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K7M 7N7
Canada
Tel: (613) 634-4118
mailto:kilt@on.aibn.com


[12.7] Kirking of the tartans

by Tom McRae. mailto:T.Mcrae@mailbox.uq.oz.au

To give you an idea of the pseudo Scottery we have to put up with here I'm
appending something I put out over on H-ALBION British History Group. Not a
single respondent cited an example of this silly bit o' Brigadoonery in
Scotland. My name's mud with the local so-called Clans Congress, if they
only knew I've hardly started yet. I'm currently doing a long series of
articles on the early Scottish National Movement and am just recovering
from the trauma of doing 3 articles covering the West Coast Insurrection of
1820 and its ghastly repercussions. I'm quite narked with the S.N.P. as I
wrote to them in Edinburgh outlining my project and asking for information
on its history for inclusion in later articles. Three months later I have
still to receive the courtesy of a reply. Seems they've yet to get their
act together.

Slainte,
Tom Mc Rae


Kirking of the Tartans
----------------------
On a Sunday close to St Andrew's Day this ceremony is practised in at
least Sydney and Brisbane. Organised by the local Clans Congress it
involves clan leaders marching into some presbyterian or uniting church
in strict order of precedence. (I neither know, nor care who follows
who). They are led in by someone carrying a saltire flag alongside
another with the Australian flag. Clan tartans are worn and so-called
clan banners are carried in the procession. Highlight of the ceremony
is when wee bits of tartan are brought out and prayed over or blessed.

If people enjoy themselves marching up and down like this I've no
objection. What concerns me is the mythos developed around the rite. It
all started, so the story goes, when the tartan was banned after the
fall of Bonnie Prince Charlie. To cherish its memory parishioners took
wee bits of the stuff to kirk every sabbath to have it blessed, the
ceremony has persisted up until today.

Nice tale, but garbage!

First off Charlie's army consisted largely of Roman Catholics and
Scottish Episcopaleans. Had they won the Kirk would probably have been
oppressed yet again. Presbyterians of the time had no truck with the
Jacobites, they'd suffered too much already at the hands of Stewart
kings.

Second point. Blessing of bits of cloth, or anything else inanimate,
was anathema to all good Calvinists. Any kirk goers practising such
rites would have been severely dealt with.

Thirdly. No native born Scot I've discussed the matter with recalls
such a ceremony in Scotland. Any group stupid enough to act out such a
pantomime would have been laughed out of the church.

Fourth I've searched historical records but could find no mention of
the ceremony. In desperation I consulted the encyclopaedic "Dictionary
of the Scottish Language" There are dozens of entries on tartan and on
kirk and kirking; not one makes mention of this rite. I then went to a
dictionary of the older Scottish tongue, once again no records.

Finally. If this is true where are all those wee bits of tartan? Surely
they' have become cherished family heirlooms. After the banning the
tartan sticks used to mark out traditional weaves were destroyed; we
don't know what pre '45 tartans looked like, apart from a few
paintings. Those we use today are post 1780. Relics of the early
tartans would be invaluable to Scottish history so where have they all
gone to?

I wrote the whole thing up in the newsletter of our Scottish radio
programme group here in Brisbane. In my article I promised that if
anyone could give me proof of this ceremony's antiquity I would gladly
recant. Six months later the sole response was a letter from the
Secretary of our local Clans Congress complaining bitterly at my unfair
attack. I answered his letter gently pointing out the questionable
origins of the Kirking but never received reply. My main objection is
the ridiculous light in which this sort of Brigadoonery puts real Scots
culture. Best example of this was some years back in Sydney. After the
Kirking ceremony all the clan leaders and their retinues marched from
the kirk to New South Wales' Upper House of Parliament, In they
marched, banners awave, up to the bar of the House. Members were
discussing some legislation and totally ignored them, after standing
like gallahs for 10 minutes or so all they could do was about turn and
march out again.

I seem to have traced the origins of the thing to New York State,
U.S.A. where a presbyterian minister invented it as a war bond scheme.
Any information from The States, Canada, etc would be appreciated. Best
of all can any Scots tell me I'm wrong and that the ceremony is a
genuine hand me down from the days of The '45?

