Scottish Christmas Traditions (& Merry Christmas!)

[BoldHighlander]

Rather you celebrate the reason for the season or not, I'd like to wish all the rabble a very Merry Christmas and all the very best to you & yours in the New Year!

And as a way to celebrate the Christmas season with a Scottish twist, allow me to share some old Scots traditions from times of yore.


"Nollaig chridheil huibh!"



The following extracted from The Highlander, November / December 2005 issue:

Scottish Christmas Customs

Black Bun, Originally called a Twelfth Night Cake, is a very rich fruitcake, filled almost solid with fruit, almonds, spices, and bound together with plenty of whisky. The stiff mixture is put into a cake tin lined with a rich short pastry and baked.

Sun Cakes are a legacy from Scotland's close associations with Scandinavia. Sun cakes are baked with a hole in the center and scored lines radiating from the center. These lines represent the rays of the sun. This pattern is now found on the modern Scottish shortbread and has been misidentified as slices markings!

Bees leave their hives on Christmas morning. An old belief that early on Christmas morning all bees will leave their hives, swarm and then return. Many old Scots tell tales of having witnessed this happening. One possible explanation to this behavior is that bees are protective of their hives so if there is unexpected activity they will want to check it out to see if there is any danger. As people were often up and about on Christmas Eve observing various traditions or just returning from the night services, the bees would sense the disturbance and come out of their hives to check for danger.

Divination customs. There are a number of ancient divination customs associated with Scottish Christmas tradition. One involves checking the cold ashes the morning after the Christmas fire. A foot shape facing the door was said to be foretelling a death in the family, while a foot shape facing into the room meant a new arrival. Another divination was the ceremonial burning of Old Winter, the Cailleach. A piece of wood was carved to roughly represent the face of an old woman, then named as the Spirit of Winter, the Cailleach. The Cailleach was placed onto a good burning fire to burn away. All the family gathered had to watch Old Winter burn to the end. The burning symbolized the ending of all the bad luck and a fresh start.

The Candlemas Bull was in really a cloud in the sky. It was believed that a bull would cross the sky in the form of a cloud early on the morning on Candlemas, February 2nd. From its appearance people would divine a meaning. An east traveling cloud foretold a good year. A south traveling Candlemas Bull meant a poor grain year. But if it faced to the west, the year would be poor one. This custom was a remnant of the ancient Mithraiac religion when the bull-god would come at the start of spring to foretell the farmers what to expect in the coming year.

Candlelight. All of the Celtic countries have a similar custom of lighting a candle at Christmas time to light the way of a stranger. In Scotland, this was called the Oidche Choinnle, or the Night of Candles. Candles were placed in every window to light the way for the Holy Family on Christmas Eve and firstfooters on New Year's Eve. Shopkeepers gave their customers Yule Candles as a symbol of goodwill wishing them a "Fire to warm you by and a light to guide you."

Firstfooters. In Scotland, it was, and still is, the custom for a stranger to enter the house after midnight on New Year's Eve. There were taboos about the luck such a stranger would bring, especially in the days of hospitality to traveling strangers. A fair-haired visitor was considered bad luck in most areas, partly due to fighting between the dark Scots and the fair Norse invaders. However, in Christian times a fair-haired man was considered very lucky providing his name was Andrew (because St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland). The firstfooter must make an offering, or handsel. The offering can be food, drink or fuel for the fire. Rituals which have evolved from this custom are many. An offering of food or drink must be accepted by sharing it with everyone present, including the visitor. Fuel must be placed onto the fire by the visitor with the words "A good New Year to one and all and many may you see." In today's fireless society, the fuel is usually presented as a polished piece of coal, or wood, which can be preserved for the year as an ornament.

[Bugbear]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting those.

[BoldHighlander]

Your very welcome Ted

I thought I had posted them a couple years ago, but a search didn't seem to reveal them

Update: ah, but a search for firstfooters reveals I did post that part (or a portion) a year or two ago

[Woodsman]

[B]

Firstfooters. In Scotland, it was, and still is, the custom for a stranger to enter the house after midnight on New Year's Eve. There were taboos about the luck such a stranger would bring, especially in the days of hospitality to traveling strangers. A fair-haired visitor was considered bad luck in most areas, partly due to fighting between the dark Scots and the fair Norse invaders. However, in Christian times a fair-haired man was considered very lucky providing his name was Andrew (because St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland). The firstfooter must make an offering, or handsel. The offering can be food, drink or fuel for the fire. Rituals which have evolved from this custom are many. An offering of food or drink must be accepted by sharing it with everyone present, including the visitor. Fuel must be placed onto the fire by the visitor with the words "A good New Year to one and all and many may you see." In today's fireless society, the fuel is usually presented as a polished piece of coal, or wood, which can be preserved for the year as an ornament.

