold, greets the family with «A gude New Year to ane and A!» or simply «A Happy New Year!», and pours out a glass from the flask he carries. This must be drunk to the dregs by the head of the house, who, in turn, pours out a glass for each of his visitors. The glass handed to the first-footer himself must also be drunk to the dregs. A popular toast is: «Your good health!» The first-footers must take something to eat as well as to drink, and after an exchange of greetings they go off again on their rounds.

The traditional Scottish song for Hogmany is a song to Robert Burns’ lyrics “Auld Lang Syne”, which in translation from Scots to English means “Days of Long Ago’. People usually link hands to sing this song.

Highland Games

Highland Games as practiced today were perpetuated by the clans of Northern Scotland but began far earlier among the Celts of Scotia (the name which Latin writers gave to Ireland). Several accounts credit an 11th century Scottish king, Malcolm Canmore, with having started the first Highland Games; but a single hill-race up a mountain in Aberdeenshire can hardly compare with the great variety of athletics which the Celts of Scotia, like the Greeks at Olympia, enjoyed for many generations. Ancient traditions insist that the same kind of contests in running foot-races, leaping, vaulting, wrestling, lifting heavy weights and putting stones (as one sees today) were begun in pre-Christian times. Several localities in both Eire and modern-day Northern Ireland were places that hosted such Games. These Celtic peoples, known then as the Scotti, but now as Highland Scots, crossed the North Channel of the Irish Sea in the 4th and 5th centuries and also at the time of St. Columba, who brought Christianity to Scotland in the 6th. Soon they were staging Games of foot-racing, horse-racing and wrestling every St. Michael's Day, September 29th. The clans' warriors needed to test their physical prowess in much the same way as modern soldiers engage in physical training. It was at one of these in 1574 that "tossing of ye barr" (caber-tossing) first appeared on record. Competitions in piping, fiddling and playing the clàrsach or Gaelic harp had long taken place within the territories of the clans. Each year the village of Braemar, Scotland invites people from all over the world to attend the Braemar Gathering and Highland Games. The Gathering is always held on the first Saturday in September and it is perhaps the most famous and finest Highland Games anywhere. It features the finest Pipe Bands, pipers, Highland dancers, and athletes in a beautiful setting surrounded by hills. The patron of the Gathering is Her Majesty the Queen. On the Saturday of the Braemar Gathering the village echoes the sound competing pipe bands. The varying colours of numerous tartans are in evidence. In the arena athletes are taking part in a variety of track events and the arduous hill-run up nearby Morrone towering nearby. 'Heavy' athletes demonstrate their prowess in 'tossing the caber', 'putting the stone' and 'throwing the hammer'. The tug of war competition is always a great favourite. The wonder of the best Highland Dancers has to be seen to be believed.