Regards Tom Mc Rae

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Tom Mc Rae
Entomology Department
University of Queensland
BRISBANE  Qld 4072
AUSTRALIA
Home (011617)3713966
Work (011617)3652196
Fax  (011617)3651922
mailto:t.mcrae@mailbox.uq.oz.au

Additional Information
======================
Some subsequent research has turned up the following:

What has become known as "Kirking of the Tartans" was introduced in the
United States by the Rev. Peter Marshall in April 27, 1941 at New York
Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Marshall was a Scottish immigrant who arrived in the U.S. in 1927 at
age 24 (ergo, born @1903), was the pastor of NYAPC until his death in
1949 and served as Chaplain of the U.S. Senate from 1947-1949.


[12.8] Scotch

This is a term used to mean various things, but is now considered mildly
offensive when referring to people - generally use "Scots" for people
and "Scottish" for everything else. Whisky is usually not referred to
as "Scotch" - see note on whisky [13.4]

Historically, the word was widely used in Scotland as a adjective meaning
the same as "scottish". In fact, it was not until circa 1925 that the
Scotch Education Department became the Scottish Education Department.

Burns used the word Scotch

"The sma', droop-rumpled, hunter cattle,
Might aiblins waur'd thee for a brattle;
But sax Scotch miles, thou tried their mettle,
An' gart them whaizle:
Nae whip nor spur, but just a wattle
O' saugh or hazel."
("The Auld Farmer's New Year Morning Salutation To His Auld
Mare, Maggie")

In The Oxford Companion To The English Language, OUP 1992, there
is an entry on "Scotch", written by Professor A. J. Aitken, Honorary
Professor, University of Edinburgh, formerly editor of "A Dictionary
of the Older Scottish Tongue."

"SCOTCH: A late 16th century contraction of "Scottish", first
in Early Modern English then in Older Scots. It ousted
"Scottish" as the prevailing form in England. In Scotland, the
native form "Scots" predominated until in the 18c Anglicizing
vogue "Scotch" became fashionable in both countries.

In the early 19th c., however, some Scottish writers were
expressing doubts about it as a supposed innovation and
returning to the more traditional "Scottish" and "Scots", while
others, such as J. A. H. Murray, editor of the OED, continued to
use it.

By the early 20th c., disapproval of "Scotch" by educated Scots
was so great that its use was regularly discountenanced by
teachers, except for such entrenched phrases as Scotch broth,
Scotch mist, Scotch terrier, Scotch tweed, Scotch whisky.

In England and North America, "Scotch" has remained the dominant
form into the late 20c, although awareness of middle-class
Scottish distaste for it has been spreading. The OED
Supplement, (1982) reported that in deference to Scottish
sensibilities the English have been abandoning "Scotch" for
"Scottish" and less frequently "Scots", and prefer "the Scots"
to "the Scotch" as the name of the people.

Paradoxically, for working-class Scots the common form has long
been "Scotch" (sometimes written "Scoatch") and the native form
Scots is sometimes regarded as an Anglicized affectation."

The concise OED (publ 1999) states that the use "Scotch" for
the people of Scotland is "dated".


[12.9] Scottish Wedding Information

Scottish Weddings
=================
Traditional wedding customs in Scotland
http://www.siliconglen.com/culture/weddings.html

Info: The Blacksmith shop in Gretna Green is Scotland's second most
popular free tourist attraction after Kelvingrove Art Gallery and the
third most popular tourist attraction if you include paid attractions
(Edinburgh Castle is the most popular tourist attraction in Scotland).

Weddings in Scotland
--------------------
http://www.visitscotland.com/aboutscotland/gettingmarried/
Information supplied by visitscotland.com
(formerly the Scottish Tourist Board)

http://pw1.netcom.com/~kiltsusa/Scotwed.html
http://www.kinlochanderson.com/

Highland Weddings
-----------------
http://www.highland-wedding.com/
Information supplied by the Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board

Orkney courtship and marriage traditions
http://www.orkneyjar.com/

Romantic Scotland
-----------------
http://www.romantic-scotland.com/
Destinations for romantic breaks, weddings and honeymoons in Scotland

Handfasting
-----------
A traditional Celtic way of signifying an engagement. If you want a
handfasting ceremony, speak to Scotland's only Celtic Bishop, the Most Rev
William Mackie (sorry, no contact details).