Interesting. My Irish grandmother always insisted that a dark-haired man be the first to enter the house on the New Year. It was sign of good luck. She always had my uncle, the darkest hair of the lot, leave the house and re-enter after our New Year Eve's celebration. I often wondered the story behind this superstition of hers. Could it be Scottish?

[BoldHighlander]

Interesting. My Irish grandmother always insisted that a dark-haired man be the first to enter the house on the New Year. It was sign of good luck. She always had my uncle, the darkest hair of the lot, leave the house and re-enter after our New Year Eve's celebration. I often wondered the story behind this superstition of hers. Could it be Scottish?

Regarding the firstfooters, I don't know if the author of the article meant in (early) Christian times or in present times, as I noticed when I posted that portion in an earlier thread that it was remarked upon that the dark haired were the "lucky ones/visitors".

Seems the tradition reversed itself somewhere along the lines back to those earlier Scots vs Norse days

Its a cool tradition nonetheless

[Tobus]

Black bun is a tradition I'm starting this year, although I'm led to believe it is more of a Hogmanay tradition than Christmas. Just this past weekend I made one from a Scottish cookbook (I can post the recipe if anyone wants it).

It basically consists of making a rudimentary pastry lining for a loaf pan, then filling it with a gooey mixture of raisins/currants/almonds/brown-sugar/ginger/allspice/pepper/cinnamon/flour/cream-of-tartar/egg/brandy/milk. Then capping it off with the remaining pastry, and baking it for 3 hours at low heat. It's very heavy for its size! I'm giving it two weeks to mature, and will present it on New Years.

[Chas]

Black bun is a tradition I'm starting this year, although I'm led to believe it is more of a Hogmanay tradition than Christmas. Just this past weekend I made one from a Scottish cookbook (I can post the recipe if anyone wants it).

It basically consists of making a rudimentary pastry lining for a loaf pan, then filling it with a gooey mixture of raisins/currants/almonds/brown-sugar/ginger/allspice/pepper/cinnamon/flour/cream-of-tartar/egg/brandy/milk. Then capping it off with the remaining pastry, and baking it for 3 hours at low heat. It's very heavy for its size! I'm giving it two weeks to mature, and will present it on New Years.

Yes, please post the recipe. My wife is constantly experimenting with baking and new cakes. This sounds exactly like something she would be interested in.

Regards

Chas

[macwilkin]

Regarding the firstfooters, I don't know if the author of the article meant in (early) Christian times or in present times, as I noticed when I posted that portion in an earlier thread that it was remarked upon that the dark haired were the "lucky ones/visitors".

Seems the tradition reversed itself somewhere along the lines back to those earlier Scots vs Norse days

Its a cool tradition nonetheless

Vance Randolph documents a very similar tradition among the Ozarks hillfolk in his magnum opus, Ozark Magic & Folklore.

T.

[BoldHighlander]

Black bun is a tradition I'm starting this year, although I'm led to believe it is more of a Hogmanay tradition than Christmas. Just this past weekend I made one from a Scottish cookbook (I can post the recipe if anyone wants it).

Yes, please!

[Pleater]

My mother always had me let in the New Year - my hair goes reddish in the Summer but darkens considerably in the Autumn.

The year that her father died a blond boy had come to the door and was let in - after declaring that he was dark haired. It was still spoken of decades later.

My mother was superstitious - went ballistic when I took hawthorn blossom into the house.

The conventions in our family was that the Christmas cake was rectangular and the Twelfth cake circular - or rather annular as it was made in a particular tin with a hole in the middle, and was mostly fruit and nuts - three different colours of glace cherries were required, red green and yellow, almonds, walnuts and cobnuts, chopped candied peel, preserved ginger, apricots, figs, dates, huge green sultanas and a small amount of flour and butter, plus several eggs to hold it all together. Two cakes were baked and then placed one on top of the other to form the completed cake, a toroid shape.

Anne the Pleater :ootd: