[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help] 

Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

16 Things That Everyone Needs To Know About Violent Far-Left Revolution In Los Angeles

Undercover video in Arizona alleges ongoing consumer fraud by Fairlife

Dozens arrested after San Francisco protest turns violent Sunday

Looking for the toughest badasses in the city (Los Angeles)

Democrat Civil War Explodes: DNC Chair Threatens to Quit Over David Hogg

Invaders waving Mexican flags, pour onto the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles

Australian Fake News Journo Hit By Rubber Bullet In L.A. Riot

22-year-old dies after being unable to afford asthma inhaler

North Korean Bulsae-4 Long-Range ATGM Spotted Again In Russian Operation Zone

Alexander Dugin: A real Maidan has begun in Los Angeles

State Department Weighing $500 Million Grant to Controversial Gaza Aid Group: Report

LA Mayor Karen Bass ordered LAPD to stand down, blocked aid to federal officers during riots.

Russia Has a Titanium Submarine That Can ‘Deep Dive’ 19,700 Feet

Shocking scene as DC preps for Tr*mp's military birthday parade.

Earth is being Pulled Apart by Crazy Space Weather! Volcanoes go NUTS as Plasma RUNS OUT

Gavin, feel free to use this as a campaign ad in 2028.

US To Formalize Military Presence in Syria in Deal With al-Qaeda-Linked Govt

GOP Rep Introduces Resolution Labeling Free Palestine Slogan as Anti-Semitism

Two-thirds of troops who left the military in 2023 were at risk for mental health conditions

UK and France abandon plans to recognise Palestinian state at conference

Kamala Backs LA Protests After Rioters Attack Federal Officers

Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox partners move ahead with Knesset dissolution plan

Former Prime Minister of Ukraine: Zelensky will leave the country

Man protesting Paramount ICE raid added to FBI's Most Wanted

JUAN O SAVIN- The Plan to Capture America

US Manufacturing By State: Who Gains Most From 'Made In America'?

Rickards: The Truth About Fort Knox And Gold Leasing

Los Angeles Warzone: "Insurrectionist Mobs" Attack Cops, Set Fires, Block 101 Freeway

The Attack on the USS Liberty (June 8, 1967) - Speech by Survivor Phillip Tourney At the Revisionist History of War Conference (Video)

‘I Smell CIA/Deep State All Over This’ — RFK Jr. VP Nicole Shanahan Blasts Sanctuary Cities,


History
See other History Articles

Title: The devil divides Scotland from England [On New Year]
Source: Sunday Telegraph
URL Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/ ... /opinion/2006/12/31/do3104.xml
Published: Dec 31, 2006
Author: ruce Anderson
Post Date: 2006-12-31 02:10:25 by Morgana le Fay
Keywords: None
Views: 186
Comments: 7

Until a generation ago, the two principal tribes in these islands had a wholly divergent approach to the year's final week. The English celebrated Christmas, a jollity that they had spent centuries in embellishing. But there was no public holiday on New Year's Day.

In Scotland, that was the most sacred holiday of them all, while Christmas was a normal working day. The Scots were suspicious of Christmas. The "mas" bit sounded Popish, and it was all bound up with the New Testament. The Scots preferred the Old one.

Over the past few decades, the ceremonies would appear to have converged, as the whole nation closes down for a fortnight. Yet there are still profound differences, expressive of national character: and the English do not know how to celebrate the New Year. advertisement

Christmas, as the English have perfected it, is a festival of light. So it should be, given its theological origins. Despite the best efforts of the commercialisers and the politically correct, it has not lost all contact with them. There are lights everywhere, and the main Christmas meal tends to be at lunchtime, so that it can at least start in the daylight.

The English try to celebrate New Year in a similar spirit. There is an expansive dinner followed, perhaps, by a slight hiatus, until 12 strikes and the jollity regains momentum, no doubt assisted by champagne corks.

It is all very different in North Britain. Whether or not it is linked to the winter solstice, the festival of Hogmanay has little to do with Christianity. The very name points to profoundly pagan origins and its meaning is lost in antiquity. Any suggestion that it means "all men drink like hogs" is Sassenach slander.

Hogmanay is about darkness. It is a ceremony based on the three "Ds": the dark, the devil and the dram. That is why a proper Scottish New Year does not start until midnight. The previous hours are spent lining the stomach with heavy food and non-alcoholic beverages, such as wine, so that the innards are fortified against the onslaught of the whisky bottle.

Then midnight strikes: the blackest hour, when the forces of darkness dominate. How to repel them? Strong drink, strong men, who go in procession from house to house, bearing bottles of whisky and lumps of coal. The darkest-visaged is chosen to put the first foot across the threshold, so that, however black the features, it will be a friendly first foot — and not Satan. The first foot's lump of coal is a harmless addition to the domestic hearth, not fuel borrowed from the infernal furnaces.