Scottish Wedding vows in Gaelic and English
-------------------------------------------
http://www.siliconglen.com/culture/marriagevows.html
Source: Sabhal Mor Ostaig


Gaelic wedding blessing
-----------------------
Supplied by Christopher Lau, University of Calgary

Mi\le fa\ilte dhuit le d'bhre/id,
Fad do re/ gun robh thu sla\n.
Mo/ran la\ithean dhuit is si\th,
Le d'mhaitheas is le d'ni\ bhi fa\s.


Translated as:

"A thousand welcomes to you with your marriage kerchief,
may you be healthy all your days. May you be blessed
with long life and peace, may you grow old with
goodness, and with riches."

This is attributed to the Rev. Donald MacLeod, minister of Duirinish,
Skye, Scotland c. 1760.

The bit about the marriage kerchief probably isn't applicable these days,
so you could just ignore it (any Bards fancy thinking up a suitable
replacement?)

Celtic wedding rings
====================

Scotland
--------
http://www.ortak.co.uk/
http://www.scotweb.co.uk/shops/ortak/
Ortak - traditional Scottish jewellery. Shops around Scotland.

http://www.scottish-weddings.com/
Domain available

Elsewhere
---------
http://www.davidmorgan.com/
11812 North Creek Pky N, Suite 103
Bothell WA 98011 USA

http://www.rhiannon.co.uk/
Celtic jewellery from Wales


UK Weddings
===========
General info about UK weddings. Not much Scottish content
http://www.weddingguide.co.uk/
http://www.confetti.co.uk/


[12.10] The Church of Scotland

The home page for the church of Scotland is at
http://www.cofs.org.uk/

A chart showing the various churches in Scotland is available
at http://www.btinternet.com/~stnicholas.buccleuch/chart.htm

The Scottish Bible Society
http://www.scottishbiblesociety.org/


[12.11] Choosing a Scottish name for your child

Scottish Names
--------------
Scottish Christian Names by Leslie Alan Dunkling
ISBN 0717946061
Publishers Johnston & Bacon, PO Box 1, Stirling, Scotland
"Christian name", now that's a term which has rapidly vanished
from use!

Note, if you want to change your name in Scotland you have to do
this by deed poll in order for official (UK) government bodies to
recognise it, even though a deed poll is an English legal instrument.


Scottish Gaelic names
---------------------
Ainmean Chloinne
Scottish Gaelic names for Children, by Peadar Morgan.

Available from
The Gaelic Books Council
22 Mansfield Street
Glasgow
Scotland
G11 5QP
Tel: 0141 337 6211
mailto:sales@gaelicbooks.net
http://www.gaelicbooks.net/

Published by Taigh na Teud, Breacais Ard, Skye. ISBN 1871931401
http://www.scotlandsmusic.com/

Information from the register of births regarding the most popular names
used in Scotland 1900-2000 is available at
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/grosweb/grosweb.nsf/pages/name00
for 2001, the information is here
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/grosweb/grosweb.nsf/pages/name01

The most popular children's names in Scotland in 2003 are listed here:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/pages/news/2004/01/SEjd389.aspx

Medieval Names
--------------
For info on pre-1600 Scottish names (for all you SCA people), click on the
"Scottish Names Resources" link at

http://www.MedievalScotland.org/

Book information
----------------
Get more information on the books listed here
via our books page in association with Amazon.
http://www.siliconglen.com/Scotland/books/amazon.html#[12.11]


[12.12] Couthie on the Craigie - Hyperreal Scottish culture

Written by Martin Burns, mailto:martin@easyweb.co.uk
(this was written a few years ago)

Couthie on the Craigie

Scotland the Hyperreal and the Unionist paradigm

In recent weeks, an advertising campaign for Grant's whisky has
utilised proverbial-sounding pseudo-Scots phrases such as Couthie on
the Craigie, and challenged the Scots public to work out their
meaning. Whether the phrases have any meaning is irrelevant to the
perceptional objectives of the campaign - an image of an authentic
Scotland is created. It is my objective to explore this hyper-reality,
and to discuss what relevance it has to the Unionist paradigm.

