7/14/2023 0 Comments Torchlight stock prediction![]() Outside, sparks flew and the hog rolled on his spit. The national bard called it ‘an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man’.Īt the castle, the pipers skirled, the reelers whirled, young and old trod the measure. Mug up on your dance steps and do at least learn one verse of Auld Lang Syne, a feature of New Year celebrations the world over, although it was set to die a natural death until Robert Burns revived it. Women may first foot these days, but redheads? Never. You’ll be propelled at the head of a gregarious body to first foot the next people up the glen and on to the next, to wake eventually with a pounding head and frozen limbs, lying under cushions on the sofa in a strange house. “We drank what was left in the ice buckets and a few bold souls slaked their thirst with amber liquid before our host led us on a seven-mile tramp along the beach to town”Īt this point, in remoter settlements, you may find yourself being recycled. ![]() You steal from the house before midnight, carrying your trappings, stamp about in the cold looking for holly as everyone inside cheers and sings, and then return, to knock with appropriate pomp on the front door and be welcomed in with thumps, kisses and a stiff drink. In all the talk of tall, dark, handsome strangers, the key word is stranger: you may be small, even ugly, but if you’re a guest, and a man, it may fall to you to bring in the black substance inimical to life.Īs a one-off, this is jolly. In return, the first foot gets a wee dram or two and may be sent from the house with a pan of ashes, swept from the fireplace during the Redding, to represent the departure of the old year. Some say the gifts should be coal, bread, silver and greenery, for warmth, good cheer, prosperity and long life. The first foot can bring a number of magical fairy gifts, including black bun, fruitcake baked in a pastry wrapper, which Robert Louis Stevenson described as ‘a black substance inimical to life’.įirst footing is, I think, at the very heart of Hogmanay, weaving a web of solidarity and neighbourliness. There’s nothing very puritanical about first footing, however, especially when good luck is ensured by the arrival after midnight of a tall, dark, handsome stranger. The torchlight procession in Edinburgh to launch the Hogmanay celebrations, led by 26 Up Helly Aa Vikings from Shetland. “Hogmanay does take to itself many of the more fiery and festive elements of Christmas, which the Presbyterians refused to celebrate because it wasn’t in the Bible – Christmas Day only became a national holiday in Scotland in 1958” And the BBC’s researchers throw in a different etymology entirely, citing a Norse word ‘hoggo-nott’, meaning Yule. To add to the confusion, some sources believe there is a Gaelic derivation from haugmenn, the Icelandic word for ‘hill-men’, or elves, banishing trolls into the sea. The OED, however, also suggests that there is an earlier Latin predecessor in the world hagnonayse, first recorded almost two centuries earlier in 1443. Macmillan’s etymology blog concurs, suggesting that this definition ‘makes perfect sense in view of the auld alliance, the traditional alliance between the kingdoms of France and Scotland before the latter became joined to England through the ascension of King James VI of Scotland to the English throne as James I in 1603.’ ‘Early 17th century: perhaps from hoguinané, Norman French form of Old French aguillanneuf, meaning last day of the year, new year’s gift,’ reads the entry at. That hasn’t stopped dictionaries from attempting to pin it down. ![]()
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