The Scottish government has forbidden the celebration of Hogmanay this year, which attentive readers will recall is the reason that Hogmanay came to be in the first place. The wild, three-day New Years' celebration became what it is because the Scottish government forbade the celebration of Christmas, finding their subjects entirely too inclined to drunken revelry on the feast of Christ's birth. Thus, the Scots simply moved it to the next weekend.
This year England is paying the price for the Scottish government's attempt at avoiding revelry. England is not that far a drive for Scots who want to conduct their outdoor torch parades in Viking gear, drinking and setting fire to stuff. (Drinking and setting fire to England is also an old Scottish custom.)
We will be celebrating here. I'm making venison steak pies, shortbread, and festive drinks like raw-egg eggnog.
Haud Hogmanay, and may you all have a much better New Year than either of the two past.
Some of my maternal ancestors were tossed out of Scotland for "liftin' t' kai" and sent to the Ulster Plantations. Then tossed out for cattle theft and sent to the Carolinas. And got in trouble for . . . "Animal magnetism," as one older cousin phrased it.
ReplyDeleteAs you say, drinking and burning things in England is an ancient and (dis)honorable tradition.
LittleRed1
We call that reiving. It's an old custom; just as the Inuit people have an internationally-recognized ancestral right to fish for whales...
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Grim, and to everyone at the Hall.
ReplyDeleteElise
May we be blessed with the courage of our ancestors in this New Year. We will need all of it.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, all!
ReplyDeleteHappy Hogmanay, and a toast to G M Fraser and "The Steel Bonnets" among other great works. Stirs my McCallum blood.
ReplyDelete