John Major sought to plant a sense of Britishness in the face of a
greater Europeanisation by calling to an identity which all know to
have passed, but which nevertheless retains substantial power as a
mythical landscape:

Fifty years from now, Britain will still be the country of long
shadows on county grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs,
and - as George Orwell said - old maids bicycling to holy communion
through the morning mist. And, if we get our way, Shakespeare will still
be read - even in school. Britain will survive in all essentials.

Similarly, from as early as the eighteenth century, the landscape of
Scotland is represented as a mythical one. Guidebooks and travel
writing emphasised wild grandeur, remoteness and peace, and a
romantic history. The process of myth-making can be observed in
paintings. The eighteenth century artist Paul Sandby produced two
paintings. The first - painted in the early part of the century -
shows straightforward realistic detail. The second of thirty years
later shows the same mountains made more rugged, with fir trees and a
man in a kilt added, presumably for greater authenticity. In the twentieth
century, this fiction is still perpetuated. Scottish Tourist Board
publications represent Scotland as having peopleless, dramatic landscapes,
the everyday melting into the exotic and majestic icons of castles and
pipers. As Womack noted:

That all Scots wear tartan, are devoted to bagpipe music,
are moved by the spirit of clanship and supported Bonnie Prince
Charlie to a man - all these libels of 1762 live on as items in the
Scottish tourist package of the twentieth century.

These representations of Scotland show an almost hysterical rush from
the reality to the image, where the sign has more potency than the
reality if it carries a greater impression of reality. This is
clearly demonstrated in the Grant's campaign, and in such works as
Capercaille's 1993 album, "Secret People" in which Gaelic songs are
given a greater authenticity by the not being translated. This
reflects Baudrillard's conclusion that Art today has totally
penetrated reality, and is a classic demonstration of post-modern
hyper-reality.

But why does Scotland place such an emphasis on cultural and historical
signifiers, rather than political ones? Why are Scots content with being
"Ninety minute Nationalists" at Murrayfield and Hampden Park? And why is
there a separation between the two discourses? Scots such as Michael
Forsyth are more than happy to value aspects of Scottish cultural
difference. Why  then does it take the prospect of electoral
suicide to force him to recognise political difference?

There is perhaps no more potent symbol of political power in Scotland
than Edinburgh Castle. In any nation, a castle in such a prominent
place would be a symbol of national pride. In Scotland, the castle
flies the Union flag, a flag which grows every year, particularly
when Edinburgh is the centre of national attention. And yet, the
castle is a key element in the marketing iconography of Scotland. How
is this allowed by the people of Scotland?

The answer is that they no longer need the threat of military action,
and the power over their bodies which was required for Wallace and
the Jacobites. The people of Scotland have internalised the political
power which England has over Scotland. As the Westminster parliament
commented shortly after the signing of the Act of Union:
(on-line at http://www.forscotland.com/aou.html)

We have catch'd Scotland, and we will bind her fast.

This Foucaultian episteme predicts that once such an internalised
system of power is established, no substantial political opposition
is possible. And yet, to be effective, such a discourse has to be
seen as productive and enabling rather than coercive. While there is
certainly a demand for greater autonomy for Scotland, the general
opinion - as measured by the support for the manifestly unionist
Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative Parties - is that there is
value in the Union. It is a central plank of the ideological makeup
of the Conservative and Unionist Party in Scotland that Scotland is a
financial - in terms of the Barnet funding formula - and political -
in terms of the number of Westminster seats for it's population -
beneficiary of its constitutional position. That it has been shown
to be the reverse is not acceptable to those who have internalised
English domination.

However, it is to be noted that this internalisation of power is by
no means universal. A symbolic reclaiming of power took place at
Edinburgh Castle in 1991, and Stirling Castle in 1994 when the Gaelic
band Runrig played a number of concerts. That this was allowed at all
was a significant retreat by the strongly Unionist military
establishments which have responsibility for the sites. In creating a
discourse of the acceptability of an internalised acceptance of the
Unionist hegemony, it was necessary to create excluded groups. Runrig,
in common with much of Scottish traditional music embodies many of these
excluded threats to the peace of mind of the British state.

