Post-Holiday Adjustments

From “Hogmanay Traditions”:

The traditional New Year ceremony of yesteryear would involve people dressing up in the hides of cattle and running around the village being hit by sticks. The festivities would also include the lighting of bonfires, rolling blazing tar barrels down the hill and tossing torches. Animal hide was also wrapped around sticks and ignited which produced a smoke that was believed to be very effective to ward off evil spirits. The smoking stick was also known as a Hogmanay.

The New Year is full of traditions and resolutions everywhere, and Scotland is no exception of course. We’re learning about Hogmanay, which has its own strange rituals, including hoping for a tall, dark-haired male to be the first through one’s door for the new year (Yes, L., we’ll get his email should he come – apparently women, blonds, and redheads are bad luck. Huh.), bringing the traditional gifts of coal, shortbread, salt, a black bun and whiskey. In Dundee, there was in the past a tradition that called for carrying a decorated herring about… for reasons yet undiscovered (How was it decorated? How was it carried? We’ll certainly let you know if we find out). For us, the New Year is usually about chucking out possessions and tidying up. And just about every year just before New Year’s eve, we rearrange the furniture.

We were amused to find out that housecleaning for the New Year is a Hogmanay tradition as well. It’s part of “redding,” and though we have no fireplace to sweep out, we do have quite a bit of furniture to lug around.

It might seem a bit obsessive-compulsive to rearrange the furniture the same time every year no matter where we are, but it’s one of those little tricks that help to pull us through the longest bits of winter. This is the time of year when we usually paint something, put up new drapes, or do something to change up the grim gray view. We rearrange the cupboards, the furniture, the bookshelves and get new linens. We usually give a lot of things away — although since we did a whole bunch of that before we moved here, we’ll just be making weighty book donations to a couple of libraries and hoping that gives us a little more room — and a little less to pack when Spring comes and we move — wherever we end up.

St. George’s Square has been the scene of a massive Winterfest celebration since November. They’ve had a busy winter market selling gifts from all over, and will celebrate Hogmanay with ten thousand people all singing Auld Lang Syne, and a massive fireworks show. That’s probably one of the funniest — and best — things about Glasgow: these people love a party, and will let off fireworks at the drop of a hat. And it’s not as if they’re even remotely illegal except to pre-teens. EVERYONE has them, and with the constant drizzle, there’s certainly very little fire danger (just the usual “you’ll-blow-yourself-up” kind of danger).

When all is said and done, though, the most common New Year’s ritual in which we take part is the very American tradition of regretting the excesses of the past month. Yes, we have begun to start trying to claw our way out of the additional pounds packed on since November. No matter how onerous it seems, getting off the crack — er, sugar — is a good idea. We’re welcoming Asian cuisine back into our lives in the form of tofu and veggies, and feeling sharper and less sleepy as we take a full break from the simple carbohydrates. A few days of raw foods (slightly warmed — it’s just too cold to do a raw food diet here for very long. These temps need soup, thank-you.), and hopefully we’ll be well on our way to being ready to get back to work!

Apparently it’s also bad luck to wish you a happy anything before the date, so we’ll just close by saying “Avoid being hit by smoking sticks.”

Cheers!

– D & T

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