Friday, May 18th, 2012
New Year has always been important to me. I put it down to being Scottish and Hogmanay, as it is known here, traditionally being a big occasion.
The end of one year and beginning of the next seems a natural time for reflection but these days even the celebration itself has changed.
I find it ironic that every December 31 people come to Edinburgh from all over the world for an event billed as a traditional Scottish Hogmanay, when it’s actually anything but.
It’s a street party, with music and fireworks thrown in for good measure – an event no different from celebrations elsewhere in the world.
Sure there’s the pretty backdrop of the castle and they will probably sing Auld Lang Syne (with most of the crowd no doubt singing Zyne instead of Syne) but there’s little traditional about it.
A traditional Scottish Hogmanay is about celebration and inclusion – being with family and friends and welcoming strangers with the same hospitality. It usually involves first-footing: a superstitious practice where the ‘first foot’ to enter your home at midnight comes bearing gifts to bring good luck for the coming year.
It saddens me that these traditions seem to be dying out and replaced by an indistinct celebration of standing in a crowd on a cold street and going home at 12.30am.
When I was a wee girl growing up in Glasgow the shipyards along the River Clyde would sound their horns at The Bells. I can clearly recall the sound echoing through the glass partition of the stairwell to our flat, as I stood on the communal landing, arms crammed full of whisky, shortbread, black bun and gifts to bring into the house on the stroke of midnight.
Often you could hear neighbours on other floors of the building, also shuffling about trying to keep hold of their precious bounties, waiting in that strange limbo between one year and the next.
Inside there would be drinks ready to be poured and food on the stove… usually a pot of homemade soup or hot peas soaked in vinegar, and steak pie in the oven to symbolise that there would be enough food for the year.
Once indoors toasts were raised, gifts exchanged and sometimes nostalgic tears shed. Often there would be visits to first foot neighbours and friends too. It would all be played out to a TV soundtrack of old Scottish singers, like Andy Stewart and Bill McCue, singing songs about beautiful landscapes and wistfully lamenting their Highland homes.
The skirl of the bagpipes and cheerful ceilidh dancing would go on long into the early hours. Windows and doors were flung open to “let out the old year and let in the new”.
It’s a tradition I still carry on, much to the bemusement of my English boyfriend, who is usually dispatched outside the front door at a minute to midnight to carry out the first footing ritual, when he would be quite happy to have a bit of shortbread when Big Ben chimes and head to his bed at 12.05am. Maybe it’s just a sign of the times.
These days people don’t know their neighbours, families and friends often live far apart or perhaps there’s less appetite for nostalgia. This year I’ll be spending Hogmanay with friends and have a bag of first-footing supplies waiting. And I’ll be opening the doors and windows. Some superstitions never die.
What’s your favourite New Year tradition? Comments welcome
Janine Meldrum is a wowdewow blogger and first foot
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Tags: Andy Stewart, Auld Lang Syne, Big Ben, Bill McCue, December 31, Edinburgh, first footing, Glasgow, Hogmanay, River Clyde, The Bells, traditional Scottish Hogmanay