Excluded histories have long been a rich vein of material for
folk-songs in Scotland and its close musical cousin, Ireland.
There is a dictum within folk music circles that the victors write
the history books, while the vanquished write the songs. Songs
articulate the experience of working people - on the land or in cities:

        Come bonny lass lie near me, and let the brandy cheer ye
        For the road fae Fife tae Falkirk's lang and wet and weary.
        Ma trade it is the weavin', fae the boony toun o' Leven
        And I'll drink a health tae the fairmers' dames wha'll buy
        my cloth the morn

        Well ye can see them a', the lads o' the Fair;
        Lads fae the Forth and the Carron water
        Workin' lads and Lads wi' gear;
        Lads wha'll sell ye the Provost's daughter;
        Soldiers back fae the German wars;
        Fiddlers up fae the Border
        And Lassies wi' an eye for mair than the kye
        at the Trystin' Fair at Falkirk

Songs enable those outwith the Anglophone community to express their
world view as here, or in the Scots extract above:

        Failte gu mo chainnt
        Welcome to my language
        Is i dh'ionnsaicht mi 'nam phaisde
        The one I learned as a child
        Canan uasal mor nan Ghaidheal
        The huge dignified language of the Gael
        Mar bhratach dhomh gach la
        That stands like a banner for me daily

Direct political comment is also common in the Celtic tradition,
particularly in relation to Ireland. The following extract was
written by Bobby Sands for his comrades from Derry in the H-Blocks,
and sung out through the keyhole to them.

In 1803 we sailed out to sea, out from the sweet town of Derry
For Australia bound if we didn't all drown and the marks of our
fetters we carried.
In rusty iron chains we sighed for our wains, as our good wives
we left in sorrow.
As the mainsails unfurled our curses we hurled at the English and
thoughts of tomorrow.

Oh Oh Oh Oh I wish I was back home in Derry
Twenty years have gone by and I've ended me bond and comrades'
ghosts are behind me
A rebel I came, and I'll die the same. On the cold winds of night
you will find me.

Finally songs enabled immigrants - particularly the Irish immigrants
- and travelling people to speak for themselves, or to have singers
speak on their behalf:

        Don't forget your shovel if you want to go to work
        Or you'll end up where you came from like the rest of
        us...diggin'....Ow di diddle ow

        And we want to go to heaven but we're always diggin' holes
        Well there's one thing we can say, we know where we are goin'
        -Any chance of a start? - No - ok

        Enoch Powell will give us a job, diggin' our way to Annascaul
        And when we're finished digging' there he'll close the hole and all

        Now there's six thousand five hundred and fifty-nine Paddies
        over in London all trying to dig their way back to Annascaul
        and very few of them boys is going to get back at all
        - I think that's terrible.

        Born on the common by a building site
        Where the ground was rutted by the trail of wheels
        The local Christian said to me
        "You'll lower the price of property"
        You'd better get born in some place else.
        Move along, get along
        Go! Move! Shift!

But whose excluded history does Scottish popular culture represent?
One problem is that all the role models presented are essentially
masculine. Military heroes such as Bruce or Wallace, socialist
leaders such John MacLean or James Connolly, writers such as Scott or
Burns only speak in a masculine voice. Even the leading contemporary
Gaelic writers - Aongus Dubh, Sorley Maclean and Calum Macdonald of
Runrig speak of a masculine landscape. Only the waulking songs
preserve a female voice, and even that is a voice which often spoke
at the request of men, reciting the story of battle victory and spoils:

        Chunna' mi do long air saile
        I saw your longship on the sea
        Hi 'illean beag ho ill o ro

        Bha stuir oir oirr' 's da chrann airgid
        There was a helm of gold on her, and two silver masts
        Hi 'illean beag ho ill o ro

        'S cupaill de shioda na Gaillmhinn
        And shrouds of Galway silk
        Hi 'illean beag ho ill o ro

