Hogmanay fireworks.JPG (Photo credit: katy-mac)
OK, full disclosure, I got this from the Laphroaig Facebook page, but had to share it! Please enjoy, and hopefully if you try it, much success!!!!!
Also from the site, some Hogmanay toasts!
Happy New Year! And many it be filled with good tidings, a lot of luck, and an ever full glass of whisky! Cheers!
Don’t forget to celebrate Hogmanay tomorrow night.
Hogmanay is the Scottish New Year’s festival that commemorates the solar divinity Hogmagog.
In former times, animal hide was wrapped around sticks and ignited, producing a smoke that was said to be very effective against evil sprites. This talismanic smoking stick was itself known as a Hogmanay.
In all the traditions and customs surrounding Hogmanay, one theme predominates: the new year must begin on a happy note, with a clean break from all that may have been bad in the previous year. It is from this underlying hope that the most common of all Hogmanay traditions has its root, that of the new year resolution.
“First Footing” on Hogmanay
A Tall, Dark Handsome Stranger
The first person to cross the threshold at Hogmanay brings all the luck, good or bad, for the year ahead. And, to follow in tradition they have to fulfill certain criteria.
They have to be male, tall, dark and handsome. They cannot be doctors, ministers or grave-diggers and your first footer cannot have eyebrows that meet in the middle.
The first footer carries a lump of coal and a bottle of whisky – the lump of coal to keep the house warm throughout the year and the whisky to keep the host warm throughout the year!
The first footer (sometimes called the “Lucky Bird”) should knock and be let in rather than just using a key. After greeting those in the house and dropping off whatever small tokens of luck he has brought with him, he should make his way through the house and leave by a different door than the one through which he entered. No one should leave the premises before the first footer arrives — the first traffic across the threshold must be headed in rather than striking out
Here’s our pocket guide….
Hawf (half) Bottle
Your most important travelling companion. For it’s traditional – and polite – to offer just about everyone you see a “dram”. It’s also traditional for it to be whisky.
Lump of Coal
In days of yore, it was traditional for First Footers to carry a lump of coal with them. This was lovingly placed on the host’s fire. If you’re determined to do Hogmanay by the book then take the coal by all means but be prepared for some grief when you set it on top of the central heating radiators!
AND HERE ARE THE TOASTS!!!!!!!
Hogmanay Toasts
Hogmanay — A Scottish New Year by Charles Campbell
Get up, good wife, and shake your feathers,
And dinna think that we are beggars;
For we bairns come out to play,
Get up and gie’us our Hogmanay.
The Sacred Three
To save, To shield, To surround
The Hearth, The House, The Household,
This eve
This night
Oh! this eve
This night
And every night
Each single night.
A guid New Year to ane an a’ And mony may ye see
(A good New Year to one and all And many may you see)
Here’s tae us. Wha’s like us. Damn few, and they’re a’ deid!
(Here’s to us. Who’s like us. Not many, and they’re all dead!)
Gaun yoursel’, Big Man!
(You’re a big chap, drinking a lot and are going to continue to do so!)
Gie it laldie!
(Party furiously!)
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