HOGMANAY TRADITIONS
Traditionally, the Scots were a superstitious race at the best of times and for an event as significant as the dawning of a new year, customs, rituals and traditions inevitably arose around the country. Many of these have now disappeared but others have carried on down through the years and some have even become essential ingredients of today's celebrations.
Cleaning the House
The last day of the year was traditionally regarded as a time of preparation: business would concluded to let the new year start afresh and houses were thoroughly cleaned (known as 'redding'). Fireplaces in particular had to be swept out and in a variation on reading tea-leaves, the ashes of the last fire of the old year were believed to show what lay ahead in the new year.
First Footing
One of the major Hogmanay customs was 'first footing'. Shortly after 'the bells' - the stroke of
midnight when public clocks would chime to signal the start of the new year - neighbours would visit
one another's houses to wish each other a good new year. This visiting was known as 'first footing',
and the luckiest first-foot into any house was a tall, dark and handsome man - perhaps as a reward to
the woman who traditionally had spent the previous day scrubbing her house (another Hogmanay
ritual). Women or red heads, however, were always considered bad luck as first-foots.
First-foots brought symbolic gifts to 'handsel' the house: coal for the fire, to ensure that the house
would be warm and safe, and shortbread or black bun (a type of fruit cake) to symbolise that the
household would never go hungry that year.
First-footing has faded in recent years, particularly with the growth of the major street celebrations in
Edinburgh and Glasgow, although not the Scots love of a good party, of which there are plenty on the
night!