In pondering the desirability of reconstructing a Celtic identity, it
is perhaps useful to consider why such a reconstruction has become so
attractive in recent years. To claim the Highlands is to claim the
identity of a residual Celtic nation, a pre-industrial nation. This
claim axiomatically rejects the capitalist hegemony, as is echoed by the
contrast between Edwin Muir's socialist interpretation of the cities of
Glasgow and Edinburgh, and this more sympathetic treatment of Scotland's
countryside in his Scottish Journey. Such a rejection is inherent in
youth movements since the 1960's, and it is perhaps surprising that
a Celtic identity has only recently come to prominence. Any cultural
signifiers which mark a Highland culture would be expected to be
appropriated to support this assumption of identity. It is therefore
no surprise that wearing of Tartan - independently of Vivien Westwood
- ceilidh dancing, musical genres such as Puirt a Beul and above all
an interest in Gaelic language have grown at a substantial rate among
young people in Lowland Scotland.

Such a preference of the hyper-reality of Scotland the mythical-Brave
over Scotland the late-twentieth-century-Reality positively
disenfranchises the people of Scotland from the political and
socio-economic process. As Brian McNeill and Hamish Henderson savagely
commented:

        And tell me will we never hear the end
        o' poor bloody Charlie and Culloden yet again
        though he ran like a rabbit in the glen
        leavin' better folk to be butchered
        Or are you sittin' in your council house thinkin' o' your clan
        Waitin' for the Jacobites to come and free the land?
        Try goin' doon the broo wi' a claymore in your hand
        and then count all the princes in the queue.

        For there's no Gods and there's precious few heroes,
        but there's plenty on the dole in the land of the leal.
        And it's time now to sweep the future clear o'
        the lies of a past that we know was never real.

Given that cultural signifiers have been created to enforce the Unionist
paradigm, is it then necessary to proscribe references to them before
political change is possible? Cultural signifiers can be used as part of
a mobilisation of a political will. However, it is necessary to use them
as a means of awakening interest in political gains only, otherwise they
become tools of a system of power which emasculates the political process.


[12.13] Burns night / St Andrews Day / Tartan Day

Burns night: 25th January
Tartan Day, 6th April - See [12.5]
Bannockburn Day: 24th June (not widely observed)
St Andrews Day: 30th November

None are a holiday in Scotland!

Info on Robert Burns at [5.2]
Info on Burns night at
http://www.visitscotland.com/aboutscotland/UniquelyScottish/theburnssupper

Contact mailto:craig@siliconglen.com regarding using the domains
http://www.standrewsday.org and http://www.standrewsday.info
http://www.burnsnight.org and http://www.burnsnight.info

If you want reminded of any of these events, these services might
be of interest:
http://www.memotome.com/ (recommended)
http://www.emailremind.co.uk/ (free)
http://www.myreminderservice.com/ (not free, but no advertising)


[12.14] Saint Andrew's society

Saint Andrew's Society  - an International Scots network, with
information on all Scottish societies, pipe bands, Burns societies,
haggis eaters etc. worldwide
PO Box 84
Edinburgh
Contact: Michael Brander
mailto:nwp@cqm.co.uk
http://www.nwp.co.uk/

Michael has also written a directory of World Scottish Associations
ISBN 1-897784-27-9

Book information
----------------
Get more information on the books listed here
via our books page in association with Amazon.
http://www.siliconglen.com/Scotland/books/amazon.html#[12.14]


[12.15] Christmas Customs

Christmas itself was until recent times a purely Religious festival and
New Year was and still is the main holiday for Scots. Christmas was not
traditionally celebrated in Scotland because it was banned for nearly 400
years until the 1950's. Hogmanay was the real traditional celebration.
The reason Christmas was not celebrated until recently go back to the time
of John Knox in the 1580's as it was seen to be papist in origin - the ban
was strictly enforced in law.

Until recently, Christmas was fairly low key. It wasn't even a public holiday
until 1958. Up till then, people worked normally on Christmas day, although
the children did get presents. Therefore the Christmas 'traditions' in
Scotland are pretty much the same modern US version. If you wanted to have
a real traditional  Scottish Christmas, you should go into work on
Christmas day! In 1997/98 and 2001/2002 there were strikes at Scottish
banks because the bank staff were getting English holidays rather than
the Scottish ones which have more time off at New Year.

