Highland Yule Traditions

**Jock Scot** · 28th December 14, 06:34 AM

Originally Posted by A Robertson

For a TRUE description of Hogmanay in Scotland please check this link:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...ttish-hogmanay

It will make you weep . . . . . with laughter!
(Note - NO haggis)

Sigh, sigh and thrice sigh. I think I will just weep.

**Julia Elliott** · 28th December 14, 06:48 AM

Originally Posted by Jock Scot

Sigh, sigh and thrice sigh. I think I will just weep.

**Father Bill** · 28th December 14, 07:10 AM

Well, 'tall sounds reasonable to me!

**Peter Crowe** · 28th December 14, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by Jock Scot

Sigh, sigh and thrice sigh. I think I will just weep.

Indeed Jock, the article is poor and at best a very personal anecdote. When I was younger Hogmanay was a day to prepare for a fresh start to the New Year. I have known funerals brought forward so that the sad event of the year ending will not carry over publicly into the New Year. I remember the time after the Bells as a joyous hopeful party where people were kind about the limitations of others singing, story-telling etc. Sure there was a lot of drinking but most people were eating too and nobody was particularly obnoxious (if they got beyond themselves they were quietly encouraged to go to bed and sleep it off). My mother always insisted her first-foot was a man (preferably tall and dark), which was a bit ironic as she was otherwise quite a feminist. We never drank before the Bells and we always wore our best clothes, oftentimes THCD for the men but there were a few years in my childhood when I was between kilts and wore my best jacket and trousers. I got new kilts made for me at three, seven, fourteen, and seventeen.

**A Robertson** · 28th December 14, 07:31 AM

Originally Posted by Peter Crowe

Indeed Jock, the article is self-loathing drivel and beyond a parody of customs the author despises as twee and provincial in order to pander to the prejudices of a certain type of 'metropolitan guardianista'.

It appears that you do not understand British humour.

**Peter Crowe** · 28th December 14, 07:34 AM

Originally Posted by A Robertson

It appears that you do not understand British humour.

Oh I understand British humour just fine, being from Glasgow. A town famous for being many an English comedians music hall comic graveyard. The article just wasn't funny.

**Liam** · 28th December 14, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by A Robertson

It appears that you do not understand British humour.

This sort of "humour" can be funny if it is written about one's own cultural eccentricities. It is seldom well received if written by an outsider in a demeaning manner as this is.

**A Robertson** · 28th December 14, 10:50 AM

Oh dear!
It seems the article has upset a few readers.
I now live in England, but was born in Dumfries. I grew up there in the 50s, 60s and 70s. I know all about English comedians dying a death in Glasgow. I also recall the description of Hogmanay as being fairly accurate as far as my family, friends and neighbours are concerned.
The article was written by a woman, who has probably put a different perspective on the event, as opposed to the views of the mainly male readers of these pages. Furthermore, the writer is Scottish. It is no more demeaning than a fellow Scotsman calling me 'pal'.

**Father Bill** · 28th December 14, 11:34 AM

Okay folks... everybody's view of humour is going to be different because everybody is different. Time to smile and play nice.

**Mike_Oettle** · 28th December 14, 01:39 PM

In all fairness, the Shelagh McKinlay piece was written with tongue firmly in cheek. People get up to similar high jinks at certain times of the year in many places. It could just as easily have been about New Year in an English-speaking South African home, or for that matter an Afrikaner home (the Boere are fond of partying!).
I have found this whole discussion fascinating.

Julia, interesting to see you refer to Newfoundland as a British colony. Technically it wasn’t that immediately before it became a Canadian province, but one could be forgiven for thinking so, because the territory was under imperial administration because the government had bankrupted itself building a railway (railroad, if you prefer) across Newfoundland.
Newfoundland was so enthusiastic about taking part in the First World War that Britain grandly styled it a Dominion in gratitude for the contributions of its men in the battlefield.
It was a well-deserved honour, almost tragically followed by the bankruptcy. I suspect that Britain was only too glad to hand it over to Canada in 1949 (the year I was born).
As a stamp collector I was fascinated by the parade of royal personalities who graced the stamp issues of Newfoundland. Colony or dominion, it was a country that stood out in the stamp album for that.
One can perhaps hope that Newfoundland and Labrador (to give the province the name it is now known by) might one day issue further postage stamps, following the example of the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey (although Ottawa probably wouldn’t approve!).
Regards,
Mike