HOGMANAY

Hogmanay is the Scottish New Year, celebrated on 31st December every year, usually in a most exuberant fashion. In the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh it has become a huge ticketed festival. Celebrations start in the early evening and reach a crescendo by midnight. The bells of Big Ben chime at the turn of midnight, there is an orgy of kissing and everyone sings Auld Lang Syne. And then there is more kissing.

Nobody knows for sure where the word "Hogmanay" came from. Opinions differ as to whether it originated from the Gaelic oge maidne ("new morning"), Anglo-Saxon Haleg Monath ("Holy Month"), or Norman French word hoguinané, which was derived from the Old French anguillanneuf ("gift at New Year"). It's also been suggested that it came from the French au gui mener ("lead to the mistletoe") or the Flemish hoog ("high" or "great"), min ("love" or "affection") and dag ("day"). Take your pick - your guess is as good as mine!

The origins of Hogmanay :
Hogmanay's roots reach way back to the pagan practice of sun and fire worship in the deep mid-Winter. This evolved into the ancient Saturnalia, a great Roman Winter festival, where people celebrated completely free of restraint and inhibition. The Vikings celebrated Yule, which became the twelve days of Christmas, or the "Daft Days" as they became known in Scotland. The Winter festival was banned during the Reformation and ensuing years, but re-surfaced at the end of the 17th Century. Since then the customs have continued to evolve to the modern day.

Already mostly forgotten is that Christmas was not celebrated as a festival and virtually banned in Scotland for around 400 years, from the end of the 17th century to the 1950s. The reason for this has its roots in the Protestant Reformation when the Kirk portrayed Christmas as a Popish or Catholic feast and therefore had to be banned. Many Scots had to work over Christmas and their winter solstice holiday was therefore at New Year when family and friends gathered for a party and exchange presents, especially for the children, which came to be called hogmanays.

It is only in recent years that Hogmanay has been celebrated on such a large scale: the first event of its kind was at "Summit in the City" in 1992 when Edinburgh hosted the European Union Heads of State conference. Edinburgh's Hogmanay festival was so successful that it spawned similar events throughout Scotland for Millennium festivities which continue to expand every year.

Hogmanay Traditions
There are traditions before midnight such as cleaning the house on 31st December (including taking out the ashes from the fire in the days when coal fires were common). There is also the superstition to clear all your debts before "the bells" at midnight.
The Hogmanay partying, which continues very much today, is to welcome friends and strangers, with warm hospitality and of course a kiss to wish everyone a Guid New Year. The underlying belief is to clear out the vestiges of the old year, have a clean break and welcome in a young, New Year on a happy note.

The Ceilidh:
A ceilidh is a traditional Scottish country dance session, complete with live music, and forms the nucleus for a really good party! Many people will already know a lot of traditional Scottish dances - I learnt them at school, dances such as Circassian Circle (dead easy!) Strip the Willow and the Gay Gordons spring to mind - check out the Scottish Dance website for lots of instructions. Ceilidh dancing is for everyone, young and old, fleet of foot and those who are of the two-left-feet persuasion: the main point is to get up and enjoy yourself!

Fire ceremonies :
For centuries, fire ceremonies - torch light processions, fireball swinging and lighting of New Year bonfires (nowadays with firework displays too) - have played an important part in the Hogmanay celebrations. The flame and fire at Hogmanay symbolises many things. The bringing of the light of knowledge from one year to the next, lighting the way into the next uncharted century, putting behind you the darkness past, but carrying forward its sacred flame of hope and enlightenment to a better world.

The traditional New Year ceremony would have involved people dressing up in the hides of cattle and running around the village being hit by sticks. The festivities would also include the lighting of bonfires, rolling blazing tar barrels down the hill and tossing torches. Animal hide was also wrapped around sticks and ignited which produced a smoke that was believed to be very effective to ward off evil spirits. The smoking stick was also known as a Hogmanay.
Some of these customs do continue, especially in the small, older communities in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland where old traditions, along with language and dialect, are kept alive and well. On the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, the young boys form themselves into opposing bands, the leader of each wears a sheep skin and another member of the group carries a sack. The bands move through the village from house to house and, on being invited inside, the leader walks clockwise around the fire, while everyone hits the skin with sticks. The boys should be given some bannocks - fruit buns - for their sack before moving on to the next house.

First Footing:
Traditionally, it has been held that your new year will be a prosperous one if, at the strike of midnight, a "tall, dark stranger" appears at your door with a lump of coal for the fire, or a cake or coin. In exchange, you offered him food, wine or a wee dram of whisky, or the traditional Het Pint, which is a combination of ale, nutmeg and whisky. It's been sugggested that the fear associated with blond strangers arose from the memory of blond-haired Viking’s raping and pillaging Scotland circa 4th to 12th centuries.

What's more likely to happen these days is that groups of friends or family get together and do a tour of each others' houses. Each year, a household takes it in turn to provide a meal for the group. In many parts of Scotland gifts or "Hogmananys" are exchanged after the turn of midnight.

Auld Lang Syne:
The words that most of us join hands and sing at the stroke of midnight are written in old Scots, the language commonly spoken in Scotland until 1707 when Scotland's Parliament dissolved itself and was merged with England. The words were adapated from a traditional song by Rabbie Burns (1759-1796) Scotland's national poet.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp,
And surely I'll be mine,
And we'll tak a cup o kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou'd the gowans fine,
But we've wander'd monie a weary fit,
Sin auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn
Frae morning sun till dine,
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin auld lang syne.

And here's a hand my trusty fiere,
And gie's a hand o thine,
And we'll tak a right guid willie waught,
For auld lang syne

Usually just the first and last verses (and interminable choruses) are sung but purists will insist on the full version; strictly speaking, you should sing without joining hands until the very last verse, and on "here's a hand my trusty fiere" you offer your left hand to the person on your right and on "gie's a hand o thine" take the proffered left hand of the person on your left with your right hand ..... the interlinked chain will then roar out the final chorus with great gusto.

I'm not about to translate it all, but "Auld Lang Syne" is usually translated as "Old times' sake" or (it's literally old long since) "braes" are hills, a "burn" is a stream and "gowans" are daisies, (so "pou'd the gowans" is pulled/picked the daisies) fiere is friend and a "right guid willie waught" is a real good-will drink (which is what most of Hogmanay's about!)