As a result, most if not all Christmas celebrations nowadays have been
brought in from other cultures (notable England and the US) and thus
I'd be interested in finding out about Christmas customs unique to
Scotland prior to the 20th century.

Presumably both Christmas and New Year are both linked to the ancient
midwinter festival; with Christmas being created as a means to make the
early Christian church more acceptable to the pagans who already had a
festival about that time. The same was done for Easter. Thus there a
similarities between the Halowe'en traditions and the New Year. In
many parts of the Highlands there are traditional New Year celebrations
which follow the Julian calendar and fall on Jan 12th. On this night,
girls would celebrate "Hallowe'en" whilst boys would celebrate New Year.

There are some Christmas Scottish tunes at
http://www.maggiesmusic.com/mm215.html


South Uist customs
------------------
Article by Bill Innes

Christmas (as a non-religious celebration) is a fairly recent
importation into Scotland.

When I was a little lad, Santa Claus didn't visit us on Christmas Day.
He would be coming after Hogmanay Night on the first day of the
New Year, although we had a Christmas tree and although we had
Christmas parties in the church hall.

The celebration of Christmas was complicated by varying church
attitudes. The day itself was chosen by the early church to replace
the pagan midwinter solstice celebrations - which is why some Christmas
customs have a pagan connection. Although my own island of South Uist
was remarkable for the high level of peaceful co-existence between
different faiths, the Presbyterian churches tended to regard Christmas
as a Catholic feast and ignored it almost completely -which is why
Scotland's celebrations were transferred to New Year's Eve. Even in
South Uist some Protestants would go out to work on Christmas day -
unless of course it fell on the Sabbath. In Carmichael's "Carmina
Gadelica" you will find that some of the rituals now associated with
New Year were originally part of the Christmas celebration. Even in
Catholic households in the old days it was very much a religious feast
centred round Midnight Mass - with none of the commercialism and ritual
gift-giving of to-day for the simple reason that people were too poor.
Those of you familiar with South Uist will understand why there were
no Christmas trees. :-)

See also [12.16]


[12.16] Hogmanay customs

Hogmanay Festivals
------------------
Edinburgh's Hogmanay http://www.edinburghshogmanay.org/
Glasgow's Hogmanay http://www.hogmanay.co.uk/

Books
-----
The Silver Bough
A four volume study of the national and local festivals of Scotland
by F. Marian McNeill
Vol. 3 Hallowe'en to Yule  (also covers Hogmanay!)
ISBN 0-948474-04-1

available from:

Stuart Titles
268 Bath Street
Glasgow G2 4JR
Phone:  0141 332-8507

Full of things done by both Highlanders and Lowlanders in the olden days
(and perhaps some still today) to celebrate the new year.

Auld Lang Syne
--------------
The original tune for Robert Burns Auld Lang Syne is available off
http://www.siliconglen.com/culture/songs.html and
http://www.siliconglen.com/culture/auldlangsyne.html

Note, this is the tune which Burns wrote and which he set the lyrics to.
It is not the version which most people currently sing, that version was
imposed on Burns' lyrics by his publisher.


History of New Year's Day
-------------------------
In 1599 the Privy Council, "undirstanding that in all utheris weill
governit commoun welthis and countreyis the first day of the yeir
begynnis yeirlie upoun the first day of Januare, commounlie callit new
yeiris day..."* resolved that Scotland should from 1 January 1600 start
the New Year on January 1st. Prior to that time the New Year officially
started on March 25th (Lady Day).
Ths change reflects the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in various
European countries from the 1580s.

*See Register of the Privy Council 17 December 1599  _or_
Osborne & Armstrong: Scottish Dates. Birlinn, 1996.

If Jan 1 was already "commounlie callit new yeairis day" then perhaps
Hogmanany was always celebrated on 31 Dec and the Lady Day date was
simply a legal formality - somebody will surely know!


Oidhche Challuinn, Hogmanay, New Year's Eve
-------------------------------------------
The Gaelic name for New Year's day is Calluinn, with lads who go out on
Hogmanay being called "Gillean Calluinne". The name Calluinn is derived

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