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Why is New Year such a big deal in Scotland?
SirMickTravis
Posts: 2,607 Forum Member
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Just bee listening to Auld Lang Syne and I had a thought. From the outside at least it seems as if Scots are much more passionate about the New Year than anyone else. Does anyone who knows their history have a good explanation for this? Has it always been like that?
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That should answer some of your questions. As to why it became such a big deal (which continues), possibly because it survived and thrived during the lengthy period in which the bleak and dreary Presbyterian Church discouraged partying at Christmas.
Its about putting to bed the friendships/family you've lost either through death or fall out during that year
I bloody hate new year and Ive never known anyone to have a party since my nan had a mega pisss up in 1974
Element of truth in that. It was only in the 1950s that Scotland started giving employees Christmas Day off - and that was probably as information about what happened in England began to be found out! Scotland doesn't really celebrate Boxing Day either - it's just another day at the shops, with most stores open as usual.
New Years Day - celebration of this declining - especially in Edinburgh as more and more tourists take over the place. But its still the day for the local football derby. 2nd January is also a Bank Holiday in Scotland (unlike England) and most people in all trades are still on holiday, albeit that most of the supermarkets / big stores are open. Bus services are on very, very limited schedules 1st & 2nd January (we have one bus every three hours instead of half hourly)
It depends where you go though, in the cities it's not really a big deal. You get the one night, which feels like a Saturday night with fireworks added. Some cities have a street party, but it's also finished and done with that night.
Move farther north and into the smaller towns and villages though and you will get a sense of a proper Hogmanay. It lasts until the 2nd January, pubs do not close at all on Hogmanay night and people gather in village halls to dance, drink and play music. Bands march through towns. We go first-footing.
Why has Scotland (and Wales to a lesser extent) maintained so many of its cultural customs and traditions in comparison with England?
You forgot, Dying from a fall on the rugged terrain while out haggis hunting.
Funny
Is it because English traditions look like this?
http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/2013/04/Rebekah/morris-dancers-england.jpg
Morris dancers and the may pole are lovely English folk traditions, IMO.
I remember an impressive group of black-face morris dancers who attended events in Devon. I doubt they'd be allowed to get away with it these days.
Maypoles are not just English, they are found in other Germanic cultures such as in Scandinavia and Germany too.
Bagpipes are not just Scottish either.
If they had actually been a group of travelling black South African morris dancers, that would be very racist indeed.
Yes, I know.
It's thought that maypoles originate from Germanic paganism, that they were perhaps a reference to the world tree that both the Anglo-Saxons and Norse believed in before their conversion to Christianity.
That must have been some party!
A couple of points about Hogmanay:
1. It seems most Scots will tell you they actually hate New Year
2. Older Scots always say "It's no' the same as it used to be", or words to that effect
Perhaps its because there hasn't been the same level of immigrants from other nations / countries as England. Plus, because there so many occupied islands in Scotland, each island / island group tends to keep up its own traditions - Shetlands are a great example of this.
It could be that England is more of a `Liquorice Allsorts` populace, unlike the Scots & Welsh