So Hogmanay may have some tenuous links with Christianity. It appears to draw from the two elements which the Scots always found most inspiring: hell fire and the devil. In the spirit fired up from eternal conflict, the Scots spend the first six hours or so of the New Year keeping the de'il at bay with their equivalent of a crucifix and garlic: whisky. The word "whisky" is a corruption of the Gaelic for the water of life: its vital function on New Year's morn.

After a rest for sleep and rehydration, Hogmanay resumes around lunchtime on January 1, just to ensure that the devil has been kept off the premises. In recent years, January 2 has also become a virtual holiday in Scotland and one can understand why. It is not actually known as liver-function resumption day, but that is the general idea.

This is not to say that there will be no hangovers in England this Tuesday. But there is a crucial difference. A hungover Englishman is merely a victim of overindulgence. A Scots hangover is a war wound, mightily earned in a desperate combat with the hosts of hell.

The English celebrate New Year as if they were Hobbits in Tolkien's Shire; the Scots celebrate Hogmanay as if they were Aragorn on the frontier of Mordor. Long may the difference continue. Happy New Year.

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

#1. To: Morgana le Fay, christine, Zipporah, rowdee, Diana, robin, Minerva (#0)

Interesting.

Didn't know them thangs!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten daughter so that we may worship The Goddess, who we call SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED!"

HOUNDDAWG  posted on  2006-12-31   2:20:11 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Morgana le Fay (#0)

hell fire and the devil

The Scots gave the English plenty of that at Bannockburn. :0)

"It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order; and those who have once got an ascendency and possessed themselves of all the resources of the nation, their revenues and offices, have immense means for retaining their advantages." Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1798

BTP Holdings  posted on  2006-12-31   9:37:08 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: HOUNDDAWG, Morgana le Fay (#1) (Edited)

Hogmanay is about darkness. It is a ceremony based on the three "Ds": the dark, the devil and the dram. That is why a proper Scottish New Year does not start until midnight. The previous hours are spent lining the stomach with heavy food and non-alcoholic beverages, such as wine, so that the innards are fortified against the onslaught of the whisky bottle.

Then midnight strikes: the blackest hour, when the forces of darkness dominate. How to repel them? Strong drink, strong men, who go in procession from house to house, bearing bottles of whisky and lumps of coal. The darkest-visaged is chosen to put the first foot across the threshold, so that, however black the features, it will be a friendly first foot — and not Satan. The first foot's lump of coal is a harmless addition to the domestic hearth, not fuel borrowed from the infernal furnaces.

So Hogmanay may have some tenuous links with Christianity. It appears to draw from the two elements which the Scots always found most inspiring: hell fire and the devil. In the spirit fired up from eternal conflict, the Scots spend the first six hours or so of the New Year keeping the de'il at bay with their equivalent of a crucifix and garlic: whisky. The word "whisky" is a corruption of the Gaelic for the water of life: its vital function on New Year's morn.

After a rest for sleep and rehydration, Hogmanay resumes around lunchtime on January 1, just to ensure that the devil has been kept off the premises. In recent years, January 2 has also become a virtual holiday in Scotland and one can understand why. It is not actually known as liver-function resumption day, but that is the general idea.

good thing they've always had such smart terriers to keep watch over them

Dandy Dinmont

Cairn

Skye

Scottish (Scottie)

West Highland White (Westie)

electric scotland (very informative)

first foot (very amusing)

other scottish websites

(Be sure to read this one, with special instructions about how to behave if asked to shag the queen)
agony aunt

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."
---Henry Kissinger, New York Times, October 28, 1973

robin  posted on  2006-12-31   10:54:29 ET  (5 images) Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: robin (#3)

Oh gosh robin.. I had a Westie.. she was the sweetest dog.. not overly terrier like..

Zipporah  posted on  2006-12-31   11:10:05 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Zipporah (#4)

They are adorable dogs, all of 'em, IMO. At the Highland Games there are always some of these (doggies are allowed) and they dress them up for a parade.

Don't miss first foot and agony aunt links.

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."
---Henry Kissinger, New York Times, October 28, 1973

robin  posted on  2006-12-31   11:17:06 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: robin (#5)

My favorite terrier is the Border Terrier .. they are darling dogs..

Zipporah  posted on  2006-12-31   11:35:34 ET  (1 image) Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: Zipporah (#6)

I understand they are very popular in Scandinavia, UK and europe, but for some reason not as much here.

I read the Welsh terrier is extraordinarily healthy (no known genetic predisposition to diseases), because the breeders are very picky about who even gets one. But, they look like a handful. I prefer a dog with attitude, although golden retrievers are great with children ;P

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."
---Henry Kissinger, New York Times, October 28, 1973

robin  posted on  2006-12-31   11:40:11 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest


[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help]